“You can’t assign a life insurance policy to a non-profit organization?”
You can, but it probably won’t pay out until relatively far into the future, and because of SIAI’s high discount rate, money in the far future isn’t worth much.
“Is the long-term viability of low-cost cryonics a known quantity? Is it noticeably similar to the viability of high-cost cryonics?”
Yes. The Cryonics Institute has been in operation since 1976 (35 years) and is very financially stable.
“Did Michael Anissimov, Media Director for SIAI, when citing specific financial data available on Guidestar, lie about SIAI’s budget in the linked blog post?”
Probably not, he just wasn’t being precise. SIAI’s financial data for 2008 is available here (guidestar.org) for anyone who doesn’t believe me.
The Cryonics Institute has been in operation since 1976 (35 years) and is very financially stable.
Please provide evidence for this claim. I’ve heard contradictory statements to the effect that even $150,000 likely isn’t enough for long term viability.
Probably not, he just wasn’t being precise.
I’m curious how the statement, “our annual budget is in the $200,000/year range”, may be considered “imprecise” rather than outright false when compared with data from the source he cited.
I sent Anissimov an email asking him to clarify. He may have been netting out Summit expenses (matching cost of venue, speaker arrangements, etc against tickets to net things out). Also note that 2008 was followed by a turnover of all the SIAI staff except Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Michael Vassar then cut costs.
I was completely wrong on my budget estimate, I apologize. I wasn’t including the Summit, and I was just estimating the cost on my understanding of salaries + misc. expenses. I should have checked Guidestar. My view of the budget also seems to have been slightly skewed because I frequently check the SIAI Paypal account, which many people use to donate, but I never see the incoming checks, which are rarer but sometimes make up a large portion of total donations. My underestimate of money in contributing to my underestimating monies out.
Again, I’m sorry, I was not lying, just a little confused and a few years out of date on my estimate. I will search over my blog to modify any incorrect numbers I can find.
“You can’t assign a life insurance policy to a non-profit organization?”
You can, but it probably won’t pay out until relatively far into the future, and because of SIAI’s high discount rate, money in the far future isn’t worth much.
“Is the long-term viability of low-cost cryonics a known quantity? Is it noticeably similar to the viability of high-cost cryonics?”
Yes. The Cryonics Institute has been in operation since 1976 (35 years) and is very financially stable.
“Did Michael Anissimov, Media Director for SIAI, when citing specific financial data available on Guidestar, lie about SIAI’s budget in the linked blog post?”
Probably not, he just wasn’t being precise. SIAI’s financial data for 2008 is available here (guidestar.org) for anyone who doesn’t believe me.
Please provide evidence for this claim. I’ve heard contradictory statements to the effect that even $150,000 likely isn’t enough for long term viability.
I’m curious how the statement, “our annual budget is in the $200,000/year range”, may be considered “imprecise” rather than outright false when compared with data from the source he cited.
SIAI Total Expenses (IRS form 990, line 17):
2006: $395,567
2007: $306,499
2008: $614,822
I sent Anissimov an email asking him to clarify. He may have been netting out Summit expenses (matching cost of venue, speaker arrangements, etc against tickets to net things out). Also note that 2008 was followed by a turnover of all the SIAI staff except Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Michael Vassar then cut costs.
Hi all,
I was completely wrong on my budget estimate, I apologize. I wasn’t including the Summit, and I was just estimating the cost on my understanding of salaries + misc. expenses. I should have checked Guidestar. My view of the budget also seems to have been slightly skewed because I frequently check the SIAI Paypal account, which many people use to donate, but I never see the incoming checks, which are rarer but sometimes make up a large portion of total donations. My underestimate of money in contributing to my underestimating monies out.
Again, I’m sorry, I was not lying, just a little confused and a few years out of date on my estimate. I will search over my blog to modify any incorrect numbers I can find.
Thank you for the correction.