Aidan, Ben (I assume) and I aren’t commenting because we feel like we’re personally harmed by FarmKind. Instead, it’s that a core part of the EA movement is bringing clarity and transparency to charity, helping donors understand what the real impact of their donations is, and we’re concerned about an effort that seems to be going the other way.
That people are willing to donate through a platform isn’t much evidence either way on whether it’s misleading: many donation appeals are seriously misleading while bringing in large amounts of money.
That people are willing to donate through a platform that clearly sign-posts that you don’t get >$X donated to your favorite charity if you donate $X split between two charities IS evidence that many donors don’t share Ben’s expectation about how our bonus system should or does work. That’s all I suggested it was evidence for. I’ve only weighed in here to correct false or misleading claims made about how the platform works.
As for whether how the platform works is aligned with EA or not, or misleading or not, I haven’t weighed in because I’m sure it’s clear from our choice to launch this platform that we think this is a good thing to be doing, and that it’s our attempt at doing altruism effectively. It’s reasonable to disagree and I understand and respect your disagreement. I have similar disagreements with many EAs’ approaches, decisions, cause area prioritisation, communications styles and so on. Once there aren’t any remaining misunderstandings about how our platform works, all that’s left is one of those kinds of disagreements. I don’t have much to say about your position except that I respect it, I disagree and I thank you for sharing it. I considered your critique of Giving Multiplier prior to deciding to launch our platform and was grateful to come across this perspective before rather than after making the decision. So thank you again!
Aidan, Ben (I assume) and I aren’t commenting because we feel like we’re personally harmed by FarmKind. Instead, it’s that a core part of the EA movement is bringing clarity and transparency to charity, helping donors understand what the real impact of their donations is, and we’re concerned about an effort that seems to be going the other way.
That people are willing to donate through a platform isn’t much evidence either way on whether it’s misleading: many donation appeals are seriously misleading while bringing in large amounts of money.
That people are willing to donate through a platform that clearly sign-posts that you don’t get >$X donated to your favorite charity if you donate $X split between two charities IS evidence that many donors don’t share Ben’s expectation about how our bonus system should or does work. That’s all I suggested it was evidence for. I’ve only weighed in here to correct false or misleading claims made about how the platform works.
As for whether how the platform works is aligned with EA or not, or misleading or not, I haven’t weighed in because I’m sure it’s clear from our choice to launch this platform that we think this is a good thing to be doing, and that it’s our attempt at doing altruism effectively. It’s reasonable to disagree and I understand and respect your disagreement. I have similar disagreements with many EAs’ approaches, decisions, cause area prioritisation, communications styles and so on. Once there aren’t any remaining misunderstandings about how our platform works, all that’s left is one of those kinds of disagreements. I don’t have much to say about your position except that I respect it, I disagree and I thank you for sharing it. I considered your critique of Giving Multiplier prior to deciding to launch our platform and was grateful to come across this perspective before rather than after making the decision. So thank you again!