The fact that total EA funding increased substantially recently should cause me to update to believe that the marginal cost-effectiveness of donations I make now and over the course of my lifetime will be less than I previously thought, but not that much less cost-effective.
I’ve long felt that we’re nowhere to close to the world where the marginal cost-effectiveness of the best giving opportunities is low enough to mean it’s not worth donating altruistically. If we lived in a world where the best giving opportunity had GiveDirectly’s cost-effectiveness, I’d still find the giving opportunities cost-effective enough to want to donate a substantial amount of my money.
But the reality is we live in a world where GiveWell continues to find giving opportunities that are 7-8x more effective, and some giving opportunities in other cause areas seem to be 10-100x more cost-effective than GiveDirectly at the margin. So the small cost-effectiveness update above is not enough to make me doubt whether it’s actually worth it to me to donate. It still seems clearly worth it.
The fact that total EA funding increased substantially recently should cause me to update to believe that the marginal cost-effectiveness of donations I make now and over the course of my lifetime will be less than I previously thought, but not that much less cost-effective.
I’ve long felt that we’re nowhere to close to the world where the marginal cost-effectiveness of the best giving opportunities is low enough to mean it’s not worth donating altruistically. If we lived in a world where the best giving opportunity had GiveDirectly’s cost-effectiveness, I’d still find the giving opportunities cost-effective enough to want to donate a substantial amount of my money.
But the reality is we live in a world where GiveWell continues to find giving opportunities that are 7-8x more effective, and some giving opportunities in other cause areas seem to be 10-100x more cost-effective than GiveDirectly at the margin. So the small cost-effectiveness update above is not enough to make me doubt whether it’s actually worth it to me to donate. It still seems clearly worth it.