Sanctimony is easier on a blog than in person
by squelchtoad
People who read my blog and believe in effective philanthropy, what do you do when someone asks you for money for something he or she is doing “for charity” (“sponsor me in the walk for the foodbank,” “sponsor my marathon for cancer research,” etc.)?
There are several things I always imagine myself doing at this point:
- Launching into a sanctimonious spiel about effective philanthropy. I do not do this, believe it or not. It violates the principles expressed in my previous post.
- Being noncommittal and hoping my friend forgets.
- Giving the money and seeing it as a present to my friend (See?!? I care about you and your marathon!) rather than as a charitable donation.
3. Is obviously the most comfortable option. Is it the right one?
“Easy” way out: you shouldn’t have money to give. You should be using it all between necessities, savings, and your current charitable work.
Related: Should I give from my (small) income to charity now, or should I invest it and give more later? I expect the improvements in the effectiveness of charity to outstrip inflation (not least because the effective philanthropy movement is its methodological infancy) but maybe that’s naive.
I tell then that I only give to malaria research right now (and stick to it).
Re the investing in the future: my guess is that it’s worth it to get in the habit of giving some percentage of your income to charity, even if it’s a small percent/small sum, so you don’t forget to switch strategies when you actually have money. (Plus you’ll make no interest on a savings account right now anyway!)
[...] ended up promoting the petition drive on the blog, but I’ll confess, I did it much more in a Squelchtoadian spirit of giving a gift to a friend, than because I thought it was a good option for activism. And I followed by general rule of [...]
[...] ended up promoting the petition drive on the blog, but I’ll confess, I did it much more in a Squelchtoadian spirit of giving a gift to a friend, than because I thought it was a good option for activism. And I followed by general rule of [...]