I think EAs irrationally avoid giving to “second-best” charities (like GiveWell’s standouts) , but that’s a relatively weak impression. It might be helpful to talk more about top giving opportunities in a given moment/year, rather than talking about top charities, which can become less top as donations are made, until donating doesn’t feel so shiny anymore (also saying this as a random EA, not soon-to-be GW staffer).
Of course, it might be better to ask people to give later in general, but there’s no reason as far as I know to believe the best order would be ‘donate to room-for-funding-remaining top charity’ > ‘donate later’ > ‘donate to second-best charity.’
Also, as Eliezer and Jacy pointed out on Facebook, this sufficient funding argument is far less true of existential risk and animal-focused charities than global poverty ones (in fact, many of those are somewhat strapped for cash).
They do. My comment was in reference to the fact that the top charities may run out of room for funding. When that occurs, in my experience (some) EAs tend to forget about or avoid opportunities to help fund standout charities, which are still very although slightly less effective, out of a bias against “second-best” opportunities.
I’ve heard about 7 EAs discuss hesitating to donate to GW’s top charities because they thought the top charities would run out of room for funding without their contributions. They all decided to either give later, or give to a non-global poverty charity. None mentioned the possibility of donating to a standout charity.
I think EAs irrationally avoid giving to “second-best” charities (like GiveWell’s standouts) , but that’s a relatively weak impression. It might be helpful to talk more about top giving opportunities in a given moment/year, rather than talking about top charities, which can become less top as donations are made, until donating doesn’t feel so shiny anymore (also saying this as a random EA, not soon-to-be GW staffer).
Of course, it might be better to ask people to give later in general, but there’s no reason as far as I know to believe the best order would be ‘donate to room-for-funding-remaining top charity’ > ‘donate later’ > ‘donate to second-best charity.’
Also, as Eliezer and Jacy pointed out on Facebook, this sufficient funding argument is far less true of existential risk and animal-focused charities than global poverty ones (in fact, many of those are somewhat strapped for cash).
I thought the GW belief was that their top charities are still more effective than standouts. What are the arguments against this reluctance?
They do. My comment was in reference to the fact that the top charities may run out of room for funding. When that occurs, in my experience (some) EAs tend to forget about or avoid opportunities to help fund standout charities, which are still very although slightly less effective, out of a bias against “second-best” opportunities.
I’ve heard about 7 EAs discuss hesitating to donate to GW’s top charities because they thought the top charities would run out of room for funding without their contributions. They all decided to either give later, or give to a non-global poverty charity. None mentioned the possibility of donating to a standout charity.
This seems like an important overlooked point. I’ll try bringing this up if I’m ever present at such a conversation.