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by JamesBarney 1299 days ago
Surely you think between two charities, one that takes a $1,000 and buys caviar for starving children and one that feeds 1000x as many bread the second one does more good per $ than the first.
1 comments

Sure, it is easy to invent fantastically silly uses of money. Is that what is at issue?
Kinda, yes.

It's certainly the scale of impact difference between some of the charities:

Charities can be useless or actively harmful: https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/criteria/im...

vs.

$4500/life saved: https://www.givewell.org/our-giving-funds#Top_Charities_Fund

They also say why it's that high: https://www.givewell.org/impact-estimates

Another example I've heard is hospitals asking people to stop skydiving to raise money for them, as the mean cost of medial care the average skydiver needs due to skydiving injuries exceeds the average money raised by skydiving.