The Nonlinear Library EA - Here's where CEA staff are donating in 2023 by Oscar Howie
Nov 10, 2023
11:40
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Here's where CEA staff are donating in 2023, published by Oscar Howie on November 10, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Catherine Low
I took the
Giving What We Can pledge in 2015. Between 2015-2022, I've donated 10-15% of my income. This year is the first year where I'm not planning to donate my usual pledge amount; instead I've chosen to donate extra next year to make up for this.
2015-2022
Initially I focussed on Animal Charity Evaluators top charities (and to whatever charity won the
Giving Game I was running).
Then I started thinking more like a meta micro-funder - donating to projects/people I could donate to more easily (because of my knowledge or lack of constraints) than institutional donors could
Helping get ideas to the "applying for funding" stage
Helping through financially tricky situations - e.g. tiding them over between jobs or grants
2023
I began conserving my donations for potentially vulnerable initiatives I'm familiar with and really like, which might need support as a result of the drop in EA meta funding. While none of these have required funding thus far (thanks wonderful institutional donors!) I think I might see opportunities like this in 2024, and I have a couple of projects in mind that I'm ready to leap in and support.
Aside: Separately to my pledge I also "offset" my carbon emissions. I currently donate this to
Founders Pledge Climate Change Fund. I feel pretty mixed about this. I'm more worried about other risks and other current issues, so it's not a particularly "
EA thing to do". My motivations are "try not to be part of the problem" guilt reduction reasons plus social reasons (many of my friends and family are "flightless kiwis" and enthusiastic climate advocates, so I feel better about flying when I can say "I offset! Here's how!").
Shakeel Hashim
I took the Giving What We Can pledge at the end of last year, so this was my first "proper" year of donating 10% (though I ended up donating about 10% last year too). After taking the pledge, I made a
template for deciding how to allocate my donations to cause areas. The idea was that I want to take a portfolio approach (giving some to global health, some to existential security, and some to animal welfare), and also want to consider the overall resources I "donate", which includes my time. This led me to realise that because most of my work time recently has been spent on existential security stuff, and because I think my work time is much more valuable than the amount of money I donate, my donations should all go to global health stuff.
I'm also a big fan of encouraging new global health projects to appear, as I expect we might be able to find better projects than the current top-rated charities. That said, it's difficult to target donations to such projects. In practice, I donate 95% to the GiveWell All Charities Fund, and 5% to the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubated Charities Fund.
Angelina Li
I took the Giving What We Can pledge in 2016, when I was in college. In terms of how much I donate: From ~2018-2021, I was earning to give at a consulting firm, and gave somewhere between 20-40% of my income every year, mostly to effective animal advocacy charities.
Last year, I joined CEA, and it looks like I barely made my 10% threshold last year (mostly based on one large donation to the
animal welfare EA Fund in January). At the time, I think decreasing my donations was a reaction to a more cash-flush funding landscape, thinking my labour was now more valuable than my money, and wanting to save more after heading into a less lucrative career path. I regret this somewhat, looking back: I think I let my expenses ramp up too quickly and wish I had saved more to donate later. A smarter me would also have considered the benefits of preserving diverse funding options on a rainy day. Plus selfish...
Catherine Low
I took the
Giving What We Can pledge in 2015. Between 2015-2022, I've donated 10-15% of my income. This year is the first year where I'm not planning to donate my usual pledge amount; instead I've chosen to donate extra next year to make up for this.
2015-2022
Initially I focussed on Animal Charity Evaluators top charities (and to whatever charity won the
Giving Game I was running).
Then I started thinking more like a meta micro-funder - donating to projects/people I could donate to more easily (because of my knowledge or lack of constraints) than institutional donors could
Helping get ideas to the "applying for funding" stage
Helping through financially tricky situations - e.g. tiding them over between jobs or grants
2023
I began conserving my donations for potentially vulnerable initiatives I'm familiar with and really like, which might need support as a result of the drop in EA meta funding. While none of these have required funding thus far (thanks wonderful institutional donors!) I think I might see opportunities like this in 2024, and I have a couple of projects in mind that I'm ready to leap in and support.
Aside: Separately to my pledge I also "offset" my carbon emissions. I currently donate this to
Founders Pledge Climate Change Fund. I feel pretty mixed about this. I'm more worried about other risks and other current issues, so it's not a particularly "
EA thing to do". My motivations are "try not to be part of the problem" guilt reduction reasons plus social reasons (many of my friends and family are "flightless kiwis" and enthusiastic climate advocates, so I feel better about flying when I can say "I offset! Here's how!").
Shakeel Hashim
I took the Giving What We Can pledge at the end of last year, so this was my first "proper" year of donating 10% (though I ended up donating about 10% last year too). After taking the pledge, I made a
template for deciding how to allocate my donations to cause areas. The idea was that I want to take a portfolio approach (giving some to global health, some to existential security, and some to animal welfare), and also want to consider the overall resources I "donate", which includes my time. This led me to realise that because most of my work time recently has been spent on existential security stuff, and because I think my work time is much more valuable than the amount of money I donate, my donations should all go to global health stuff.
I'm also a big fan of encouraging new global health projects to appear, as I expect we might be able to find better projects than the current top-rated charities. That said, it's difficult to target donations to such projects. In practice, I donate 95% to the GiveWell All Charities Fund, and 5% to the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubated Charities Fund.
Angelina Li
I took the Giving What We Can pledge in 2016, when I was in college. In terms of how much I donate: From ~2018-2021, I was earning to give at a consulting firm, and gave somewhere between 20-40% of my income every year, mostly to effective animal advocacy charities.
Last year, I joined CEA, and it looks like I barely made my 10% threshold last year (mostly based on one large donation to the
animal welfare EA Fund in January). At the time, I think decreasing my donations was a reaction to a more cash-flush funding landscape, thinking my labour was now more valuable than my money, and wanting to save more after heading into a less lucrative career path. I regret this somewhat, looking back: I think I let my expenses ramp up too quickly and wish I had saved more to donate later. A smarter me would also have considered the benefits of preserving diverse funding options on a rainy day. Plus selfish...