The archive
Articles
Long reads on the small acts and big levers that actually move the needle. Filed by pillar so you can read by what you care about.
- Small Acts
The browser extension that gives
Tab for a Cause has donated over $3 million by showing ads on new browser tabs. Ecosia has planted 200 million trees from search ad revenue. You did nothing.
8 May 2026 · 6 min read
- The Life Edit
The parenting paradox
Kids who see their parents give to charity are far more likely to give as adults. But most of us never talk about money with our children at all.
8 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The giving tally, 2025
GiveWell moved $418M last year. GWWC pledgers passed 9,000. Effective giving still accounts for roughly 0.15% of all charitable spending.
7 May 2026 · 6 min read
- Bright Spots
The lead paint elimination
One in three children globally has elevated blood lead levels. Eliminating lead paint costs $1-50 per DALY averted. Almost nobody is funding it.
7 May 2026 · 7 min read
- Big Levers
The policy donation
Funding advocacy that changes a law can be 100x more cost-effective than funding the service that law would have provided. Most donors never consider it.
7 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
The voluntourism problem
A week volunteering at an orphanage in Cambodia costs about $3,000. That same money could fund a local teacher's salary for a year.
7 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Map
The biosecurity bet
Pandemic preparedness gets roughly $1-2B a year in philanthropic funding. COVID-19 cost the world $12.5 trillion. The maths of this neglect are hard to look at.
6 May 2026 · 7 min read
- Small Acts
The salary-day autopilot
Set up one standing order on payday and you'll give 4x more than the average donor over your lifetime, with less guilt and zero decision fatigue.
6 May 2026 · 6 min read
- Bright Spots
The cage-free revolution
In 2015, about 13% of US hens were cage-free. Today it's 46%. Not consumer demand, but a handful of charities running corporate campaigns at roughly $1 per hen freed.
5 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Map
The climate charity map
Most climate donations fund the wrong things. Here's where the smart money actually goes, and why innovation policy beats carbon offsets by orders of magnitude.
5 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Life Edit
The giving-while-in-debt question
You have student loans and credit card debt. Should you give anything to charity right now? The maths says it depends on one number: your interest rate.
5 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
The warm glow trap
Your brain rewards you for giving regardless of impact. That feels nice and costs lives. How the psychology of generosity steers money away from where it helps.
5 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
The charity ratings problem
Charity Navigator rates 200,000 nonprofits. Almost none of those ratings tell you whether the charity actually works.
4 May 2026 · 6 min read
- The Life Edit
The giving journal
Most donors overestimate their giving by 42%. A simple habit, 15 minutes a month, closes the gap and makes you a measurably better giver over time.
4 May 2026 · 7 min read
- Big Levers
The political donation
A dollar spent on policy advocacy can unlock thousands in government funding. But the maths is messier than it sounds.
4 May 2026 · 7 min read
- Bright Spots
The StrongMinds breakthrough
Depression affects 280 million people, but fewer than 10% get treatment in low-income countries. StrongMinds has treated over 500,000 for $23 each.
4 May 2026 · 7 min read
- Small Acts
The dead weight of stuff
That bag of clothes you donated to the charity shop probably destroyed more value than it created. Here's why cash wins.
3 May 2026 · 6 min read
- Big Levers
The lead crisis nobody talks about
One in three children worldwide has dangerous lead levels. The fix costs $4.49 per year of healthy life saved. Almost nobody is funding it.
3 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The portfolio approach to giving
You diversify your investments. You should probably diversify your giving too. Here's the framework.
3 May 2026 · 6 min read
- Bright Spots
The effective giving pledge
Over 11,000 people have pledged 10% of their income to effective charities through Giving What We Can, moving more than half a billion dollars. Here's why the pledge sticks.
2 May 2026 · 7 min read
- Small Acts
The spare change app
Round-up apps donate the change from every card transaction to charity. Pennies per purchase add up to hundreds a year, painless by design.
2 May 2026 · 6 min read
- Small Acts
The birthday fundraiser
Replace birthday gifts you don't need with donations to a cause you care about. Facebook and JustGiving make it easy. The average fundraiser raises £300-500.
1 May 2026 · 6 min read
- Big Levers
The legacy pledge
A gift in your will costs nothing in your lifetime but could be the largest donation you ever make. UK legacy giving tops £4 billion a year. Few consider it.
1 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Map
The neglected tropical diseases
1.7 billion people are affected by neglected tropical diseases. Treatment costs as little as $0.50 a year. The funding gap is a scandal in plain sight.
1 May 2026 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The tax relief gap
Higher-rate UK taxpayers can claim back 25p for every £1 they donate. Most don't. HMRC says over £500 million goes unclaimed yearly. Fix it in 10 minutes.
1 May 2026 · 6 min read
- The Life Edit
The giving circle
Giving circles pool money and decide together where it goes, combining the social pull of a book club with the leverage of a small foundation. Over 2,000 exist.
30 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
The overhead myth
Low overhead doesn't mean high impact. The obsession with admin costs has harmed charities for decades. Here's what really predicts whether giving does good.
30 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Big Levers
The donor-advised fund
Donor-advised funds hold $234 billion and growing, the fastest-growing vehicle in philanthropy. What they are, when they make sense, and the controversy.
28 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Bright Spots
Helen Keller International
Vitamin A supplements cost roughly $1-2 per child and cut child mortality by about 24%. Helen Keller International delivers it across 20+ countries.
28 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Bright Spots
The New Incentives programme
New Incentives pays Nigerian caregivers small cash transfers to vaccinate their children. A GiveWell top charity at roughly $5-7 per child vaccinated.
28 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Small Acts
The subscription swap
Cancel one subscription you forgot you had. Redirect the standing order to charity. Same bank balance, completely different impact. Takes five minutes.
28 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Map
The animal welfare gap
Animal welfare gets roughly 3% of charitable giving despite affecting orders of magnitude more sentient beings than any other cause. The gap is staggering.
27 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Bright Spots
The cash benchmark
GiveDirectly changed the question every charity should answer: does this do more good than just giving the money to poor people? Most can't say yes.
27 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The cost per outcome
The most effective charities are roughly 100x more cost-effective per dollar than the median. That gap is the single most important number in giving.
27 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Life Edit
The family giving plan
Families that discuss giving together give 2.1x more than those that don't. An annual family giving night turns scattered generosity into a shared practice.
27 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Big Levers
The employer match
Your employer probably offers to match your charitable donations. Most eligible employees never claim it. Billions left on the table every year.
26 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
The impact washing problem
Impact washing is the charity sector's version of greenwashing. Charities overstate their impact using metrics that sound impressive but measure nothing useful.
26 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Bright Spots
The Malaria Consortium
Seasonal malaria chemoprevention gives children antimalarials before they get sick. The Malaria Consortium reached 25 million children in 2023 at roughly $7 each.
26 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Small Acts
The round-up
Rounding up every purchase to the nearest pound and donating the difference sounds trivial. At scale, it's billions. The science explains why it works.
26 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Bright Spots
The Against Malaria Foundation
One charity, one intervention, 300 million nets. AMF has been GiveWell's top pick for over a decade. Why the model works and what it says about giving.
25 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Bright Spots
The deworming bet
Deworming is one of the most controversial calls in effective giving. The original study is spectacular, the replication debate fierce, the cost tiny.
25 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Map
The funding gap
Some problems attract far more money than their scale warrants. Others are chronically underfunded. The gap between funding and need is giving's key map.
25 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The giving dashboard
You track your spending, your fitness, your sleep. Why not your giving? A simple dashboard turns scattered donations into a visible, improvable system.
25 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Small Acts
The conversation starter
Most people never talk about giving because they can't start without sounding preachy. Five openings that work, backed by research on social norms.
24 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Bright Spots
The GiveDirectly model
What happens when you just give poor people money? A decade of evidence says quite a lot. GiveDirectly has sent over $1 billion in unconditional cash.
24 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Big Levers
The pension tilt
Switching your pension to a climate-tilted fund has roughly 21x the carbon impact of going vegetarian. Most people never look at what it invests in.
24 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Life Edit
The time donation
Donating time feels generous but is often worth less than the money you'd earn in those hours. When does volunteering make sense, and when should you pay?
24 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Map
The aid architecture
Global aid spending is roughly $220 billion a year. Most people have no idea who pays, who receives, or why the system is shaped the way it is. Here's the map.
23 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Small Acts
The one percent shift
Moving 1% of household income to giving would double what the average UK household donates. Here's why that number is so small and what it takes to shift it.
23 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Tally
The year in numbers
A template for your annual giving report. What to measure, what to compare it against, and what the numbers actually tell you about your year.
23 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Life Edit
What you pass on
Legacy giving accounts for more charitable money than most people realise. The maths of leaving even a small percentage to charity is surprisingly powerful.
23 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Tally
The giving tracker
Most people can't name their total charitable donations from last year within 50%. A simple tracking system fixes that, and changes what you give next.
22 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Big Levers
The tax wrapper
Gift Aid adds 25% to every UK donation for free. Most donors don't claim it or don't understand why it exists. Here's how giving tax relief really works.
22 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Big Levers
Career capital in your thirties
The decade you most want to coast is the one that most determines your lifetime earnings, leverage, and options. Here's the case for not coasting.
21 April 2026 · 7 min read
- Small Acts
The local lever
Local giving feels more meaningful than global giving. Usually it's also less effective. The honest case for when local wins, and when it doesn't.
21 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Life Edit
The partner problem
Couples disagree about money more than almost anything, and giving is the hardest part. An honest playbook for when one partner cares more than the other.
21 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Tally
The annual review
The most valuable hour you can spend on yourself each year is reviewing the last one. A structure that actually works, with the research to back it.
20 April 2026 · 5 min read
- The Receipts
The disaster giving trap
After a hurricane or earthquake, giving spikes and then collapses. The money goes where the cameras are, not where the need is. Here's how to fix it.
20 April 2026 · 5 min read
- The Map
The great decoupling
Dozens of rich countries now grow GDP while emissions fall. The good news. But the decoupling is more fragile than the charts suggest. Here's what holds it.
20 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Big Levers
The housing decision
Where you live determines most of your lifetime carbon, most of your savings rate, and most of your time. It gets less scrutiny than the car.
20 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Life Edit
The case for boring, recurring giving
A monthly standing order feels smaller than a big one-off. The data says the opposite. Here's the behavioural case for boring giving.
19 April 2026 · 5 min read
- The Tally
The quarterly tally
A review ritual for people who actually want their year to add up to something. Ninety minutes, four questions, one page.
19 April 2026 · 4 min read
- The Receipts
The signal-to-noise problem in ESG
ESG ratings are supposed to tell you which companies are good. They don't agree with each other. Here's why that's a much bigger problem than it sounds.
19 April 2026 · 6 min read
- Small Acts
The twenty-minute audit
Seven things a normal adult can do in twenty minutes that measurably improve their impact footprint. No heroism, no guilt, no joining a cult.
19 April 2026 · 4 min read
- The Life Edit
The ten percent tithe
Ten percent is an old number with a strange amount of data behind it. Here's why giving a tenth of your income keeps showing up, and whether it actually works.
18 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Map
The map, on one page
If you had one A4 sheet to answer 'where should my effort actually go,' this would be on it. A working map of where impact lives in 2026.
18 April 2026 · 5 min read
- Small Acts
What to do when you can't give money
Most impact writing assumes you have spare cash. Most people, most of the time, don't. Here's what the evidence says actually works when giving isn't an option.
18 April 2026 · 5 min read
- The Receipts
When the evidence is thin
Most interventions have no randomised controlled trial behind them. Here's how to think about impact when the data you want doesn't exist.
18 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Receipts
How to actually offset carbon
Most of what you buy in the voluntary carbon market doesn't remove carbon. Here is how to find the roughly five percent that does.
17 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
Small acts that aren't
Three of the most popular green habits barely move the needle. Here's the data, and what to do instead.
17 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Life Edit
The career that matters most
You will work for roughly 80,000 hours. The research says almost all of your impact comes from a few structural choices, not from trying harder.
17 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The first tally
Every quarter we publish a tally. What readers did. What it measurably changed. The first one is small on purpose.
17 April 2026 · 4 min read
- Big Levers
The five percent rule
A tiny number of decisions do almost all the work in a life spent trying to do good. Here are the five that matter.
17 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Map
Where the money actually goes
Americans gave half a trillion dollars to charity last year. Most of it didn't touch the most cost-effective work by a factor of a thousand.
17 April 2026 · 7 min read
- The Receipts
Your favourite charity has three numbers you should know
Every UK charity files accounts with the Charity Commission. Most donors never open them. Three numbers tell you more than the glossy PDF ever will.
17 April 2026 · 6 min read
- The Map
The Climate Adaptation Gap
We spend billions cutting emissions in rich countries. The places already being hit spend almost nothing adapting. Need and money look nothing alike.
2 May 2025 · 7 min read
- The Tally
The Counterfactual Test
Your donation only counts if it caused something that wouldn't have happened anyway. Here's how to tell.
2 May 2025 · 6 min read