I almost wrote "Warning: Unlike what you're used to on Less Wrong, this post is both short and immediately actionable."
Maybe I should have. It appears this post violates Less Wronger's expectations that things be long, complicated, and require nothing but idle thought.
It honestly pains me greatly to know so many different ways I could "improve" this article, all of which involve actually making it needlessly longer and more complicated simply to appease the highly-perverse expectations here that knowledge which is simple to attain is not valuable.
It honestly pains me greatly to know so many different ways I could "improve" this article, all of which involve actually making it needlessly longer and more complicated
It is ironic that you chose to make this reply to a comment that essentially objected to a needless (and misleading) complication in the title. If you left it at "How to Donate $100 to SIAI for Free" and didn't introduce a complexity ('Applied Optimal Philanthropy') that goes against the content then your post would have earned a whole lot more karma and a more posi...
If I gave you $50 you hadn't planned on receiving, would you consider giving it to charity?
Here's your chance to find out.
Just in time for the Tallin-Evans matching fundraiser, ING Direct has started offering a free $50 cash sign-up bonus. I've personally used ING for 10 years and referred over 20 people to similar promotions of theirs in the past so I can confirm that this is legit.1
It's a simple, effective way to get started as an optimal philanthropist for free:
Full disclosure: I was an SIAI Visiting Fellow in 2010. I've also used ING Direct as a customer the past 10 years, but otherwise have no financial interest in them.
[1] This isn't one of those bogus "intro" deals where you have to make sure you cancel the service later on or risk getting charged fees. ING has no fees, no minimum balance requirements, no sleazy marketing emails, and consistently good savings rates. If you want to use them for their good service after signing up, great, if not, no worries. All you have to do to qualify for the $50 is make 3 small purchases you were planning to make anyway with their new debit card. I know it's a trivial inconvenience, but I think it's worth it to be able to donate up to $100 to charity without actually spending any money.
[2] Profit denominated in warm fuzzies, karma, and post-Singularity catgirls.