Our history

The Life You Can Save was founded by Peter Singer, widely recognized as one of the world’s most influential contemporary philosophers, to advance the ideas in his 2009 book, The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. In it, Peter argues that if we can provide immense benefit to someone at minimal cost to ourselves, we should do so. In 2019, we worked with Peter to launch the 10th Anniversary Edition – The Life You Can Save. This fully updated book is available for free download as a celebrity-narrated audiobook here.

In 2013, Charlie Bresler, formerly the president of a large apparel company, approached Peter about expanding his organization. Charlie and his wife, Diana, provided funding for The Life You Can Save to become a registered 501c3 charity, and Charlie began serving as the organization’s non-salaried Executive Director.

Since then, we’ve worked to introduce the ideas from Peter’s book to new audiences, inspiring people to help the world’s poor and empowering them to make the greatest impact possible. We provide tools that make it easy for people to make smart donations, including a curated list of evidence-based charities, in-depth reports on their impact, and a calculator that helps donors see how far their dollars can go in a developing country.

We also provide philanthropic advisory services to help donors consider where their gift can do the most good. If you’re interested in making a sizable donation to The Life You Can Save or one of its recommended charities, please contact Charlie directly: charlie@thelifeyoucansave.org