I want to thank my mom for nominating me (via Jack Kernion) for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Its heartening to see so many people rally around a good cause. And this got me thinking more generally about how we decide to spend our attention/money on good causes. What kinds of factors should go into these kinds of decisions? To be honest, Im a little uncomfortable with the way in which the Ice Bucket Challenge is generating attention/money for ALS research. Ideally, whenever I give to an organization, Ill be able to say, This is an issue I think is really important for reasons a,b and c, and I think this organization is really effective at adressing this issue for reasons x, y, and z. So rather than donating to ALS and accepting the ice bucket challenge, Ill be using this as an excuse to donate to GiveDirectly. Im donating to Give Directly for both its target (crippling poverty in Kenya) and its approach (direct cash transfer, a focus on evidence-based intervention). If Give Directly succeeds, it could change the way we hand out aid. (And if it doesnt succeed, itll be really informative.) What do you think? When should we give? And why should we give?
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 03:12:41 +0000
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