Great to go through this post again. Thanks, Saulius!
Fungibility. If a charity does multiple programs, donating to it could fail to increase spending on the program you want to support, even if you restrict your donation. Suppose a charity was planning to spend $1 million of its unrestricted funds on a program. If you donate $1,000 and restrict it to that program, the charity could still spend exactly $1 million on the program and use an additional $1,000 of unrestricted funds on other programs.
Here is a model of the cost-effectiveness of restricted donations.
“if you donate some bread to hungry civilians in this warzone, then this military group will divert all the excess recourses above subsistence to further its political / military goals”. Guess now you have no way to increase their wellbeing! Just buy more troops for this military organization!
That’s some top tier untrustworthy move. If some charity did that with my donation I would mentally blacklist it for eternity
Great to go through this post again. Thanks, Saulius!
Here is a model of the cost-effectiveness of restricted donations.
“if you donate some bread to hungry civilians in this warzone, then this military group will divert all the excess recourses above subsistence to further its political / military goals”. Guess now you have no way to increase their wellbeing! Just buy more troops for this military organization!
That’s some top tier untrustworthy move. If some charity did that with my donation I would mentally blacklist it for eternity