“Are these types of straightforward, pull-at-the-heartstrings, charities and stories, an ideal “gateway drug” for newbies, into effective giving, and even into EA in general? ”—Of course a heartstring-pulling cause is more attractive than other causes, all things equal. The question is whether this helps people on-ramp into learning about the EA mindset and eventually placing more weight on effectiveness than they did before.
I do think it helps to have some recommended charities that look like a normal kind of charity people have seen before, rather than immediately trying to sell people on crazy-sounding concepts, like “Actually, according to some complicated math, donations to AI alignment groups are 1000x more important than anything you normally associate with the word ‘charity’.” Fistula Foundation might be particularly good, like you’ve mentioned, although Against Malaria Foundation does have the appeal of being able to say “for $5000 you can save a life (!!) on average”, and tap into the drama and heroism of “saving a life”. Things like deworming don’t even have that, which makes them a little more esoteric.
I also think it helps to present multiple charities and frame yourself as a charity evaluator—this makes the endorsement seem more legit and it also helps get people into the EA mindset of making comparisons and prioritizing with limited resources.
“I’m also wondering… are there similar thoughts / attempts in regards to leveraging mass attention toward more effective aims? I saw some attempts at getting BLM / police reform attention toward more-effective causes.”—There’s a big difference in my mind between trying to nimbly harness recent news events like BLM, versus putting together a coordinated marketing message to capitalize on individual holidays like International Women’s Day or promote EA’s message to specific groups. Leveraging news events can be very powerful, but also difficult, and can sometimes backfire—see much nuanced discussion here, for instance. Leveraging thematic holidays is less powerful, but it seems really easy to do and has basically zero downside, making it a no-brainer.
“Are these types of straightforward, pull-at-the-heartstrings, charities and stories, an ideal “gateway drug” for newbies, into effective giving, and even into EA in general? ”—Of course a heartstring-pulling cause is more attractive than other causes, all things equal. The question is whether this helps people on-ramp into learning about the EA mindset and eventually placing more weight on effectiveness than they did before.
I do think it helps to have some recommended charities that look like a normal kind of charity people have seen before, rather than immediately trying to sell people on crazy-sounding concepts, like “Actually, according to some complicated math, donations to AI alignment groups are 1000x more important than anything you normally associate with the word ‘charity’.” Fistula Foundation might be particularly good, like you’ve mentioned, although Against Malaria Foundation does have the appeal of being able to say “for $5000 you can save a life (!!) on average”, and tap into the drama and heroism of “saving a life”. Things like deworming don’t even have that, which makes them a little more esoteric.
I also think it helps to present multiple charities and frame yourself as a charity evaluator—this makes the endorsement seem more legit and it also helps get people into the EA mindset of making comparisons and prioritizing with limited resources.
“I’m also wondering… are there similar thoughts / attempts in regards to leveraging mass attention toward more effective aims? I saw some attempts at getting BLM / police reform attention toward more-effective causes.”—There’s a big difference in my mind between trying to nimbly harness recent news events like BLM, versus putting together a coordinated marketing message to capitalize on individual holidays like International Women’s Day or promote EA’s message to specific groups. Leveraging news events can be very powerful, but also difficult, and can sometimes backfire—see much nuanced discussion here, for instance. Leveraging thematic holidays is less powerful, but it seems really easy to do and has basically zero downside, making it a no-brainer.