<aside> <img src="/icons/push-pin_red.svg" alt="/icons/push-pin_red.svg" width="40px" /> Welcome! This page is a step-by-step instructional guide on how to run a Giving Game, an educational activity designed to introduce participants to effective giving.

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<aside> 💡 Overview of a Giving Game:

• Each participant is “given” a set amount of money (ex. $10) that will be donated to whichever charity they vote for.
• Participants are introduced to the featured charities, and asked to make an initial choice based on short fundraising pitches.
• The facilitator goes into more detail about core concepts of effective giving, as well as the work of the charities they’ve chosen for the game. Participants then break into groups and discuss.
• A final vote is taken and money is donated to the winning charity (or more than one charity, if a proportional voting structure is used). </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/checklist_pink.svg" alt="/icons/checklist_pink.svg" width="40px" /> Table of contents

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This guide and the materials provided are maintained by Giving What We Can. If you have further questions or would like to get advice from someone on the Giving What We Can team, please contact [email protected]. (Please also feel free to get in touch with feedback about this guide, or additional tips you’ve found useful as a giving games facilitator!)

Note: Click the toggles $\\blacktriangleright$ to see more information throughout the instructions below.

📝 How to run a Giving Game

1. Get funding

   • Request sponsorship from Giving What We Can
   • Sponsor your own Giving Game**

2. Duplicate any of these presentation templates:

   1. GWWC Giving Game Presentation Template (our standard template which can be slimmed down or expanded, depending on your audience). Speaker notes are in the slides.
   2. A slimmed down, less info-heavy version of the Giving Game (slides are mostly in Spanish, but outline is in English to help you adapt it to your needs). The English slides contain speaker notes as well.
      1. Here’s also a version of the slides for the less info-heavy version of the game (outline here) designed to be used without the Giving Game platform, for example, if you are conducting the game in a language other than English. (In all other cases, we recommend using the Giving Games platform, as instructed in Step 4.)

3. Create a timeline for your event

   <aside> <img src="/icons/watch-analog_orange.svg" alt="/icons/watch-analog_orange.svg" width="40px" /> Here’s a suggested timeline for a ~75 min Giving Game: (The sample presentation includes talking points for each section)

   • Introduction (5 mins)
   • Preliminary vote (5 mins)
   • Talk about effective giving (20 mins)
   • Detailed introduction of the charities (5 mins)
   • Small group discussions (20-25 mins)
   • Open discussion (5-10 mins)
   • Final vote (10 mins) </aside>

4. Create your Giving Game online here (this is the Giving Games platform): game.givingwhatwecan.org/admin

   <aside> <img src="/icons/window_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/window_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> This creates a custom game platform for your event

   You (the organizer) can:

   • Select (and edit) the charity options — choose up to three
   • Add PlayPumps to the game as a fourth “decoy” charity for the initial vote (we highly recommend this!) You will be asked if you’d like to do this after you select the three “real” charities.
   • View the voting results
   • Complete a post-game report

   Participants can:

   • Vote on your selected charities (a preliminary vote and a final vote)
   • Fill out a survey indicating their approach to giving (both before and after the event), allowing GWWC to assess impact
   • Submit their email to subscribe to mailing lists for GWWC. (If you are running the game as part of an organisation, you can also set up the option for participants to opt-in to subscribe to your org’s newsletter as well. You will then get emailed the addresses of people who wish to subscribe.) </aside>

5. Choose your charities

   You’re free to feature whichever charities you like in your Giving Game, though there are some restrictions if GWWC is sponsoring your event (See #1 - Get Funding).

   Additionally, there is a three-charity limit to keep the process simple and manageable. If you’re unsure which charities to use, we suggest featuring Against Malaria Foundation, GiveDirectly, and Evidence Action (Safe Water Now). We also recommend adding PlayPumps International as a dummy charity for the initial vote, since it will help you illustrate some core effective giving principles in the presentation portion of the game. Slides for other options are included at the end of the presentation template (but be sure to update the information listed there).

   • Note

6. Update the presentation

   1. Update your group name

   2. Add the presenters’ names and photos

   3. Add the code from the online giving game

   4. If using the standard presentation: update the charity slides, if you’ve selected any that aren’t included in the default options.

      If using the less info-heavy version: create handouts for your charities as directed in the outline.

   5. Add your end-game asks to the slide with “Learn more” and “Next steps”

      • Possible end-game asks

7. Do outreach (if necessary)

   1. You might use the example past event listing here or the template below.
      • Template event listing
   2. Feel free to duplicate and edit the example poster here.
      • Poster

8. Final prep

   1. Practice and get comfortable with the presentation. (See the speaker notes!)
   2. Review 🐵 Tips for moderating the discussion
   3. Review 🙋 Concerns that may be raised (and suggested responses)

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🔅 After the Giving Game

1. Submit a post-game report

   This is required for Giving Games sponsored by Giving What We Can, but please submit a form even if someone else provided sponsorship. Post-game reports allow us to systematically collect standardised data about different Giving Games. This information is our best source of ideas for improving our process and methodology.

   1. Go to https://game.givingwhatwecan.org/admin/
   2. Select “Manage an existing game” (if you are not currently logged in).
      1. Enter your game code and password.
   3. Select “Complete a post game report.”
   4. Answer the questions provided.

2. Proceed with donations

   Once the participants have decided where the prize will go, whoever sponsored the Game needs to make the appropriate donation(s).

   • When Giving What We Can sponsors Giving Games

3. Conduct relevant follow-ups

   Address any follow-ups associated with your post-game ask(s). If you collected emails for our newsletter, please send them to [email protected]. Reach out to anyone who expressed interest in a subsequent chat and schedule a time to get together.

📚 More resources (recordings, languages, & more)

<aside> <img src="/icons/safety-pin_gray.svg" alt="/icons/safety-pin_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Spanish language materials: Pre/post game survey in Spanish Giving Game slides (slimmed down version) in Spanish Giving Game outline (for slides above) in Spanish

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<aside> <img src="/icons/feed_blue.svg" alt="/icons/feed_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Join the Giving Game Discussion Group on Facebook to share questions and ideas with over a hundred experienced Giving Game facilitators.

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<aside> <img src="/icons/ear_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/ear_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Audio of a Giving Game by EA New Zealand (Note: this is more lecture-based than discussion based and some figures may no longer be up-to-date; however, listening to the beginning may help you feel comfortable introducing/framing the activity.)

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<aside> <img src="/icons/question-mark_pink.svg" alt="/icons/question-mark_pink.svg" width="40px" /> Many people think that donors don’t need to inform themselves because they can use common sense and intuition to identify which programs work. A great way to show them at the start of the Giving Game how hard this can be is to run a quick interactive quiz testing people’s intuition about which interventions work. Consider copying some of the programs from the quiz into your presentation; then ask everyone to stand and have them vote with hands up for positive, hands down for negative, and arms crossed for neutral. If the answer was positive, only those with their hands up should remain standing. (Here’s an example.)

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