“For anyone deploying capital, nothing recedes like success. Back in 1951, when I was attending Ben Graham’s class at Columbia, an idea giving me a $10,000 gain improved my investment performance for the year by 100%. Today, an idea producing $500 million adds 1% to our performance. It’s no wonder that my annual results in the 1950s were better by nearly 30% than my annual gains in any subsequent decade.” —Warren Buffett, 1997 Letter to Shareholders
I think you would agree with Buffett on small-scale being more neglected and higher return :)
My updates from your post:
Global poverty has a nasty death valley for small nonprofits
Mental health is even moreunderfunded than my prior belief
EA needs more small and medium-scale grantmaking orgs, so CE’s new training program for grantmakers can have a tremendous impact.
Feedback
Why do you consider 1-3 funders as “limited” funding in mental health but “very strong” in long-termist EA community building? It might be worth clarifying.
Does biorisk include nuclear risk? If so, I would mention it. If not, I would add nuclear as a cause area.
Thank you for the insightful post!
Declining Marginal Impact of Donations
“For anyone deploying capital, nothing recedes like success.
Back in 1951, when I was attending Ben Graham’s class at Columbia, an idea giving me a $10,000 gain improved my investment performance for the year by 100%. Today, an idea producing $500 million adds 1% to our performance.
It’s no wonder that my annual results in the 1950s were better by nearly 30% than my annual gains in any subsequent decade.”
—Warren Buffett, 1997 Letter to Shareholders
I think you would agree with Buffett on small-scale being more neglected and higher return :)
My updates from your post:
Global poverty has a nasty death valley for small nonprofits
Mental health is even more underfunded than my prior belief
EA needs more small and medium-scale grantmaking orgs, so CE’s new training program for grantmakers can have a tremendous impact.
Feedback
Why do you consider 1-3 funders as “limited” funding in mental health but “very strong” in long-termist EA community building? It might be worth clarifying.
Does biorisk include nuclear risk? If so, I would mention it. If not, I would add nuclear as a cause area.
Updates for the table’s” data:
-the largest funder is quitting nuclear safety
-FTX Future Fund is a new megadonor in AI, biorisk, nuclear, policy, and EA community building.
I love “Doing good is messy”—I will add it to my Anki quotes.