I appreciate you taking the time to write up about your donations and I definitely appreciate you thinking hard about where your donations go, as well as the fact that you’re committing a lot of money to good causes. However, I feel like some of the logic behind your choices are a bit inconsistent.
First, I’m not clear on why you’re splitting your donation among many different organizations. I think there are some reasons one would want to have diversification, but some of your picks seem clearly better than others, and it’s best to focus specifically on the highest-impact pick. If you’re looking to maximize expected immediate impact, it looks like based on your views you should go all-in on SCI or Deworm the World. If you’re looking to maximize learning, it looks like you should go all-in on either GiveWell (unrestricted) or Dispensers for Safe Water, depending on whether you trust GiveWell or IPA more. I don’t know why you would diversify between both.
Second, I’m not clear on what benefit there is to donating to UNICEF. The benefits of experience working in the developing world is important, but IPA also has this. Also, just because UNICEF rolls out high-impact programs that GiveWell can’t find more room for more funding for doesn’t mean UNICEF itself has more room for more funding in those areas. I suspect that since UNICEF is so well funded, marginal increases in funding will not fund nearly as cost-effective activities.
I appreciate you taking the time to write up about your donations and I definitely appreciate you thinking hard about where your donations go, as well as the fact that you’re committing a lot of money to good causes. However, I feel like some of the logic behind your choices are a bit inconsistent.
First, I’m not clear on why you’re splitting your donation among many different organizations. I think there are some reasons one would want to have diversification, but some of your picks seem clearly better than others, and it’s best to focus specifically on the highest-impact pick. If you’re looking to maximize expected immediate impact, it looks like based on your views you should go all-in on SCI or Deworm the World. If you’re looking to maximize learning, it looks like you should go all-in on either GiveWell (unrestricted) or Dispensers for Safe Water, depending on whether you trust GiveWell or IPA more. I don’t know why you would diversify between both.
Second, I’m not clear on what benefit there is to donating to UNICEF. The benefits of experience working in the developing world is important, but IPA also has this. Also, just because UNICEF rolls out high-impact programs that GiveWell can’t find more room for more funding for doesn’t mean UNICEF itself has more room for more funding in those areas. I suspect that since UNICEF is so well funded, marginal increases in funding will not fund nearly as cost-effective activities.