Excellent writeup! I was surprised never to have heard of several of these projects (including Pinkerâs class on EAâI hope he settles on a âshare both sidesâ position for X-risk by then).
I couldnât find anything about the âPhilanthropic Advisory Fellowshipâ online, outside of one personâs LinkedIn. Would the folks behind that be willing to share their experience? (Iâd understand if the work was best kept private for now.)
Jeffâs fundraiser for Google is inspiring, and makes me wonder whether it would be possible to get similar ones set up at other Google officesâafter all, thereâs no shortage of EA-aligned people working for Google. It takes a lot of skill to run a fundraiser that well, but maybe a clear instruction guide/âshared folder for materials could still help to bring in a few extra tens of thousands of dollars?
(Iâll contact both of the groups I mentioned here separately, but ask them to leave a public comment if theyâd be comfortable doing so.)
For the past few years, Jeff Kaufman has led Google Cambridgeâs EAs in successfully lobbying to direct that money toward GiveWell-recommended charities. At between a quarter-million and a half-million dollars each year, this may be the largest fundraising event for GiveWell charities in the world.
This is worded correctly but is a bit hard to interpret: I donât organize the fundraiser, I help organize the EA participation in it. Overall it looks like:
Each year, for the week of Giving Tuesday, thereâs a company wide system of fundraising for charities.
I coordinate EAs across the company in finding other EAs with compatible interests in their location/âbusiness unit and send out reminders about deadlines.
In the Cambridge office we have a bake-off where employees bake, sponsors put in some amount per good baked, other employees donate in order to taste them, and another set of sponsors matches these donations. The more you donate the more votes you get. This is the fundraiser the post talks about.
The bake-off organizers are people who think highly of GiveWell, partly related to the advocacy of Boston EAs, but I think donât identify as EAs themselves. They make the decision about what charities the bake-off should feature, and have chosen GiveWell top charities for the past several years.
The bake-off is built around matching and sponsorship, especially that the donations people make to eat/âvote are matched. That matching has been provided by Google Cambridgeâs EAs, and one factor in the bake-off organizers choosing GiveWell charities is that weâve been able to provide a large match pool.
Itâs not clear how counterfactual any of this is. Each year when I publicize it internally part of what I talk about is that my match isnât counterfactually valid, and Iâll be donating my share whether or not others also donate. I use it as a time to talk about why you shouldnât expect matches like this to be counterfactual, and present it as âplease join us in fundingâ and not âyou can unlock extra fundingâ.
By âfundraiser for Googleâ, I meant âfundraiser within Googleâ. Thanks for noting how that was confusing, and for more clearly explaining how the operation works! The bake-off system in particular may not be easy to replicate (youâd have to find EAs who baked), but the general âjoin us in fundingâ idea seems promising as a base.
Thanks for sharing! I probably spelled it wrong on my initial search (and didnât realize because someone on LinkedIn made the same spelling error). Gave up too soon.
Excellent writeup! I was surprised never to have heard of several of these projects (including Pinkerâs class on EAâI hope he settles on a âshare both sidesâ position for X-risk by then).
I couldnât find anything about the âPhilanthropic Advisory Fellowshipâ online, outside of one personâs LinkedIn. Would the folks behind that be willing to share their experience? (Iâd understand if the work was best kept private for now.)
Jeffâs fundraiser for Google is inspiring, and makes me wonder whether it would be possible to get similar ones set up at other Google officesâafter all, thereâs no shortage of EA-aligned people working for Google. It takes a lot of skill to run a fundraiser that well, but maybe a clear instruction guide/âshared folder for materials could still help to bring in a few extra tens of thousands of dollars?
(Iâll contact both of the groups I mentioned here separately, but ask them to leave a public comment if theyâd be comfortable doing so.)
Aaron wrote:
The post has:
This is worded correctly but is a bit hard to interpret: I donât organize the fundraiser, I help organize the EA participation in it. Overall it looks like:
Each year, for the week of Giving Tuesday, thereâs a company wide system of fundraising for charities.
I coordinate EAs across the company in finding other EAs with compatible interests in their location/âbusiness unit and send out reminders about deadlines.
In the Cambridge office we have a bake-off where employees bake, sponsors put in some amount per good baked, other employees donate in order to taste them, and another set of sponsors matches these donations. The more you donate the more votes you get. This is the fundraiser the post talks about.
The bake-off organizers are people who think highly of GiveWell, partly related to the advocacy of Boston EAs, but I think donât identify as EAs themselves. They make the decision about what charities the bake-off should feature, and have chosen GiveWell top charities for the past several years.
The bake-off is built around matching and sponsorship, especially that the donations people make to eat/âvote are matched. That matching has been provided by Google Cambridgeâs EAs, and one factor in the bake-off organizers choosing GiveWell charities is that weâve been able to provide a large match pool.
Itâs not clear how counterfactual any of this is. Each year when I publicize it internally part of what I talk about is that my match isnât counterfactually valid, and Iâll be donating my share whether or not others also donate. I use it as a time to talk about why you shouldnât expect matches like this to be counterfactual, and present it as âplease join us in fundingâ and not âyou can unlock extra fundingâ.
By âfundraiser for Googleâ, I meant âfundraiser within Googleâ. Thanks for noting how that was confusing, and for more clearly explaining how the operation works! The bake-off system in particular may not be easy to replicate (youâd have to find EAs who baked), but the general âjoin us in fundingâ idea seems promising as a base.
Hi, Iâm the Founder of the Philanthropy Advisory Fellowship. Weâve published a bunch of our reports on our website: http://ââharvardea.org/ââphilanthropy-advisory-fellowship/ââ
We often post them in the EA forum as well. Sorry it was hard to find.
Thanks for sharing! I probably spelled it wrong on my initial search (and didnât realize because someone on LinkedIn made the same spelling error). Gave up too soon.