I’m optimistic we will unlock new sources of needed funding (Rethink Priorities is working a ton on this) so we should expect the current funding overhang to be temporary, thus making it important to still have future donors ready / have large amounts of money saved up ready to deploy.
Additionally, I think many non-profits would benefit from increased donor diversity on top of the value of a marginal donation, since this helps more organizations with their stability by reducing idiosyncratic risk. And at least in the US it also helps with possible issues arising from the public support test.
Lastly, I think it would be valuable to have more active grantmaking / exploring / “giving to learn” from more donors. I got pretty involved in EA from doing this.
Can you say a bit more about your reasons for believing that the current funding overhang will be temporary?
E.g. Sam Bankman-Fried’s net worth is growing very rapidly (Forbes now puts it at $26.5bn), so there seems to be some reason to believe that the funding overhang is growing at present.
Also, even if we do find new large opportunities to spend money, I think it’s important to pay attention to the size of small donors’ contributions relative to that of larger donors. Even if the funding overhang shrinks, they are going to be relatively less important, if the greater the total amount of EA funds is substantially larger than it previously was.
I’m optimistic we will unlock new sources of needed funding (Rethink Priorities is working a ton on this) so we should expect the current funding overhang to be temporary, thus making it important to still have future donors ready / have large amounts of money saved up ready to deploy.
Additionally, I think many non-profits would benefit from increased donor diversity on top of the value of a marginal donation, since this helps more organizations with their stability by reducing idiosyncratic risk. And at least in the US it also helps with possible issues arising from the public support test.
Lastly, I think it would be valuable to have more active grantmaking / exploring / “giving to learn” from more donors. I got pretty involved in EA from doing this.
Can you say a bit more about your reasons for believing that the current funding overhang will be temporary?
E.g. Sam Bankman-Fried’s net worth is growing very rapidly (Forbes now puts it at $26.5bn), so there seems to be some reason to believe that the funding overhang is growing at present.
Also, even if we do find new large opportunities to spend money, I think it’s important to pay attention to the size of small donors’ contributions relative to that of larger donors. Even if the funding overhang shrinks, they are going to be relatively less important, if the greater the total amount of EA funds is substantially larger than it previously was.