Author Topic: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!  (Read 33583 times)

arebelspy

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Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« on: December 17, 2017, 10:02:01 AM »
Hey Mustachians!

A fellow forum member, joelthewriter, approached me about starting a giving challenge to the Against Malaria foundation. Apparently there is a charity drive happening among a number of subreddits, and he got the idea that Mustachians might like to participate as well.

Given that many of us are fans of the Effective Altruism movement, and GiveWell, the Against Malaria Foundation seems like a very effective use for our dollars.

The Against Malaria Foundation (https://www.againstmalaria.com) is an organization that works to distribute insecticide-treated bed nets in the developing world. This charity was chosen in accordance with effective altruism1  principles—doing the absolute most good possible with the dollars we donate. AMF is widely regarded as one of the most (if not the most) effective charity in the world in terms of impact per dollar spent. AMF has received the 'Top Charity' rating from GiveWell2 in five of the last six years, as well as 'Top Charity' ratings from Giving What We Can3 and The Life You Can Save4 for six years running.  More info/stats below.

Here's what to do:
  • Donate to the Mustachians Against Malaria page: https://www.againstmalaria.com/MMM.
  • Share that link, spread, and ask for others to donate as well (in your name, even, or in lieu of gifts).


Back to the cause. Some malaria facts:
Quote
Malaria kills nearly half a million people every year and more than 200 million fall ill. Before bed nets were made available, it was many times that. Nets are a proven intervention—a more effective a way of saving lives than any other.
  • 70% of the deaths are children under 5
  • Malaria is the world's single largest killer of pregnant women
  • 90% of the deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa
Yet malaria is totally preventable and treatable. Nobody need die. Prevention is better than treatment.
  • The most effective means of prevention is sleeping under a mosquito net
  • Specifically a Long-Lasting Insecticide treated Net (LLIN)
  • Each net costs $2.5/€2,2/£1.7

Malaria is one of the largest causes of human suffering in the world and we can prevent it. At a rough approximation every 1000 nets saves a life, and prevents dozens of others from the misery of contracting malaria. And it's an economic issue too—malaria acts as a drag on economic activity and actively impoverishes the third world. Every dollar towards malaria prevention leads to 12 dollars in economic gain5.

All donations are anonymous if desired, and for a great cause. Further links below:

Happy Holidays and Happy Donating!

DONATE TO THE AGAINST MALARIA FOUNDATION HERE: https://www.againstmalaria.com/MMM

*Much credit to Reddit u/MrDannyOcean from whom joelthewriter cribbed much of this post.

1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism
2https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
3https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/top-charities/
4https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/best-charities
5http://earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/about/director/pubs/sachsmalariafeb02.pdf
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meadow lark

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2017, 05:37:16 PM »
Okay.  My grinch-sized shriveled little heart let me donate $5.  (What is this world coming to?). But only because it was an attack on my arch-nemesis, the mosquito.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2017, 11:19:22 AM »
I put in $500, which will be matched by my employer for a total of $1,000.

EmFrugal

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2017, 11:29:00 AM »
We donated $100 to this charity two days ago and $200 to a few others. I let my children choose causes close to their hearts, many of which involved animals. But this was on the adult giving list!  Wish I had known about the MMM donation link before we gave.
« Last Edit: December 18, 2017, 11:30:56 AM by EmFrugal »

arebelspy

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2017, 01:37:28 PM »
Okay.  My grinch-sized shriveled little heart let me donate $5.  (What is this world coming to?). But only because it was an attack on my arch-nemesis, the mosquito.

Haha, totally! Defeating the vampire bug's terrible disease? A very worthy cause.

I put in $500, which will be matched by my employer for a total of $1,000.

That's awesome!! :D

Thanks for giving so much, and so cool that it's matched by your employer!

It's pretty neat that this is literally saving lives.

We donated $100 to this charity two days ago and $200 to a few others. I let my children choose causes close to their hearts, many of which involved animals. But this was on the adult giving list!  Wish I had known about the MMM donation link before we gave.

That is excellent. Doesn't matter how you donate, but that you're helping others.

I love that you involve your kids, and give them choice and agency on who (or what) to help. I'm totally going to steal this next year when my daughter turns 3 (probably about the youngest age they can understand a little bit what you mean.. 4-5+ is much more meaningful).

Thanks for sharing! Would love to hear any other charities people are supporting this holiday season.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2017, 03:35:02 PM »
Thanks for giving so much, and so cool that it's matched by your employer!

Yep, employer matching is great. I view it in the same way as I view 401(k) matching: a part of your compensation that you should take advantage of if at all possible. With the tax break and employer match combined, it's like every dollar I take out of my pocket gets a charity about three dollars. Seems like a pretty good deal!

Quote
Thanks for sharing! Would love to hear any other charities people are supporting this holiday season.

We usually give some to the Wikimedia foundation (because they make knowledge available to anyone with an internet connection, and knowledge is power), our neighborhood food bank (because Seattle has a lot of needy people despite its overall wealth), and our college's scholarship fund (because we both got some pretty generous scholarships ourselves that allowed us to graduate debt-free, and we'd like to help pay it forward). We've given to several other charities over the years, but those seem to be the annual ones.

akzidenz

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2017, 06:35:35 PM »
Not giving…just because I already have a $50/month commitment to Against Malaria! In 2018 I plan on upping this to $100/month.

A brief personal aside: my SO introduced me to the effective altruism movement and I've been slowly but surely upping what I contribute to charities in the past year. I kind of think of the recurring donation as a commitment both to our relationship (it's one of those "in honor of" things) and to my broader desire to live a life that is in service to others and mindful of the struggles others face. Thanks for posting about this here!

Other places I donate to monthly: a local organization addressing homelessness (shelters, counseling, skill workshops), the Southern Poverty Law Center, Trans Lifeline (crisis hotline for the trans community).

Moonwaves

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2017, 08:40:22 AM »
Very timely thread. I don't really ever do christmas cards but since I now have three (count them, three!) regular customers for my side-gig, as well as a few less regular ones, I'd been thinking maybe I need to start doing something (for the sake of networking if nothing else) but I do want to make a donation and send good wishes by email rather than the waste of paper that is cards.* I was just going to make an extra donation to Doctors without Borders but I like the idea of my small contribution making a big difference, too. I'm probably far too emotional about deciding where to donate really.
Apart from that, I've made a donation to wikimedia, as I have done the last couple of years. I use wikipedia a lot when translating, so that seems fair. 



*Cards for people in your personal life is different perhaps. I'm talking about the masses and masses of cards I see coming into the office, most of which only have a signature and no hint of a personal message, only to be summarily dumped in the new year.

TheStrenuousLife

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2017, 09:00:01 AM »
A most excellent initiative.  Just donated in memory of my partner.

Assuming a ratio of 1000 nets to save a life, this fundraiser is just a few nets short of saving its first life!

jtwriter

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2017, 09:40:48 AM »
Not giving…just because I already have a $50/month commitment to Against Malaria! In 2018 I plan on upping this to $100/month.

Fantastic!

I don't really ever do christmas cards but since I now have three (count them, three!) regular customers for my side-gig, as well as a few less regular ones, I'd been thinking maybe I need to start doing something (for the sake of networking if nothing else) but I do want to make a donation and send good wishes by email rather than the waste of paper that is cards.

I think this a great idea. An easy way for freelancers/business owners to do good with/add utility to obligatory holiday cards :)

Assuming a ratio of 1000 nets to save a life, this fundraiser is just a few nets short of saving its first life!

And actually, with seattlecylcone's $500 employer match, we've already cracked 1000 :)

Let's keep it going!

EmFrugal

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2017, 08:36:32 AM »
We donated $100 to this charity two days ago and $200 to a few others. I let my children choose causes close to their hearts, many of which involved animals. But this was on the adult giving list!  Wish I had known about the MMM donation link before we gave.

That is excellent. Doesn't matter how you donate, but that you're helping others.

I love that you involve your kids, and give them choice and agency on who (or what) to help. I'm totally going to steal this next year when my daughter turns 3 (probably about the youngest age they can understand a little bit what you mean.. 4-5+ is much more meaningful).

Thanks for sharing! Would love to hear any other charities people are supporting this holiday season.
[/quote]

Yes, my girls are 4 and 6. The baby didn't get a vote yet, but eventually ;)

My four year old loves dogs so she chose Paws With A Cause, which matches a dog to a child/adult with a disability. And my six year old loves frogs, so she chose the Global Wildlife Conservation to help prevent species extinction. I was quite proud of their decisions and want to do this every year going forward.

TheStrenuousLife

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2017, 09:49:38 AM »
Hats off to the Anonymous Canadian who put in $1,800.00!

We are closing in on saving at least two lives now!

terrifictim

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #12 on: December 20, 2017, 10:01:08 AM »
$25 here. Thanks for starting this thread and organizing the funding page!

Eucalyptus

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2017, 06:56:37 PM »
Having traveled through some of the most impoverished countries in Africa, and in particular some riddled with malaria, I wholeheartedly endorse this fundraiser. And not just for lives saved. Don't forget the emphasis on 1000nets = 1 life. I would personally emphasise the fact that nets massively improve livelihoods. Most people can't afford malaria treatments....sometimes they are available to them, but at a small cost! I passed many places that sold it (and rued paying exhorbitant prices in Australia for mine prior to departure, haha), and to an employed westerner, its dirt cheap to treat someone for malaria. But its not to them.

Most adults I spoke to had had malaria, or dengue, at least once, often many many times. They just have to ride it out. If they are fit and otherwise mostly healthy by local standards, then this might take a few weeks. Its basically lazing around with a bad bad man flu. They can't work though, or look after their families, or study, and of course its very risky, they could still die or develop complications, and without a mosquito net over them, they help to pass on malaria to more mosquitos to infect more people...

Could you imagine the affect on your livelihood if say, once a year, you had to take 6 weeks of unpaid sick leave, completely laid up in bed at home? It would be bad hey.
Now imagine you are struggling just to feed yourself and your family a meal a day, find clean water, etc. Its critical. Everyone suffers around you too.

Good on you all!

FireLane

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2017, 05:45:41 AM »
Great idea! I can chip in a few bucks.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #15 on: December 30, 2017, 02:46:39 PM »
Only just saw this! We had to postpone Xmas this year til 6 Jan so I had time to incorporate this charity into our gifts.

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #16 on: December 31, 2017, 09:09:17 PM »
Three $500 donors came in on the last day of the year. Nice! Thanks to everyone who donated regardless of the amount.

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #17 on: January 01, 2018, 10:44:43 AM »
Just saw this and will donate. We also give to small animal rescues and the Salvation Army. Each local salvation army has a man and wife team that take one very small salary. They provide jobs and housing for substance abuse males and in return they work in their stores, warehouses for 6 months. This gives these people a supportive community while getting clean and sober.  Going to their church is a requirement which turns some people off but I am fine with that.  They are a Christian based organization. My BIL got clean with their help and sadly about 5 years later purposely took a bunch of drugs to kill himself. They reached out to us and offered to provide a funeral service that was really nice.  My experience has been that they really care.   WE are not one bit religious but the good they do outweighs the negative of that.

Cassie

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #18 on: January 01, 2018, 10:53:43 AM »
Thanks for starting this thread. What a great way to start the new year. Just gave 25.

woopwoop

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #19 on: January 22, 2018, 09:58:14 PM »
My mom had malaria twice, it sucks. Set up a small recurring donation. After all, subscriptions are terrible things you forget about and end up paying forever... but when it's to charity, that's fine by me :)

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #20 on: January 27, 2018, 02:15:54 AM »
One of my New Year's resolutions was to give more to charity. Love the idea of effective altruism so my first (small) donation of the year went to Mustachians against Malaria! That's another 5 malaria nets to be distributed :)

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #21 on: February 01, 2018, 11:39:50 PM »
Done! I give to AMF monthly and so I initially had to pass, but now that I've seen the size of my tax return I have a little extra room in my pockets.

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #22 on: February 03, 2018, 12:17:44 AM »
I was thinking of donating some money to something that will help society. thanks for uploading this threat. 

fpjeepy

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2018, 12:21:07 PM »
Just looked up the 990's from past years. The officers have never paid themselves. I'm always impressed by that. I give it two thumbs up.

TheStrenuousLife

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #24 on: September 01, 2018, 11:31:51 AM »
Wow, we are up to 4,675 nets and closing in on $10,000.00 USD.   Amazing work team.

Manchester

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #25 on: November 22, 2018, 04:08:53 AM »
Great cause. 

As someone who's suffered from Malaria - prevention is definitely better than a cure. 

jtwriter

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #26 on: November 26, 2018, 04:54:49 PM »
TIME SENSITIVE:

Tomorrow (November 27) is Giving Tuesday, and Facebook and PayPal are matching up to $7 Million in donations starting at exactly 08:00:00am EST. The matching funds are first-come-first-served. This is more or less distributing money to charities more or less in proportion to how organized, coordinated and optimized for speed their donors are. Mustachians being the expert optimizers we are, if you were planning to donate to AMF again this year, doing so tomorrow on Facebook is an excellent chance to effectively double your donation.

Last year the matching funds ran out in 1m26s. This year, the matching funds may run out much faster.

Here’s what to do: On the morning of November 27, 2018 at exactly 08:00:00am EST (05:00:00am PST), make your donation here in as few seconds as possible: https://www.facebook.com/donate/249849725695317/


Doing some practice runs is highly recommended.

Basic instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AmGLBM-WYll5U2N_orLDnn4woyLzeY5b0VjQrYDgDc8/edit

Full instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u2k5IvJ0BFcyY5HwEIGBaxXxARoaeJaZWJXNSYdJjng/edit#heading=h.imk1d23ghi2v

More info: https://www.eagivingtuesday.com/

Thank you, good luck and happy giving!

arebelspy

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #27 on: December 14, 2018, 04:27:06 PM »
Just made my annual donation.

Don't forget to donate to your favorite charities this holiday season, and year-round!

Cheers! :)
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Moonwaves

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #28 on: December 17, 2019, 02:45:04 AM »
It's that time of year again. :-)

TheStrenuousLife

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #29 on: December 17, 2019, 11:09:57 AM »
Against Malaria Foundation was once again selected as one of GiveWell's top charities for 2019!

https://blog.givewell.org/2019/11/26/announcing-our-2019-top-charities/

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #30 on: December 17, 2019, 12:11:45 PM »
I am trying to donate around 5k to Givewell, assuming a big chunk will go to AMF. Trying to get the right Vanguard group on the phone is proving to be a fun adventure.

arebelspy

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #31 on: December 18, 2019, 01:03:53 PM »
It's that time of year again. :-)

It is indeed! Made my annual donation. :)

Gotta go make a few to other places as well. Merry Christmas, everyone!
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FiveSigmas

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #32 on: December 18, 2019, 07:05:59 PM »
I am trying to donate around 5k to Givewell, assuming a big chunk will go to AMF. Trying to get the right Vanguard group on the phone is proving to be a fun adventure.

MJ: If you want to target your donation, make sure and fill out the form here:

https://www.givewell.org/about/donate/securities

This also lets you divvy amongst their recommended charities. Otherwise, I believe the default is to pay for Givewell overhead. FWIW, in my experience GiveWell is SUPER responsive and helpful if you hit any snags with the transfer. Don’t hesitate to email them if you need to.

arebelspy

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #33 on: December 01, 2020, 08:22:24 PM »
« Last Edit: December 02, 2020, 08:30:18 PM by arebelspy »
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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MMM

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #35 on: December 14, 2020, 09:37:50 AM »
ME TOO! Thank you so much Joe and everyone who keeps this incredible spirit of generosity alive.

It's ironic that when I logged on to Twitter to share this (https://twitter.com/mrmoneymustache/status/1338520376687558656), the previous notification in my list was an uninformed random critic accusing financial gurus of living stingy lives and refusing to enjoy them.

The truth is the opposite - we do these things specifically because they are the most useful tool we've found to enjoy life MORE!

And although there will always be examples of Internet Cluelessness around, the tone is definitely more positive around the FIRE movement these days. I am very very happy about this.

happy holidays everyone!

Moonwaves

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #36 on: December 22, 2020, 12:13:35 PM »

Tass

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Re: Mustachian Giving Challenge - Mustachians Against Malaria!
« Reply #37 on: November 14, 2023, 04:11:57 PM »
Bumping an old thread with a crosspost from my journal... My lifetime donations to AMF, over many years while I had a pretty low income, are approaching the average cost to AMF to save a life.

I got curious while bumping up my contributions to the Against Malaria Fund.

The big selling point of AMF is that they offer one of the cheapest interventions to save a life in the world: they distribute cheap, long-lasting mosquito nets to cover sleeping areas in areas where malaria is endemic. Not every net prevents a case of malaria, and not every case of prevented malaria would be deadly, but if you do the statistics it hashes out to an average of $6.5k to prevent one person from dying of malaria.

(That number is the average across all countries of the final estimate by GiveWell on this page--it is cheaper in some countries than others: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1otZFJSMM8yH5R6DkBIYmlsWy5T7VHsX_E7wDF7HSLaM/edit#gid=1364064522)

AMF also provides a very nice donor history page, where you can see your past donations, where the nets you bought got distributed, etc. I've been donating monthly for 7.5 years: $50, then $60, then $75 per month. My total donations thus far are $6205... just about to cross that cost-of-one-death-prevented threshold.

Anyway, I'm now bumping my monthly donation to $200 [as our income recently went up]. I cleared this with DH by yelling across the apartment, "Hey, do you agree that I can spend several hundred dollars right now?" to which he replied "I mean I'd like a few more details... but probably?"

It would be interesting to do a weighted average by where AMF actually spends its money, rather than the simple average I did here, but I couldn't find that info (with minimal searching).

Gauntlet thrown! Who else wants to join?

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!