If you expect the emotion to be appropriate to the truth of the situation, then it's a good thing to have that emotion.
My problem isn't in giving people fuzzies as a reward for them giving SIAI 1% of something.
My problem's with this adding to people's already super-stimulated-by-clever-marketers set of psychological rewards and excuses-to-self for running up enormous credit card bills buying stuff they don't need with money that could be put to better use by, say, giving SIAI more than 1% of something.
In case you missed the notice at the SIAI Blog, the Singularity Institute's next Challenge Grant is now running - $100,000 of matching funds for all donations until February 28th, 2010. If you want your donation to be tax-deductible in the U.S. for 2009, donations postmarked by December 31st will be counted for this tax year.