In this case it’s definitely counterfactual (it wouldn’t have gone to a GiveWell charity)
I don’t think that should count as counterfactual, actually. Even though the money would not have gone to a GiveWell charity, it would have done something similarly valuable, so the donor cannot reason that their impact is higher. Compare this to when an employer offers to match $X per person, and doesn’t put any restrictions on what charity you donate to. In the latter case, this really is more impact, and should factor into decisions like “should I be earning to give”.
Ah, yes. In the case of something like “should I be earning to give” that is a very different situation.
There’s two uses of counterfactual here:
Is the total impact triggered by donor A whose donation is being matched by donor B counterfactual once you take into account what donor B would have done otherwise?
Were the actions of donor B counterfactually impacted by donor A (i.e. they would have given somewhere else but that might have been similarly impactful, or less impactful).
In the case of #2 it is not misleading to donor A to say that their donation was matched IMHO. But it isn’t the full story for impact.
(I’d love it if you crossposted that post, but commenting here until then.) I think there’s another category before 9, which is “Donate to a charity not commonly supported by EAs, such as the World Wildlife Fund or Habitat for Humanity.” So this allows for Giving Tuesday to count as counterfactual. I would hope GiveWell’s was of this type (though I sympathize with Luke’s points).
Then we have another question, which is who are these people that are ~indifferent between any EA charity? They’re probably not the first time donors that GiveWell’s targeting.
I think there’s another category before 9, which is “Donate to a charity not commonly supported by EAs, such as the World Wildlife Fund or Habitat for Humanity.”
Yes, I think that’s fine as long as we all agree that the impact of donating to an AA charity is very much higher than donating to one of those charities.
I don’t think that should count as counterfactual, actually. Even though the money would not have gone to a GiveWell charity, it would have done something similarly valuable, so the donor cannot reason that their impact is higher. Compare this to when an employer offers to match $X per person, and doesn’t put any restrictions on what charity you donate to. In the latter case, this really is more impact, and should factor into decisions like “should I be earning to give”.
( I wrote some about this a few years ago, with some discussion: https://www.jefftk.com/p/what-should-counterfactual-donation-mean)
Ah, yes. In the case of something like “should I be earning to give” that is a very different situation.
There’s two uses of counterfactual here:
Is the total impact triggered by donor A whose donation is being matched by donor B counterfactual once you take into account what donor B would have done otherwise?
Were the actions of donor B counterfactually impacted by donor A (i.e. they would have given somewhere else but that might have been similarly impactful, or less impactful).
In the case of #2 it is not misleading to donor A to say that their donation was matched IMHO. But it isn’t the full story for impact.
(I’d love it if you crossposted that post, but commenting here until then.) I think there’s another category before 9, which is “Donate to a charity not commonly supported by EAs, such as the World Wildlife Fund or Habitat for Humanity.” So this allows for Giving Tuesday to count as counterfactual. I would hope GiveWell’s was of this type (though I sympathize with Luke’s points).
Then we have another question, which is who are these people that are ~indifferent between any EA charity? They’re probably not the first time donors that GiveWell’s targeting.
Done! https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nz2scND85oFyTXTGo/what-should-counterfactual-donation-mean
Yes, I think that’s fine as long as we all agree that the impact of donating to an AA charity is very much higher than donating to one of those charities.
Edited the post to add this.