Great points. I agree re Double Up Drive that it was worthy of much deeper investigation to figure out the counterfactual nature of it. Perhaps there was even a way donors could have *made it* more counterfactual via doing a great job using their donation as an opportunity to signal and influence others’ behaviors. I briefly considered donating to it just so that I could write a message to the donors who were offering the match encouraging them to donate the full amount regardless of whether or not the match was reached and have my message possibly be heard.
More generally one thing I have updated a lot on after this past giving season is that I now believe that for small donors the signaling value of their donations matter a lot more. For example, a GWWC member earning $50k/year and donating $5k/year has a certain amount of credibility that conceivably could be used to help influence much larger donors to donate more and more effectively. How one’s donation and one’s communications around one’s donation is going to be perceived by much larger donations may in fact count for more than the value of one’s donation itself.
Great points. I agree re Double Up Drive that it was worthy of much deeper investigation to figure out the counterfactual nature of it. Perhaps there was even a way donors could have *made it* more counterfactual via doing a great job using their donation as an opportunity to signal and influence others’ behaviors. I briefly considered donating to it just so that I could write a message to the donors who were offering the match encouraging them to donate the full amount regardless of whether or not the match was reached and have my message possibly be heard.
More generally one thing I have updated a lot on after this past giving season is that I now believe that for small donors the signaling value of their donations matter a lot more. For example, a GWWC member earning $50k/year and donating $5k/year has a certain amount of credibility that conceivably could be used to help influence much larger donors to donate more and more effectively. How one’s donation and one’s communications around one’s donation is going to be perceived by much larger donations may in fact count for more than the value of one’s donation itself.