This time of year, many are thinking about giving to one charity or another and wondering just how much good their donations will do.

Oxford University ethics professor Toby Ord talks with All Things Considered today about his “Giving What We Can” campaign, which encourages members to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, and the online calculators he’s come up with that aim to show how steady giving can produce some very positive effects.

For instance, Ord’s calculator estimates that if a 55-year-old earning $50,000 annually gave 10 percent of that income to charity each year until age 65:

20 “healthy lives” would be created (that’s somewhat akin to saving lives, but more about making lives better and less subject to such threats as chronic or deadly diseases).

There’s also a calculator that aims to show just how rich you may be. An American family of four with an annual household income of $100,000, for example, ranks among the richest 3.4 percent of the world’s population, according to Ord’s research.

Toby Ord, founder of Giving What We Can.

Toby Ord, founder of Giving What We Can.

Giving What We Can

via How Much Good Can You Do? There’s A Calculator For That : The Two-Way : NPR.