Older posts

My blog from 2010 to 2022, mostly on charitable giving, fundraising experiments and tax policy. Some links in these posts have aged. More recent writing is on the EA Forum, and my current work is on the research and projects pages.

2022

  • Citations need explanations

    Citations are used in papers for various purposes, including giving credit to past papers for career points, providing evidence and support for the citing author, claiming that the work is grounded in or contributes to …

    Jan 2

2019

  • An oversimplified argument for why "Virtue Signaling" is a good thing.

    “These people are just virtue signaling”; in the popular internet discourse this has come to mean “these people are just doing a useless activity to impress their friends”. But there is a stronger argument that “virtue …

    Aug 18

  • A corporate skills bake sale?

    Large companies generously offer to support employee ‘pro-bono’ work and volunteer work, offering set-aside days and even donations matching hours; (documented in my “innovationsinfundraising.org” database here). They …

    Jan 31

  • A bridge towards open-access

    Has anyone ever considered… Asking existing (e.g.) Elsevier academic editors to take a ‘pledge’ to handle and review papers for ‘journal equivalents’; e.g., I agree to handle submissions, and send this out to reviewers …

    Jan 22

2018

  • The 'human fund' question

    Got this email: Subject: Donations to charity in someone’s name as a gift Who is the giver in this case? - Sent from my iPad My thoughts: Yeah, I’ve wondered that myself. I suppose the receiver of the gift has the …

    Nov 26

  • Inheritance (tax) and charitable bequests: an intergenerational pact?

    …Key points from my response to the Charity Tax Commission call for evidence Inheritance Tax Leaving a part or an entire estate to a charity can reduce or eliminate an Inheritance Tax liability as it will not count …

    Jul 16

  • A Discussion of the UK's "Gift Aid"

    …Key points from my response to the Charity Tax Commission call for evidence Gift Aid Gift Aid allows charities to claim tax relief – 25p in the pound – on gifts and donations made by UK taxpayers. If the donor is a 40 …

    Jul 11

  • What forms of tax relief should the charities themselves get?

    Key points from my response to the Charity Tax Commission call for evidence Value Added Tax (VAT) …Most of the charities that charge for their services are unable to recover input VAT because their services are exempt …

    Jul 7

  • Should there be tax relief/gift aid for charitable donations? Does it even promote more giving? This is not known.

    Key points from my response to the Charity Tax Commission call for evidence Should there be tax relief/gift aid for charitable donations? Does it even promote more giving? This is not known. Presumably the main argument …

    Jul 7

  • Should the government be subsidising charitable giving?

    Key points from my response to the Charity Tax Commission call for evidence Justifications for the government to fund good causes through the mechanism of ‘donation-driven subsidies’ rather than the standard democratic …

    Jul 7

  • The taxman asked us to weigh in

    So, I’m weighing in. The Charity Tax Commission is having a ‘call for evidence.' I’m planning to submit the answers HERE. This is a combination of my off-the-cuff insights, and elements drawn from research as discussed …

    Jul 4

  • The taxman asked us to weigh in

    So, I’m weighing in. The Charity Tax Commission is having a ‘call for evidence.' I’m planning to submit the answers HERE. This is a combination of my off-the-cuff insights, and elements drawn from research as discussed …

    Jul 4

  • Employee Giving incentives: A shared database... why?

    At innovationsinfundraising.org we’ve put together a (collaborative, living) database of information on what each of the firms in the FTSE100 do to encourage and support employee charitable giving. Do they ‘match’ …

    May 18

  • InnovationsInFundraising.org Progress

    Building innovationsinfundraising.org as a hub and wiki for researchers and practitioners trying to get a handle on the scientific evidence on what motivates giving to the most effective charities. Collaboration (esp. in …

    Apr 24

2017

2016

  • Times (UK): 'Jam tomorrow is easier to give away'

    A nice mention in the Times. Generosity increases dramatically if people are asked to donate tomorrow’s bonus or inheritance cheque rather than money they already have, academics have found. Once people have the cash in …

    Oct 17

  • Progress on bonus giving and giveifyouwin.org

    It seems our work is starting to have some traction. We worked with the Behavioural Insights team and City Philanthropy in 2012 and they put out this “Call for City firms to help Cabinet Office research into ‘windfall’ …

    Sep 12

  • Should you hedge your bets on a Brexit?

    What you can do right now to reduce your risk from Thursday’s vote There is a great deal of uncertainty over the likelihood, and consequences, of the vote on 23 June. However, disagreement is mainly over the magnitude of …

    Jun 19

  • ESSExLab innovations and new capacities; partnering with experimenters

    Within the next 1-2 months ESSExLab (University of Essex, directed by Simone Dietrich and managed by Patrick Lown) will be building several new capacities: Recruitment: Conducting a large mail/postal recruitment drive …

    May 8

  • Seeking partners for charitable-giving trials and innovations

    As academics we hope that our research has the potential to go beyond the ivory tower and have an impact on the world, and in turn, we want to learn from real-world practitioners. This has always been important to me, …

    May 7

2015

  • Article in TheConversation

    Should governments enable price discrimination by income? Firms and lower-income consumers would likely benefit. This article was written jointly with Owen Southam, with contributions from Rasif Alakbarov and Harry …

    Sep 30

  • Let Them Eat OpportunityCards: a new policy tool that may reduce inequality

    Governments have unique private information about individual incomes. This suggests a new policy tool: consumers can be offered an “OpportunityCard” certifying their income, and firms can be allowed to price­ …

    Sep 11

2013

  • Venn diagramming my research (interests)

    I think my research evolves from the nexus of questions I am interested in (interest), things that I think I can say something about (opportunity), and things that other people seem to like (external value), with the …

    May 3

2012

  • Tips for Men's Health Marathon Runners on Fundraising

    Notes on marathon fundraising, what we have evidence for, speculations on what might work, and other comments - Dr. David Reinstein, University of Essex, August 2012 Why do we ask people to donate particularly when we …

    Dec 10

  • Pet peeves

    Talking about “Rational” versus “Irrational” behaviour or people … it is not an either/or and “irrational” is a black box The redundant term “Causal Effect” -- I’m against the use of the phrase “causal effect” or “causal …

    Mar 7

2011

2010

AI use: Written by me, 2010–2022, before AI writing tools. In October 2026 an AI coding agent (Claude Code) fixed dead links only. How this site uses AI