Giving Games are educational activities designed to introduce participants to effective giving.
During a typical Giving Game, each participant is given $10, introduced to the featured charities, and asked to make an initial choice based on short fundraising pitches. The facilitator then goes into more detail about the work of the nonprofits, and how to maximise the potential impact of charitable giving.
In particular, the facilitator explains core concepts like cost effectiveness, evidence, and how the overhead myth is incorrectly used to assess the performance of nonprofits. At the end of the Giving Game, participants decide where to donate.
Introduce yourself briefly and explain what the session will include.
Instruct people to log into the Giving Games platform with the group code (you would have generated this earlier).
Preliminary vote
Introduce the three charities.
Take a preliminary vote.
Talk about effective giving
The core section covers information about effective giving and key concepts such as opportunity cost, the overhead myth, cost effectiveness.
Introduce an example of charity gone wrong (e.g., PlayPumps).
Talk about the criteria for selecting an impactful charity.
Detailed introduction of charities
Introduce the charities in more detail now, covering how some of the key concepts relate to them.
Small group discussions
Break off into small groups and discuss the charities using the criteria given earlier, including some of the guiding questions.
Open discussion
Come back together and ask participants to share points raised in their discussions.
Open the floor for final pitches for the different charities.
Final vote
Instruct participants to do the final vote and include the survey.
Show the results.
Reflect on the activity.
Templates
Event listing
Event name:
Giving Game: Decide which charity gets donations on your behalf!
Event details:
We will be giving away real money to charities — and you can help decide which!
Join us for a Giving Game event where you can learn more about effective giving and how to identify which charities can do the most good.
This event will be facilitated by {facilitator and short bio}.
Afterwards, hang around and enjoy {e.g., a free pizza lunch}.
Real money given to the charities will be sponsored by {sponsor name}.
Your current selection
Funds / Organisations you select will show up here
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