Charitable Donations - 2024
This chart depicts all of my charitable giving so far this year in proportional terms:
Below I explain why I give to these entities.
Bellingcat
Who they are
This organization performs open source investigations, meaning they use publicly available information to find truths. At a time when spurious claims run rampant they find a preponderance of facts and show all of their work. They do this with very little formal training (though they offer workshops if you want to learn) and are not part of any established institution, they’re mostly just people doing this on their own.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
More people confidently and accurately understanding what is happening in the world around them. If we don’t know what is happening we cannot respond to it appropriately; it’s hard to do much of anything well if you can’t determine what is true.
How I heard about them
A friend mentioned the book “We Are Bellingcat” which tells the story of the organization proving that a Buk missile launcher provided by the Russian Federation was used by members of the Donetsk People’s Republic separatist group to shoot down the civilian airliner MH17.
Semper Fi Fund
Who they are
They provide multiple forms of support to U.S. veterans.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
People who fought for our country should have the support they need to remain or become as whole as possible given the sacrifices they’ve made.
How I heard about them
Not sure, I see emails going back to 2015 so seemingly found them a long time ago.
Forward Party
Who they are
A centrist proto poltical party attempting to exert influence in elections and establish a third political party in the United States. For now they’ve tried to avoid a spoiler effect by allowing members to retain membership in major political parties, and their endorsed candidates include Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
The end of the two party system in US politics. Part of my conviction that this is necessary comes from this podcast episode.
How I heard about them
I contributed to Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign in 2020 because his rhetoric and approach were different from the other candidates, he was pro-business/innovation, and I think we’re approaching a post-scarcity economy but have no plan for how we’re going to structure our society. A Universal Basic Income has similarity to Milton Friedman’s Negative Income Tax, in particular that neither require a large administrative apparatus.
Unify America
Who they are
A platform for people who disagree with each other to sit down and have an actual conversation.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
A little less yelling and a little more listening to people who don’t agree with us, something that requires a little less yelling on both sides.
How I heard about them
@mosheh put up a link to this Atlantic article in one of his stories. It got my full attention because my employer’s CEO recently bought everyone at the company a book by the same author (Jonathan Haidt) due to its relevance to our business. At the end of the article there’s a link to BridgeAlliance.us, and I went to this page looking for one of the orgs to start donating to. I liked the homepage and that this impact page had specific metrics such as indicated increases in likelihood to vote.
Divided We Fall
Who they are
A group of volunteers attempting to restore the practice of civil debate among Americans by demonstrating the practice in writing.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
A little less yelling and a little more listening to people who don’t agree with us, something that requires a little less yelling on both sides.
How I heard about them
@mosheh put up a link to this Atlantic article in one of his stories. It got my full attention because my employer’s CEO recently bought everyone at the company a book by the same author (Jonathan Haidt) due to its relevance to our business. At the end of the article there’s a link to BridgeAlliance.us, and I went to this page looking for one of the orgs to start donating to.
Children International
Who they are
An aid organization which provides food, medical care, and educational resources to children in the developing world.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
A world where all children have at least the most basic resources to develop.
How I heard about them
Not sure anymore, have been supporting for about 2 decades now. I technically heard about this concept from the movie About Schmidt.
Freedom Reads
Who they are
An organization that brings libraries to US Prisons.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
Reducing the hopelessness of incarceration based on a belief that this will reduce the permanence of the impact it has on people and recidivism. (see also: Recidiviz)
How I heard about them
I heard the founder, Reginald Dwayne Betts, on this episode of the podcast People I Mostly Admire.
RepresentUs
Who they are
An organization pursuing electoral reforms such as ranked choice voting with the intent of bringing the actions of elected representatives more inline with the will of citizens.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
Better choices in the ballot box, which I view as requiring ending first past the post elections and replacing them something better like ranked choice. The current system encourages bad behavior and lends itself to worse candidates being elected.
How I heard about them
Don’t recall.
EFF
Who they are
An organization that defends the digital version of civil liberties, including delivering solutions such as Let’s Encrypt which significantly increased adoption of SSL/TLS for web traffic.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
A more secure and open technological world without warrantless government surveillance and continued ability to use encryption which the US Federal Governmen tries to make illegal every so often.
How I heard about them
Not sure… another long-standing support relationship. They are widely known among tech, and in particular security, people.
Undue Medical Debt
Who they are
They purchase and cancel medical debt for pennies on the dollar. All debts (including mortgages) are financial assets which are traded on secondary markets, generlaly in bundles. The debts with the lowest likelihood of repayment are the least expensive, but still traded. A debt instrument with a low likelihood of repayment, and thus low value, is generally associated with a debtor overwhelmed by the debt they owe. When this is something like revolving consumer debt, personal agency was very often a contributing factor in the accumulation of debt. When this is medical debt the debtor could be someone who had health insurance but had their claim denied. This organization buys low-value medical debt instruments and cancels them; effectively forgiving the debt.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
Individuals in the US healthcare system are going up against large and well funded institutions in a system where they have no fidicuiary advocates. Medical debt is a leading cause of personal bankruptcy declaration. I don’t want this to be the case.
How I heard about them
They come out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and I first contributed around that time.
ACLU
Who they are
An organization that defends citizens in court against actions by the US Government.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
When the government oversteps there’s an organization there to back you up in court.
How I heard about them
It’s the ACLU, everybody’s heard of them.
Wikimedia
Who they are
The organization behind Wikipedia and a broader aligned set of projects.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
Lowering the bar to access information for everyone, as Wikipedia dissolved the barrier to access Encyclopedias and created the world’s largest in the process.
How I heard about them
Wikipedia.
Local Newspaper (unspecified)
Who they are
A newspaper in the community I live in.
What outcome I’m hoping to support
Local investigative journalism is one of the best ways to hold local government accountable. If you have local journalists looking for a scoop you have someone with the time to investigate local problems and local players. If you don’t have the local journalist you don’t really have anyone doing that.
How I heard about them
They’re just my local newspaper.