If the match is completely illusory, such that no well-informed donor would rationally give it any weight, I would start with a fairly strong presumption that the people donating lack an “adequate understanding of the process.” I don’t think that presumption is irrebuttable, but I would probably be looking for something like a pop-up that said something like:
We want you to understand that the “match” here is an illusion. Choosing to donate through this site does not result in more money going to animal charities than donating the same amount directly to your favorite charity would. The only meaningful real-world difference between donating through this site and donating the same amount to your favorite charity is that the effective charity receives more money (and your favorite charity receives less) when you donate through this site. Please initial in the box below to document that you understand this.
I would not start with such a presumption (or at least not a strong presumption) where the evidence for counterfactuality was somewhat stronger (cf. GiveWell). The reason is that the hypothetical well-informed donor probably would give some weight to a match even if they concluded it was (say) 25% counterfactual. Therefore, the fact that a donor is proceeding with a matched donation under those circumstances does not call the adequacy of their understanding into question in the same way.
If the match is completely illusory, such that no well-informed donor would rationally give it any weight, I would start with a fairly strong presumption that the people donating lack an “adequate understanding of the process.” I don’t think that presumption is irrebuttable, but I would probably be looking for something like a pop-up that said something like:
We want you to understand that the “match” here is an illusion. Choosing to donate through this site does not result in more money going to animal charities than donating the same amount directly to your favorite charity would. The only meaningful real-world difference between donating through this site and donating the same amount to your favorite charity is that the effective charity receives more money (and your favorite charity receives less) when you donate through this site. Please initial in the box below to document that you understand this.
I would not start with such a presumption (or at least not a strong presumption) where the evidence for counterfactuality was somewhat stronger (cf. GiveWell). The reason is that the hypothetical well-informed donor probably would give some weight to a match even if they concluded it was (say) 25% counterfactual. Therefore, the fact that a donor is proceeding with a matched donation under those circumstances does not call the adequacy of their understanding into question in the same way.