“Yet from what I understand, GiveWell refuses to recommend any of these
as top charities. My impression is that GiveWell finds it highly
unlikely that any of these organizations are as effective as their
recommended charities. Of course, many of these organizations exist on
the assumption that they are. This area seems particularly awkward as
all of these meta-charities promote GiveWell publicly, leading to several interviews.
I imagine that it’s better off for everyone that Givewell and CEA
appear as close friends, yet internally it seems like there’s a bit of
tension over this stark disagreement on the need for CEA’s existence.
This disagreement is somewhat showcased in the comments here.”
Regardless of whether GiveWell thought that CEA’s organisation were more effective than their own recommendations, I think it is rational for GiveWell not to recommend CEA’s organisations. Such a recommendation would quickly lead to the ‘infinte regression problem’ (one should donate to an organisation, that encourages people to donate to an organisation, that encourages people to donate to an organisation, that… etc. … that encourages people to donation to effective first order work. See Ben Todd’s Master’s thesis on career choice for more discussion). GiveWell would risk the accusation of contributing to some sort of charitable ponzi scheme, which is an accusation that I have heard made when a charity evaluator has discussed recommending another charity evaluator. Of course there are ways around this in practise (again see Ben Todd’s thesis), but it would still pose a reputational risk for GiveWell to recommend a CEA organisation given their status as meta-charities.
“Yet from what I understand, GiveWell refuses to recommend any of these as top charities. My impression is that GiveWell finds it highly unlikely that any of these organizations are as effective as their recommended charities. Of course, many of these organizations exist on the assumption that they are. This area seems particularly awkward as all of these meta-charities promote GiveWell publicly, leading to several interviews. I imagine that it’s better off for everyone that Givewell and CEA appear as close friends, yet internally it seems like there’s a bit of tension over this stark disagreement on the need for CEA’s existence. This disagreement is somewhat showcased in the comments here.”
Regardless of whether GiveWell thought that CEA’s organisation were more effective than their own recommendations, I think it is rational for GiveWell not to recommend CEA’s organisations. Such a recommendation would quickly lead to the ‘infinte regression problem’ (one should donate to an organisation, that encourages people to donate to an organisation, that encourages people to donate to an organisation, that… etc. … that encourages people to donation to effective first order work. See Ben Todd’s Master’s thesis on career choice for more discussion). GiveWell would risk the accusation of contributing to some sort of charitable ponzi scheme, which is an accusation that I have heard made when a charity evaluator has discussed recommending another charity evaluator. Of course there are ways around this in practise (again see Ben Todd’s thesis), but it would still pose a reputational risk for GiveWell to recommend a CEA organisation given their status as meta-charities.