The Third Wave of Philanthropy

Nan Ronsohoff coined the term "Third Wave of Philanthropy" in a recent substack post that caused a lot of discussion.

She was describing what might happen if the major AI firms run successful IPO's and if some of those who do well in the IPO's decide, as several have vowed, to donate a significant part of their wealth.

There is good reason to believe that these donors would seek out effective charities or NGO's working in areas like AI Governance. The challenge for the community is to ensure that there are truly impactful organisations which can maximise the impact of this rapid influx of new donations.

[To give full perspective, there are also those who doubt that this huge wave of funds will come, or argue that it may be more of a small puddle. But we need to prepare for all scenarios!]

Some people, including Nan, have wondered whether existing effective charities would be overwhelmed by a sudden jump in donations. In this context, the Centre for Global Development shared an excellent outline of several of the ways that even $50 billion of new funding could be very effectively used on projects that scale extremely well.

Net, it is sad but true that the gravest problems in our world will continue to require significant funding, even if the third wave is everything we hope for.

If any of our followers are in the happy position of coming into significant wealth, whether via a tech IPO or otherwise, then first of all, congratulations! and second, if you choose to donate some of that, we would be more than happy to advise you on the best donation strategy to maximise impact and tax-effectiveness.

For a large donation, it is possible that we would not recommend just donating to Effective Giving Ireland or via our website - ultimately we want the most impact possible, and if there's another donation strategy that's more effective than giving via us, we want you to be aware of it.

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