Well over a year ago, I wrote my first blog post about charity, where I explained some of the (many) factors that I looked into when considering how to allocate my donation dollars. I promised to write two more posts on my favorite charities and explain why I liked them so much - and those posts never materialized (my two favorite, at the time, were ReadWorks [links here and here] and The Citizens Foundation [links here, here, and here]). Whoops!

This post isn’t about ReadWorks or TCF. It’s actually about the other charities; the other charitable acts that we do. In short: you suck at donating. I recently fell down the effectively altruism rabbit hole - this post isn’t about that. The EA community seems to focus on a few things that I don’t fully agree with, but the basic idea that you should give your resources (time and money) where it helps the most is one that everyone should easily be on board with. If I gave you a magic wand and said that waving one would cure cancer for 10 people and waving the other would cure cancer for 20; you’d pick the latter (or, you should wave both, and cure disease for 30 people). Everyone’s on board.

But the issue is that we routinely fail at identifying causes that are actually important and/or helpful. Availability/recency bias is largely to blame; I’m not saying I’m any better. But awareness is the first of 12 steps; perhaps I’ll discover something wonderful out of all of this.

people’s donations are influenced by what’s hot

George Floyd died on May 25, 2020. Over the course of the days and weeks that followed, people started becoming very active in supporting certain types of charities - all of them targeted at helping Black people. This is not a bad thing per se - as I’ve written about before, there exists clear examples of race effects in American society (even after accounting for wealth/income). But what was different about society for Black people on May 25th as opposed to May 24th? It’s not like America became more discriminatory over the course of those 8 minutes and 46 seconds. But all of a sudden, people were ready to donate to BLM or related causes overnight. Anecdotally, plenty of acquaintances at tech companies decided to use their company match to help double other people’s donations. LinkedIn was seemingly full of companies announcing partnerships and donations to organizations that were designed to help Black students get a job/afford college/etc. Companies were actually donating or announcing donations to organizations.

Maybe it’s the case that George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests resulted in people legitimately rethinking how to best give their money. I’m sure that there’s a not-insignificant group of people that legitimately believe that racial justice is the most pressing issue today, that all of their excess time and money and effort should go to fighting for equity. But (at the risk of being cynical) I just don’t believe that the majority of people fall into that category. My LinkedIn feed is now back to where it was before May 2020: students and companies trying to hype themselves up (I’m so grateful for my offer! We’re looking for talented students!). I don’t hear about people working in Big Tech trying to help other people match their donations to charities supporting Black people.

The “hot” charity cause comes and goes. A few months ago, it was racial justice (it still is, to a certain extent). A few years ago, it was ALS (and people dumping buckets of ice on their heads). If a cause is hot, that doesn’t mean it’s bad - ALS and racial justice are objectively issues that demand solutions. But don’t just go chasing the shiny new cause. Availability bias (well, it’s really the recency bias that I’m discussing here) can distract you from the actually important thing.

people want to “feel a connection” to charity

The other side of availability bias is geographic closeness. I’ve often heard the sentiment that people want to be able to “feel a connection” to where there money is going; I don’t think that this is intrinsically bad. I want to be able to see photos of the organization in action or to hear stories of those who have benefitted to make sure that my money is being actually used to help people (or animals. Whatever floats your boat.) I’ve also heard (and rightly so!) that feeling a connection to the charity makes donors feel better about their decision, and makes them more likely to donate (whether in general or to that charity) in the future. I don’t have data to back that up, but it seems reasonable and intuitive enough.

I don’t like the idea of needing to feel a connection when I think of how limited geographically that connection often is. I’m lucky to have traveled to many parts of the world; I know for a fact just how much worse people in poorer nations have it (and how much further a dollar can go there). Here’s the short version of my point: if “feeling a connection” means somehow relating to the charitable cause, you’re likely to pass up organizations and efforts that are more worthy of your help that are outside your zone of familiarity. Malaria nets and energy poverty and deworming initatives are completely unknown to a vast majority of Americans; that doesn’t make them any less real.

unsexy charities need your money too

I reached out to one of the Googlers that had offered to help match donations to BLM-related causes, and I asked about whether I could get my donation to an educational nonprofit matched. At that time, he wasn’t focused on that. Another friend who works at Bloomberg also had a matching opportunity, but for a list of charities decided by the company. I asked about 8 or so different charities - none of them on the list.

There are charities out there that are “unsexy”, in the sense that they won’t be a hot trend. They aren’t remotely operating in North America, so it’s unlikely that you’ll hear of them in the first place. Organizations that fight malaria by providing nets or offering preventative medications aren’t sexy. Organizations that provide Vitamin A supplements or operate deworming initiatives aren’t sexy. But they work on problems that are just as real as racial justice and ALS, often without widespread support.

If you’re looking for unsexy charities, I’d highly recommend starting off with GiveWell’s shortlist, or using Charity Navigator to do research.

what i struggle with

While I won’t commit myself to having my very next post be about nonprofits, I can say that I’d certainly expect to return to this topic fairly often. I still don’t know how to find unsexy charities - right now, I’m just outsourcing the work to GiveWell. When I do choose to do my own research, I often find myself defaulting to supporting education in the US - because it’s a cause that resonates with me. But doesn’t that sound hypocritical?

how to: not suck at donating

Finally, a few last points.

1. You can’t just give money and call it a day. Money is helpful, but actions matter, too.

2. You can’t just donate post a black square and end racism, not will dumping solid water on your head cure ALS. Don’t follow the current when it comes to what’s popular.

3. This takes effort.

4. Don’t donate for yourself - the purpose of donating money isn’t to make you feel good about yourself. It’s to make the world a better place; to give to those who are in a worse situation than you.