I like this initiative! Just a suggestion: On the Google Form, it would help if the questions “Describe briefly your technical background” and “Describe briefly your involvement in Effective Altruism” were “Paragraph” inputs instead of “Short answer.”
Avi Norowitz
Karma: 692
He links to it from his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1613522399269650434
Kelsey’s correction.
I missed this as well: “I also ask that if you claimed one of these free cards last year, you either let others participate this year or pass this offer along to someone else who hasn’t received one yet.”
I’ve received the gift card but have not redeemed it. If anyone misses out on receiving a gift card this time around and hasn’t received one last year either, send me a message and I’ll give you mine.
I actually had to resubmit the donation:
Just following up here. It seems there was an error and the donation failed to process. If you would like to retry the donation to Centre for Effective Altruism USA, the match should automatically be applied.
While resubmitting the donation with a credit card, it did indicate that I would get $100 matched. I’m not sure if this will be the case for other donors with PayPal issues, or if it’s necessary for each donor to contact every.org for help.
I actually had to resubmit the donation:
Just following up here. It seems there was an error and the donation failed to process. If you would like to retry the donation to Centre for Effective Altruism USA, the match should automatically be applied.
While resubmitting the donation with a credit card, it did indicate that I would get $100 matched. I’m not sure if this will be the case for other donors with PayPal issues, or if it’s necessary for each donor to contact every.org for help.
I think the following should probably be considered EA-aligned nonprofits (at least marginally) as well, which would imply somewhat higher impact:
Our World in Data: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/tag/our-world-in-data
Crate Free Illinois: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/crate-free-illinois-campaigning-against-gestation-crates
Living Goods: https://www.givewell.org/charities/living-goods-November-2014-version
International Refugee Assistance Project: IRAP: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2020
Population Services International: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/best-charities/population-services-international/
Seva Foundation: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/best-charities/seva/
Pratham USA: https://www.givewell.org/international/charities/pratham
Wow, very impressive! I badly underestimated how much matching funds would be directed to EA-aligned nonprofits. And since the matching funds has been increased to $350k, this number is likely to go up significantly.
I count $210k in donations towards nonprofits that are at least marginally EA-aligned, out of $252k currently (83%):https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/134p73NxhVvB8ggP4uu0kNwttbvb0KNk7PSh6ZLwzKZY/edit#gid=1518752980
But that may be an underestimate, because the page only lists the top 100 nonprofits. So there could be more EA-aligned nonprofits that are each receiving ⇐ $210 in matching funds and are not listed. If we consider just the top 100, then that’s $210k out of $238k (88%).
I posted this on another thread, but for visibility, I reported my PayPal issue to Every.org and received this reply:
Hi Avi,
Thank you so much for your generosity and participating in the #FallGivingChallenge!
Due to the sudden high volume, PayPal seems to be holding our transactions and your donations are currently stuck in “pending” for us. We are investigating the issue and will let you know when we have an update.
The match will be applied after the PayPal donation is cleared and you will receive a receipt then. We will make sure you receive both the $100 and $10 match for sharing for your first donation to Centre for Effective Altruism USA.
Thank you for the detailed feedback: we are making a change to issue receipts for PayPal donations immediately to reduce confusion.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you once again for using Every.org!
— Tina, co-founder & COO at Every.org
I reported the issue to Every.org and received this reply:
Hi Avi,
Thank you so much for your generosity and participating in the #FallGivingChallenge!
Due to the sudden high volume, PayPal seems to be holding our transactions and your donations are currently stuck in “pending” for us. We are investigating the issue and will let you know when we have an update.
The match will be applied after the PayPal donation is cleared and you will receive a receipt then. We will make sure you receive both the $100 and $10 match for sharing for your first donation to Centre for Effective Altruism USA.
Thank you for the detailed feedback: we are making a change to issue receipts for PayPal donations immediately to reduce confusion.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you once again for using Every.org!
— Tina, co-founder & COO at Every.org
As far as I can tell, not at all.
I tried to submit a donation to CEA via PayPal and it didn’t work right. I’m not sure how representative my experience is but it may be preferable for others to use credit card.
For my PayPal donation to CEA:
I can’t remember whether I got a confirmation dialog.
I did not receive an email receipt from every.org.
I don’t see the transaction in my PayPal activity.
But:
My profile says I’ve supported CEA.
When I try to donate again to CEA, I don’t see the +$100 match.
So I’m not sure what happened. I submitted 4 more donations to other nonprofits via credit card and all those went through fine.
I may follow-up with every.org if/when I have time to report the issue.
Academic social science research is often a better fit for the EA research fund or Food Systems Fund because of their expertise + focus.
Did you mean the ACE Research Fund / Animal Advocacy Research Fund?
Peter Hurford made a related argument in To Inspire People to Give, Be Public About Your Giving, though it’s more focused on maximizing impact vs helping your friends find fulfillment.
I strongly suspect the kidney donations in question are mostly to other Jews, and maybe mostly to other Orthodox Jews. The organization mentioned in the video is Renewal, which “helps facilitate kidney matches within the Jewish community.”
And with regard to Matnat Chaim: “In a report aired on Israel’s Channel 2 Sunday, the Health Ministry said the policy leads to possible discrimination, noting that at least half of Matnat Chaim’s donors request Jewish recipients.”
In general, Orthodox Jews are very altruistic towards other Jews, and especially other Orthodox Jews. However, the impression I have is that they tend to be tribalistic and unlikely to favor expanded moral circles. So I don’t think they’re a good target audience for EA.
(I grew up Orthodox Jewish, but I’m now an atheist.)
It looks like GiveWell may have advertised on more than 35 podcasts! They talk about their podcast advertising here and here.
80,000 Hours is not a US registered nonprofit. CEA accepted donations for them for EA Giving Tuesday with arrangements we made in advance. Around half of the nonprofits on our list required similar arrangements.
FHI is not a US registered nonprofit either and was not eligible for receiving EA Giving Tuesday donations.
As far as I know Effective Altruism Foundation and Founder’s Pledge are totally different nonprofits.
Effective Altruism Foundation runs a few programs, including Center on Long-term Risk: https://ea-foundation.org/projects/
I’d suggest reading prior discussions of the so-called “poor meat eater problem.”
I see a few problems with this argument. (These are mostly not original ideas.)
This argument would likely reflect badly on EA and/or animal advocacy if it became more common and more public. Unpopular arguments may be worth it if the benefits of arguing them outweigh the costs, but that seems unlikely here.
If you believe farmed animal welfare is the cause area that warrants the highest priority, then you should be looking for the most cost-effective interventions within that cause area. There are interventions in this area that seem very cost-effective, such as corporate campaigns, and it seems unlikely that persuading EAs working in global poverty that their interventions are harmful, or pursuing human population control interventions instead, is anywhere near as cost-effective.
This analysis looks at one potential flow-through effect of EA global poverty interventions, and does not consider any others that could potentially benefit animals:
Good things can lead to more good things, e.g. Open Phil has recommended $80 million in effective grants towards farmed animal welfare, but they would not exist if GiveWell had not established their credibility in global poverty. (Open Phil started out as a GiveWell project called GiveWell Labs.)
Solving human problems may free up resources for solving animal welfare problems.
Increases in human population and/or consumption may lead to decreases in wild animal populations, which may reduce wild animal suffering.
It’s better if EAs working on global poverty and animal welfare are cooperative rather than antagonistic.
I worked with Marisa for several years on EA Giving Tuesday, during which time she provided valuable support to the project. I regret that I had not kept in touch with Marisa for a number of years after that, and was both surprised and sad to learn about this news.