Donate
Six Reasons Why Small Donations Matter
One: The Singularity Institute isn't all that large.
We're an idea trying to become a movement - but the Singularity is an idea that's just starting out. We need every bit of support we can get, including yours. Even small donations seem large if you're a small organization.
Two: Small donations add up.
You'd be surprised at how often we hear the phrase "It just doesn't seem like my small contribution could make a difference." If everyone who thought this had donated whatever "small contribution" they were thinking of, it would probably add up to more than every cent we've received so far. If you're wondering whether to make a small donation, consider that other people may be asking themselves that very question at the same time as you.
Three: Is there anywhere else where a small donation would do more good?
The Singularity is a tremendously effective means of addressing human problems. The basic technological dynamic of the Singularity means that projects that use a bounded amount of resources can have a major, global, positive impact enormously out of proportion to the resources used. It may take a lot of resources to build a seed AI, considered from the standpoint of any one individual, but it's a tiny amount compared to the resources of a planet - and the Singularity is something that can benefit the whole planet. The Singularity is the most effective means we know for investing a given amount of money so that it brings the largest possible amount of real good to the greatest number of people. This doesn't change whether you're donating one dollar or a thousand dollars.
Four: Something is better than nothing.
If you're worried that a small donation won't help as much as you'd like, will sending no donation help more?
Five: US tax law prohibits public charities from getting too much support from big donors.
Under US tax law, a 501(c)(3) public charity must maintain a certain percentage of "public support". As with most tax rules, this one is complicated. If, over a four-year period, any one individual donates more than 2% of the organization's total support, anything over 2% does not count as "public support". If a single donor supported a charity, its public support percentage would be only 2%. If two donors supported a charity, its public support percentage would be at most 4%. Public charities must maintain a public support percentage of at least 10% and preferably 33.3%. Small donations - donations of less than 2% of our total support over a four-year period - count entirely as public support. Small donations permit us to accept more donations from our major supporters without sending our percentage of public support into the critical zone. Currently, the Singularity Institute is running short on public support - so please don't think that small donations don't matter!
Six: Even a small donation means the Singularity has another supporter.
We would rather get a hundred separate donations of ten dollars apiece than one donation of a thousand dollars - because we would know that a hundred people wanted to see a Singularity in their lifetimes. Let us know that you exist. We won't send you an endless stream of junk mail (honestly! we don't do that!) but we will get a warm fuzzy feeling inside just from knowing that you care. Seriously. Even sending ten dollars lets us know that you're out there, that you care about the Singularity, and that you're willing to do something about it. We sometimes get emails from people who tell us that they're glad we're here supporting the Singularity, but if you do this, could you please send a ten-dollar donation, or, heck, a one-dollar donation? Otherwise it's kind of depressing, unless you're an impoverished high-school student (please tell us so). If people believe the Singularity is nice but don't do anything about it, that's one of the failure scenarios. Each additional person who hears about the Singularity and does something about it, even if it's just a little bit, is encouraging; each additional person who sees the Singularity as interesting, but doesn't see that we ought to be doing something about it, is not good news.