Where to Give Locally? Lack of National Evaluators and the Case of Baby Lasagna

TLDR: Most donations are local. Yet, there is a lack of local cause evaluation which could potentially be high-impact by influencing donations from entities who prioritize local causes, thus making them more effective.

I was motivated for this post by today’s headline story in Croatia. Namely, Croatia’s government awarded the Eurovision 2024 runner-up Baby Lasagna (real name Marko Purišić) €50,000 for “promoting the international visibility of Croatia.” He responded on social media with a message to the government to donate the money instead:

I thank the Croatian Government for the monetary award in the amount of 50.000 euros. However, I cannot accept that money. I could give many reasons why, but the first, most important and sufficient one is that there are many other individuals and organizations that this money will help much more.
Hereby, I am asking Mr. Plenković to donate 25.000 euros on behalf of me and the Croatian Government to the Institute for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology with the “Mladen Ćepulić” Day Hospital. Furthermore, I would like to donate the other 25.000 euros to the Institute for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, KBC Zagreb.

This is an admirable altruistic move, although probably not the most effective one. However, even if we assume that Purišić wants to donate locally (to causes based in Croatia) for various reasons, we generally do not known whether the causes he has chosen are the most effective under this constraint. His decision-making process is unknown, but it is possible that some intuitive biases and PR choices, like prioritizing children’s healthcare, played a role.

The situation would be quite different if we had a local cause evaluator like Give Well. In this case, donations from Purišić and many other non-effective givers who prioritize local/national causes, and potentially from governments as well, might be influenced and redirected to more effective causes. Most donations are local, and yet, we don’t have a local Give Well.

Of course, the most effective donations are not local—they are often transcontinental. However, the difference made by making a local donation more effective, multiplied by the total amount of the affected donations, might make the local evaluator a high-impact organization. Which is why I am puzzled that there isn’t such an organization for most countries. (Some statistics and numerical estimates of cost-effectiveness would be much welcomed!)

To address this gap, I encourage stakeholders in the effective altruism community to consider the establishment of local cause evaluators. By doing so, we can ensure that local donations are as impactful as possible, benefiting those who need it most and making the most out of the available resources.