Donor lotteries

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016,^[1][2] as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author.^[3] The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano.^[4]  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool.^[5][6][7][8]  As of May 2023, donor lotteries are run by Giving What We Can; they were previously run by Effective Altruism Funds.  The most recent lotterylottery, with a prize of $2 million, was drawn on 24 January 2023, and two chosen donors won the right to allocate $2 million.^[9]2023.

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016,^[1][2] as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author.^[3] The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano.^[4]  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool.^[5][6][7][8]  Currently,As of May 2023, donor lotteries are run by Giving What We Can; they were previously run by Effective Altruism Funds and held at least once per year..  The most recent lottery was drawn on 24 January 2022,2023, and two chosen donors won the right to allocate $2.5$2 million.^[9]

Effective Altruism FundsGiving What We Can Donor Lottery.

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016,^[1][2] as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author.^[3] The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano.^[4]  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool.^[5][6][7][8]  Currently, donor lotteries are run by Effective Altruism Funds and held at least once per year. The most recent lottery ran in mid-2021,was drawn on 24 January 2022, and thetwo chosen donordonors won the right to allocate $500,000.$2.5 million.^[9] The most recent donor lottery was drawn on 24 January 2022.^[10]

1. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2016) Creating a donor-advised fund lottery, Reflective Disequilibrium, March 27.

2. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2016) Donor lotteries: demonstration and FAQ, Effective Altruism Forum, December 7.

3. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2014) If big donors have much better opportunities than small donors, then small donors can go to Las Vegas, or Wall Street, Reflective Disequilibrium, January 4.

4. ^{^}

   Christiano, Paul (2017) Donor lottery details, Effective Altruism Forum, January 10.

5. ^{^}

   Gleave, Adam (2018) 2017 donor lottery report, Effective Altruism Forum, November 12.

6. ^{^}

   Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 1, Effective Altruism Forum, December 13.

7. ^{^}

   Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 2, Effective Altruism Forum, December 14.

8. ^{^}

   Telleen-Lawton, Timothy (2020) Donor lottery debrief, Effective Altruism Forum, August 4.

9. ^{^}

   Brinich-Langlois, Patrick (2021) What would you do if you had half a million dollars?, Effective Altruism Forum, July 14.

10. ^{^}

    Deere, Sam (2021) The 2021 EA Funds Donor Lottery is now open, Effective Altruism Forum, November 29.

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016,^[1][2] as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author.^[3] The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano.^[4]  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool.^[5][6][7][8]  Currently, donor lotteries are run by Effective Altruism Funds and held at least once per year. The most recent lottery ran in mid-2021, and the chosen donor won the right to allocate $500,000.^[9] The nextmost recent donor lottery will bewas drawn on 24 January 2022.^[10]

A donor lottery is an arrangement where multiple prospective donors each contribute to a common pot in exchange for a chance, proportional to the size of the contribution, to win the right to decide how the pot will beis spent.

1. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2016) Creating a donor-advised fund lottery, Reflective Disequilibrium, March 27.

2. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2016) Donor lotteries: demonstration and FAQ, Effective Altruism Forum, December 7.

3. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2014) If big donors have much better opportunities than small donors, then small donors can go to Las Vegas, or Wall Street, Reflective Disequilibrium, January 4.

4. ^{^}

   Christiano, Paul (2017) Donor lottery details, Effective Altruism Forum, January 10.

5. ^{^}

   Gleave, Adam (2018) 2017 donor lottery report, Effective Altruism Forum, November 12.

6. ^{^}

   Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020a)(2020) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 1, Effective Altruism Forum, December 13.

7. ^{^}

   Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 2, Effective Altruism Forum, December 14.

8. ^{^}

   Telleen-Lawton, Timothy (2020) Donor lottery debrief, Effective Altruism Forum, August 4.

9. ^{^}

   Brinich-Langlois, Patrick (2021) What would you do if you had half a million dollars?, Effective Altruism Forum, July 14.

10. ^{^}

    Deere, Sam (2021) The 2021 EA Funds Donor Lottery is now open, Effective Altruism Forum, November 29.

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016 (Shulman 2016a; Shulman 2016b),2016,^[1][2] as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author (Shulman 2014).author.^[3] The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano (Christiano 2017).^[4]  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool (Gleave 2018; Rheingans-Yoo 2020a; Rheingans-Yoo 2020b; Telleen-Lawton 2020). pool.^[5][6][7][8]  Currently, donor lotteries are run by Effective Altruism Funds and held at least once per year. The most recent lottery ran in mid-2021, and the chosen donor won the right to allocate $500,000 (Brinich-Langlois 2021).000.^[9] The next lottery will be drawn on 24 January 2022.^[1]10]

In principle, someone persuaded that they could do more good in expectation with a small chance of a correspondingly larger donation could realize these gains by high-stakes gambling or high-risk investment. In practice, the associated overhead and transaction costs typically make donor lotteries a more attractive alternative (Shulman 2016).alternative.^[1]

BibliographyFurther reading

Brinich-Langlois, Patrick (2021) What would you do if you had half a million dollars?, Effective Altruism Forum, July 14.

Christiano, Paul (2017) Donor lottery details, Effective Altruism Forum, January 10.

Gleave, Adam (2018) 2017 donor lottery report, Effective Altruism Forum, November 12.

Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020a) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 1, Effective Altruism Forum, December 13.

Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 2, Effective Altruism Forum, December 14.

Shulman, Carl (2014) If big donors have much better opportunities than small donors, then small donors can go to Las Vegas, or Wall Street, Reflective Disequilibrium, January 4.

Shulman, Carl (2016a) Creating a donor-advised fund lottery, Reflective Disequilibrium, March 27.

Shulman, Carl (2016b) Donor lotteries: demonstration and FAQ, Effective Altruism Forum, December 7.

Telleen-Lawton, Timothy (2020) Donor lottery debrief, Effective Altruism Forum, August 4.

1. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2016) Creating a donor-advised fund lottery, Reflective Disequilibrium, March 27.

2. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2016) Donor lotteries: demonstration and FAQ, Effective Altruism Forum, December 7.

3. ^{^}

   Shulman, Carl (2014) If big donors have much better opportunities than small donors, then small donors can go to Las Vegas, or Wall Street, Reflective Disequilibrium, January 4.

4. ^{^}

   Christiano, Paul (2017) Donor lottery details, Effective Altruism Forum, January 10.

5. ^{^}

   Gleave, Adam (2018) 2017 donor lottery report, Effective Altruism Forum, November 12.

6. ^{^}

   Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020a) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 1, Effective Altruism Forum, December 13.

7. ^{^}

   Rheingans-Yoo, Ross (2020) 2018-19 Donor Lottery Report, pt. 2, Effective Altruism Forum, December 14.

8. ^{^}

   Telleen-Lawton, Timothy (2020) Donor lottery debrief, Effective Altruism Forum, August 4.

9. ^{^}

   Brinich-Langlois, Patrick (2021) What would you do if you had half a million dollars?, Effective Altruism Forum, July 14.

10. ^{^}

    Deere, Sam (2021) The 2021 EA Funds Donor Lottery is now open, Effective Altruism Forum, November 29.

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016 (Shulman 2016a; Shulman 2016b), as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author (Shulman 2014). The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano (Christiano 2017).  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool (Gleave 2018; Rheingans-Yoo 2020a; Rheingans-Yoo 2020b; Telleen-Lawton 2020).  Currently, donor lotteries are run by Effective Altruism Funds and held at least once per year. The most recent lottery ran in mid-2021, and the chosen donor won the right to allocate $500,000 (Brinich-Langlois 2021). The next lottery will be drawn on 24 January 2022.^[1]

1. ^{^}

   Deere, Sam (2021) The 2021 EA Funds Donor Lottery is now open, Effective Altruism Forum, November 29.

The concept of a donor lottery was first explicitly described by Carl Shulman in 2016 (Shulman 2016a; Shulman 2016b), as a development and refinement of some previous ideas by the author (Shulman 2014). The first donor lottery was run in early 2017, by Shulman and Paul Christiano (Christiano 2017).  Many lotteries have taken place since then, and some of the winners have written detailed reports of the process they followed for allocating the funding pool (Gleave 2018; Rheingans-Yoo 2020a; Rheingans-Yoo 2020b)2020b; Telleen-Lawton 2020).  Currently, donor lotteries are run by Effective Altruism Funds and held at least once per year. The most recent lottery ran in mid-2021, and the chosen donor won the right to allocate $500,000 (Brinich-Langlois 2021).

Telleen-Lawton, Timothy (2020) Donor lottery debrief, Effective Altruism Forum, August 4.

In principle, someone persuaded that they could do more good in expectation with a smallersmall chance of a correspondingly larger donation could realize these gains by high-stakes gambling or high-risk investment. In practice, the associated overhead and transaction costs typically make donor lotteries a more attractive alternative (Shulman 2016).