why I stopped donating
and when I plan to start again
I’m a longtime supporter of the Against Malaria Foundation. I consider my donations to them to be one of the most important things I’ve done in my life.
But in late 20221, I stopped donating.
My husband and I bought and started renovating a house around that time. We were short on cash, and it would have been much more expensive overall to delay some of the renovations. I stopped donating to free up some money, and I haven’t restarted yet as we rebuild our savings while I’m home on maternity leave.
I’m planning to “backpay” about 10% of my take-home pay from this time period in a year or two. Bunching all of our charitable donations into one year could potentially help us optimize our taxes.
I think what I’m doing makes sense, but I’m still a little uneasy with it - surely the people I’m giving to would also prefer the money sooner? But it’s what I’m doing.
or possibly early 2023 - embarrassingly I can’t remember the month
I know this can feel weird and not great. You are still well loved, and a charming person (so it seems from our brief Twitter interactions). You and your new family are delights and deserve all the love and assurances you can offer. Stay well.
I think it's a mistake to imagine that there are people you would give it to who could benefit either now or later. The people you will save later are simply different people from the ones you would save now if you donated now. Both sets of people would prefer to be saved, but you're only going to save one set. And it's not at all obvious which set of people is bigger. But ultimately, you don't owe anyone charity. The point of EA is that when you do do things for strangers, you do things that actually help those strangers. No more virtue signaling with donations to ineffective charities after you join EA! But how much of yourself you give to strangers, that is up to you, there isn't a right or wrong answer. So if donating nothing now and 20% next year is what works with your life, then do that. It's fine.