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EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

supporters.eff.org

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Re: EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

#11

Post by tcdent »

tofof wrote: post #8

This is not 2x matching. This is just plain and simple matching. You donate 50, they get a total of 100 - 50 from you, and 50 from the donor. Yes, the total amount they receive is 2x, but the matched amount is 1x. I sound pedantic but it's because this is in stark contrast to the Internet Archive's "3x matching" through the end of the month, in which if you donate 50 they receive a total of 200, because the matching…

Thanks for the tip. I love what the Internet Archive folks are doing, and that's too good of a deal to pass up.

Re: EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

#12

Post by rkuykendall-com »

airlocksoftware wrote: post #4

Very cool of the people doing the matching donations. I'm always happy to do anything I can to help the EFF. But now, more than ever, it feels like they might be our best chance to avoid dystopia. But considering the size of the tech industry and the amount of money the internet / technology is making all of us, I'm sometimes surprised by how small the EFF is. Does anyone have any thoughts on why the EFF isn't larger…

Also, why doesn't anyone seem to rally around them when an issue comes up?

As far as I can tell the EFF have been handling all the issues of the day well, but all the attention goes to upstart one-off groups that are formed and forgotten within weeks.

Re: EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

#13

Post by hamburglar »

furyofantares wrote: post #9
mdaniel wrote: post #3

I realize this might sound like a First World Problem, but I typically donate to my charities and organizations early in the year. Then things like this pop up and I have to weigh the opportunity cost of not donating while my power will be doubled against the feeling that I've already given a chunk of change. I guess in the end, I'll probably cave and donate again because I think the EFF is very important, but I wond…

givewell has an article on how lots of donation matching is actually closer to a restructuring of a large donation from another donor http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-don... This looks like it fits that category -- donations are matched up to $118,569 which really just means someone is donating $118,569 and using that donation to attract more donations. If you think it's going to hit that cap…

Yeah, matching is really a psychological trick, which is very well illustrated on a more personal level if you volunteer to answer phones at a public radio pledge drive. Someone in the room full of phone answerers will say "oh, I haven't made my own personal donation yet...I plan to donate $100. Can you announce that the next $100 caller will be matched?" You then get $200 worth of donations that you might have gotten either way, but both parties get to feel great -- one person for having their donation "doubled" and the other person for feeling like they spurred someone else to donate.

Re: EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

#16

Post by schoen »

kfarzaneh wrote: post #14

This is great! Too bad they sold 2,800 of their 3,500 BTC in 2011: http://philanthropy.com/article/Can-Nonprofits-Benefit-From/...

Hi, EFF employee who worked on our acceptance of Bitcoin here.

The linked article simplifies the history somewhat. In fact, we attempted to give away all of our BTC to the Bitcoin Faucet because of legal uncertainty surrounding Bitcoin.

When we decided to start accepting Bitcoin donations again, the developer who runs the Faucet offered to return the remaining value to us. Because of increases in the price of bitcoins in the interim, EFF was able to sell the BTC that came back to us from the Faucet for about $95,000.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/thank-you-bitcoin-comm...

By my calculations (using contemporary market depth data), that's coincidentally just about the same amount of U.S. currency that EFF would have realized if we'd sold all of those bitcoins at the time that we donated them to the Faucet. I'm glad that that value was eventually able to be used for EFF's purposes as the donors originally intended.

Since deciding to accept Bitcoin again, EFF has used a payment processor to sell all bitcoins as soon as they're donated, so we never possess them and never make individual decisions about when to sell or hold them. (That's what will happen if you donate in BTC today.)

Re: EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

#19

Post by mdaniel »

furyofantares wrote: post #9
mdaniel wrote: post #3

I realize this might sound like a First World Problem, but I typically donate to my charities and organizations early in the year. Then things like this pop up and I have to weigh the opportunity cost of not donating while my power will be doubled against the feeling that I've already given a chunk of change. I guess in the end, I'll probably cave and donate again because I think the EFF is very important, but I wond…

givewell has an article on how lots of donation matching is actually closer to a restructuring of a large donation from another donor http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-don... This looks like it fits that category -- donations are matched up to $118,569 which really just means someone is donating $118,569 and using that donation to attract more donations. If you think it's going to hit that cap…

Thank you for your reply; I hadn't thought of it that way. I realized after reading your response that I also conflated this particular match with the ones I hear on NPR advertised as "conditional matches": if we receive $W in X time, Y will contribute $Z. Some of them are also conditional on the number of participants, which is also strange.

Re: EFF has 2x matching donations until Dec 17th

#20

Post by diminoten »

I wish there were more options besides the EFF who supported the myriad of causes the EFF works towards.

Their treatment of CISPA was not, however, something I can stand to support, and for this reason I can't justify giving them money until they soften their hardline stance substantially.

Their "call to arms" press release was rife with doublespeak and inaccurate interpretations of the proposed bill, and it felt like there was some kind of ulterior motive at play for them to never be satisfied with concessions and changes to the bill text.

I get this sense that the EFF basically says, "no!" to every bill coming from congress that has anything at all to do with the Internet, and that's just not a useful way to run an advocacy group.

I support a free and open Internet (seriously, who doesn't around here?) but I would rather codify that in US law than sit around and wait for the FCC to fine Comcast. If congress can't touch the Internet, then they can't protect it, and I'm afraid the EFF would find itself on the wrong side of an open Internet if congress tried.

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