Comment by Terretta | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Terretta | Hacker News Reader

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A lot more than 5K people have pledged to give 10%+ of their income to effective charities -- magnitude on the order of hundreds of millions.

It's called "tithing":

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”-Mal. 3:10.

“We have found in our own home, as have thousands of others, that God’s blessing upon the nine-tenths, when we tithe, helps it to go farther than ten-tenths without His blessing.” -- Billy Graham

Here are the types of things tithes go to:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/november/where-e...

In some cases, tithing is earmarked only for "church ministries", in which case the sect generally also has an additional "offerings" category used for non-ministry outreach.

Like the Orthodox Church, Baptists distinguish between tithing and giving an "offering." The word "tithe" actually means the "tenth part of agricultural produce or personal income." Because of this, Baptists believe that members should leave 10 percent of their income for tithing to their church. This tithe is expected and not optional. An offering would be anything above that you give to the Baptist church that exceeds the 10 percent that makes up your tithe.

https://classroom.synonym.com/what-do-baptists-believe-about...

Something like 100 million Baptists, 20 million Adventists (Baptists who observe a 7th day Sabbath), and many others, consider tithing an obligation.

This is called "ineffective charities"

If it costs internet points to say that saving several hundred times more lives per dollar is better than not doing that, that's alright.

On the contrary, church managed charities are often among the more effective when ranked by global impact then measured as funds put to use versus overhead.

For instance:

"For every cent donated to ADRA Indonesia, 87% is used for programs that benefit children, families and the community 5% will be used for administration and 8% will be used again for fundraising. We always strive to keep overhead costs low and use the funds collected fully for those in need."

https://adraindonesia.org/donation/en/

Global 2018 annual report (not just Indonesia) is at 83.5% programs:

https://adra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Annual-Report-20...

Part of the reason is a global pool of tens of millions to hundreds of millions of readily available volunteers.

> measured as funds put to use versus overhead

This is generally a poor way to measure the 'effectiveness' of a charity. The amount of overhead is irrelevant; if a charity is doing 100x more good per dollar than the next best charity, you should donate to it regardless of how much the CEO earns.

See the report (p. 14) and look at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

ADRA has spent decades building, and continues to build, a flywheel.

https://adra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Annual-Report-20...

// Disclosure: I lived in Africa for a decade, observed and participated in work by multiple humanitarian organizations “on the ground”.

I am not religious, but my mother is. She tithes to the church, but also donates to other charities heavily as well - money, old clothes, furniture, you name it. She does it because she believes in it, but it’s also been quite a help some years with her taxes. I know that’s not the reason she does it, but depending upon your tax situation it can also help both you and the people you’re donating to.

I know a lot of people (and particularly in the science and tech world) like to bash on religion and religious people, but it absolutely has and continues to do a lot of good around the world as well.

Just make sure you aren't tithing to the Kenneth Copeland Ministries or other "prosperity gospel" preachers. That money is going straight to their private jets.

I could be wrong though, it looks like they might be helping getting rid of COVID-19[1].

[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2rFiDbB6hE).

And a significant portion of that ends up being spent trying to convert people, instead of helping them.

I took up my own 10% donation practice despite having left the baptist church because my leaving was a matter of principle, not a way of getting out of social responsibility. But let me tell you: having seen how that money gets used when it goes to the church, at least in the evangelical sphere, it is laughable to put it in the same category as real charities that actually work to improve real people's lives.

Every expenditure, every event, even the stuff that might otherwise fall under actual charity, all of it was to the end of converting people. All of it. They would talk about this explicitly: the primary purpose of painting that school, or handing out food to those disaster victims, was all about getting attention so people would become Christians. All of it. It was manipulative and shameful. That is not charity, much less "effective" charity.

Additionally, Freemasonry also requires similarly - if you are both a tithing Christian and a Freemason, such as myself, year by year; it adds up!

That is not be universally enforced for Freemasonry. It may be a jurisdictional thing.

Granted. It may be part of the specific Body I was Initiated into.

Just curious: is it 10% before or after the tax?

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