Doesn’t the fact that the information is not sufficiently available to prove that the organization is spending its money in legit ways disturbing to you?
No, I have many more important things to worry about, including but not limited to making good grants.
I assume but have not verified that Effective Ventures and our large funders have access to good auditors.
At the risk of saying the obvious, to be able to concretely demonstrate whether money is not “effectively siphoned”, you need to de-anonymize not just the grantees but (much more importantly) all the donors. This is not something most charities do publicly, and AFAICT is typically handled the normal way through having good accountants, auditors, a legal system, etc.
We are already much more public than the vast majority of institutions (for-profit or non-profit). I don’t think “every person who works part-time in a foundation needs to be able to trace exactly where every dollar comes from or goes every time some person on the internet asks for this” is a reasonable bar for “lower than baseline probability of being a con artist.”
Taking a step back, I think if this is something that you’re very concerned about, it’d be interesting to plan out how to investigate EA charities for fraud. I’m not sure how valuable this work will be, but at least it’s plausibly the type of thing that has a reasonably high EV. I assume a good first step is to talk to a representative sample of really good auditors.
Put another way, the thing that matters to me is that we actually do good in the world. This is where the bulk of where moral responsibilities lie. As I’ve said before (on a different topic in the grantmaking context):
Ultimately, nobody said that (consequentialist) morality had to be easy, or fair. It’s the moral patients that ultimately matter, not the feelings of the grantseekers or grantmakers. And if I sacrifice foregone opportunities to make highly impactful grants for the sake of a vague sense of procedural justice, or fairness, then I would be acting wrongly.
I’m sure you really care a lot about this, and I’m sure a bunch of random people online implying you might be part of something shady is upsetting to you. I have no doubt you are doing your best to help the world, which is incredible.
But do you see how after things like FTX people might be hesitant to donate to funds that don’t disclose where the money goes? I understand the motives to make this decision were probably good, but there has to be a better way.
Doesn’t the fact that the information is not sufficiently available to prove that the organization is spending its money in legit ways disturbing to you?
No, I have many more important things to worry about, including but not limited to making good grants.
I assume but have not verified that Effective Ventures and our large funders have access to good auditors.
At the risk of saying the obvious, to be able to concretely demonstrate whether money is not “effectively siphoned”, you need to de-anonymize not just the grantees but (much more importantly) all the donors. This is not something most charities do publicly, and AFAICT is typically handled the normal way through having good accountants, auditors, a legal system, etc.
We are already much more public than the vast majority of institutions (for-profit or non-profit). I don’t think “every person who works part-time in a foundation needs to be able to trace exactly where every dollar comes from or goes every time some person on the internet asks for this” is a reasonable bar for “lower than baseline probability of being a con artist.”
Taking a step back, I think if this is something that you’re very concerned about, it’d be interesting to plan out how to investigate EA charities for fraud. I’m not sure how valuable this work will be, but at least it’s plausibly the type of thing that has a reasonably high EV. I assume a good first step is to talk to a representative sample of really good auditors.
Put another way, the thing that matters to me is that we actually do good in the world. This is where the bulk of where moral responsibilities lie. As I’ve said before (on a different topic in the grantmaking context):
I’m sure you really care a lot about this, and I’m sure a bunch of random people online implying you might be part of something shady is upsetting to you. I have no doubt you are doing your best to help the world, which is incredible.
But do you see how after things like FTX people might be hesitant to donate to funds that don’t disclose where the money goes? I understand the motives to make this decision were probably good, but there has to be a better way.