The Life You Can Save (TLYCS)

Leads: Bilal Siddiqi, Neela Saldhana; Other partner contact: Jon Behar (Giving Games)

We have completed various trials in conjunction with The Life You Can Save, the most recent being theAdvisor signup (Portland) city-level YouTube test. There are a number of additional proposed trials and tests, however, at the moment these considerations are limited to the private Gitbook.

Note that in the past TLYCS has worked with the Graduate Policy Workshop School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, who produced the 'Behavioral Insights to End Global Poverty' report embedded below.

Quick takeaways from the "Princeton" report

(From 'summary'... the report authors' takes are given except where italicized)

• 5 key principles: choice architecture, social norms, empathy, overhead cost aversion, and anchoring

Factual:

• TLYCS demographics are predictable (White, Male, tech...)

• Donations cluster at the end of the tax year

Pages and promotion

• Social media channel is promising

• The "Best charities" page underperforms: there is a high bounce rate

  • DR: Maybe because Givewell etc do better at this?

• "Visual presentation of charities does have an effect

  • DR: Not clear how this is causally identified

• Ran "social media tests' they claim are underpowered.

  • DR: but these could be analyzed with Bayesian methods for actionable insights

• They suggest simplified presentation/navigation, and a 'decision tree quiz' to reduce cognitive load