Hello and Welcome!
What this is about.
I'm a 29-year-old Frenchman who grew up in London, and I care about giving well. This year I'm fundraising for Malaria Consortium - an extraordinarily successful and efficient charity that tackles access to Malaria medication in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. After months of searching, this charity ranks among the most efficient ones I could find, and I explain below the thought process behind this choice.
Rock Climbing to Fundraise.
To reach the most people, I've decided to link this fundraising effort with a chapter of my own story. I'm setting myself the goal of climbing four classic rock faces in the Mont Blanc massif in the summer of 2022. This part of the French Alps has been the scene for some of rock and alpine climbing's most inspiring and daring conquests, and I'll be attempting to climb some famous routes (trad, no aid gear). You can check these out on the Instagram page that goes with this. I'm training as hard and well as I can to reach this goal, but I'll only be able to do this with the help of a local climbing guide, who has a wealth of alpine climbing experience and knowledge of the specific routes. To spread the word and gather more funds, we're hoping to make a short climbing film describing the project and showing some cool climbing footage.
Giving Efficiently.
After reading a couple of books on the subject of giving (e.g., P. Singer's 'The Most Good You Can Do' and W. Macaskill's 'Doing Good Better'), and spending time on websites like https://www.givewell.org/ I came to realise that charities vary enormously in their efficiency (i.e., their ability to turn donations into positive outcomes).
((( You might have come across a buzzword for this type of thinking: 'Effective Altruism'. I won't use the term because it sounds a little self-righteous in my view. )))
Anyway, here are the essential things I found.
i) Do your research.
This should go without saying, but it is often eye-opening and humbling. It's easy to fall for someone's pitch, and hold onto the positive reinforcement it initially gave you. This is something to be aware of. Charity ranking websites such as https://www.givewell.org/ are among the first things to query. The next stage is to consult research papers and people more expert than you.
ii) Don't fall for what sounds or looks good.
To see an example, read about what went wrong with the ''play pump'' idea https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2010/07/01/the-playpump-what-went-wrong/
iii) Focus on narrow and specific projects.
Large organisations that deal with charitable projects across a wide area tend to have proportionately higher running costs. Giving to them is a sure way to lose track of or feel separate from your donation.
iv) Give to the most desperate.
The reach of a single $ goes furthest when aimed towards people in the most desperate needs. For example, giving 100$ to an essential healthcare charity for people living on 2$/day is more 'bang for your buck' than giving 1000$ to a charity that targets literacy rates in a developed nation. By the way, I don't mean to say that the latter is a bad allocation of resources (quite the opposite!). I'm simply pointing out that there are more efficient ways to give.
Based on the above (and various other things I wouldn't want to overload this page with), I invite you to participate by donating whatever you feel like giving.
Please know that this Gofundme page is set up so that your donations are going into a Paypal account that I cannot access, and that are only accessible by the charity itself.
There is an Instagram page to go with this so that you can follow the project more closely.
Get Giving and Know that You're Doing it Well !
Martin Lesourd, March 2022.
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