And even the slightest suspicion of these gofundmes (which fwiw i think are legitimate in most cases!) gets you branded as anti-palestinian. I hate to sound like an effective altruist but surely there are more efficient ways to help Palestinian people than by paying upwards of $10000 euros per person to cross into Egypt??? It also makes me wonder who exactly gets the opportunity to make a gfm and who doesn't - what about the people who don't know English, who don't know people outside of Gaza who can coordinate gfm campaigns for them, who don't have access to phones or esims, who don't have access to international financial services? Or even just don't want to leave the place that has been their home for generations? I hate to be a cold autistic logical redditor about it but it seems to me that donating to a centralised service like unrwa or Palestinians children relief fund would be a better way to support many Palestinians at once. Idk I get that everybody wants to do something but it just doesn't seem sensible to me.
twovests wrote
I think you're right, and the hostility you mention (wrt suspecting GoFundMe-s) is something (1) youth centric, and (2) weaponized effectively by people running scams.
I want to emphasize "youth centric"-- I think everyone I know (who is mostly 25+) feels the same wariness to Go Fund Me's and whatnot. I think we've all seen our share of scams.
And there's nothing wrong with the basic principle of "effective altruism"! It's the Effective Altruism movement of LessWrong types who'll throw out the vast troves of unquantifiable facts in favor of what they personally have the tools to measure and model. It makes them ignorant to their own insular culture, to the point where they are actually worried about, like, Roko's Basilisk.
But wanting to maximize the good that comes from your time/money/energy is still a good idea. I've donated exclusively to the two you mention (UNRWA and PCRF) for their long track record of making good use of their money, and not to any GoFundMe.
That said, I believe GoFundMe allows you to start a campaign in benefit of another beneficiary, e.g. this GoFundMe with the PCRF as a beneficiary. Who can say if the loss from GoFundMe's 3% cut balances out with a campaign potentially getting more people to donate