In response to your aside—I totally agree with the reputational risks , which are very significant. I didn’t specify but I always assumed the support would be behind-the-scenes, rather than public.
Secretly funding organisations of this type could also have reputational risks—if it was revealed, then it might backfire and fuel conspiracy theories.
In general, I think transparency is a good heuristic in this context.
More generally I think effective altruism should be cooperative and I think that secretly funding organisations that are perceived as using dubious, uncooperative tactics pushes against that.
Secretly funding organisations of this type could also have reputational risks—if it was revealed, then it might backfire and fuel conspiracy theories.
In general, I think transparency is a good heuristic in this context.
More generally I think effective altruism should be cooperative and I think that secretly funding organisations that are perceived as using dubious, uncooperative tactics pushes against that.