I’m pretty undecided on how to give to pro-Biden/Dem efforts (as well as undecided on how pro-Biden/Dem efforts compare to other opportunities), but I wanted to give a small amount (as I no longer earn-to-give), so here is my giving:
My top idea right now is this campaign, that put together by a strong EA-aligned progressive-aligned data scientistwith strong expertise in helping Democrats win and seems like a better bet than solely focusing on Theresa Greenfield. I haven’t vetted it but I put $250 for it based on my intuition. (EDIT: I notice you mentioned this in your post, so I guess we’d either have to agree to disagree or have a longer discussion. My guess is that your analysis may be missing marginal media market costs?)
Worth keeping in mind that (as you probably know) due to FCC rules, donating directly to candidates seems like a stronger bet than donating to any other PAC, because candidates (a) get guaranteed minimum advertising rates and (b) get direct access to the candidate (more persuasive).
An honorable mention is this ad campaign, which feels strong and is also backed by strong message testing by people with a good track record for this sort of thing. I donated $100 to it.
I also think state legislature races are important, so I donated $100 to this impact-focused list that was also put together by people with a strong track record of putting together this sort of thing.
I like the idea of flipping Texas, so I donated to the Swing Left campaign for it. I don’t know how that compares to Lone Star Votes or the Princeton Election Consortium. I also don’t know the track record of Swing Left. This is the idea I feel least confident about, so I only donated $50.
Of course I also donated $100 to Biden directly following the logic that due to campaign finance and FCC rules, it is good for small donor individuals to donate directly to candidates.
And I gave $10 to ActBlue for facilitating all of the above.
Ideally I would’ve liked to have done more research and focused more money on one campaign I feel best about (and to have donated more money overall), but I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point, thus this scattershot giving approach.
(Obvious disclaimer: These are purely personal opinions and doesn’t reflect any policy or position of Rethink Priorities.)
Hi Peter, just FYI, the Senate campaigns are now pretty much all getting a lot of money and also outpacing their Republican counterparts, so we’ve decided to demote Theresa Greenfield from our top-level recs. But if you still want to give to the Senate, I think David’s pooled fund is a good option. As I stated in the post, there’s likely not a ton of difference at this point between the most competitive races in terms of one being better/more important than another. Just avoid McGrath, Kelly, and Harrison as they have all the money they could ever use.
I agree it is definitely not a neglected issue but [per this table](https://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases-101520/#table5) there is still definitely room for Dems to increase their advantage… some races (e.g., GA, MI) aren’t even 2-to-1 in favor of Dems yet.
I’m pretty undecided on how to give to pro-Biden/Dem efforts (as well as undecided on how pro-Biden/Dem efforts compare to other opportunities), but I wanted to give a small amount (as I no longer earn-to-give), so here is my giving:
My top idea right now is this campaign, that put together by a strong EA-aligned progressive-aligned data scientistwith strong expertise in helping Democrats win and seems like a better bet than solely focusing on Theresa Greenfield. I haven’t vetted it but I put $250 for it based on my intuition. (EDIT: I notice you mentioned this in your post, so I guess we’d either have to agree to disagree or have a longer discussion. My guess is that your analysis may be missing marginal media market costs?)
Worth keeping in mind that (as you probably know) due to FCC rules, donating directly to candidates seems like a stronger bet than donating to any other PAC, because candidates (a) get guaranteed minimum advertising rates and (b) get direct access to the candidate (more persuasive).
An honorable mention is this ad campaign, which feels strong and is also backed by strong message testing by people with a good track record for this sort of thing. I donated $100 to it.
I also think state legislature races are important, so I donated $100 to this impact-focused list that was also put together by people with a strong track record of putting together this sort of thing.
I like the idea of flipping Texas, so I donated to the Swing Left campaign for it. I don’t know how that compares to Lone Star Votes or the Princeton Election Consortium. I also don’t know the track record of Swing Left. This is the idea I feel least confident about, so I only donated $50.
Of course I also donated $100 to Biden directly following the logic that due to campaign finance and FCC rules, it is good for small donor individuals to donate directly to candidates.
And I gave $10 to ActBlue for facilitating all of the above.
Ideally I would’ve liked to have done more research and focused more money on one campaign I feel best about (and to have donated more money overall), but I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point, thus this scattershot giving approach.
(Obvious disclaimer: These are purely personal opinions and doesn’t reflect any policy or position of Rethink Priorities.)
Hi Peter, just FYI, the Senate campaigns are now pretty much all getting a lot of money and also outpacing their Republican counterparts, so we’ve decided to demote Theresa Greenfield from our top-level recs. But if you still want to give to the Senate, I think David’s pooled fund is a good option. As I stated in the post, there’s likely not a ton of difference at this point between the most competitive races in terms of one being better/more important than another. Just avoid McGrath, Kelly, and Harrison as they have all the money they could ever use.
I agree it is definitely not a neglected issue but [per this table](https://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases-101520/#table5) there is still definitely room for Dems to increase their advantage… some races (e.g., GA, MI) aren’t even 2-to-1 in favor of Dems yet.