By Laura BennettTuesday 23 May 2023Hope AfternoonsSocial JusticeReading Time: 2 minutes
At a time when family budgets are being stretched and tweaks are being made to save where we can, charitable giving is something many people have to reassess. We want to be generous, but where does that fit into our overall spending in tight times?
A big factor for anyone giving to charity is considering how effective their gift will be: how much of this dollar goes to work on the ground and how much gets absorbed by organisational expenses?
The Life You Can Save is a charity founded by leading philosopher Peter Singer, a passionate philanthropist who wrote a book of the same name that outlines the moral, ethical and philosophical reasons why people should give. It considers how we can all help end world poverty and problems around health, disease, malnutrition, and education.
“The Life You Can Save [aims to] ignite the innate kindness and generosity that resides within each of us, empowering everyday people to make a tangible difference in other people’s lives,” Director of Philanthropy Louise Pfeiffer said.
One of the ways The Life You Can Save help people do that is to thoroughly investigate the financials of “identified charities” and assess the cost-effectiveness of their interventions to ensure peoples giving is utlised well.
“We can quantify [the effectiveness] in terms of lives saved or lives improved or economic income generating potential increase,” Louise said.
“There’s really quite a lot of analytics and data that goes into showing these are the most cost-effective charities in the world, and anyone can access this information for free on our website.”
Although Australia has a reputation for being a generous nation, according to a recent Centre for Social Impact report, our charitable giving is far behind that of our overseas counterparts – Australia gives 0.81 per cent of its GDP compared to the United Kingdom (0.96 per cent), Canada (1 per cent), New Zealand (1.84 per cent), and the United States (2.1 per cent) – and is dropping at a time where the need for charity-based services is rising.
The Life You Can Save is keen to ensure that those who already give continue to do so but are also looking to encourage a broader base of philanthropic giving in Australia.
“Whether you have $10 or $10 million dollars, you can make a significant difference in people’s lives,” Louise said.
“Whether you have $10 or $10 million dollars, you can make a significant difference in people’s lives,” – Louise Pfeiffer, The Life You Can Save
“The impact Australians can have on the lives of people living in Africa or Asia is not only extraordinary but highly rewarding.”
For more information and to get your free copy of The Life You Can Save book, head to their website.