Cool, it would be great if they could sustain exponential growth! I imagine this may happen from people getting into these ideas and then telling their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so on. That seems a good hypothesis to explain the exponential trend.
Does GWWC know how many of these members would have been donating significant sums without GWWC? Presumably they share this information with donors? I realise this is hard to work out, as people who are interested in these ideas would likely have come across GiveWell and EA at some point anyway.
On your second point of how much people would have donated without signing the pledge, people who sign the pledge are asked “What percentage of your income would you have donated over your lifetime if you had not come across Giving What We Can?” I’m pretty sure the answer to this question is used in figuring out the money moved figure.
Indeed we do Markus.
Vincent—that has happened much less than we expected—it’s quite a difficult thing to talk to friends about. The pattern seems more readily explicable as the step change I described above.
We do a review of the organisation each year or so. I’m currently working on the review for 2013 (we have to do it the following year, so that we have all the data on donations etc). The one for 2011-2012 is here
A brief summary of that / general review is here
Thank you, that review of 2011 and 2012 looks like a very interesting, detailed read. It does seem to cast doubt on the exponential growth model that I was excited about which is a shame, but I still think that could happen. I couldn’t see information about how many GWWC members would be donating significant sums without GWWC on my first read, am I missing that? Will it be in the next impact review?
Cool, it would be great if they could sustain exponential growth! I imagine this may happen from people getting into these ideas and then telling their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so on. That seems a good hypothesis to explain the exponential trend.
Does GWWC know how many of these members would have been donating significant sums without GWWC? Presumably they share this information with donors? I realise this is hard to work out, as people who are interested in these ideas would likely have come across GiveWell and EA at some point anyway.
On your second point of how much people would have donated without signing the pledge, people who sign the pledge are asked “What percentage of your income would you have donated over your lifetime if you had not come across Giving What We Can?” I’m pretty sure the answer to this question is used in figuring out the money moved figure.
Indeed we do Markus. Vincent—that has happened much less than we expected—it’s quite a difficult thing to talk to friends about. The pattern seems more readily explicable as the step change I described above.
Ah, great that they make this public—where would I find it, and the working behind it to answer my question?
We do a review of the organisation each year or so. I’m currently working on the review for 2013 (we have to do it the following year, so that we have all the data on donations etc). The one for 2011-2012 is here A brief summary of that / general review is here
Thank you, that review of 2011 and 2012 looks like a very interesting, detailed read. It does seem to cast doubt on the exponential growth model that I was excited about which is a shame, but I still think that could happen. I couldn’t see information about how many GWWC members would be donating significant sums without GWWC on my first read, am I missing that? Will it be in the next impact review?