Well, if the donations they have to match go beyond what they’d donate anyway, they would donate more than they otherwise would. Plus, the goal is to get YOU to donate more than you otherwise would.
It was certainly rational from SIAI’s point of view as Tiiba explained.
Also it was rational for SIAI supporters to give one of their dollars via Philanthroper as I’m pretty sure the expected extra money SIAI gets is x where $1 < x ⇐ $2.
It might not be exactly $2 because we assume the matchers have not already decided exactly how much they will give over their lifetime. Future donations from them will be somewhat based on “have I given enough already?” which would be negatively impacted by past donations.
So for people to get their full $2, matchers need to promise to match the money and not feel warm and fuzzy about it.
“A group of Singularity Institute donors has stepped forward to match all donations given through Philanthroper today”
Does this make sense? How do we know they wouldn’t have given that money anyway?
I’m one of the matchers, and I can promise you that I wouldn’t have given that money anyways!
This is generally a good question though; for bigger matching fundraising drives I think that more often or not the money is precommitted.
Donations reopened for the weekend, so I just made you one dollar poorer. Thanks for matching!
Well, if the donations they have to match go beyond what they’d donate anyway, they would donate more than they otherwise would. Plus, the goal is to get YOU to donate more than you otherwise would.
I’ve rethought and I was half-wrong.
It was certainly rational from SIAI’s point of view as Tiiba explained.
Also it was rational for SIAI supporters to give one of their dollars via Philanthroper as I’m pretty sure the expected extra money SIAI gets is x where $1 < x ⇐ $2.
It might not be exactly $2 because we assume the matchers have not already decided exactly how much they will give over their lifetime. Future donations from them will be somewhat based on “have I given enough already?” which would be negatively impacted by past donations.
So for people to get their full $2, matchers need to promise to match the money and not feel warm and fuzzy about it.