This seems like a reasonable concern, and longer term building good institutions for donor lotteries seems valuable.
However, I suspect there may be more overheads (and possible legal complications) associated with trying to run it as part of an existing charity. In the immediate, I wonder if there are enough people who you do trust who might give character references which would work for this? (You implied trust in GiveWell, and I believe Paul and Carl are fairly well known to several GiveWell staff; on the other hand you might think that the institutional reputation of GiveWell is more valuable than the individual reputations of people who work there, and so be more inclined to trust a project it backs not because you know more about it, but because it has more at stake.)
However, I suspect there may be more overheads (and possible legal complications) associated with trying to run it as part of an existing charity
Given the current level of interest, the informal, small, and disconnected donor lotteries may be more efficient for the reasons you mentioned. My hunch is that donor lotteries could quickly grow to a non-trivial size, at which point I believe the economies of scale achieved by an institution would dominate.
you might think that the institutional reputation of GiveWell is more valuable than the individual reputations of people who work there
This seems like a reasonable concern, and longer term building good institutions for donor lotteries seems valuable.
However, I suspect there may be more overheads (and possible legal complications) associated with trying to run it as part of an existing charity. In the immediate, I wonder if there are enough people who you do trust who might give character references which would work for this? (You implied trust in GiveWell, and I believe Paul and Carl are fairly well known to several GiveWell staff; on the other hand you might think that the institutional reputation of GiveWell is more valuable than the individual reputations of people who work there, and so be more inclined to trust a project it backs not because you know more about it, but because it has more at stake.)
Given the current level of interest, the informal, small, and disconnected donor lotteries may be more efficient for the reasons you mentioned. My hunch is that donor lotteries could quickly grow to a non-trivial size, at which point I believe the economies of scale achieved by an institution would dominate.
Yes.