Oxford students have signed up to pledge 10% of their future income to charity after a talk by Dr Toby Ord of the Giving What We Can charity. PPEist Tom Rowlands, Atmospheric Physicist student Niel Bowerman, and DPhil student Simon Driscoll have all committed to an estimated £200,000 of donations over their working life.
22 year old Harris Manchester student Tom Rowlands was inspired to make the promise after hearing Dr Toby Ord, a Postdoctoral research Fellow and member of the Department of Philosophy, speak about his own generous donations.
Ord is the founder of Giving What We Can, an international society which encourages people to give a proportion of their income to charity. Its special focus is alleviating global poverty.
Rowlands commented, “The fact that Toby Ord was really ‘normal’ was what I found most compelling about the talk – despite giving away so much of his own money, it didn’t seem like he’d sacrificed much of what he enjoys.”
Winston Featherly-Bean, JCR President of Harris Manchester commended his actions, telling Cherwell, described the college as “very socially aware.” Adding, “We’re fortunate to have a college filled with genuinely interesting people who, like Tom, will throw themselves fully into their causes and pursuits.”
Ord himself, a specialist in the field of Ethics, donates all of his income above £20,000 a year, and works to encourage many others to make similar pledges. He said that it was reading one of contemporary philosopher Peter Singer’s papers that first inspired him: “I discovered that with a careful choice of charity, I could do an immense amount of good just by giving a part of my future salary.”
Rowlands agreed, stating, “I realised that the top 10% of my income can do a lot more good in cost-effective charities than it can in my pocket or in the luxuries we typically buy.” He further noted “It’s made me a lot less stressed about essays! Seriously, it’s quite liberating to know you can do a lot of good whilst still pursuing the things you really want to do as a student – I still enjoy a night out at Camera and having dinner in college with friends.”
Another Oxford student, Niel Bowerman, studying for a DPhil in Atmospheric Physics at Linacre has made the same pledge, and noted, “I had never realised that some charities give you literally 1000 times more bang-for-your-buck than other charities. You could give to a UK charity helping people with a rare form of AIDS and spend around £10,000 giving someone an extra year of life. Or you could donate to a developing world charity working on prevention in the worst-affected areas and spend about £10 to give someone an extra year of life. When I realised that I can give someone an extra year of life for the price of a pint or two, the real question is not ‘why bother’ but ‘why not!’
Simon Driscoll, also studying for a DPhil at Linacre, told Cherwell: “I give a 10% pledge of my income (which is my DPhil funding) to charity. I’ve recently joined Giving What We Can (GWWC), and am now a member on their research team looking into the cost-effectiveness of injections for diseases mainly in the developing world. I basically wanted to make a difference and decided I could easily live very well whilst taking the pledge.”
Undergraduates are also demonstrating altruism, with one anonymous second year physiologist pledging to donate 5% of his income and then anything over £70,000 per annum, with a view to increase his donation when in full time employment.
Ord seemed happy with the progress the charity was making: “People are often very responsive to hearing some trustworthy numbers on just how much good we can do. There are often one or two people in the audience who decide that they’d like to join us. They have no problem turning this into reality, and starting giving.”
Nevertheless, some students had reservations. One second year thought the pledges hasty: “[They] don’t seem to be planning for the future. What about if [they] want to have kids? Those are definitely expensive. The point is people might need a lump sum of money at some point. Perhaps there are wiser ways of donating.”
Rowlands did not seem worried about fulfilling his pledge commenting, “I really don’t think that giving up the things I’d spend the top 10% of my income on – a fancy watch or a meal at The Randolph – will be too difficult to follow through!”
