Sure, I’ll start with that one. I think it will in expectation raise quite a lot of money, significantly increasing our money moved this year. I base this on:
1) The fact that specific types of fundraiser run by similar local groups have raised tens of thousands in the past, and that we’re considering following their proven model as closely as possible as the plan to beat—we’ll do so unless we can work out one with better prospects.
2) The fact that we have a large number of local EA groups signed up already and several interested without having approached most of them.
3) The fact that we’ll likely be applying the ‘raise money by emailing your friends and family’ approach which worked in all three types of peer-to-peer fundraiser we ran. In these, people who followed our full package of suggestions including emailing large numbers raised thousands, though I don’t expect most people to do that. Additional evidence for the prospects of this peer-to-peer approach come from the fact that it is widely used in the charity world, and charities who apply it find it raises significant amounts.
A large number of groups running this simultaneously should make a bigger splash and potentially get attention in local/student media, which we’d work towards.
Besides money moved, an additional benefit of this fundraiser will be to spread the word about evidence-based charity. Naturally this would result if we succeeding in getting media coverage. It also happens each time someone emails a friend or family member about the fundraiser—people often don’t talk about evidence-based charity with people they know, and a peer-to-peer fundraiser like this provides an excuse for doing so.
Have you considered doing something that could go viral like the Ice Bucket Challenge? The potential upside from that would make it worth a shot for the effective altruist community.
We tried this—a selfie on facebook with malaria nets on our heads. We asked for £3 to cover a net (a bit of a lie as nets cost less I think). We got 6 other people to do it then it fizzled out. This was something tried in the context of the ALS challenge as a counter-cultural thing.
What I think would help if this was going to be attempted again (but I think people are over it now to some extent, unless a new social norm is being seen as being challenged / it feels qualitatively different):
-A much easier way of paying
-A more dramatic request
-People with more friends on facebook
-People with friends that are more likely to do it starting it
I think that after a very successful fundraiser happens, it’s tempting to try out the same thing for your cause/charity. But it’s really important to consider how many viral challenges were attempted before (and since) one worked effectively. There were a lot of charities who worked on viral videos after Kony 2012 but none got even close to as big. I would expect the same to be true of the ice bucket challenge.
All that being said, if it’s easy to add a viral element that does not take away from the fundraiser in other ways we would definitely integrate it.
Not yet, but we are currently considering that for the local groups fundraiser specifically, because some of them are quite keen on it. The viral potential is another argument for running this fundraiser, though in fairness I should say that I’m considerably more sceptical about whether this is worth pursuing than those groups. However I generally find myself assigning lower chances to these large upside possibilities than most EAs, so I suspect this may be a mistake on my part.
I’d actually find others’ takes on all this valuable—does anyone have any?
Sure, I’ll start with that one. I think it will in expectation raise quite a lot of money, significantly increasing our money moved this year. I base this on:
1) The fact that specific types of fundraiser run by similar local groups have raised tens of thousands in the past, and that we’re considering following their proven model as closely as possible as the plan to beat—we’ll do so unless we can work out one with better prospects.
2) The fact that we have a large number of local EA groups signed up already and several interested without having approached most of them.
3) The fact that we’ll likely be applying the ‘raise money by emailing your friends and family’ approach which worked in all three types of peer-to-peer fundraiser we ran. In these, people who followed our full package of suggestions including emailing large numbers raised thousands, though I don’t expect most people to do that. Additional evidence for the prospects of this peer-to-peer approach come from the fact that it is widely used in the charity world, and charities who apply it find it raises significant amounts.
A large number of groups running this simultaneously should make a bigger splash and potentially get attention in local/student media, which we’d work towards.
Besides money moved, an additional benefit of this fundraiser will be to spread the word about evidence-based charity. Naturally this would result if we succeeding in getting media coverage. It also happens each time someone emails a friend or family member about the fundraiser—people often don’t talk about evidence-based charity with people they know, and a peer-to-peer fundraiser like this provides an excuse for doing so.
Have you considered doing something that could go viral like the Ice Bucket Challenge? The potential upside from that would make it worth a shot for the effective altruist community.
We tried this—a selfie on facebook with malaria nets on our heads. We asked for £3 to cover a net (a bit of a lie as nets cost less I think). We got 6 other people to do it then it fizzled out. This was something tried in the context of the ALS challenge as a counter-cultural thing.
What I think would help if this was going to be attempted again (but I think people are over it now to some extent, unless a new social norm is being seen as being challenged / it feels qualitatively different):
-A much easier way of paying
-A more dramatic request
-People with more friends on facebook
-People with friends that are more likely to do it starting it
Thanks for the suggestion, Ervin. We have thought about this idea before. It is worth noting that The Life You Can Save tried this http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/Blog/ID/138/Worm-vs-Worms-a-social-media-stunt-that-saves-lives and vegans also tried it via http://www.vegan.com/videos/hydrate-donate/
I think that after a very successful fundraiser happens, it’s tempting to try out the same thing for your cause/charity. But it’s really important to consider how many viral challenges were attempted before (and since) one worked effectively. There were a lot of charities who worked on viral videos after Kony 2012 but none got even close to as big. I would expect the same to be true of the ice bucket challenge.
All that being said, if it’s easy to add a viral element that does not take away from the fundraiser in other ways we would definitely integrate it.
Not yet, but we are currently considering that for the local groups fundraiser specifically, because some of them are quite keen on it. The viral potential is another argument for running this fundraiser, though in fairness I should say that I’m considerably more sceptical about whether this is worth pursuing than those groups. However I generally find myself assigning lower chances to these large upside possibilities than most EAs, so I suspect this may be a mistake on my part.
I’d actually find others’ takes on all this valuable—does anyone have any?