This is an online portal with information on donations that were announced publicly (or have been shared with permission) that were of interest to Vipul Naik. The git repository with the code for this portal, as well as all the underlying data, is available on GitHub. All payment amounts are in current United States dollars (USD). The repository of donations is being seeded with an initial collation by Issa Rice as well as continued contributions from him (see his commits and the contract work page listing all financially compensated contributions to the site) but all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies belongs to Vipul Naik. Current data is preliminary and has not been completely vetted and normalized; if sharing a link to this site or any page on this site, please include the caveat that the data is preliminary (if you want to share without including caveats, please check with Vipul Naik). We expect to have completed the first round of development by the end of July 2024. See the about page for more details. Also of interest: pageview data on analytics.vipulnaik.com, tutorial in README, request for feedback to EA Forum.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Facebook username | michael.j.dickens |
| LinkedIn username | michael-dickens-a4173255 |
| Website | http://mdickens.me/ |
| Donations URL | http://mdickens.me/donations/ |
| LessWrong username | MTGandP |
| Effective Altruism Forum username | MichaelDickens |
| Effective Altruism Hub username | michael-dickens |
| GitHub username | michaeldickens |
| Data entry method on Donations List Website | Manual (no scripts used) |
| Org Watch page | https://orgwatch.issarice.com/?person=Michael+Dickens |
| Cause area | Count | Median | Mean | Minimum | 10th percentile | 20th percentile | 30th percentile | 40th percentile | 50th percentile | 60th percentile | 70th percentile | 80th percentile | 90th percentile | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8 | 20 | 6,246 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 500 | 3,000 | 20,000 | 26,400 | 26,400 |
| 4 | 20 | 138 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 500 | 500 | 500 | |
| Effective altruism | 2 | 20 | 10,010 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 |
| Animal welfare | 2 | 3,000 | 14,700 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 26,400 | 26,400 | 26,400 | 26,400 | 26,400 |
If you hover over a cell for a given cause area and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.
Note: Cause area classification used here may not match that used by donor for all cases.
| Cause area | Number of donations | Number of donees | Total | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal welfare (filter this donor) | 2 | 2 | 29,400.00 | 26,400.00 | 0.00 | 3,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Effective altruism (filter this donor) | 2 | 1 | 20,020.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 20,020.00 | 0.00 |
| (filter this donor) | 4 | 3 | 550.00 | 0.00 | 30.00 | 20.00 | 500.00 |
| Total | 8 | 6 | 49,970.00 | 26,400.00 | 30.00 | 23,040.00 | 500.00 |
Graph of spending by cause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by cause area and year (cumulative)
If you hover over a cell for a given subcause area and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.
For the meaning of “classified” and “unclassified”, see the page clarifying this.
| Subcause area | Number of donations | Number of donees | Total | 2017 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal welfare/meat alternatives | 1 | 1 | 26,400.00 | 26,400.00 | 0.00 |
| Effective altruism/meta/fundraising | 2 | 1 | 20,020.00 | 0.00 | 20,020.00 |
| Animal welfare/factory farming/meta/charity evaluator | 1 | 1 | 3,000.00 | 0.00 | 3,000.00 |
| Classified total | 4 | 3 | 49,420.00 | 26,400.00 | 23,020.00 |
| Unclassified total | 4 | 3 | 550.00 | 0.00 | 20.00 |
| Total | 8 | 6 | 49,970.00 | 26,400.00 | 23,040.00 |
Graph of spending by subcause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by subcause area and year (cumulative)
| Donee | Cause area | Metadata | Total | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Good Food Institute (filter this donor) | Animal welfare/meat alternatives | FB Tw WP Site | 26,400.00 | 26,400.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Raising for Effective Giving (filter this donor) | Effective altruism/Fundraising/Poker and sports | FB Tw WP Site | 20,020.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 20,020.00 | 0.00 |
| Animal Charity Evaluators (filter this donor) | Animal welfare/factory farming/meta/charity evaluator | FB Tw WP Site TW | 3,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3,000.00 | 0.00 |
| The Humane League (filter this donor) | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | FB Tw WP Site TW | 520.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 20.00 | 500.00 |
| Machine Intelligence Research Institute (filter this donor) | AI safety | FB Tw WP Site CN GS TW | 20.00 | 0.00 | 20.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Animal Equality (filter this donor) | FB Tw WP Site | 10.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Total | -- | -- | 49,970.00 | 26,400.00 | 30.00 | 23,040.00 | 500.00 |
Graph of spending by donee and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by donee and year (cumulative)
If you hover over a cell for a given influencer and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.
For the meaning of “classified” and “unclassified”, see the page clarifying this.
| Influencer | Number of donations | Number of donees | Total | 2015 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford EA | 2 | 2 | 3,500.00 | 3,000.00 | 500.00 |
| Classified total | 2 | 2 | 3,500.00 | 3,000.00 | 500.00 |
| Unclassified total | 6 | 5 | 46,470.00 | 20,040.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 8 | 6 | 49,970.00 | 23,040.00 | 500.00 |
Graph of spending by influencer and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by influencer and year (cumulative)
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| Title (URL linked) | Publication date | Author | Publisher | Affected donors | Affected donees | Affected influencers | Document scope | Cause area | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where I Am Donating in 2016 | 2016-11-01 | Michael Dickens | Effective Altruism Forum | Michael Dickens | Animal Charity Evaluators The Good Food Institute Mercy For Animals Raising for Effective Giving | Single donation documentation | Animal welfare, AI risk | Dickens described his evaluation of each of the four finalists and the reasoning behind his (tentatively) final decision to give to The Good Food Institute | |
| Why the Open Philanthropy Project Should Prioritize Wild Animal Suffering | 2016-08-26 | Michael Dickens | Effective Altruism Forum | Open Philanthropy | Unsolicited third-party suggestions for donor | Animal welfare/wild animals | Michael Dickens offers reasons that the Open Philanthropy Project should prioritize Wild Animal Suffering. He writes: "What we need is a large, committed source of funding to jump-start the cause. If the Open Philanthropy Project began funding work on wild animal suffering, it could stimulate new research efforts or small-scale interventions by offering grants. Specifically, Open Phil should probably create a new focus area for wild animal suffering and possibly hire dedicated staff. This problem has such large scale, and so many possible interventions, that it absolutely deserves to be a dedicated focus area. Open Phil might consider lumping WAS under its farm animal welfare program, but this would excessively constrain its budget and limit the amount of staff time that it could receive. Wild animal suffering is a massive problem, and easily deserves as much attention as most of Open Phil’s other focus areas." | ||
| My Cause Selection: Michael Dickens | 2015-09-15 | Michael Dickens | Effective Altruism Forum | Michael Dickens | Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Future of Life Institute Open Philanthropy Animal Charity Evaluators Animal Ethics Foundational Research Institute Giving What We Can Charity Science Raising for Effective Giving | Single donation documentation | Animal welfare,AI risk,Effective altruism | Explanation by Dickens of giving choice for 2015. After some consideration, narrows choice to three orgs: MIRI, ACE, and REG. Finally chooses REG due to weighted donation multiplier |
Graph of top 10 donees (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations
| Donee | Amount (current USD) | Amount rank (out of 8) | Donation date | Cause area | URL | Influencer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Good Food Institute | 26,400.00 | 1 | Animal welfare/meat alternatives | http://mdickens.me/donations/ | -- | See http://mdickens.me/2016/10/31/where_i_am_donating_in_2016/ for a full explanation of the reasons for donation. Note that the donation was for 2016 but was made in 2017 for personal finance and tax reasons. Employer match: Affirm Inc matched 20,000.00; Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 100.00%. | |
| Animal Equality | 10.00 | 8 | -- | http://mdickens.me/donations/small.html | -- | ||
| Machine Intelligence Research Institute | 20.00 | 5 | -- | http://mdickens.me/donations/small.html | -- | ||
| Raising for Effective Giving | 20.00 | 5 | Effective altruism/meta/fundraising | http://mdickens.me/donations/small.html | -- | ||
| The Humane League | 20.00 | 5 | -- | http://mdickens.me/donations/small.html | -- | ||
| Raising for Effective Giving | 20,000.00 | 2 | Effective altruism/meta/fundraising | http://mdickens.me/donations/ | -- | See http://effective-altruism.com/ea/ns/my_cause_selection_michael_dickens/ for the full reasoning; also mirrored at http://mdickens.me/2015/09/15/my_cause_selection/. | |
| Animal Charity Evaluators | 3,000.00 | 3 | Animal welfare/factory farming/meta/charity evaluator | http://mdickens.me/donations/ | Stanford EA | Part of a collective donation by Stanford EA; Dickens had a preference for THL but deferred to group consensus. | |
| The Humane League | 500.00 | 4 | -- | http://mdickens.me/donations/ | Stanford EA | Donated as part of Stanford EA consensus. |
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