At Effective Altruism Australia, our mission is to help Australians give in ways that do the most good — by connecting donors with highly effective charities tackling global poverty and climate change.
A key question for donors is: for every dollar spent on EAA’s operations, how much additional funding reaches high-impact charities? Our giving multiplier provides a clear estimate.
A milestone year: growth and efficiency
In 2024 and 2025, we intentionally pivoted from a historically very low-cost approach to investing more in growth. While this increased our operational spending, it allowed us to reach more Australians, support more high-impact donations, and build stronger infrastructure for future scaling (you can read more about our investment in growth here).
Our previous giving multiplier covered a three-year period from 2022 to 2024 — what we consider our transition years. For 2025, we treat the year as a standalone snapshot. We’re proud to report that even with increased investment, we maintained our giving multiplier, showing that scaling our operations has not come at the expense of efficiency or impact.
What our multiplier measures
Our 2025 giving multiplier estimates the additional funding for high-impact charities that exists because of EAA’s work. It is not simply a count of every dollar we helped move, but a counterfactual-adjusted estimate of the donations that would not have occurred — or would not have gone to similarly effective charities — if EAA didn’t exist.
After reviewing our 2025 data, we estimate that for every $1 spent on fundraising, donation processing, and outreach, approximately $9 reaches highly effective charities, with $5 being a conservative estimate.
This estimate incorporates:
Total funds moved to partner charities
Adjustments for donations incrementally caused by EAA
The effectiveness of the recipient programs
Operational costs directly linked to fundraising and donation infrastructure
As with any estimate of additional impact, this involves uncertainty, and we deliberately include a very conservative estimate alongside our best estimate. You can view the details of the calculation here.
How our approach frames impact
Giving multipliers can be calculated in different ways. A commonly used approach is to divide total donations moved by operational costs. This can be a useful measure of scale, but it does not distinguish between donations that would have happened anyway and those that exist because of an organisation’s work.
For context, if we applied this simpler “gross leverage” calculation to EAA in 2025 — without adjusting for counterfactuality — our leverage ratio would be approximately 17.7 to 1.
We don’t use this figure as our primary measure of impact. Instead, our giving multiplier focuses on incremental impact: the additional funding enabled by EAA’s presence. This provides a clearer picture of the real difference donor support makes.
Why this matters for donors
Incremental impact is what ultimately counts. While total dollars moved are important, the true value of supporting EAA lies in the additional funding directed to high-impact programs that would not otherwise exist.
Our 2025 giving multiplier shows that even as we invest more in growth, EAA continues to deliver strong impact for every dollar spent.
Looking ahead
With continued support, we can keep expanding high-impact giving in Australia — reaching more donors, strengthening our infrastructure, and directing more funding to charities proven to make a meaningful difference.
Supporting EAA is a way to not just give to a cause, but to multiply the impact of your generosity. If you’d like to help, you can donate directly to our operations via the “Support our work” option on our donation page.
If you’d like to have a deeper discussion on what supporting our work can enable, please email grace.adams@eaa.org.au.
