Austin avatar
Austin
resolved Dec 22
Which charity will I send $10k to this year?

I'm looking to donate some of my mana balance this year, at least $10k worth of mana (drawn from my mana salary). Where will I send it?

In the past, I've mostly gone with defaults like:

This year I've become much more familiar with the EA community, and expect to have different preferences based on knowing the people at some of these orgs and following their work more closely. Roughly speaking, I'm sympathetic to longtermism and GHD more than animal welfare/biosecurity, and most excited about things that look startupy/cruxy/manifoldy.

But I'd love to hear about excellent opportunities I may have missed, via free response entries or comments!

I'll aim to donate at least $10k to one single charity, and will resolve this market to the first such charity I do so for 2022.

Balsa Research
Chosen
28%
Austin avatarRethink Priorities
39%
jack avatarLong-Term Future Fund
8%
JavierPrieto avatarStrongMinds
7%
JavierPrieto avatarSwift Centre
7%
Austin avatarQURI
3%
Austin avatar1DaySooner
1.5%
WilliamHoward avatarCharity Entrepreneurship
1.2%

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Austin avatar
Austin

As of right now, I've sent:
$11k to Balsa Research

$10k to Rethink Priorities

$5k to QURI

$5k to Givewell

Thanks to everyone for discussions on this subject!

PeterWildeford avatar
Peter Wildeford

@Austin Thanks for the support!

jack avatar
Jackbought Ṁ10 of Long-Term Future Fund
jack avatar
Jackbought Ṁ5 of Balsa Research

For me, Long Term Future Fund is my current baseline/default. I am also a fan of EA infra/meta work but I don't have a great idea of how to compare them (yet). I think we have reasonably similar preferences and thinking.

I didn't consider Rethink Priorities at the time, they seem like a very strong contender at a glance but I haven't evaluated them deeply.

Austin answered
Balsa Research
Austin avatar
Austin

@Austin Fulfills the "startup-y" criteria and also tackles an area that has been underpowered. I have also sent donations before to @ZviMowshowitz for his Covid posts. Concerns here might be that 1) Balsa isn't funding constrained, or 2) Balsa turns out not to be that valuable because the problem area of "actually getting policies implemented in govt" is too intractable

Austin answered
Rethink Priorities
Austin avatar
Austin

@Austin I've already sent $1k via Manifold to RP; I like their transparency a lot (very high-quality EA forum posts detailing how they think about their work); and @PeterWildeford is an active Manifold user and I'd like to bribe other charities into forecasting more often 😉

PeterWildeford avatar
Peter Wildeford

@Austin Thank you for your support!

AmmonLam avatar
Ammon Lam

When you donate to charity, does your mana balance actually go down?

Austin avatar
Austinbought Ṁ50 of Rethink Priorities

@AmmonLam Yup! Though a lot of the mana balance is being held by my mule account @NinthCause at the moment

Austin avatar
Austin

(I mostly do this to keep my own mana balance as a rough approximation of what other users on the site might experience, for better dogfooding. It was also a funny pseudonym, once upon a time)

AmmonLam avatar
Ammon Lam

@Austin Thanks for the info, first time I find out that @NinthCause exist! Is there an article somewhere that explains how mana balance for Manifold employee works?

Questions such as: Can manifold employee/ @NinthCause print Mana out of thin air? How much monthly "mana allowance" are given to each manifold employee?
Are there limitations to what market manifold employee can patriciate in?

Austin avatar
Austin

@AmmonLam Thanks for asking! Not a comprehensive article unfortunately, but briefly:

  • Every Manifold employee gets 1 million mana a year ($10k) to donate to charity (or spend otherwise)

  • I get more (~$110k a year) because I take only $1 of salary

  • Otherwise, Manifold employees are not supposed to print mana for themselves

  • We don't limit what markets Manifold team members participate in

AmmonLam avatar
Ammon Lam

@Austin the explanation is clear, thanks!

PeterWildeford avatar
Peter Wildeford

@Austin Amazing that you get your salary in Manifold dollars