Thanks for all this work on this! A few comments and questions:
1. I think there’s another important benefit that I didn’t see mentioned: There’s a risk that people’s donations may be influenced towards less effective organizations just for the tax deduction. Permitting people to get tax deductions when donating to a wide variety of effective organizations can help mitigate this risk. My guess is that this is a more important consideration than tax deductions providing incentives to donate more.
2. Do Canadian donors already have a way to get tax deductions for donating to EA Funds? It seems like it could be worthwhile to give Canadian donors this option, though the benefits would need to be weighed against any administrative overhead it would create for RC and CEA.
3. Have you thought about permitting something like an optional 5% “tip” when people make their donations to help fund your operations? Perhaps opt-in by default? I have seen this option Crowdfunding websites, for instance. GiveWell also has an optional 10% “tip,” though they’re opt-out by default, and their value-add is different.
I don’t think Facebook permits automated donations, so I don’t think this will be feasible.