Ambassador for Good
Honored and delighted to report that I’ve been named Ambassador for Ge Effektivt, a charity designed to effectively promote global health, climate, and animal welfare.
I’m joining existing Ambassadors award-winning psychologist and author Siri Helle and star singer-songwriter José González, who’ve already done a terrific job of bringing attention to the cause.
Ge Effektivt is the Swedish counterpart to organizations such as Give Well, which rely on the best available evidence to do as much good as they can with the means available to them.
The philosophical underpinnings are provided by a theory called utilitarianism. That’s a moral theory that enjoins us to act so as to maximize the amount of good in the world. For a utilitarian, it comes naturally to ask how to do as much good as possible with one’s resources.
But you don’t have to be a utilitarian to support Ge Effektivt or its sister organizations. Everything you need is a desire to leave the world a little better than we found it, and a little bit of money to spare.
There are many obstacles to charitable giving. One is friction: even if we intend to donate money to various causes we believe in, we may just not get around to it. Another one is fear: a worry that our donations may not do much good, or even (in the worst case) real harm.
Ge Effektivt helps solve both of these problems.
If you can afford to, please join me in setting up a monthly transfer. It only takes a minute. That way, you get all the satisfaction of being a regular contributor without having to make any further effort at all. The website allows you to choose recipients. But even if you don’t pay that any attention at all, the organization will only pass your money along to organizations that have been vetted.
Going forward, I will also donate a share of my honoraria to the organisation.