Who I donate to

Expensive virtue signalling

2019-08-20 — 2026-03-05

Wherein a register of recurring gifts is set down, about 3% of income, with preference being given to hits-based system-changers in Melbourne housing, Australian integrity, and privacy-preserving software.

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Figure 1

1 Why this list

Some public goods I long for are best attained by outsourcing rather than trying to create them myself; i.e., I give someone else money to provide them for all of us. That’s what a charitable donation is. I mention my specific donations here because

  1. I believe in normalizing donating in general as part of a healthy society. This is a contingent stance; many of the causes I donate to aim to reduce the need for charitable donation, which I think is better than relying on affluent guilt.

  2. I hope that by highlighting the specific causes I donate to, I’ll encourage others to donate to them, so the publicity is useful leverage.

  3. For my own reference, I want a centralized list of who I’m donating to so that I can stop my donations if I decide a recipient is no longer the best place to send my money.

  4. Maybe by sharing this list, I’ll get feedback and better ideas about who I should donate to, and we can engage constructively to improve my strategy.

  5. I hope people will think I’m a nice person for giving money to strangers.

    Bonus: Maybe if donating to saving the planet becomes the new conspicuous consumption, then not only will I look like a nice guy, I’ll even have a liveable planet to show off on, and people around to impress.

Good. Let’s make it rain.

Figure 2

Listing organizations here should not be taken as my personal endorsement of any individual tactical decision made by any of the organizations or individuals mentioned, nor my blanket support of all positions they may adopt. It does indicate that I feel giving them money nets out as good on average.

Unlike, say, classic marginalist-style Effective Altruist organizations’ donor lists, there’s less emphasis here on low-variance subjects like mosquito nets. I’m more interested in moonshots and Hail Mary punts and other high-variance strategies, i.e. hits-based giving.

I’m especially interested in organizations that aim to change the system so we can solve problems for ourselves, i.e. disruptive changers. That is, I mostly give to lobbyists, capacity builders, and tool builders. IMO, this is a higher-risk, higher-expected-reward strategy than important, near‑certain interventions like mosquito nets, and, TBH, I also personally benefit from it. Enlightened mutual interest is kind of my whole thing. Also, we’re at a point in human history where high-risk, high-reward is pretty much the only wise strategy. Hail Mary bets all the way.

For reference, my current donation level is unknown because I’m changing contracts at the moment, but it was 3% of my income when I last calculated. Unless there’s a truly exceptional burning emergency or matching funding from a donor, I try to give as regular recurring payments to provide budgeting certainty to both the organization and me. Also, organizations that raise funding through alarmism learn unhealthy habits around crying wolf.

2 Money donations

2.1 Housing and energy abundance

2.2 Civil liberties and anti-corruption

Previously:

Richard Boyle, whose persecution by the Australian government for whistleblowing on government activity is one of several test cases in the Australian authoritarian turn. No longer taking donations.

2.3 Software

The next few are about confidentiality-respecting and/or open-source computing infrastructure.

2.4 Art and culture

As a side dish, I give money to some creators whose work I enjoy. This is a smaller amount than my donations to political activity, and I also get benefits (ad‑free versions of the podcast, etc.), so I’m not sure it fully counts — but I’d still consume their content if I didn’t donate, so let’s count that too. Various creators on Patreon that I can’t work out how to link to en masse:

3 Time donations

My current work is all-consuming and I no longer volunteer as a data scientist for arbitrary external organizations because my attempts to do so were stressful and low-yield.

I will likely try to spin up my own civitech project this year as a bit of low-key community organizing.

4 Incoming