Raising for Effective Giving

Raising for Effective Giving

Founded	July 3, 2014
Focus	Philanthropy, Poker, evolutionary humanism, Effective altruism, Effective giving
Area served	Worldwide
Board of directors	Liv Boeree, Renae Garcia, Lukas Gloor, Philipp Gruissem, Stefan Huber, Igor Kurganov, Adriano Mannino
Slogan	The action is on you
Website	reg-charity.org

Raising for Effective Giving (REG) is a community of poker players who aim to have a positive impact on the world. REG members pledge to donate at least 2% of their gross tournament winnings and at least 3% of their profit from cash games every quarter^[1][2] to charities with unusually high cost-effectiveness.^[3] Studies suggest that some charities save more than 100 times as many lives than other charities with the same amount of money.^[4]

Founding

REG was founded in 2014 by several poker professionals and members of the Effective Altruism Foundation (formerly GBS Switzerland),^[5] a Swiss think-and-do-tank for effective altruism.^[6]

The board consists of Adriano Mannino (chairman of the board^[7]), Liv Boeree, Renae Garcia, Lukas Gloor, Philipp Gruissem, Stefan Huber, Igor Kurganov.^[8]

REG's official launch dinner took place on July 3 during the 2014 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.^[9] Board members Philipp Gruissem and Adriano Mannino gave presentations at the event.^[10][11]

Effective Giving

Attendees of the Raising for Effective Giving launch dinner

REG members pledge to donate to one or more charities with unusually high cost-effectiveness.^[1] REG recommends charities found to be highly effective by charity evaluator GiveWell as well as effective meta-charities, organizations that fundraise for effective organizations or grow a movement of donors with an effectiveness oriented mindset.^[12] GiveWell’s research has shown that in developing countries it is possible to save a life for about $4000.^[13] In contrast, saving a life is about one hundred times more expensive in rich countries.

Rationality

REG promotes a rational approach to charitable giving, encouraging the maximization of expected value, an approach that is also found in poker.^[14] On the REG blog, board member Adriano Mannino has argued that donating unusally high amounts to cost-effective charities is a rational choice. Mannino argues that not doing so contradicts the fact that most people would be willing to sacrifice a lot of money in order to save a child that was dying in front of them^[15] and that psychological studies suggest that donations tend to make the donors happy, too.^[16]

Transparency

REG produces quarterly reports on its activities and donations.^[17] Mannino has also mentioned the importance of transparency in recommending charities.^[18]

Reception

REG has been positively received in the media and by prominent poker players. REG has been featured in Bluff Europe,^[5][19] PokerNews,^[20][21][22] CalvinAyre,^[9][23][24] PokerListings,^[25][26] PokerTube,^[27] the PokerStars blog,^[28][29] Poker Update,^[30] Poker.co.uk^[31][32] and Pokerfuse,^[33] among others. Several well known poker professionals, such as Daniel Negreanu,^{[31][34][35][36]} have mentioned REG in blogs^[28][29][37] and on social media.

Response to "Colman Controversy"

REG board member Philipp Gruissem wrote a reply^[38] to Daniel Colman on the REG blog following his reluctance to give interviews after The Big One for One Drop tournament, which Colman won.^[39]

Colman stated that poker is a "dark game" and stated that he did not agree with gambling being advertised.^[39] Gruissem responded that poker players should use poker to help people and that "the only way to be 100% happy if you are living in this poker world is to give back."^[38]

Representation at 2014 WSOP Main Event

Two REG members, Martin Jacobson^[40][41][42] and Jorryt van Hoof,^[43] were among the November Nine that played at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table.^[44] Jacobson placed first winning $10,000,000 and making him the poker world champion, van Hoof placed third and won over $3,800,000.^[45]

Criticism

Professional poker player Rupert Elder wrote on his blog arguing that it may be better to leave money for charity in one's will, instead of donating now, as REG recommends.^[37] REG responded to Elder's post on their blog, giving several reasons in favour of donating now, among them the fact that donations now (towards the promotion of effective giving) can create many additional donors who will donate a lot of money later on.^[46][47]

References