> Do you disagree with the EAIF grants that were focused on causing more effective giving (e.g., through direct fundraising or through research on the psychology and promotion of effective giving)?
Yes, I basically think of this as an almost complete waste of time and money from a longtermist perspective (and probably neartermist perspectives too).
Just wanted to flag briefly that I personally disagree with this:
I think that fundraising projects can be mildly helpful from a longtermist perspective if they are unusually good at directing the money really well (i.e., match or beat Open Phil’s last dollar), and are truly increasing overall resources*. I think that there’s a high chance that more financial resources won’t be helpful at all, but some small chance that they will be, so the EV is still weakly positive.
I think that fundraising projects can be moderately helpful from a neartermist perspective if they are truly increasing overall resources*.
* Some models/calculations that I’ve seen don’t do a great job of modelling the overall ROI from fundraising. They need to take into account not just the financial cost but also the talent cost of the project (which should often be valued at rates vastly higher than are common in the private sector), the counterfactual donations / Shapley value (the fundraising organization often doesn’t deserve 100% of the credit for the money raised – some of the credit goes to the donor!), and a ~10-15% annual discount rate (this is the return I expect for smart, low-risk financial investments).
I still somewhat share Buck’s overall sentiment: I think fundraising runs the risk of being a bit of a distraction. I personally regret co-running a fundraising organization and writing a thesis paper about donation behavior. I’d rather have spent my time learning about AI policy (or, if I was a neartermist, I might say e.g. charter cities, growth diagnostics in development economics, NTD eradication programs, or factory farming in developing countries). I would love if EAs generally spent less time worrying about money and more about recruiting talent, improving the trajectory of the community, and solving the problems on the object level.
Overall, I want to continue funding good fundraising organizations.
Just wanted to flag briefly that I personally disagree with this:
I think that fundraising projects can be mildly helpful from a longtermist perspective if they are unusually good at directing the money really well (i.e., match or beat Open Phil’s last dollar), and are truly increasing overall resources*. I think that there’s a high chance that more financial resources won’t be helpful at all, but some small chance that they will be, so the EV is still weakly positive.
I think that fundraising projects can be moderately helpful from a neartermist perspective if they are truly increasing overall resources*.
* Some models/calculations that I’ve seen don’t do a great job of modelling the overall ROI from fundraising. They need to take into account not just the financial cost but also the talent cost of the project (which should often be valued at rates vastly higher than are common in the private sector), the counterfactual donations / Shapley value (the fundraising organization often doesn’t deserve 100% of the credit for the money raised – some of the credit goes to the donor!), and a ~10-15% annual discount rate (this is the return I expect for smart, low-risk financial investments).
I still somewhat share Buck’s overall sentiment: I think fundraising runs the risk of being a bit of a distraction. I personally regret co-running a fundraising organization and writing a thesis paper about donation behavior. I’d rather have spent my time learning about AI policy (or, if I was a neartermist, I might say e.g. charter cities, growth diagnostics in development economics, NTD eradication programs, or factory farming in developing countries). I would love if EAs generally spent less time worrying about money and more about recruiting talent, improving the trajectory of the community, and solving the problems on the object level.
Overall, I want to continue funding good fundraising organizations.