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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4656 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 26, 2023

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What charitable organizations, activist groups, political entities etc. do you donate to? I'm finding that I have enough slack in the budget each month that I'd like to support some good causes. Starting off with some local orgs but keen for more ideas.

Givewell, Focus Ireland, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation and my local rape crisis centre get recurring donations every month. I've donated to the Uyghur Human Rights Project once and will likely do so again.

Institute for Justice, which is on a crusade against stupid occupational licensing requirements.

Against Malaria Foundation, Helen Keller International, Clean Air Task Force, GiveDirectly, WaterAid America.

More here if you want to look through further areas.

After many years of donating to a worldwide charity (Mercy Corps), a few years back I redirected that money to local causes. I split equally between the local food bank and a private school for homeless children (California so this is a large population). However I am considering switching it all to the food bank as I am more confident that money is being used wisely.

Donate local. You'll be more likely to know where it is going, you can become more of a local fixture, you're going to get more credit at lower amounts, etc. None of that might be important to you in and of itself, but why get X when for the same money you can get X+Y? Unless you're convinced that for the same money you're getting that much more value from a national org, give only locally.

Depends on what you value. Standard utilitarian calculus demands donating to the third world for highest impact.

Utilitarianism is fundamentally incompatible with human flourishing.

While you’re still yelling at clouds I’ll be riding my spaceship around new solar systems pumping out utilons by the quadrillion, old man. ;)

Local animal shelter. I also started subscribing more to independent content creators - we need some alternatives to the mainstream press that has abandoned its mission completely, and the only way to do this that I see is to enable grassroots financing of the alternatives.

Givewell's maximum impact fund

I'm in this boat too. Would be particularly interested in organizations where no one draws a salary. Most non-profits are a grift. A non-profit with no salaries sends a strong signal about commitment level to the cause.

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