Personally, I view participation in the charitable projects in my community (including donating to church or to a colleague’s pledge drive) as part of my consumption basket and totally unrelated to altruistic work. Relationships are incredibly important to one’s life satisfaction and participating in the community is a part of that.
Agree. One of the things I most appreciate about old school EA is that it took things that used to feel like above-and-beyond altruism in my personal life and made me see that I actually enjoyed those things selfishly. Local charitable giving or going out of my way to help a friend of a friend became less of a burden once I was “off the hook” because of giving money more effectively, and I realized that the reason I didn’t want to give that stuff up was that it made me feel good and improved my life.
>If I’m happy to buy you a beer or cover your portion of the Uber, why wouldn’t I donate £5 or £10 to your fundraiser for a cause you care a lot about?
To quote the most relevant part. “Lastly, local organizations or those where I have personal affiliations or feel responsibilities towards are also important to me—but… this is conceptually separate from giving charity effectively, and as I mentioned, I donate separately from the 10% dedicated to charity. I give to other organizations, including my synagogue and other local community organizations, especially charities that support the local poor around Jewish holidays, and other personally meaningful projects. But in the spirit of purchasing fuzzies separately, this is done with a smaller total amount, separate from my effective giving. ”
Personally, I view participation in the charitable projects in my community (including donating to church or to a colleague’s pledge drive) as part of my consumption basket and totally unrelated to altruistic work. Relationships are incredibly important to one’s life satisfaction and participating in the community is a part of that.
Agree. One of the things I most appreciate about old school EA is that it took things that used to feel like above-and-beyond altruism in my personal life and made me see that I actually enjoyed those things selfishly. Local charitable giving or going out of my way to help a friend of a friend became less of a burden once I was “off the hook” because of giving money more effectively, and I realized that the reason I didn’t want to give that stuff up was that it made me feel good and improved my life.
Wow—of all the replies this makes the most sense to me! That’s a great way of looking at things!
Same—wrote about it once. https://x.com/kirsten3531/status/1400747953090969602?s=46&t=7jI2LUFFCdoHtZr1AtWyCA
>If I’m happy to buy you a beer or cover your portion of the Uber, why wouldn’t I donate £5 or £10 to your fundraiser for a cause you care a lot about?
I’ve said much the same, explicitly focused on this.
See: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jGYoDrtf8JGw85k8T/my-personal-priorities-charity-judaism-and-effective:
To quote the most relevant part. “Lastly, local organizations or those where I have personal affiliations or feel responsibilities towards are also important to me—but… this is conceptually separate from giving charity effectively, and as I mentioned, I donate separately from the 10% dedicated to charity. I give to other organizations, including my synagogue and other local community organizations, especially charities that support the local poor around Jewish holidays, and other personally meaningful projects. But in the spirit of purchasing fuzzies separately, this is done with a smaller total amount, separate from my effective giving. ”