This is an EXCELLENT post. I've been on the journey to outsource some of our digital marketing needs (and I know many others in the EA community are doing the same). And I think we'd benefit from looking outside the EA ecosystem and work with individuals who know what it takes to close a sale. The center of the target is people within the EA community, what what do the outside rings look like -- and that is probably something different for each org/cause area. Well written. 

Wow. I can just tell how difficult it was to face this head on with your dad, how much easier it was for you to converse with others, and how challenging it was to dig into this with him.

I’m the mom of two very young kids and more often than not I’m reading books about farm and wild animals to our kids. At library time, we read these sort of things just as much as we do the ABCs. Often I look around the room and think, all these kids will likely eat these animals some day…and they have no idea how much they suffer. I wonder if your dad lived across those two worlds. Reading sweet books about animals and asking you what sounds they made, all the while showing up for work the next day. It’s incredible how we can partition these ideas, especially when it comes to raising kids.  

Curious - how much time did you spend testing each channel to decide which one was best for this project? I think about this and budgeting for ad spend. And furthermore, can you tell us a little bit more about any work you did beyond social media?  For example, did you work with @Consultants For Impact on their funnel to improve relationship building and points of contact beyond initial outreach? 

I like the framing of this Rocky, especially the idea of a portfolio of people/causes. And in that portfolio is an inherent diversication which should be valued. I understand the overwhelming tide pushing our community towards AI security and safety. And while I'm not invalidating that general movement, I know my skills and network lend better to focusing on other efforts. Language like this is useful when I'm expected to have an "answer" to all things EA when I face the outside world. 

How much you spend is obviously so personal, but I think "figuring out" how much to spend swings along a pendulum. If you spend time cutting out unnecessary costs, the pendulum swings left. If you spend time leaning into spending more on things you love, the pendulum swings right. It may take time to figure out what's useless and what's useful. Like you, I was bred into a family with a scarcity mindset (Holocaust Survivors). It was easier for me to keep costs low than to spend on myself. This ultimately helped me in my finances.  But I find it can be just as hard to release oneself from the grip's of a scarcity mindset into an abundance mindset, as much as it can be for someone who has scaled up their lifestyle and needs to scale back. I find for the most part, people in the EA community seem to share the low-cost mindset more-so than those that overspend (perhaps that's self selecting though based on the work I do!). 

Thanks for flagging my EA forum post “Scared to Pledge? 5 financial steps for confident giving”. Since you've touched on tax relief here, I'll also mention this post for those in the US who might find this helpful:  "Charitable tax deductions: why most advice is a miss (and what actually matters)" 

Else, as a personal finance nerd I love hearing the many different ways people create a baseline framework to cement their giving. Personal finance is well...very personal and so what speaks to someone might not speak to someone everyone, so the more stories we share the better. 

I've also seen https://donatestock.com/ and was curious about the user experience, but when i loosely explored it, I didn't see it as particularly helpful for donors. First, not all the charities I wanted to donate to were readily listed (e.g. The Life You Can Save). Second, it didn't seem much easier than just filling out the e-form on my banks' website. DonateStock seems to only facilitate one-time stock donations, rather than offering a monthly recurring option (as I'd like to see) which I see as the real problem solver here. 

Would be curious to hear from others on this

I donate stock that has appreciated the most in my portfolio. I’ll do this by selecting the asset (eg the share of the fund), identifying the tax lots, then sorting by cost basis. If you’re gonna avoid gains, avoid the largest ones! 

Would be very nice if there was a “donate” button next to the “sell” button for each tax lot. Unfortunately no one makes this part easy. 

I ended up creating my own list if anyone would like to use:

Partners In Health: Delivering healthcare in the world’s poorest communities 3x match
Natural Resources Defense Council: Using science & policy to protect the environment and public health 2x match
One Acre Fund: Investing in small-scale farms in sub-Saharan Africa to increase yields 2x match
 Fistula Foundation: Providing surgery for women suffering from obstetric fistulas 2x match
 Unlimited Health: Working to end parasitic disease 2x match
 The Humane League: Fighting against factory farming through policy and movement building 2x match
GiveDirectly: Direct cash transfer to people living in poverty 1.5 match
Village Enterprise: Support women, refugees, and young people in rural Africa to start small businesses 2x match 

Good reminder to promote giving multiplier