[Linkpost] “Dollars in political giving are less fungible than you might think” by lincolnq

This is a link post. I used to think that a dollar in my DAF[1] was approximately as good as a dollar in my normal bank account for making the world a better place. Lots of orgs try to measure or increase “charitable dollars,” with an implication that a 20-40% boost in charitable dollars via tax planning strategies[2] is highly worthwhile. But in the political giving world, charitable money is worth quite a bit less than more-flexible money and so if you are thinking about doing political giving you may not want to put so much into a DAF, because it restricts your options quite a bit. (When I say “charitable” I mean money that is restricted to granting to 501c3 orgs, and that's opposed to what I call “flex” money which has no such restriction. And yes, I acknowledge that this post is very US-centric.) Political giving is a [...] ---Outline:(01:02) Charitable money is hard to use politically(01:35) Campaigns buy a lot of advertising(02:39) Timing(03:30) So what are PACs anyway?(04:18) Beyond individual campaigns(05:56) PACs are even more flexible(06:36) Don't forget parties(07:40) Overall --- First published: October 24th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/A77ppsymJMR4kDgFA/dollars-in-political-giving-are-less-fungible-than-you-might Linkpost URL:https://lincolnquirk.substack.com/p/when-is-a-dollar-not-a-dollar --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

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