Interview with Brian Luscombe discussing a pledge we both made to donate 10% of our income for the rest of our lives to highly impactful nonprofits addressing priority issues efficiently. I’ve planned to make this pledge for a long time, but needed something to trigger me to officially make it. And that something was the election. So I’ve also pledge to up this pledge to 20% through the duration of Trump’s presidency.

It seems like, as much as ever before, people are energized to do good, in the broadest sense. We are frustrated by the reality we’re seeing play out on the news, and we’re angered by the apathy and ignorance of so many. But we’re also tired of being defeated. Shouldn’t we then reconsider our approach?

But what scares me most about Trump is not what will happen to America, but what will be the byproduct of this “America First” mentality on the most vulnerable people, non-human animals and environmental causes in non-America. I’m scared of the byproduct of an extraordinarily powerful and influential country act in an extraordinarily selfish way, standing behind a leader who promises to pursue America wealth, supremacy and dominance at any cost.

If we deconstruct our frustration with a Trump administration, it seems that our fear can be boiled down to, at the most foundational level, to a fear of decreased wellbeing for the marginalized and vulnerable, increased inequality, and decreased prospects for investing constructively in a just and equitable future.

So, with that in mind, I could take my frustration and yell emotionally at not-my-president marches, or I could see how I can do what’s within my reach to counter these effects; to increase wellbeing for the marginalized and vulnerable, to decrease inequality, and to increase prospects of investing constructively in a just and equitable future. And one very simple way, as an America living on one extreme end of that global income inequality scale, I know my donation can go a long way if given very effectively, because I’m not empowered to stop Trump, but I am empowered to cure blindness for 100 dollars, save a human life for 3500 dollars, or an animal life for 10 cents, and keep a metric ton of CO2 equivalents of the atmosphere for a 1.34. And to put this into perspective, the average american is responsible for emitting 21 metric tons of CO2 Equivalents per year.

We discuss much more than this, promise. We also examine how easy it will be the make this pledge, and the EXTREME differences between our minimal sacrifice and the maximal gain of others, if donated effectively. We discuss what cause we will support at why, what organizations are providing the most reliable analysis of the effectiveness of nonprofits, and we even dip into the potential of artificial intelligence to solve world problems (and to cause them).