Donate Unrestricted • Hacker News Board

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#21

Post by analog31 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #6

He didn't mention the little problem of the fungibility of money. If a school gets two $100k donations, and one comes with a "no stem cell research" restriction, then it usually isn't a problem to spend the other donation on that, and the restricted one on the road maintenance that would have been done anyway. So a restricted donation is really only effectively restrictive if it significantly outweighs the rest.

Indeed, that happened in the state where I grew up. When they started the state lottery, it was with the promise that the money would be spent on "education." Sure enough, the lottery money went to the education fund, and the contribution from the general fund was reduced by the same amount.

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#22

Post by umvi » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

breck wrote: post #13

I would also suggest donating only to non-profits that make everything they do as open/transparent/public domain as possible. In my limited experience there seems to be a correlation between an organization's productivity in solving their existential problem and how open the org is. The more secretive the organization (and the less public domain content it produces) the more likely it spends a significant amount of i…

Wikimedia? last time they were on HN there was a discussion about how only a tiny fraction of their donations go to Wikipedia and the rest is used for other pet projects most people wouldn't necessarily care about. I think the conclusion was that wikimedia exists to grow bigger and ask for more donations not necessarily to be good stewards of said donations.

Otherwise wouldn't they be trying to create an endowment that keeps the lights perpetually on at Wikipedia without Jimmy needing to beg every year?

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#23

Post by londons_explore » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

breck wrote: post #13

I would also suggest donating only to non-profits that make everything they do as open/transparent/public domain as possible. In my limited experience there seems to be a correlation between an organization's productivity in solving their existential problem and how open the org is. The more secretive the organization (and the less public domain content it produces) the more likely it spends a significant amount of i…

Wikimedia used to produce an amazing amount of value with only a tiny budget.

Lately it's budget has gone up by a factor of 100x, and its usefulness/impact has stayed pretty much the same.

Either is was amazing value for money before, or it's a waste of money now. Or both.

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#24

Post by amelius » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:54 PM UTC

I stopped donating (with a few exceptions) because of the general lack of transparency in where your money really goes, and the stories of fraud, absurd salaries of CEOs/management and cold-calling which turns out to be so expensive that the first 1 or 2 years you are effectively paying for the call center. Etc. etc.

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#25

Post by bradleyjg » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

As a corollary if you feel like you want to make a restricted donation to a particular organization, don’t donate to that organization. Find one that’s better aligned with your values.

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#26

Post by NelsonMinar » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

tims33 wrote: post #15

Kudos to MacKenzie Scott for helping bring this issue to light with her massive unrestricted giving.

She really is an inspiration. Here's her announcement of the gifts and a list of the organizations. https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac...

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#27

Post by purple_ferret » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

I work at a non-profit, and, anecdotally, I think it is more complicated as there might be 3 areas of funding concentration:

1. Areas that are overfunded because restricted donations tend to concentrate there.

2. Areas that leadership want to fund, and would direct unrestricted donations to.

3. Areas that neither restricted donations nor leadership want to fund and thus tend to be chronically underfunded (e.g. payroll and staffing in certain departments)

I think thoughtful restricted donations have a place then, but a key is understanding of the industry and transparency in operations

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#28

Post by temp8964 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 4:03 PM UTC

The article mentioned the Gates foundation which has terrible records in education initiatives:

- The big failure in small schools initiative: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/09/th...

- The big failure in teacher evaluation initiative: https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-melinda-gates-foundatio...

- The big failure in Common Core initiative: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/06/...

Now it is funding anti-racist math: https://equitablemath.org/

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#29

Post by freedomben » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 4:04 PM UTC

ma2rten wrote: post #18

hirundo wrote: post #6

He didn't mention the little problem of the fungibility of money. If a school gets two $100k donations, and one comes with a "no stem cell research" restriction, then it usually isn't a problem to spend the other donation on that, and the restricted one on the road maintenance that would have been done anyway. So a restricted donation is really only effectively restrictive if it significantly outweighs the rest.

I wouldn't donate to universities in general. The have growing endowments which they don't spend. It also adds the income inequality in the US, you are essentially donating to the education of rich people. Note that PG talks about non-profits not schools.

I don't disagree with what you've said, but your Note is wrong.

PG in the article specifically uses a University donation as an example.

Re: Donate Unrestricted

#30

Post by sokoloff » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

ma2rten wrote: post #18

hirundo wrote: post #6

He didn't mention the little problem of the fungibility of money. If a school gets two $100k donations, and one comes with a "no stem cell research" restriction, then it usually isn't a problem to spend the other donation on that, and the restricted one on the road maintenance that would have been done anyway. So a restricted donation is really only effectively restrictive if it significantly outweighs the rest.

I wouldn't donate to universities in general. The have growing endowments which they don't spend. It also adds the income inequality in the US, you are essentially donating to the education of rich people. Note that PG talks about non-profits not schools.

Many universities are non-profits.