There is a sense in which the concept of a birthday fundraiser is anti-inductive—if they worked, and everyone realised they worked, then a lot more people would be doing them and they wouldn’t work so well any more.
I don’t think that’s quite true, as I don’t think most people care enough to do them, whereas EAs of course do. Also, as I’m sure you know, it’s not the case that everyone realises they work—people generally don’t realise this unless a charity is shouting from the rooftops about this, like we (and you!) havedone at Charity Science. When charities do a bunch of people sign up—Charity Water is an example, and they’ve got enormous numbers of people to do birthday and Christmas fundraisers.
But actually running a fundraiser feels more like phatic communication. You’re really communicating very little information about the charity you want people to give money to, but people seem to appreciate it and (as far as I know) very rarely get mad.
That’s right, people seem to generally be happy to follow your choice of charity even without reading detailed cost-effectiveness studies. Indeed that’s what happens in most of fundraising.
I don’t think that’s quite true, as I don’t think most people care enough to do them, whereas EAs of course do. Also, as I’m sure you know, it’s not the case that everyone realises they work—people generally don’t realise this unless a charity is shouting from the rooftops about this, like we (and you!) have done at Charity Science. When charities do a bunch of people sign up—Charity Water is an example, and they’ve got enormous numbers of people to do birthday and Christmas fundraisers.
That’s right, people seem to generally be happy to follow your choice of charity even without reading detailed cost-effectiveness studies. Indeed that’s what happens in most of fundraising.