donations links roundup

GiveWell’s new list of top-rated charities is out.

Freakonomics recently had a podcast called What Makes a Donor Donate? (link includes podcast and transcript.)  It’s short and full of interesting (and sometimes counterintuitive) facts about the effectiveness of seed money, matching donations, raffles, and letting donors opt out of future solicitations.

For those who want to dig deeper, John List, one of the guests of the Freakonomics podcast, studies the economics of charitable giving.  He has a set of research papers full of empirical evidence about various fundraising tactics.  These publications look both interesting and useful for those trying to effectively raise money for a cause.