1. Cap the size of the reimbursement fund at some smaller portion than 10% of total receipts over time, and
2. Request that recipients repay their reimbursement, perhaps suggesting that instead of donating 10% of income going forward, they give through the new org, and put 50% of donations to reimburse their previously refunded payment and 50% to charity.
3. Disclose the payments to individuals with a 1-year lag unless the payment to them has been repaid, with the option for recipients to request a longer lag to announce for them to repay if they don’t want it announced.
As Linch says, this is a vision for this new fund that is different than what the OP and what I think sentiment supports.
In one generous vision, we have a institution where someone can donate most of their income each year. They can trust that if their loved one gets sick, they can pull out a large fraction of the money to help, like 99.99% of humanity. It’s none of our business if they do this. It’s a feature.
There is an aesthetic among older EAs (not carpet bagging arrivistes like myself) of donating huge fractions of their income, kidneys, etc. Some of these people are in great positions—some aren’t and I’ve heard of anecdotes where early EAs can get burnt out and in difficult situations later.
If you believe the above, a 10% limit and a public announcement of both their “clawback” (and implicitly their personal situation) is really different. I would guess this thins the value of this project to the degree that it’s not worth the legal and logistical challenges which are pretty big (there’s even a mechanism design sort of challenge).
I’d think that saying who was given money would be a pretty fundamental part of transparency for this, as is the expectation that people would continue giving once whatever emergency exists is resolved. Yes, 1 year is likely too short a time frame to repay if there is a huge need, but that’s why I’d say people should be able to suggest a longer time frame. (And if someone has a huge disaster and needs cash, I’d think that they wouldn’t mind people hearing that fact quite as much.)
The use case, in my mind, is someone who is nervous about giving 25% of their income and not trying to keep 6 months of savings in case of disaster. If they did that, then something happens, they need to change their mind about some of the giving—but once they are back on their feet, they would go back to donating. However, if it’s building a way for people to later say “I want half my money back, to keep forever, now that I no longer want to do this,” I don’t think it’s worthwhile as a project.
That seems plausible—but I don’t know how this would work if there wasn’t any transparency about who was given money back, so I’m not sure how to avoid #3.
And For #2, I think the point is that this isn’t a payout for disaster, it’s a temporary solution to replace savings. Once they are back on their feet and able to donate, I’d think that paying a larger part into the fund makes sense. But I agree that it’s a different vision than using this as pure insurance.
I think you should probably also:
1. Cap the size of the reimbursement fund at some smaller portion than 10% of total receipts over time, and
2. Request that recipients repay their reimbursement, perhaps suggesting that instead of donating 10% of income going forward, they give through the new org, and put 50% of donations to reimburse their previously refunded payment and 50% to charity.
3. Disclose the payments to individuals with a 1-year lag unless the payment to them has been repaid, with the option for recipients to request a longer lag to announce for them to repay if they don’t want it announced.
As Linch says, this is a vision for this new fund that is different than what the OP and what I think sentiment supports.
In one generous vision, we have a institution where someone can donate most of their income each year. They can trust that if their loved one gets sick, they can pull out a large fraction of the money to help, like 99.99% of humanity. It’s none of our business if they do this. It’s a feature.
There is an aesthetic among older EAs (not carpet bagging arrivistes like myself) of donating huge fractions of their income, kidneys, etc. Some of these people are in great positions—some aren’t and I’ve heard of anecdotes where early EAs can get burnt out and in difficult situations later.
If you believe the above, a 10% limit and a public announcement of both their “clawback” (and implicitly their personal situation) is really different. I would guess this thins the value of this project to the degree that it’s not worth the legal and logistical challenges which are pretty big (there’s even a mechanism design sort of challenge).
I’d think that saying who was given money would be a pretty fundamental part of transparency for this, as is the expectation that people would continue giving once whatever emergency exists is resolved. Yes, 1 year is likely too short a time frame to repay if there is a huge need, but that’s why I’d say people should be able to suggest a longer time frame. (And if someone has a huge disaster and needs cash, I’d think that they wouldn’t mind people hearing that fact quite as much.)
The use case, in my mind, is someone who is nervous about giving 25% of their income and not trying to keep 6 months of savings in case of disaster. If they did that, then something happens, they need to change their mind about some of the giving—but once they are back on their feet, they would go back to donating. However, if it’s building a way for people to later say “I want half my money back, to keep forever, now that I no longer want to do this,” I don’t think it’s worthwhile as a project.
A lot of these choices seem unnecessarily punitive to me, not sure.
That seems plausible—but I don’t know how this would work if there wasn’t any transparency about who was given money back, so I’m not sure how to avoid #3.
And For #2, I think the point is that this isn’t a payout for disaster, it’s a temporary solution to replace savings. Once they are back on their feet and able to donate, I’d think that paying a larger part into the fund makes sense. But I agree that it’s a different vision than using this as pure insurance.