I don’t say that many/most small donors have a “cool and unusual idea for donations that probably won’t get funded otherwise.” I say that Jonas may have a higher bar for this than I do, and this may partly explain where we disagree. I also said that I think that it could be the case that “many/most small donors (who are considering donating to specific charities) would do better to try to explore and evaluate these opportunities themselves.” But that’s only partly due to me (possibly) thinking that more small donors have cool and unusual ideas than Jonas does. It’s doubtless also due to more substantive differences. For example, I also think that it may be more beneficial for many donors who are considering donating to specific charities to try to think about how to make those donations themselves, because it provides important sources of experimentation/information/donor-practice for the donor and the community, even if those donations don’t meet whatever the bar is for “cool and unusual.”
I think those benefits probably obtain in a lot of cases even where the donor is considering donating to “fairly well-established charities”, because the donor is still at least thinking about donating to different charities and about donation in general, and the community is getting information about whether the community at large think that this or that fairly well-established charity is more promising, as well as about the extent to which the more well-established charities are better options than less well-established charities.
And as I mention in my comment, there are still other reasons that I think underlie the disagreement (not merely our conceptions of “cool and interesting” donors), which I discuss in the other threads.
I don’t say that many/most small donors have a “cool and unusual idea for donations that probably won’t get funded otherwise.” I say that Jonas may have a higher bar for this than I do, and this may partly explain where we disagree. I also said that I think that it could be the case that “many/most small donors (who are considering donating to specific charities) would do better to try to explore and evaluate these opportunities themselves.” But that’s only partly due to me (possibly) thinking that more small donors have cool and unusual ideas than Jonas does. It’s doubtless also due to more substantive differences. For example, I also think that it may be more beneficial for many donors who are considering donating to specific charities to try to think about how to make those donations themselves, because it provides important sources of experimentation/information/donor-practice for the donor and the community, even if those donations don’t meet whatever the bar is for “cool and unusual.”
I think those benefits probably obtain in a lot of cases even where the donor is considering donating to “fairly well-established charities”, because the donor is still at least thinking about donating to different charities and about donation in general, and the community is getting information about whether the community at large think that this or that fairly well-established charity is more promising, as well as about the extent to which the more well-established charities are better options than less well-established charities.
And as I mention in my comment, there are still other reasons that I think underlie the disagreement (not merely our conceptions of “cool and interesting” donors), which I discuss in the other threads.