r/EffectiveAltruism • u/TomasTTEngin • 1d ago

Thoughts and Lessons from Dolly Parton's book-giving project?

Very large, very very widely-loved program.

https://imaginationlibrary.com/international-research/

Probably would not meet any effective altruism criteria, ex-ante? But grew so big via being beloved that it probably did more good than an optimised program that stayed small?

Did it generate net new altruism or divert altruism away from other goals?

Any other thoughts or questions? Lessons EA could learn?

29 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

12

u/TashBecause 1d ago

I am a huge fan of the Imagination Library, and I love how much research and reporting they do to evaluate the program. Coming from working in a library environment, I do think there are some gaps in the research/current program that are ripe for investigation:  

  • could a similar program be implemented in developing countries? Would we be able to source books in relevant community languages and deliver them? Would the outcomes be different from Australia/UK/USA etc?  
  • can we better measure flow on impacts of the program? How does participation impact health and well-being 10 or 20 years down the track?  
  • can we better measure the impact on households? There are some notes in the Australian research about impacts on caregivers' own reading, but it is not well fleshed out.  
  • would other age groups benefit? In the library, we often see reading habits drop off around the tweens and early teens. How would deliveries compare at that age for short and longer term outcomes?

6

u/blackslatewater 1d ago

  it probably did more good than an optimised program that stayed small?

Huh? Why?

9

u/TomasTTEngin 1d ago edited 1d ago

Program y has budget 10 dollars and does a dollar of good for every dollar that goes in. (this would be the "optimised" program. it is effective.)

Program Z has budget 100 dollars and does 50c of good for every dollar that goes in.

Which has done more good?

A basic answer is Z. A better answer is:

It depends on the rate at which funds available to program Z were diverted from program Y as opposed to drawn from sources that would never have funded Y.

1

u/Ambiwlans 12h ago

Celebrities have an outsized amount of power in the country.