“What does it mean to give wisely?” We’re launching GiveWiser to explore this question – not in the abstract, but through practice. We're launching the project as a small-scale experiment: a group of us sensing and giving together, testing principles to guide our giving in service of societal thriving via foundational, paradigmatic change.
Through this, we aim to distill principles and patterns for wise giving, catalyze more giving directed toward paradigmatic transformation, and enable more effective channeling of support to initiatives that are both high-impact and deeply aligned.
Motivating concerns
Many of us are part of communities—like the Second Renaissance, the Liminal Web—that care deeply about integral, inner and outer transformation, about systems change and the primacy of being. But there’s a bottleneck:
- On the one hand, it’s surprisingly difficult to figure out how to give.
- And on the other hand, there is a clear lack of resources flowing into these kinds of activity.
So how do we channel resources in ways aligned with these values—like inner growth, interbeing, wisdom, and post-capitalist regeneration?
GiveWiser is both a giving experiment and a research process into the principles of “wise giving.”
A historical analogy: GiveWell
Think of the early days of what became effective altruism: Before the name, a few people at Bridgewater came together, wanting to give money—but they weren’t sure how. They brought their background in finance to the table and began asking: how can we give effectively? That group catalyzed GiveWell, and more broadly, a movement.
Similarly, GiveWiser asks: What does it mean not just to give well—but to give wisely?
What we're doing
Concretely, the current experiment involves three of us committing funds and sensemaking together. We're exploring:
- What principles guide our giving?
- How do we sense and reason together about what’s wise?
- What patterns, heuristics, and frameworks emerge?
And we don't imagine doing this alone – we hope to integrate insights from broader community and from cross-context learning.
Guiding Values
We see "wise giving" as rooted in an evolving set of principles, most importantly:
- Focusing deep: prioritising paradigmatic transformation in our worldviews, cultures and systems.
- Grounded in sensemaking: that respects complexity, relationality, reason and the inner dimension.
In contrast to metrics-based philanthropy, this is more about process, discernment, and alignment with transformation.
Broader vision
This is a seed. We imagine:
- A Wise Giving pledge for individuals committing to aligned with wise giving over time.
- More GiveWiser circles forming—small groups experimenting with wise giving in their own contexts.
- Sharing a recommendation portfolio from our circle which others in our relational web may find useful
- And eventually, perhaps, the emergence of a larger GiveWiser Fund or similar
Outcomes we hope for
- Distillation of principles and patterns for wise giving
- Catalyzing more giving in service of paradigmatic transformation
- Enabling better channeling of support to high-impact, deeply aligned initiatives
What you can do now
- Subscribe to our newsletter and stay tuned for our first interest-group meeting.
- Sign the pledge
- Form a GiveWiser “giving circle”. Combines the giving with the sensemaking
- Come to our first monthly “mixer”/meetup to meet others and join/form a giving circle (date TBD)
FAQs
- Can I recommend someone or something to receive support? → Yes. We welcome suggestions though we emphasize we can't guarantee to act on them
- How much money is involved? → As of pilot kickoff March 2025: Approximately $20k precommitment by initial circle, aiming to learn effectively at small scale.
- What are the principles guiding choices? We’re working on making these explicit and the current version are here.
- Who is behind this? → This initiative and the prototype GiveWiser circle was seeded by James Baker, Rufus Pollock and Kevin Triplett
In Closing
GiveWiser is not a new fund or institution – it’s a living inquiry, rooted in action. We give together, we reflect, and we share what we learn. How we give shapes the world we co-create.
Initiators
The GiveWiser initiative and the prototype GiveWiser circle is seeded by James Baker, Rufus Pollock, and Kevin Triplett.