{"items": [{"author": "Julia", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/diversity-in-giving/484414241212/?comment_id=484542606212", "anchor": "fb-484542606212", "service": "fb", "text": "Village Reach might achieve the too-much-money problem if it made a better website.", "timestamp": "1295480175"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/diversity-in-giving/484414241212/?comment_id=484543131212", "anchor": "fb-484543131212", "service": "fb", "text": "Well, right now their page loads for me as the always classy \"Error Establishing Database Connection\"", "timestamp": "1295480259"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/diversity-in-giving/484414241212/?comment_id=484648786212", "anchor": "fb-484648786212", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm not at all sure that I agree that one should always give to the most \"effective\" charity, unless you mean within a certain field. Many people have personal histories that lead them to give to one or more charities whose success is especially meaningful to them.
The efficiency argument is fine; I don't disagree with that.", "timestamp": "1295502397"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/diversity-in-giving/484414241212/?comment_id=484742616212", "anchor": "fb-484742616212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael: if someone needs the success of a charity to be personally meaningful to them in order to give or in order to give as much, then I could see splitting donations between multiple such charities. If you're just trying to do the most good with the money you can give away, though, personal history is irrelevant. If I have a close friend who died of bladder cancer, I might find supporting work to find a cure personally meaningful, but that doesn't make it a better use of my money than it would be if I had never met them and so did not have that connection to the cause.", "timestamp": "1295528433"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/diversity-in-giving/484414241212/?comment_id=484807036212", "anchor": "fb-484807036212", "service": "fb", "text": "Well, I was thinking of a more hypothetical situation where a particular disease or social problem is called to your attention, and you discover that there is very little research or social work being done in that area -- so supporting that work might make the difference between little and no work being done, rather than supporting a well established charity and helping them to work more efficiently at solving some other problem. Hmm. I have some more thoughts on this which I will express later.", "timestamp": "1295540916"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/diversity-in-giving/484414241212/?comment_id=484863371212", "anchor": "fb-484863371212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael: in your hypothetical situation, do you believe that the particular cause is the one we can most effectively work on? If so, I would think it would make sense to give only to that charity (at least until you meet it's ability to do things with the additional money). Or do you just that it is being neglected and so some funding is better than none, even if it is money that could have gone to a charity you think would have made better use of it?", "timestamp": "1295549503"}]}