I think he donated £25 for that year, but I’m not sure how he picked that number and I have to admit I haven’t been very systematic since then. I think the following year I donated £100 to ACE, then missed a year, then for 2 years did 10% of my annual donations to the animal welfare EA fund (I’m a member of Giving What We Can, so that’s 1% of my salary).
I’m not sure I have a reasoned case for donating to animal welfare charities as offsets, since the animals that are helped are different to those I harm and consequentially it would surely be best to make all my donations to the organisation I think will help sentient beings most. But it seems pretty good to remember that I think it’s important and impactful to help various groups to whom I don’t give the lions share of my donations, and it seems plausibly good to show to others that I care about them by doing something concrete. With those considerations in mind it simply seems important for the donation to be an amount that feels non-negligible to me and others, rather than an amount exactly equal to the harm I’m doing. (That may simply be a rationalisation though, because I would rather not know exactly how much harm I’m causing and it would be a hassle to figure it out.)
I Jessica, IIRC the main problem you’ll likely encounter is that some naïve cost-effectiveness estimates will give you a really low figure, like donating $1 to corporate campaigns is as effective as being vegan a whole year. (Not exactly, but that order of magnitude.)
Given that I’m inclined to just make it the lowest amount that feels substantial and like it would actually plausibly be enough to make someone else veg*n for a year — for me that means about $100 a year.
Could you possibly share how much the ACE off-set was? I have been having trouble finding a good number for this when people ask me about it.
I think he donated £25 for that year, but I’m not sure how he picked that number and I have to admit I haven’t been very systematic since then. I think the following year I donated £100 to ACE, then missed a year, then for 2 years did 10% of my annual donations to the animal welfare EA fund (I’m a member of Giving What We Can, so that’s 1% of my salary).
I’m not sure I have a reasoned case for donating to animal welfare charities as offsets, since the animals that are helped are different to those I harm and consequentially it would surely be best to make all my donations to the organisation I think will help sentient beings most. But it seems pretty good to remember that I think it’s important and impactful to help various groups to whom I don’t give the lions share of my donations, and it seems plausibly good to show to others that I care about them by doing something concrete. With those considerations in mind it simply seems important for the donation to be an amount that feels non-negligible to me and others, rather than an amount exactly equal to the harm I’m doing. (That may simply be a rationalisation though, because I would rather not know exactly how much harm I’m causing and it would be a hassle to figure it out.)
I Jessica, IIRC the main problem you’ll likely encounter is that some naïve cost-effectiveness estimates will give you a really low figure, like donating $1 to corporate campaigns is as effective as being vegan a whole year. (Not exactly, but that order of magnitude.)
Given that I’m inclined to just make it the lowest amount that feels substantial and like it would actually plausibly be enough to make someone else veg*n for a year — for me that means about $100 a year.