The Dutch give more to charity in December than in any other months.
[TV]: Best of wishes. Sharing is caring.
[TV]: The final collected amount by 3FM Serious Request!
[TV]: Oh this is about my trip to Sri Lanka to help wild geese. It was so special.
But are we choosing our charities wisely?
And is our money being well-spent?
What Is Most Important finds out!
Have you donated in December?
Yes. I donated to the Handicapped Fund.
The Alzheimers Foundation.
PAWS foundation.
Yes Serious Request!
When asking people in the streets, it was confirmed to me that many people gave during the holidays.
Something that I noticed was that many people didn't take long to decide on their charity of choice.
There was this very sad video on Instagram.
I thought it was so sad. I thought: anyone can take my money for this.
Did you do any research before deciding on this charity?
No, not particularly.
No I didn't check out the website or anything.
No not really, it just felt right.
The numbers confirm that people don't often research their charity of choice.
The exact numbers for the Netherlands are unknown.
But in the U.S. 3/5 do not do any research before a donation.
That includes checking out the F.A.Q
Only 1/10 Americans compare different organisations before donating.
I had heard similar numbers before, so I am not surprised.
I think it is a pity though.
Christiaan is someone who has taken his time researching before choosing a charity.
He is part of a social movement called Effective Altruism.
It is difficult word, but a simple idea.
People in this movement strive to do altruistic things.
In other words: doing good things for others.
But they want to do it effectively.
In other words they want to do the most good with the available resources.
In gatherings like this they discus ways in which they can most effectively do good.
And sometimes, that means talking about donating.
If you see what massive differences exist  in effectiveness between charities,
A little bit of research, could really increase how much good you do.
How big are the differences between charities really?
Imagine we would rank them.
We place the best one's over here.
These are the charities that get the most done the cheapest.
The worst ones go here.
they get relatively little done, but are still pretty expensive.
How would the differences in effectiveness look like?
You might expect it to look a little like this.
With relatively small differences overall.
If that were the case, it would not matter too much what charity you choose.
Since the impact of charities has started to be studied, it has become clear that this isn't the case.
It probably looks more like this.
Many charities have relatively little impact compared to their costs.
While a few charities have a huge impact.
They leave the rest far behind.
In this case your choice matters a great deal.
If you pick one at random, without research, you probably pick one which has (relatively) little impact.
80.000 hours, an organisation which advices people on their personal impact,
says: if such big differences exist,
Than it's crucial to find the best area to focus on.
a bad choice could mean achieving 1% as much.
Open Philanthropy, a project which aims to give advice about impact to philanthropists,
Says, the choice for a focus area is one of the most important a philanthropist ever makes.
The clearest evidence comes from the world of health.
When researches ranked different health interventions
based on the amount of years of life they added - adjusted for how healthy those years were - for every $1000
This picture emerged.
The best interventions achieved 100 to a 1000 times more, at the same price.
That means that when you give to a charity having to do with health,
and you give to a charity which does one of the most effective interventions,
You can have over a 100 times more impact!
Let that sink in. If I give €100 to charity and you just give €1, you could get more done than me.
As long as you pick the right charity.
I give to Against Malaria Foundation
because it is one of  the most cost-effective ways of saving lives.
And in addition it improves lives, even for people who wouldn't otherwise have died.
You donate a percentage of your income, how much is that?
10% after tax.
Let's look at an example of the massive differences between charities.
The KNGF provide guide-dogs for blind people, for about 1100€ each.
Seva, an organisation that performs eye surgery on people in developing countries with cureable forms of blindness,
can return sight to multiple blind people.
Oh, and that's not for 6 people, as it seems now.
For the same price of one guide dog which improves the life of 1 blind person,
256 blind people could be cured. Their sight returned.
I don't mean to specifically target KNGF.
I could have made this comparison with a million different pairs of charities.
It also doesn't mean there is no valid reason to donate to KNGF.
As I saw on the streets, people have many different reasons to donate to charity.
It does however mean that if you care about blindness,
and you want to help as many people as possible with your money,
KNGF isn't your best option.
So where do you find the charities that acomplish the most with your money?
I've checked out a website called GiveWell.
I know this organisation does rigorous independent research on the impact of charities.
They can advice you on how to do the most good with your money.
We have seen how your money, with a little bit of research can accomplish beautiful things.
But don't take my word for it.
Hi Christiaan, Koen speaking.
Christiaan: Hi Koen, how are you?
you mentioned you choose Against Malaria because it is one of the most cost-effective ways of saving lives.
Do you know how many lives were saved because of you money, so far?
that would be... two lives.
In two years time, right?
Yes, that's what I estimate.
So you are saving a life, every single year?
Yes. Exactly.
