2015 Birthday Fundraising Debrief

It has been one week since the "end" of my fundraising campaign around my birthday. I do have the added benefit of having a birthday around the holidays so I may have a few more donations trickle in, in lieu of holiday gifts, but not many. So I'm gonna call it here.

That is before any matching donations! So we definitely hit our goal of $2000. (If someone wants to work out the number of QUALYs here I would love to know the firm number) I am pumped about how much money we were able to raise. I'm also sort of amused with my friends that figured out how to game the matching pledge by donating $27 several times. It seems like a dirty trick perhaps, but I think it is in keeping with the spirit of trying to maximize the amount of good you are doing. After all I'm always a fan of a good ploy. And I don't think our generous donor will mind overmuch, nice young gentleman that he is.

Though I did notice a distinct difference in how fundraising felt this year compared to last year. It felt easy. Which is good I suppose, but it also got me wondering if I really reached my real goal. Sure for this year the monetary goal was raising over $2K, but my overall goal for the project is to spread the idea of being selective and thoughtful about charity donations and inspiring people to give more often. I feel much less successful in this goal, primarily because it did feel so easy. I didn't have to convince anyone, or explain why I was raising money.

Why?
Probably because most of my friends, and those who donated, are effective altruists.

They didn't need to be convinced that AMF is a great organization; it has consistently been among GiveWell's top charities (with the exception of 2009 & 2013). So it didn't take much convincing to get friends and acquaintances from the EA community to pony up $27 to the fundraiser. Actually it took no convincing. I just posted it on Facebook 4-5 times and let money come in.

There were of course larger donations from close relatives etc. but in general it was friends affiliated with EA. Great friends! Close, wonderful, lovely friends, that I am very thankful for. But if one of my goals is to disseminate effective altruism ideas to people that otherwise wouldn't be exposed to them, well then these friends aren't my target audience.

I think there is a combination of things happening:

- My main avenue of advertisement was through Facebook & email.
- It is harder to see what emails were successful in garnering donations
- EAs are exceptionally active on Facebook compared with other groups
- The percentage of EA contacts I have on Facebook has grown hugely since EAGlobal & helping to organizing SeattleEA
- Other peers don't use or check Facebook, most of whom are people I don't have email addresses for
- My posts likely don't get a high ranking on the newsfeeds of those that do use Facebook frequently, such as extended family
- I didn't feel the pressure to advocate/advertise as strongly this year since I knew I would get support from other effective altruists
- I knew who was likely to donate based on last year's donations so I primarily targeted those individuals

So while the monetary goal was reached I still feel like I could have done better this year because I did not reach very many people. Last year I spent a fair amount of time putting myself out there and candidly asking for donations from family and coworkers. I also asked many people to share the fundraiser with their friends. Next year I should do more of this direct solicitation, and I am hoping to advocate more for the dissemination of the story by people that support it. Hopefully this will mean that I reach a broader audience.

This hesitance to solicit people also leads me to the uncomfortable conclusion that over the last year I have done a less than fantastic job of maintaining friendships with those outside of the effective altruism community. Because of this I felt uncomfortable asking for donations directly without warming them up first. While this conclusion is uncomfortable I think it is highly likely and is something I should think more about.

I would love to hear other ideas of how to effectively market the fundraiser for next year or ways to prevent this year's failure modes. I find that I can create lots of marketing ideas for others, but when trying to apply it to myself I fall short. My restrictions are needing things to be time and cost effective.

The obvious solution is to simply aim to raise a larger amount of money in order to pressure myself into action. One thought that came to mind was filming part of getting the tattoo this year and using the video somehow. Though honestly getting a tattoo is mostly boring, so I don't know how well this would play out.

What would convince you to share a fundraiser with friends & family? Is there an obvious or easy way to get more people interested that I am missing?

Otherwise I'll fall back to my default:

Bad jokes, scantly related to the topic at hand. And no one wants that.

This year's holiday season may change they way you think about giving

Even though I have finally just recovered from Halloween candy binge, cleaned up the makeup extravaganza, and removed the spider webs from my bushes,  the stores and shops have wasted no time stetting up their holiday displays around town. Though many (OK most) of us are bemoaning the fact that these displays have gone up before Thanksgiving, there is another undercurrent of furious activity this time of year. While we remain blissfully unaware of the stream of requests and appeals we are about receive, fundraisers and philanthropists alike are gearing up for the 2015 giving season.

meme credit to Evan Gaensbauer

Almost anyone tangentially related to the nonprofit sector is familiar with end of the year giving. Donation based organizations are putting together wish lists and development departments are reviewing their donor lists and optimizing the timing of their Facebook posts. There is a tremendous hustle that goes into this time of the year for nonprofits. With nonprofits raising 33% of their income in the month of December alone, and programs like #GivingTuesday, the nonprofit answer to black Friday and cyber Monday, their is big money to be had in reminding consumers that the holidays are traditionally a time of giving.

And most of this hustle pays off. Donors make big decisions this time of year around how they want to make their last, and usually largest, donations before the end of the tax year. But for as much hustle goes into soliciting donations, those of us writing the checks do woefully little research.

According to the Money for Good survey results only 6% of donors spend any time comparing the impact of nonprofits they donate to. Comparing that to the $358.38 billion Americans gave in 2014: last year over 377 billion dollars were handed out with less thought than most of us is give to our coffee order.

But this year there has been a growing amount of press around the effective altruism movement. Based around the idea that we should carefully weigh each decision to give, and that each human life is equally valuable, regardless of distance or status. The movement has gained growing support from people like international poker players, and even celebrities.

While most of us can't live off of just 6% of our income, some additional probing, and critical thinking into where we send our money may be in order. Unfortunately most giving decisions revolve around who has a better marketing campaign, who has a more recognizable name, and who has a lower overhead. Unfortunately none of these things actually measures the effectiveness of carrying out an organization's mission. So where do we begin?

While it can be relatively simple to give to a cause that you just read about, and to get excited about the newest coolest charity innovation, the desire to make our donation decisions easy is a problematic one. What really excites me about fundraising around my birthday each year isn't just watching the money roll in, or translating how many lives are saved based on that number. The really exciting part is getting to talk to everyone about giving.

While I don't do a lot of year end giving, my birthday rather conveniently falls right before the holiday season really begins. So each year I ask friends and relatives to donate money to a highly effective cause, rather than buy me a pint at the bar, or send me a gift card come December. This gives family members an easy out when it comes to figuring out what to send, and it gives me an opportunity to share a really effective cause.

Often we are discouraged from talking about our giving habits, donation dollars aren't brought up, and asking someone where they choose to donate is taboo. However this air of secrecy means that we lack a strong discourse in our communities around what charity really means, we don't celebrate each other work we do, and we don't talk about how giving influences our lives and makes us richer. It also means that we don't always talk about how we choose the charities and causes we donate to. Because we regard our philanthropy as so private we loose out on the opportunity to share notes and compare stories around giving. We loose out on the opportunity to learn about new programs, and think critically about our giving decisions.

The last few decades of human existence has seen the elimination of smallpox, the near extinction of polio, an increase in global wealth, and a decrease in extreme poverty. However there is still so much left to do.

So this year when you start getting pamphlets and greeting cards in your mailbox from different organizations, take a moment to consider how you can have the most impact on the world. Or when Aunt Delores calls you asking what you want for the holidays this year, tell her to skip the gift card, and send that $10 to save a life.

An Email Appeal

So I've left the blog relatively silent for a little while. I've been focusing on raising money for my annual fundraiser (you know, the reason I started the blog in the first place). I've actually been doing quite a bit of writing about it, I just haven't shared it here yet. Most of my writing has been emails and Facebook posts pleading with friends and family to pony up a little cash for AMF. So I thought I would share just such a piece with you.

This is the email that was just sent out to, well... let's just say a lot of people. I am also planning on making more personal messages to people. Though I have run into one fatal problem: the only contact I have with a lot of people is through Facebook. Which normally isn't a problem, if anything it is super helpful. But just posting to FB doesn't actually get onto many people's news feed - the algorithm kicked me out as irreverent content a long time ago.

Normally we solve this news feed problem with a simple solution: we tag people. I have a couple problems with that tactic in this case. One, tagging someone usually sends them more than a notification, it sends them an email, and then also a notification anytime someone interacts with the post. Super annoying if you aren't crazy excited about my fundraiser the way I am. Secondly it seems like calling someone out.

Hey you! Yea you!
*lots of eye contact*
Did you give me money yet?

I could always direct message someone about it, but that also feels icky

Hey random friend I haven't talked to in a long time! How are you?
I'm only messaging you because I want something.
Genuine interest and questions about your life seem trite now because my motivation seems to clearly be for money.

It feels worse to do that kind of thing over direct message on FB than via email because Facebook is somehow more personal. We get junk email that we-sort-of-signed-up-for-but-can't-be-bothered-to-unsubscribe-from all the time. Deleting and/or ignoring something I got an email about doesn't seem like a big deal. But a direct message is closer to a text than an email. And everyone knows it sucks to have your texts ignored, so there is added pressure to respond or comply.

All of these seem like disincentives to donating. Worse than not getting a donation I don't want to annoy my friends - I like these people! Facebook faux pas be tricky to navigate guys. Any advice on possible alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

Without further digression here is my most recent email to a large number of friends and family.

Hi there,

Yes this is a mass email. Yes I am being that annoying. So I'll make it brief; actually my goal is to make your life a little easier. I'm going to give you one less person to think about on your holiday list.

Instead of wondering what to get me, or how much it should be worth, is a card enough, is a gift even appropriate (I mean how well do we really know each other anyway?!) I figured I'd be greedy and just ask for what I want.

I'm asking friends and family (and distant relatives, and acquaintances, and maybe a few random people on the street) to donate $27 to help me celebrate my 27th birthday.
http://www.sydsbirthdaychallenge.com/fire-2015/

I'm aiming to raise $2,000 by Nov 17th. The best part? An awesome friend has pledged to match every $27 donation! That means that when you donate $27 it is the equivalent of saving 6 lives, most of them children under the age of 5.

The Against Malaria Foundation is one of the most effective charities in the world. While bed nets aren't the newest, coolest, sexiest form of charity, they are effective at saving lives. Amazingly effective.

I can go on and on about the importance of effective charities, why I chose this one, how deadly malaria is, how close we are to wiping it out, how I want you to forward this email, how donating makes your life better. But I promised you a short email, so I'll just stop while I'm ahead.

This may be a mass email, but I am more than happy to answer any questions you have, or even just catch up and chit chat. It has been too long friend! Click the reply button. I won't bite :)

Cheers!
-Sydney

Oh! OH! Before I forget: If you have already donated THANK YOU! You are awesome. Please disregard this email. Don't feel pressured to take any other action than to keep on being your bad self.

Donate: http://bit.ly/1API7K5
Learn more: http://bit.ly/1LdgaPq
Read about the 5 year project: http://bit.ly/1dMIJVy
Find resources to share:

---

*Update* the best reply I've gotten to this email so far:

Damn, Sydney! Get down wit yo good self!

Matching Gifts for This Year

I am super stoked to announce that a friend has promised to match every $27 donation going forward this year! That means that every time someone pledges $27 (about the cost of a lunch date) 7 kids are protected from Malaria while they sleep. This is so exciting, I can't thank Jessan Hutchison-Quillian enough for supporting the project in such a generous way. Though generosity is something of a way of life for Jessan.

I am particularly excited about this because it gives an opportunity to people that normally don't have the means to give generously, the opportunity to make a huge impact. This is part of the reason I chose such a cost effective charity to begin with. It is easy to fall into the trap of wondering what good such a small singular donation could actually make. The Against Malaria Foundation gives you an easy answer to that question - and Jessan's matching pledge doubles your impact to something really substantial.

So go ahead, save 7 lives:

http://bit.ly/1API7K5

Reasons Why I Give to Ineffective Causes

Over the last year I have spent a non-insignificant amount on charities and causes that I would normally not consider giving to, and quite a few of them are things that I wouldn't consider the most effective or most beneficial charities. For someone that spends a good portion of my life and energy promoting the most effective causes, and encourages everyone to think hard about what they spend their philanthropic money on, it seems counter-intuitive that I would throw money at a lot of non-optimized charities & causes. For most people who identify with effective altruism it is irregular to donate outside of the top GiveWell charities.

That being said, I would wager there are lots of people out there who think deeply about philanthropy and giving that do wind up donating to causes they wouldn't necessarily recommend to others. There are a number of reasons I've chosen to do this and I thought I would share a few of mine with you.

 

1. It is my friend's pet cause

Now most people who buy into some idea of effective giving are going to say that is a terrible justification for donating to a cause, but let me explain. Primarily I will say that I don't donate to causes I think are not doing good or potentially doing harm. Usually I trust my friend's judgment on this, but a quick reputation check helps.

Whenever a friend puts up a "Donate to this" request on Facebook I usually try to throw at least $10 at it. I used to do more but that isn't always a viable option every time. Now $10 seems like a paltry amount - and it is - but anyone that has run a fundraising campaign knows most of the time you are stalking the page watching little donations tick in, spending time trying to figure out who that anonymous donation was from, and wondering why Aunt Agnes hasn't ponied up yet. There is a Pavlovian response we have to watching donations roll in. It is warm and fuzzy! $10 seems like a good deal to give my friend have such a great warm fuzzy feeling.

It is also substantially easier to ask friends and family to donate to your fundraiser when they know you donated to theirs. So while my money may not be doing the most good, it is an investment in generating a lot of good in the future.

 

2. It makes me more likely to continue to donate

I definitely fall into the moral consistency camp when it comes to moral-licensing. I do something I think of as good and my brain gets a kick of dopamine (or maybe the dopamine comes into play as I enter my credit card information). Point is I get a big kick from my reward system. I am doing good things! I am being morally consistent with my stated values! I am helping! Good girl *pat*

This means donating becomes increasingly Pavlovian as well! Beyond a kick in the short-term happy pants, there is lots of research that shows that donating more actually leads to an improvement in overall life satisfaction. So I'm happier and more fulfilled in general. This all leads to a great internal reward system.

Plus, it turns out I never lament spending that money. I will frequently look at my bank account and think about that latte this morning that I didn't really need. I've never had the experience of looking at my statement and thinking "If only I hadn't given that $20 to the 'Save the Cute Animals and Cure the Terrible Sickness Foundation' "

 

3. Add my name to the list please!

There are loads of groups out there that, on top of doing their mission work, also work on public policy, advocacy and lobbying. Planned Parenthood is a great example of this. While 65% of their budget went to medical services, 16% went to non-medical services, many of which centered around petitioning and advocacy.

Part of what makes any advocacy work successful is the ability to cite their number of supporters. In a democracy, numbers are king. If you can say you have 8 million supporters, chances are better you can get a representative to listen. Large numbers add clout and legitimacy to your campaigns.

So even if I just give $10 or $2 my name, little as it is, gets thrown in that pile of names. A lot of advocacy can boil down to comparing who has a bigger pile. Policy reform is a big sticky mess that is hard to measure and harder to influence, but a small amount of money to add my name to a list of people who say "yes I agree with this thing, please count me in" seems like a good, low cost start.

 

4. It is a service I use/appreciate or think I should be paying for anyway

I am lucky enough to live in the amazing city of Seattle; if you've never been to the Pacific Northwest - it is terrible, please don't move here. Just kidding, it is great you should totally come visit. We'll get coffee. At midnight.

Aside from an abundance of caffeinated millennials Seattle also has some of the best radio around. You remember radio right? That thing you used to listen to in the car? Well Seattle has such good radio even the White House press office takes note. So when John in the Morning comes on and asks me to pony up some spare change, I do.

This public radio station is a service I use almost daily. It adds dramatically to my life satisfaction and my feeling of being connected to the world, and particularly to my city. I don't consider this philanthropy, these donations come out of my entertainment budget. I am giving for me, for selfish reasons, driven by my passions and needs. So I don't consider this part of my philanthropic giving, but the US tax code does, so I'm listing it here.

 

5. Signal boost a campaign or cause

I'm not the only one that runs event fundraisers. Loads of people do! Most of the time my friends choose highly effective charities, so usually it is something I'm totally on board with. Sometimes it is just a great concept for a fundraiser, and I want to encourage people to think creatively about fundraising and philanthropy. Sometimes it is for a unique organization that I support in theory, but don't have any evidence for yet.

Really this bullet can be summed up like this: Hey person, I dig your thinking and I support you. +1

 

6. A handful of other EA/rationalist related items

These are sort of tertiary justifications that lend legitimacy to my above reasons.

• I'm in favor of being cause neutral. I don't want to get stuck in a giving pattern that may make me ineffective, so flexing my donation muscles in other places seems like a good plan.
• I don't know everything and you are probably loads smarter than me. No seriously. If someone says "hey this thing over here is really important" I should lean towards giving it a shot, or investigating further.This cause you have identified could be super duper important and I just don't know it yet.
• Sometimes ineffective or high-cost things have enormous nu-knowable great outcomes.
• I wouldn't have spent the money on any other charity. Some utilitarians would argue that by giving money to less than the absolute best cause I am actually doing harm and costing lives. However the money I donate to one-off fundraisers and annual memberships is money that I otherwise would have spent on toys for my cats, or a meal out with friends.