Give now or save for later? Philanthropy in the face of transformative AI
Welcome to the Rethink Priorities Strategic Webinars and the talk and Q&A session: "Give now or save for later? Philanthropy in the face of transformative AI"
Date: November 10, 2026 (9 AM PST, 12 PM EST, 5 PM GMT, 6 PM CET)
About: A growing number of donors expect their wealth to grow sharply in the coming years, and many of them work at the frontier of AI. They face a hard question: should they give now, or save until powerful AI has reshaped the world? An influential argument says to save almost everything. On this view, returns on capital will soar, cheap AI labor will make philanthropy far more cost-effective, and a dollar held today will do much more good later. But how confident should we be in that picture? What happens if the money is lost, locked up, or redirected before it can be spent? And will the problems you care about really be cheaper to solve in a world with powerful AI, or harder?
In this Strategic Webinar, Rethink Priorities Senior Research Manager Prof. Hayley Clatterbuck and Rethink Priorities Researcher Francis Priestland will draw on research from RP's Worldview Investigations team to examine philanthropic timing amid deep uncertainty about how powerful AI will unfold. They will explore:
the assumptions behind the "save for later" case, and how sensitive the conclusion is to them,
the underappreciated risks of holding philanthropic wealth through a turbulent transition,
whether giving opportunities will be cheaper or more expensive across cause areas once powerful AI arrives,
and how donors can build a giving strategy that stays robust whichever way the future unfolds.
Whether you expect a major liquidity event, advise people who do, or are thinking about your own giving in light of AI, this session offers a rigorous, practical look at one of the most consequential decisions donors face this decade.
Speakers
Prof. Hayley Clatterbuck is a Senior Research Manager on the Worldview Investigations team at Rethink Priorities and a visiting Professor of Philosophy at UCLA. Her research spans ethics, decision theory, and the philosophy of AI, with a focus on how moral and empirical uncertainty should shape philanthropic resource allocation. Prof. Clatterbuck also contributes to RP's Cross-Cause Fund work, where she oversees the philosophical foundations of the cross-cause model and leads on communicating its underlying assumptions to donors and the wider public.
Francis Priestland is a Researcher working on the Worldview Investigations Team at Rethink Priorities. Previously, he worked for the University of Toronto on one of the largest US unconditional cash transfer programmes and on forecasting social science projects. He earned an MPhil in Economics from Oxford, and has a background in computer science.
Format: We'll start with a focused 20–30-minute presentation, followed by an extended Q&A session of up to 30 minutes.