“Fund Causes Open Phil Underfunds (Instead of Your Most Preferred Causes)” by Ariel Simnegar 🔸

Key Takeaways

• Optimizing your giving's effect on "EA's portfolio” implies you should fund the causes your value system thinks are most underfunded by EA's largest allocators (e.g. Open Phil and SFF).
• These causes aren't necessarily your value system's most preferred causes. ("Preferred" = the ones you'd allocate the plurality of EA's resources to.)
• For the typical EA, this would likely imply donating more to animal welfare, which is currently heavily underfunded under the typical EA's value system.
• Opportunities Open Phil is exiting from, including invertebrates, digital minds, and wild animals, may be especially impactful.

Alice's Investing Dilemma: A Thought Experiment

Alice is a conservative investor who prefers the risk-adjusted return of a portfolio of 70% stocks and 30% bonds. Along with 9 others, Alice has been allocated $1M to split between stocks and bonds however she sees fit. The combined $10M portfolio will be held for 10 years, and its [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Key Takeaways

(00:53) Alices Investing Dilemma: A Thought Experiment

(01:55) In Charity, We Should Optimize The Portfolio of Everyones Actions

(03:09) Theoretical Implications

(03:31) The Portfolio of Everyones Actions vs EAs Portfolio

(04:10) Practical Recommendations

(05:26) EAs Current Resource Allocations

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First published:
November 9th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2G8XfzKyd78JqZpjQ/fund-causes-open-phil-underfunds-instead-of-your-most

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.