thanks for this—I think I get it now. I think the points relating to the effects on zakat-donors and non-zakat donors are good ones, especially since I hadn’t considered the effect on non-zakat donors a huge amount up until now.
With regards to Zakat donors: I don’t think the majority of muslim donors would find this argument a reason not to donate. The thing they care most about is whether or not the entire amount of zakat they donate is reaching the hands of zakat-eligible recipients. There is a large amount of scholarship around the philosophy of zakat, and group/societal upliftment is the primary non-spiritual goal. So I don’t think the idea that there are spillover effects which benefit non-muslims would be an issue for most donors, since there is a general expectation that people who are not eligible recipients (e.g. Muslims who aren’t poor) will experience positive effects too.
With regards to maximization-oriented non-zakat donors: I’m not sure about this. I think in the scenario where GD somehow ignore the (hopefully massive) new restricted pool of funds, then yeah maybe this means that donating to GD stops being an extremely cost-effective thing to do. But I think the group of people who care very much about this either 1) don’t donate to GD already, since we seem to have many much more cost-effective options available and 2) would be fine with that because it’d be a result of an influx of donations which are contingent on the new program and are counterfactually significant when thinking about “all the money given to effective causes”.
But … It seems unlikely that GD would react that way to this type of influx in restricted funding? Given that the realistic way which this would happen would be that GD set up a new muslim country-specific program (e.g in Bangladesh or Afghanistan), I’d expect unrestricted funds to be used in the same way they’re currently being used with respects to the various programs they already run? Maybe I’m still missing something you’re pointing out here.
I think your point about new org vs GD benefits are right, but maybe also overlook many of the reasons why GD would be an appealing option to muslim donors (low admin cost and transaction costs, high transparency and accountability, track record) whereas setting up a new org means that these things aren’t there immediately and might never be there to the same degree
I think that Givedirectly, where it has free hands, will try to direct cash to where it can do the most good. If many of the world’s poorest are being served by the Zakat program, this will probably affect choices to some extent at a macro or micro level.
For instance, perhaps counterfactually to the Zakat-funded Bangladeshi program, such a program would have been funded with unrestricted funds (such unrestricted funds then being able to go elsewhere).
But I have no special insight into Givedirectly, just the general observation that if you earmark funds for anything that would otherwise be covered by unrestricted funds, that simply frees up those funds for the org’s marginal priorities.
Re Zakat-donors: if they have no issue with their donations functionally benefiting non-Muslims too, that’s great. I too would rather it all go under Givedirectly given its strengths.
thanks for this—I think I get it now. I think the points relating to the effects on zakat-donors and non-zakat donors are good ones, especially since I hadn’t considered the effect on non-zakat donors a huge amount up until now.
With regards to Zakat donors: I don’t think the majority of muslim donors would find this argument a reason not to donate. The thing they care most about is whether or not the entire amount of zakat they donate is reaching the hands of zakat-eligible recipients. There is a large amount of scholarship around the philosophy of zakat, and group/societal upliftment is the primary non-spiritual goal. So I don’t think the idea that there are spillover effects which benefit non-muslims would be an issue for most donors, since there is a general expectation that people who are not eligible recipients (e.g. Muslims who aren’t poor) will experience positive effects too.
With regards to maximization-oriented non-zakat donors: I’m not sure about this. I think in the scenario where GD somehow ignore the (hopefully massive) new restricted pool of funds, then yeah maybe this means that donating to GD stops being an extremely cost-effective thing to do. But I think the group of people who care very much about this either 1) don’t donate to GD already, since we seem to have many much more cost-effective options available and 2) would be fine with that because it’d be a result of an influx of donations which are contingent on the new program and are counterfactually significant when thinking about “all the money given to effective causes”.
But … It seems unlikely that GD would react that way to this type of influx in restricted funding? Given that the realistic way which this would happen would be that GD set up a new muslim country-specific program (e.g in Bangladesh or Afghanistan), I’d expect unrestricted funds to be used in the same way they’re currently being used with respects to the various programs they already run? Maybe I’m still missing something you’re pointing out here.
I think your point about new org vs GD benefits are right, but maybe also overlook many of the reasons why GD would be an appealing option to muslim donors (low admin cost and transaction costs, high transparency and accountability, track record) whereas setting up a new org means that these things aren’t there immediately and might never be there to the same degree
I think that Givedirectly, where it has free hands, will try to direct cash to where it can do the most good. If many of the world’s poorest are being served by the Zakat program, this will probably affect choices to some extent at a macro or micro level.
For instance, perhaps counterfactually to the Zakat-funded Bangladeshi program, such a program would have been funded with unrestricted funds (such unrestricted funds then being able to go elsewhere).
But I have no special insight into Givedirectly, just the general observation that if you earmark funds for anything that would otherwise be covered by unrestricted funds, that simply frees up those funds for the org’s marginal priorities.
Re Zakat-donors: if they have no issue with their donations functionally benefiting non-Muslims too, that’s great. I too would rather it all go under Givedirectly given its strengths.