I’m about to start a new job, so I will be able to donate a lot more money to charity in the coming year, but I’m really confused as to where I ought to donate. Some information about my situation and beliefs:
I’ll be earning about $100,000 after taxes, so I anticipate that I’ll want to donate between $1,000 and $5,000. I also run annual birthday fundraisers every October from my Facebook account—this year, I pulled in $400 for the Clean Air Task Force. I try to pick charities that are both high-impact by EA lights and within popular causes like climate change, so I’ll be able to spend more of my own money on more neglected or obscure causes.
I believe that future generations and animal lives have value. This makes me think that I should donate to organizations like the Wild Animal Initiative and Fish Welfare Initiative, which may be able to help billions of animals going into the future.
Although I care a lot about existential risks, I worry that a lot of longtermist funding is going toward AI safety, and not enough EA funding is going toward more neglected and obscure x-risks, such as the ones on this list. I would like to see more research into how x-risks compare against one another to help with prioritization, and I would like to fund more work on underfunded areas like s-risks. Also, I’m hesitant to donate to the LTFF because it seems over-weighted toward AI safety, but I’m open to being persuaded that I should still donate to it or that AIS is underfunded.
I’m interested in funding “broad longtermist” interventions—ones that make society better able to deal with future challenges in general, like better institutional decision-making, reducing great-power conflict, and protecting liberal democracy. Ben Todd notes (10:34 in this talk) that this category is greatly under-resourced. I care about liberal democracy for longtermist as well as non-EA reasons, and although it seems like it’s already really popular, I’m not confident that the existing funding is going to the best interventions.
I’m also interested in longtermist interventions to reduce global poverty and promote economic growth—maybe something like the Center for Global Development?
I would appreciate any advice as to where I should donate and what proportions I should allocate to each org in the coming year, given what I’ve said here.
[Question] Where should I donate?
I’m about to start a new job, so I will be able to donate a lot more money to charity in the coming year, but I’m really confused as to where I ought to donate. Some information about my situation and beliefs:
I’ll be earning about $100,000 after taxes, so I anticipate that I’ll want to donate between $1,000 and $5,000. I also run annual birthday fundraisers every October from my Facebook account—this year, I pulled in $400 for the Clean Air Task Force. I try to pick charities that are both high-impact by EA lights and within popular causes like climate change, so I’ll be able to spend more of my own money on more neglected or obscure causes.
I believe that future generations and animal lives have value. This makes me think that I should donate to organizations like the Wild Animal Initiative and Fish Welfare Initiative, which may be able to help billions of animals going into the future.
Although I care a lot about existential risks, I worry that a lot of longtermist funding is going toward AI safety, and not enough EA funding is going toward more neglected and obscure x-risks, such as the ones on this list. I would like to see more research into how x-risks compare against one another to help with prioritization, and I would like to fund more work on underfunded areas like s-risks. Also, I’m hesitant to donate to the LTFF because it seems over-weighted toward AI safety, but I’m open to being persuaded that I should still donate to it or that AIS is underfunded.
I’m interested in funding “broad longtermist” interventions—ones that make society better able to deal with future challenges in general, like better institutional decision-making, reducing great-power conflict, and protecting liberal democracy. Ben Todd notes (10:34 in this talk) that this category is greatly under-resourced. I care about liberal democracy for longtermist as well as non-EA reasons, and although it seems like it’s already really popular, I’m not confident that the existing funding is going to the best interventions.
I’m also interested in longtermist interventions to reduce global poverty and promote economic growth—maybe something like the Center for Global Development?
I would appreciate any advice as to where I should donate and what proportions I should allocate to each org in the coming year, given what I’ve said here.