Restricted donations are where the donor specifies that the funds are to be used in a certain way (e.g. for a specific project).
While I'm generally not a big fan of restricted donations, when it comes to recommended charities we may want to be able to accommodate them.
For example, GiveWell's recommendation (and hence our recommendation) of Sightsavers relates specifically to the NTD programme, and an unrestricted donation to Sightsavers would fund things for which we don't have a rationale.
The best hacky solution I can think of, and which wouldn't require new code, is to create a separate charity called "Sightsavers (NTDs)", which would be restricted donations to Sightsavers. I'm not keen on this primarily because I think a search for Sightsavers would find both charities, and users would probably be confused to see these two charities. Also because Sightsavers (NTDs) would contain only info about the NTD work, and people looking at Sightsavers (NTDs) are unlikely to realise that Sightsavers does other things. It also means that updates to the data have to happen twice, which increases the risks of errors and inconsistencies.
For now, I suggest we press on without properly reflecting the nuance around restricted donations, and only represent Sightsavers in the database once. However in time we should come back and address this.
Restricted donations are where the donor specifies that the funds are to be used in a certain way (e.g. for a specific project).
While I'm generally not a big fan of restricted donations, when it comes to recommended charities we may want to be able to accommodate them.
For example, GiveWell's recommendation (and hence our recommendation) of Sightsavers relates specifically to the NTD programme, and an unrestricted donation to Sightsavers would fund things for which we don't have a rationale.
The best hacky solution I can think of, and which wouldn't require new code, is to create a separate charity called "Sightsavers (NTDs)", which would be restricted donations to Sightsavers. I'm not keen on this primarily because I think a search for Sightsavers would find both charities, and users would probably be confused to see these two charities. Also because Sightsavers (NTDs) would contain only info about the NTD work, and people looking at Sightsavers (NTDs) are unlikely to realise that Sightsavers does other things. It also means that updates to the data have to happen twice, which increases the risks of errors and inconsistencies.
For now, I suggest we press on without properly reflecting the nuance around restricted donations, and only represent Sightsavers in the database once. However in time we should come back and address this.