{"id":230,"date":"2019-02-17T03:14:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T03:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changepath.com.au\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2019-02-17T03:14:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T03:14:21","slug":"practical-donating-part-2-choosing-a-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.changepath.com.au\/blog\/2019\/02\/practical-donating-part-2-choosing-a-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical donating part 2 – Choosing a cause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to our five-part series on how to\ndecide where to donate effectively. We\u2019re going to go on an in-depth journey\nthrough the psychology of donations, the best ways to tell whether a charity is\ngood at what they do, and how to actually give most effectively. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. What drives donations<\/a><\/em><\/li>
  2. Choosing a cause to support<\/em><\/li>
  3. Good ways to choose a charity<\/em><\/li>
  4. Bad ways to assess charities<\/em><\/li>
  5. The best ways to give<\/em><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    To\nunderstand how to choose a cause, we need to grasp why we choose the causes and\ncharities we do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are\ntwo schools of thought on this – passion and impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\nchoose a cause based on passion<\/strong>, you\ndonate to the causes that speak to you most personally. The disease your loved\none died from, the local community you live in, the people and animals who have\naffected your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\nchoose based on logic and pragmatism<\/strong>,\nyou donate to causes where you can make the most impact, where we can improve\nthe world the most. This is difficult, as to do this we need to somehow rank\ncauses. But what\u2019s more important \u2013 humans, animals, or the environment? Is it\nbetter to reduce suffering now, or save lives later? Do we save lives close to\nus, or further away? Fortunately, we\u2019re not the first to grapple with these\nproblems, and organisations like 80,000 hours have created frameworks to help\nus make these decisions (though they are still contentious, as they speak to\nvery fundamental issues of moral philosophy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You would\nassume, therefore, that it is the logical ones that make the biggest impact on\nthe world. However, this isn\u2019t necessarily the case. Donating to causes that you\u2019re\npassionate about has a multiplicative effect \u2013 you are more likely to give, and\ngive regularly, to causes you are passionate about. Not only that, you are more\nlikely to tell others, to think deeply about the best ways to influence that\ncause, and to fundraise from your friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It follows, then, that there is a balance to be struck. The cause that you choose should be something that you\u2019re passionate about, but also a cause where you have a real chance to create genuine impact on people\u2019s lives. This makes where to donate a deeply personal decision.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Understanding your core beliefs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    What you value and what you believe have a key role to play\nin deciding where to donate. To my mind, there are three main factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n