Hiya! On the 1st of July, it's my 33rd birthday, and so I'm almost one-third into my first century!? Luckily I have a lot to be grateful for: a challenging but rewarding job at TU Delft, a wonderful orchestra where I play music each week, and many friends I meet and play games with regularly. But many people on this planet are not so lucky, and live with hunger, poverty, illness, or violence.

As a well-off person living in a rich country, I have recognize that I have a huge opportunity to help these people. This is why since six years ago, I donate 10% of my income to charities that are working on some of the most pressing issues facing humanity, such as global healthcare and climate change. But there is a limit to how much difference one person can make, so I want to do an experiment: how many other people can I convince to donate a small (or large) amount to charity?

Concretely, I decided to run a fundraiser here on the website of Giving What We Can. For this fundraiser, I picked three charities: the Lead Exposure Elimination Project (a charity advocating for the elimination of lead in paint in low- and middle-income countries), the Clean Air Task Force (a non-profit that advocates for clean air measures and innovation in neglected low-carbon technologies), and the NTI Biosecurity Program (a non-profit global security organisation focused on reducing the risk of potentially catastrophic pandemics). I've picked these charities because (1) they work on problems I believe are important, (2) they work by influencing policy rather than direct action, so they have a real shot at improving things structurally and (3) they are recommended by Founder's Pledge, a respected charity evaluator.

If you want to contribute, here's how it works: you can donate by credit card or bank transfer via Giving What We Can, or (if you have a Dutch bank) send me your donation at https://tikkie.me/pay/3h60n0e732kjpfe9t2ov and I will transfer it. To encourage you, for each person donating at least 1€, I will add 10€ to the donation! 100% of the money you donate will go to the three charities I picked. No matter how much you choose to donate, know that it makes me very happy to know you care!