The Impact of Giving Games
Giving Games aren't just helping great charities raise money. They're also encouraging people to think about charities, and their values, in a new way.
At the outset of one game, a participant wanted to clarify something: "This is supposed to be a real situation, right?" The answer was "yes". These games have real consequences, and that encourages genuine engagement. The quotations below show what can happen when people wrestle with questions about what it means to do the right thing in "real situations".
At the outset of one game, a participant wanted to clarify something: "This is supposed to be a real situation, right?" The answer was "yes". These games have real consequences, and that encourages genuine engagement. The quotations below show what can happen when people wrestle with questions about what it means to do the right thing in "real situations".
What Players are Saying
Quotes from Group Discussion:
This is basically found money…. We have this money. We don’t really need it. We didn’t really earn it. It’s just money sitting around. It doesn’t hurt us at all to give it to charity…. We’re fortunate to be in this situation. In any other circumstance, we wouldn’t have this money to begin with. So it wouldn’t change our circumstance at all to say, “OK, the money goes to charity, we’re as well off as we were before, no loss there.”
I don’t think that people should be giving every single penny to charity and constantly be thinking about people in need, but I do think that when consciousness arises you do have an obligation to give to people, if you feel like you are able. Which I feel we are, considering our budget and other things… We don’t think about charity every single day of our lives, obviously. But, our consciousness has been, I don’t know, "awakened"… We’re thinking about it now, and why would we think about charity and then decide not to [give where it will have the most impact]?
I feel like our expenses are things like candy, and expenses wherever these nets are going are things like dying... That's definitely getting quoted. [This argument caused the group to burst into laughter, and raised calls to write this on the group's quote wall. And yes, of course this is too good not to quote. -Guy]
Every little bit counts. If everyone took the attitude of, “oh my [contribution] won’t count”, no one would give.
It’s like a parent taking a kid to a toy store and saying I can buy you this toy or we can give the money to charity... [Another person interjects: "that’s literally what’s happening!" After the laughter died down the original speaker continued] ...what I’m saying is that you can’t say with everything, ok he should buy the kid the toy. And you don’t always have to give every penny to charity. That’s the big question here.
If we're down $250 from where we are now it's going to make very little difference, if we're up $250 it's going to make very little difference. We're not going to go broke, and we're not going to have enough to go on tour before the year is over.
I do believe that our moral obligation, about whether or not we give this money to charity is no greater or less than for all of our money, because we don’t really need any of our money. So I’m wondering why we choose to give this money to charity and not other money to charity, and if choose not to give other money to charity, I don’t know why we choose to give this money to charity.
Speaking as the person who’s going to have to deal with all of this [logistical work], as much as I like the idea of [doing our own research on which charity to give to]… 1) that’s going to be a pain to make happen; 2) it’s probably not going to happen; 3) it’s really going to be a pain to make that happen. I’m fully in favor of the fact that we should be giving this to charity… I would much rather take the easier route of choosing a charity that seems to be reputable rather than [doing our own research and logistical work]. The money will be sitting there until I graduate [group erupts in laughter], with a little earmark saying “To a future business manager: Get this to a charity at some point when you have time to figure it all out and wade through all the paperwork."
At least this way [voting to donate to AMF as opposed to doing one's own charity research]I can be assured that it’ going to charity. I trust Givewell in that even if it’s [recommended charity is] not the number one best ever everywhere charity, it’s still very very good, and I think it’s worth it to just you know, choose, instead of trying to do better and better.
Comments from Individual Surveys:
Even when I gave my response, I wasn't entirely sure about my decision. Social responsibility in our everyday lives still confuses me and it may always do so.
I thought that the overall experience was great. Donating to charity is something that occurs on a daily basis but often little thought is given as to where the money will go. I think that this experience was excellent to analyze giving in a different perspective.
It was very interesting, analyzing the psychology of charity for money in general and our responsibility and desire/inclinations as humans to reach out to others and to contribute to causes greater than ourselves.
Every penny could hypothetically go to charity but we clearly do not do so. Should we? Where do we draw the line?
[The game] forced us to come to terms with our values- why don't we give all our money away?... I wish we had longer
I liked talking about charity and the fact that the money wasn't mine.
I feel that I will think more about where I give charitably.
I think that the game involved the group and made people think about how and where to give money
Note: For aesthetic reasons, quotes from the discussion have been edited to remove a bunch of "likes", "you knows" and similar content-less filler words.
This is basically found money…. We have this money. We don’t really need it. We didn’t really earn it. It’s just money sitting around. It doesn’t hurt us at all to give it to charity…. We’re fortunate to be in this situation. In any other circumstance, we wouldn’t have this money to begin with. So it wouldn’t change our circumstance at all to say, “OK, the money goes to charity, we’re as well off as we were before, no loss there.”
I don’t think that people should be giving every single penny to charity and constantly be thinking about people in need, but I do think that when consciousness arises you do have an obligation to give to people, if you feel like you are able. Which I feel we are, considering our budget and other things… We don’t think about charity every single day of our lives, obviously. But, our consciousness has been, I don’t know, "awakened"… We’re thinking about it now, and why would we think about charity and then decide not to [give where it will have the most impact]?
I feel like our expenses are things like candy, and expenses wherever these nets are going are things like dying... That's definitely getting quoted. [This argument caused the group to burst into laughter, and raised calls to write this on the group's quote wall. And yes, of course this is too good not to quote. -Guy]
Every little bit counts. If everyone took the attitude of, “oh my [contribution] won’t count”, no one would give.
It’s like a parent taking a kid to a toy store and saying I can buy you this toy or we can give the money to charity... [Another person interjects: "that’s literally what’s happening!" After the laughter died down the original speaker continued] ...what I’m saying is that you can’t say with everything, ok he should buy the kid the toy. And you don’t always have to give every penny to charity. That’s the big question here.
If we're down $250 from where we are now it's going to make very little difference, if we're up $250 it's going to make very little difference. We're not going to go broke, and we're not going to have enough to go on tour before the year is over.
I do believe that our moral obligation, about whether or not we give this money to charity is no greater or less than for all of our money, because we don’t really need any of our money. So I’m wondering why we choose to give this money to charity and not other money to charity, and if choose not to give other money to charity, I don’t know why we choose to give this money to charity.
Speaking as the person who’s going to have to deal with all of this [logistical work], as much as I like the idea of [doing our own research on which charity to give to]… 1) that’s going to be a pain to make happen; 2) it’s probably not going to happen; 3) it’s really going to be a pain to make that happen. I’m fully in favor of the fact that we should be giving this to charity… I would much rather take the easier route of choosing a charity that seems to be reputable rather than [doing our own research and logistical work]. The money will be sitting there until I graduate [group erupts in laughter], with a little earmark saying “To a future business manager: Get this to a charity at some point when you have time to figure it all out and wade through all the paperwork."
At least this way [voting to donate to AMF as opposed to doing one's own charity research]I can be assured that it’ going to charity. I trust Givewell in that even if it’s [recommended charity is] not the number one best ever everywhere charity, it’s still very very good, and I think it’s worth it to just you know, choose, instead of trying to do better and better.
Comments from Individual Surveys:
Even when I gave my response, I wasn't entirely sure about my decision. Social responsibility in our everyday lives still confuses me and it may always do so.
I thought that the overall experience was great. Donating to charity is something that occurs on a daily basis but often little thought is given as to where the money will go. I think that this experience was excellent to analyze giving in a different perspective.
It was very interesting, analyzing the psychology of charity for money in general and our responsibility and desire/inclinations as humans to reach out to others and to contribute to causes greater than ourselves.
Every penny could hypothetically go to charity but we clearly do not do so. Should we? Where do we draw the line?
[The game] forced us to come to terms with our values- why don't we give all our money away?... I wish we had longer
I liked talking about charity and the fact that the money wasn't mine.
I feel that I will think more about where I give charitably.
I think that the game involved the group and made people think about how and where to give money
Note: For aesthetic reasons, quotes from the discussion have been edited to remove a bunch of "likes", "you knows" and similar content-less filler words.