Raising for Effective Giving (REG) is a charity fundraising nonprofit. Its members consist mostly of professional poker players and financial investors who pledge to donate a percentage of their income to selected charities.

Philosophy

REG was founded based on the view that in order to reduce suffering in the

developing world A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreeme ...

, people in the developed world should donate to particularly effective charity organizations. REG donates to, and recommends, selected charities based on their

cost-effectiveness Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a form of economic analysis that compares the relative costs and outcomes (effects) of different courses of action. Cost-effectiveness analysis is distinct from cost–benefit analysis, which assigns a moneta ...

. One criterion in the cost-effectiveness evaluations is how much money the charity requires to save a life. REG's outreach focuses on professional poker players, because it believes that they have strong quantitative skills, making them better suited for REG's messages about cost-effectiveness. In addition, poker is a large industry with substantial monetary prizes.

Activities

There are 87 members of REG, who have each pledged to donate at least 2% of their income. Recipients included

Against Malaria Foundation The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) is a United-Kingdom based charity that provides long-lasting insecticidal nets to populations at high risk of malaria, primarily in Africa. The foundation has distributed more than 200 million nets since its cr ...

, the

Machine Intelligence Research Institute The Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), formerly the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI), is a non-profit research institute focused since 2005 on identifying and managing potential existential risks from artifi ...

(MIRI), the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR), GiveDirectly,

GiveWell GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percenta ...

, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, The Humane League, Mercy For Animals, the

Great Ape Project The Great Ape Project (GAP), founded in 1993, is an international organization of primatologists, anthropologists, ethicists, and others who advocate a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights ...

, and the

Nonhuman Rights Project The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) is an American nonprofit animal rights organization seeking to change the legal status of at least some nonhuman, nonhuman animals from that of property to that of Personhood, persons, with a goal of securing r ...

. REG members wear patches with the name of the organization at poker tournaments, to advertise their commitment to donate their winnings. Two REG members,

Martin Jacobson Martin Jacobson (born 30 June 1987) is a Swedish professional poker player, originally from Stockholm, Sweden, but currently residing in London, England. In 2014, he won the World Series of Poker Main Event for $10,000,000, the fifth largest s ...

and Jorryt van Hoof, were among the November Nine that played at the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Jacobson placed first, earning him the title of poker world champion and winning $10,000,000, of which $250,000 was subsequently donated through REG.

International coverage and reception

Additional coverage within the international poker community includes Bluff Europe, PokerNews, among others.

References

{{Poker Charities based in Nevada Poker and society Organizations associated with effective altruism