Personally: I generally would not donate to an organization with potentially catastrophic FTX risk unless the organization had convinced me the risk didn’t exist (or was sufficiently small to disregard), or that my donations were legally restricted in a way that protected them from creditors in the event of an insolvency.
Given that CEA writ large includes Giving What We Can, EA Funds and the Donor Lottery, this would be a pretty big deal in terms of people’s giving this month. If I need to avoid donating through CEA, my life as a donor gets a lot harder.
Given this, and given how many members of the community will be making big charitable donations around this time of year, some clarification from CEA on this front seems pretty valuable.
Right—and I totally get why organizations are hesitant to share certain information right now.
If CEA is in a precarious situation and/or cannot disclose enough information to reassure donors, it may at least be in a position to demonstrate that EA Funds and the Donor Lottery are either already safe from the claims of CEA’s general creditors or will be made safe, at least on a going forward basis by Dec 31.
This is because, in many jurisdictions, certain donations can be restricted by the donor in ways neither the charity nor general creditors can breach. But it’s possible for the charity to intend to provide this protection yet screw it up . . . and has happened in at least one non-EA case I can think of.
(all this is summarized from cell phone while out of town...I have some broader thoughts about risk containment in draft form on my home computer)
Both of the legal entities involved with GWWC (Effective Ventures Foundation and Centre for Effective Altruism USA) are financially solvent. These entities have funding sources outside of the FTX Foundation and other FTX-related entities/individuals. The GWWC related entities would be solvent even without the funds received from the FTX-related entities. Accordingly, our plan is to continue to accept and regrant donations.
Given that CEA writ large includes Giving What We Can, EA Funds and the Donor Lottery, this would be a pretty big deal in terms of people’s giving this month. If I need to avoid donating through CEA, my life as a donor gets a lot harder.
Given this, and given how many members of the community will be making big charitable donations around this time of year, some clarification from CEA on this front seems pretty valuable.
Right—and I totally get why organizations are hesitant to share certain information right now.
If CEA is in a precarious situation and/or cannot disclose enough information to reassure donors, it may at least be in a position to demonstrate that EA Funds and the Donor Lottery are either already safe from the claims of CEA’s general creditors or will be made safe, at least on a going forward basis by Dec 31.
This is because, in many jurisdictions, certain donations can be restricted by the donor in ways neither the charity nor general creditors can breach. But it’s possible for the charity to intend to provide this protection yet screw it up . . . and has happened in at least one non-EA case I can think of.
(all this is summarized from cell phone while out of town...I have some broader thoughts about risk containment in draft form on my home computer)
Please see our update regarding this. The important section is: