I apologize for using a loaded word here and hope this could become a useful comment and not something that will ruin the conversation.. but:
you give energised attendees an immediate way to take action, either by making an immediate token donation or by taking a pledge for a modest percentage of their future income
This reminds me of a specific (non EA) group I was part of, a group that many would call a cult.
Sorry again for using this word. I am trying to say something concrete+productive and it seems like dancing around it wouldn’t be useful.
Edit: I’d like to add that I think EA is currently avoiding this kind of failure mode very well
Thanks for this Yonatan and for emphasising that this is a point made in good faith.
I don’t know a lot about cults but I think those that ask people for money usually ask for it to use themselves, rather than to e.g. alleviate the suffering of farmed animals or people in extreme poverty.
There could definitely be a danger of EA becoming quite incestuous as quite a few of the recommendations above are to donate to EA orgs and so it could get to the point where we ask members of the community to fund the community.
However, there are a lot of orgs that are really very independent of EA that are heavily promoted in effective giving. ‘Meta’ giving (giving to charities that work within/on EA) is a very small slice of the pie, at least at the moment.
Finally, I would emphasise that almost all the places effective giving recommends are public charities of some sort and so open to a lot of scrutiny and transparency requirements. Again, I don’t think that’s very characteristic of cults.
I apologize for using a loaded word here and hope this could become a useful comment and not something that will ruin the conversation.. but:
This reminds me of a specific (non EA) group I was part of, a group that many would call a cult.
Sorry again for using this word. I am trying to say something concrete+productive and it seems like dancing around it wouldn’t be useful.
Edit: I’d like to add that I think EA is currently avoiding this kind of failure mode very well
Thanks for this Yonatan and for emphasising that this is a point made in good faith.
I don’t know a lot about cults but I think those that ask people for money usually ask for it to use themselves, rather than to e.g. alleviate the suffering of farmed animals or people in extreme poverty.
There could definitely be a danger of EA becoming quite incestuous as quite a few of the recommendations above are to donate to EA orgs and so it could get to the point where we ask members of the community to fund the community.
However, there are a lot of orgs that are really very independent of EA that are heavily promoted in effective giving. ‘Meta’ giving (giving to charities that work within/on EA) is a very small slice of the pie, at least at the moment.
Finally, I would emphasise that almost all the places effective giving recommends are public charities of some sort and so open to a lot of scrutiny and transparency requirements. Again, I don’t think that’s very characteristic of cults.
I agree this strongly distinguishes EA , I like how you formalized it