Small donors can sometimes beat large donors in terms of cost-effectiveness, and I provide a list of some common ways to do this.
Another common way to do this that you didn’t mention: Small donors can use their donations to counterfactually direct matching funds offered by large non-EA donors to highly-effective nonprofits. Common counterfactual donation matches:
I’m not sure how much employer matching goes to EA-aligned nonprofits, but about $1m/year is currently counterfactually directed to EA-aligned nonprofits from the Facebook and Every.org matches. Counterfactual matching opportunities have existed consistently each year since at least 2017. Plausibly they may go away soon, but for the time being they are still exploitable at the margin and definitely offer a way that small donors can outperform large donors from a cost-effectiveness standpoint.
Another common way to do this that you didn’t mention: Small donors can use their donations to counterfactually direct matching funds offered by large non-EA donors to highly-effective nonprofits. Common counterfactual donation matches:
Employer donation matches
Facebook’s $8M annual Giving Tuesday donation match
Every.org’s donation matches (two so far, more upcoming in expectation)
I’m not sure how much employer matching goes to EA-aligned nonprofits, but about $1m/year is currently counterfactually directed to EA-aligned nonprofits from the Facebook and Every.org matches. Counterfactual matching opportunities have existed consistently each year since at least 2017. Plausibly they may go away soon, but for the time being they are still exploitable at the margin and definitely offer a way that small donors can outperform large donors from a cost-effectiveness standpoint.
Makes sense—have added a note to the list.
And maybe the Double Up Drive? Or would you recommend against donating to it based on previous discussions?