I do think you should ask yourself whether your hard-earned money should go to a cause with a bad leader, ineffective programs, ridiculous overhead, etc.

When you think of the fact that the number of nonprofits increased by 33% in the last ten years, you realize that there definitely are nonprofits that are really helping people, serving a need, running on a shoestring, and there are those that are merely paying lipservice to the cause they espouse. I do hope that Givewell exposes these fraud charities, to help us find the real ones we need to give to.

Jason, it sounds like the main reason you are considering giving to your alma mater is out of a sense of “debt repayment.” (Maybe a better way to put it is “equity repayment,” since your alma mater gets nothing back from many of its alumni, and has to get huge returns from the successful alumni to “break even.”) I think this is a valid reason to give, but:

• It still seems like a good idea to examine your alma mater’s financial situation and what the actual impact of your gift would be. If they turn out to have much more funding than they need/will use for scholarships, I imagine you’d reconsider.
• I would put the gift in a different mental bucket from “philanthropy.”.

I’m speaking here only about how to think of your own position - obviously from there you’ll have to negotiate/compromise with your wife if she sees things differently.

Very true, but that’s the case with every “selfish giving” donation we’re talking about, right? Wikipedia, one’s alma mater, and a church all benefit other people (which is why “selfish giving” is kind of a harsh term, it’s much less selfish than, say, buying a Lexus). I think the issue is intentionally choosing a charity that one knows to be cost-ineffective for personal reasons.

I think a much worse example of selfish giving would be a multimillion dollar gift to a university to have them build a building and name it after you. Once again, more selfless than buying a yacht, but there’s always a big element of ego implicit in such a donation.

Fair enough….except that the $$$ you give doesn’t get earmarked solely to serve your needs. Others personally benefit from that Church as well, so I would absolutely consider it philanthropy.

Jason, my own feeling is that donations to your alma mater are most likely to be dwarfed by comparison with VillageReach in cost effectiveness and so that Holden’s approximation is valid in this case and you should conceptualize donations to your alma mater as satisfying a personal need rather than pushing toward a better world, and so not classify them as philanthropy.

However:

(1) it’s possible that I’m wrong in my judgment, not knowing your college’s financial situation and how well they use money (you would know more about this than I would) though I suspect not in light of the issue raised here http://blog.givewell.org/2010/01/28/can-choosing-the-right-charity-double-your-impact/ ,

(2) you and/or your wife may have a different conception of what an ideal society would look like than I do

(3) maintaining a happy marriage has value too, both intrinsic and instrumental.