Those are multipliers in terms of social value created for the community compared to cost. It is a common (but not universal) position that a dollar has a higher value in a poor society than a rich one. If your work creates social value mostly in rich countries but your donations create value mostly in poor ones, this could add one to two orders of magnitude to the relevant ratio.
This is perhaps easiest to think about with GiveDirectly. At one level it’s easy to see that the return is 1x. The reason people think it’s a better target than just spending money yourself is that a dollar goes much further in the target community.
Some people may also or instead think there are more speculative interventions with bigger returns ratios.
Those are multipliers in terms of social value created for the community compared to cost. It is a common (but not universal) position that a dollar has a higher value in a poor society than a rich one. If your work creates social value mostly in rich countries but your donations create value mostly in poor ones, this could add one to two orders of magnitude to the relevant ratio.
This is perhaps easiest to think about with GiveDirectly. At one level it’s easy to see that the return is 1x. The reason people think it’s a better target than just spending money yourself is that a dollar goes much further in the target community.
Some people may also or instead think there are more speculative interventions with bigger returns ratios.