I hear that. Donation matching shows it's not just preaching for no reason.

Thanks for the feedback!

"Some companies use smaller amounts (1%) to signal social impact." 

My company isn't currently big enough for 1% to have any impact though 😅 I was actually thinking of potentially donating 20% of revenue by matching clients' donations to EA's top charities up to 10%.

"How do you explain why you are telling them this?"

I'd say something like it has been such a pleasure working with you that I feel the need to give back to the less fortunate. X charity seems to me to be the most effiecent way to do that as far as I know and I couldn't have supported it without you.

"Do something like divide your clients into two random groups and send this message to half."

Interesting idea.

Thanks! This helped me with a question I just posted on the forum and have been struggling with for a while now. And inspired me to stop putting off taking the 10% pledge 😅

I love this post and it made me think that the downsides of public pledging you described (i.e. “do-gooder derogation”) make it more virtuous (aside from the upsides you listed).

Because I think (all else being equal) the more difficult a good deed is, the more virtuous it becomes. For example (if there are no opportunity costs) spending 10 minutes patiently helping an old lady cross the street is more virtuous than spending 5 minutes helping an old lady across the street.

• That's probably not the best example but I hope my point is clear and you'll feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I was listening to the audio and noticed a mistake at 1:15. It says:

"factory farmed animals represent about 97.5% of all the animals on earth" including "all the wild animals".

That's very incorrect but I don't mean to nitpick because this is still super interesting technology in its infancy.

Good idea! I dont know if it's just me but that link doesn't work unfortuantely (and i have a notebook LM account).

I like your spirit although I'm afraid it would take more than a referendum to upend factory farming.  

One was recently held in the Switzerland and, even in that relatively progressive place, most Swiss voted to hold onto the status quo. You can find out more about it here: forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gDRH2SrN34KdDvmHE/abolishing-factory-farming-in-switzerland-postmortem  which includes:

"The opposition [to abolishing factory farming] commanded resources which significantly exceeded our own. In order to have a realistic chance at the ballot box, any future initiative would likely require a substantially larger budget and campaign team."

I don't mean to be a debby downer, and in fact I'd be happy to join a campaign team with you, especially after watching your vid.

I just wanted to say I like this idea

Thank you so much for sharing this for free!

Animals win on scale & neglectedness while humans win on my (and maybe God's) speciesism bias (but if God exists I think He would appreciate us trying to help out animals i.e. His creations).