CASE STUDIES · Global Giving

The Life You Can Save

Two innovative giving models help target extreme poverty

A partnership between Prism and a charity helping donors support high-impact organisations is a ‘winning proposition’.

Fund type

Collective Fund

Amount raised/granted

£1,345,435 via Prism

Years

Since 2017

Background

Founded in 2013, The Life You Can Save was born when Charlie Bresler approached philosopher Peter Singer after reading his book, The Life You Can Change, and proposed putting its philosophy into action. The result was a non-profit built on a simple but powerful idea: if we can prevent significant suffering without making significant sacrifices, we have a moral obligation to do so.

The organisation helps donors maximize the impact of their giving by identifying where their funds can do the most good. The Life You Can Save curates a list of evidence-based global charities, providing in-depth reports, impact assessments, and a donation calculator –all designed to help individuals make more informed, effective philanthropic decisions.

Problem

Traditional models of giving can often lack strategic direction, meaning donations don’t always have the maximum impact. The Life You Can Save offers an alternative: a model designed to give donors confidence that their contributions are being used in the most effective way possible.

Donors can target their giving toward causes they’re passionate about, from education to food poverty or contribute to a pooled fund that directs money to where it’s needed most.

As the movement grew, a more effective UK fundraising structure was needed. Originally established as a US non-profit in 2013,The Life You Can Save joined Prism the Gift Fund in 2017 as a Collective Fund, enabling the charity to claim Gift Aid on eligible UK donations and to boost contributions by 25%.

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“Our partnership with Prism the Gift Fund allows The Life You Can Save to expand our reach and work with UK based donors which: 1, allows these donors to give with confidence to high impact organizations lifting people out of extreme poverty ; 2, deepens the impact of The Life You Can Save by bringing more people and capital into high impact giving for extreme poverty; 3, improves the efficiency of our work, and the donations made, by reducing overhead by eliminating the need to maintain an entity in the UK. It's a winning proposition all around.”

–– Jessica La Mesa. Co CEO, The Life You Can Save

Impact

Since its inception, The Life You Can Save has faciliated over $100 million in donations to high-impact charities, directly contributing to significant improvements in global health, education, and economic development.

Working with Prism has allowed it to take advantage of the benefits of being a registered charity in the UK without setting up a UK office and dealing with the additional administrative burden.

Allowing the organisation to focus on promoting a culture of giving and creating a community of people who now pledge a portion of their income to causes making significant impact towards the fight against extreme poverty.