If big donors feel better and donate more, I’m not convinced that is a neutral thing. If running a matching donation drive doesn’t get more donations from the matchees but does pull more money from the matchers, that may have a fairly large effect. I have certainly thought about donating more money than I otherwise would have when I heard it could be used to run a matching fundraiser. If they truly don’t attract more matchee funds then I suppose it is epistemically unvirtuous to ask matchers to donate, since this implies it has an effect, but nonetheless a mechanism like this to get matchers to donate more seems not too different than the original deal (where it seems like the matchees are kind of being deluded into giving more anyways).
Not sure if I made this clear in the post, but I’m looking at matching from the perspective of a potential matching donor, not from the charity’s perspective. From the perspective of a (purely rational) matching donor, you shouldn’t be concerned with whether the match pulls more money from you.
If big donors feel better and donate more, I’m not convinced that is a neutral thing. If running a matching donation drive doesn’t get more donations from the matchees but does pull more money from the matchers, that may have a fairly large effect. I have certainly thought about donating more money than I otherwise would have when I heard it could be used to run a matching fundraiser. If they truly don’t attract more matchee funds then I suppose it is epistemically unvirtuous to ask matchers to donate, since this implies it has an effect, but nonetheless a mechanism like this to get matchers to donate more seems not too different than the original deal (where it seems like the matchees are kind of being deluded into giving more anyways).
Not sure if I made this clear in the post, but I’m looking at matching from the perspective of a potential matching donor, not from the charity’s perspective. From the perspective of a (purely rational) matching donor, you shouldn’t be concerned with whether the match pulls more money from you.