EA - Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 2022 by GiveWell

Link to original articleWelcome 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: Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 2022, published by GiveWell on December 19, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Author: Isabel Arjmand, GiveWell Special Projects OfficerFor this post, a number of GiveWell staff members volunteered to share the thinking behind their personal donations for the year. We’ve published similar posts in previous years.[1] Staff are listed alphabetically by first name.You can click the links in the table of contents on the left to jump to a staff member’s entry.Andrew Martin (Senior Research Associate)I continue to be impressed by the care and thoughtfulness I see from my colleagues in making grant allocation decisions. Seeing and participating in this work informs my decision to give all of my donation this year to the All Grants Fund. In addition to GiveWell's Top Charities, I'm excited to be able to support other highly cost-effective programs through the All Grants Fund, as highlighted in this blog post.Audrey Cooper (Philanthropy Advisor)We plan to donate to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund again this year. Each of the top charity programs has substantial funding needs, such that they could reach more people and save more lives if they receive more donations. I'm excited to help these programs close the gap.We also plan to continue our support of the International Refugee Assistance Project and criminal justice organizations. Throughout the year, we also make smaller donations to local causes (such as services for people experiencing homelessness, community gardens, etc.) as well as gifts in honor of friends to their charities of choice.Elie Hassenfeld (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)This year, my family is planning to give 80% of our annual donation to GiveWell's All Grants Funds and 20% to GiveDirectly.We're giving to GiveWell's All Grants Fund because it gives GiveWell the most flexibility to direct funds where we (GiveWell staff) think they will do the most good. This may mean supporting programs at Top Charities, but it could mean funding newer organizations, research, or more speculative opportunities that are high (expected) impact.Our decision to give to GiveDirectly is less straightforward. Based on GiveWell's cost-effectiveness models, the funds my family is giving to GiveDirectly would do more good if given elsewhere (roughly speaking, GiveWell's best estimate is that funds to top charities and the All Grants Fund do about ten times as much good in expectation).We're giving 20% to GiveDirectly for two reasons:When I talk to people who aren't already familiar with GiveWell's work, I often reference GiveDirectly. Many people aren't aware of the vast income disparities between high-income and low-income countries. I talk about GiveDirectly because (a) it's very simple and easy to explain and (b) years ago, I visited GiveDirectly's program in Kenya, so I'm able to speak personally and specifically about people who benefited from GiveDirectly's work. For example, I often tell people about a specific family I met who received ~$1,000 from GiveDirectly. Like many other families, they chose to use part of their cash transfer to replace their thatched roof with a metal one. Before receiving these funds, when it rained in the middle of the night, the family (if I recall correctly, a mother and two children) would have to move out to a neighbor's house that was ~60 feet away to stay dry. They'd come back the next day to find their belongings soaked.Or, when I talk to people with an interest in evaluation, I tell them that, when I visited Kenya, GiveDirectly enabled me to randomly select households to visit. On any site visit, donors should expect that organizations are aiming to shape a compelling narrative of their impact, so I loved that GiveDirectly helped me see a more representative picture ...