Episode Details

In the early days of EA, people often tracked their giving on personal websites, or at least wrote about each year's donations. I read about it and felt inspired (and a bit competitive).

This is less popular now. I want to see more.

How to track donations

Here's a list of examples. Some people write long posts with all their reasoning, others just share numbers. More info is nice, but anything beats nothing.

My approach is minimal — a page explaining why I give in general, and a spreadsheet with names, numbers, and brief notes. It takes me like 20 minutes a year.

Why track?

The classic EA pitch is "you can improve the world".

Another pitch, which many people find more compelling, is "join a community of kind, interesting people who are trying to improve the world".

The more of us talk about our giving, the stronger the "community" pitch becomes. Writing out the details is even better. People like it when you live by your values, and the nerds in our core audience like it when claims are backed by data.

Also, if someone hears about EA, it makes a big difference if they know even a [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) How to track donations

(00:51) Why track?

(03:15) Why not track?

(05:57) But actually, track your donations

(06:27) Appendix: Who tracks?

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First published:
April 4th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yYkgGH9kbbQQp5iCp/you-should-write-about-your-giving

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.