I’ve had the Supertramp song “Give a Little Bit” running through my head this morning, and for good reason. After all, it is Giving Tuesday.
So, here’s the pitch: if you have benefited from my blog, tweets, YouTube videos, and/or books, I am asking you to consider giving. But I’m not asking you to give money to me. While it is true that running this website costs me more than $1000 and hundreds of hours a year, I would rather you give your largesse to a more worthy cause. And I have a great one: malaria nets.
In the past, I have sponsored fundraisers for breast cancer research. But this time, I want to enact the principles of effective altruism which ask a very focused question: what is the most effective way, dollar-for-dollar, to reduce suffering and increase wellness? (To read more about effective altruism, read my review of Peter Singer’s book The Most Good You Can Do and my interview with Joshua Parikh.) The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) may not have as flashy a website as some groups, but that’s because they plow all their donations into mosquito nets to stop the spread of malaria. But don’t take my word for it: consider Givewell’s commentation of the AMF.
I have set up fundraising pages for the Tentative Apologist to receive donations for American and Canadian readers (my apologies to anyone left out!). Here they are:
American Link:
https://www.AgainstMalaria.com/TentativeApologist
Canadian Link:
https://www.AgainstMalaria.com/TentativeApologist2
One more thing, and this is a big deal: if these two sites together manage to raise more than $1000 within one week of today (i.e. by December 10th), then I will donate $500 to the Canadian fundraising site. So not only am I not asking to you give me money: if you give, then I promise that I will too!
So come on folks, we may disagree about theology and metaphysics, but we can surely agree that fighting malaria is a cause that can bring us all together!
