Since it appears acceptable to do so in this thread, I'll reiterate that I'm donating 22.5 percent of my gross income to SIAI this year, the majority of which I managed to put in during this matching campaign.
I also convinced a family member to donate, which surprised me, as I had almost given up hope of convincing others of FAI's importance.
Although I don't have much cash to spare, I've cut back in some personal budget areas for the next few months and donated $500 to the 'Hard Takeoff Paper' project. I have two hopes: that the donation (and matching funds) will make a non-negligible difference in the number of AI researchers taking the possibility of hard takeoff seriously, and that publicly posting this will nudge at least a few people into re-evaluating their willingness to donate to SIAI.
I donated 100 USD to the general fund.
I am a lurker -- always taking and never giving. This might change, but perhaps not. In any case, this opportunity is an effective way for me to give back to a community that has given me so much. Thank you.
i donated $500 to the general fund (thought a little about whether to give directly to the paper that describes how many lives per dollar could be saved by a friendly singularity, then i decided SIAI is a better judge of where to put the money. If a good massage pillow for eliezer and/or marcello improves the advent of FAI by a couple of weeks, it is money well spent :) ) I donated via my brother in california. Amounts to around 3% of my aftertax yearly income. (Indian rupee ratio is 46 to 1, really pinches)
Reasons for donating - Karmically (universal cosmic karma, not less wrong karma :) ) speaking, I wanted to give back a little. Can't do much in terms of arguments or thoughts (as my low karma score would testify), but can do in money. :)
Other reasons for donating - I genuinely believe that a friendly AI is one of the genuinely possible superhero scenarios - A bunch of good nobodies suddenly becoming powerful and using that power to help the world.
People keep feeding each other this thing about our technical capabilities exceeding our moral sense. That is true, unfortunately. FAI should finally put a cork into that argument.
Also, I plan to make it a yearly habit.
Since this blog post was made, more than 25 donors have donated a total of more than $1,500 to the Singularity Research Challenge. I would like to thank each and every one of you for your generosity.
EDIT: It's now 35 donors and $3,000.
EDIT 2: It's now 40 donors and $3,500.
EDIT 3: It's now 45 donors and $4,500.
Donated $1450 to the General Fund -- but man, do I hate the damn PayPal. They overcharged me $3 for three failed payment attempts and $60 for some unknown reason, so now I have to deal with their customer support (I hope it isn't outsourced to Bangalore.)
I was frustrated with PayPal not working, so I just mailed a check to their PO Box.
ETA: Take that, trivial inconveniences!
Donated another $50. Then I canceled a monthly donation to another charity and became a monthly donor for SIAI.
135€ to general fund (via resolution)
$100 to general fund. I've recently received some unexpected cash and am looking at ways to increase humanity's expected utility. I'll be donating to SENS and the Methuselah Foundation as well. Where else should I be looking?
A friend points out one possible way this reasoning doesn't work: charities can gain political power by quoting a larger number of individual donors. This would argue for giving $10 to several charities and the rest of the money to the best one.
I suspect that this reasoning is not only reasonably defensible, but also much more palatable; that the underlying biases are tested much less strongly by the policy conclusion "give the bulk of your money to one charity" than "give nothing to other charities". I will try to remember to use this version henceforth.
Just donated 100 CAD (about 95 USD) to the general fund.
It's a shame the 'challenge' only lasts until tomorrow. I only found a job recently (my first as a programmer!), so I'm still kinda poor.
I've given US$130 so far, plus a $300 check mailed 2/25 that may or may not arrive in time to be matched.
I donated $10 to the General Fund, and convinced my brother to do the same.
I'm also planning on putting out a general call for donations to my friends and family a few weeks before my birthday, in lieu of presents.
Just donated 35€, earmarked as a contribution to the "Collective Action" paper. Even though the money will return to the general fund, it doesn't hurt to hint at what I consider important, i.e. questions of collaboration and coordination.
Scraping in just under the deadline courtesy of a helpful reminder, I've donated a modest amount (anonymously, to the general fund). Cheers, folks.
Total raised so far: $100,000, with $0 remaining General Fund: $78,455
Looks like we did it. Thanks everyone who donated.
From Michael Anissimov on the Singularity Institute blog:
Thanks to generous contributions by our donors, we are only $11,840 away from fulfilling our $100,000 goal for the 2010 Singularity Research Challenge. For every dollar you contribute to SIAI, another dollar is contributed by our matching donors, who have pledged to match all contributions made before February 28th up to $100,000. That means that this Sunday is your final chance to donate for maximum impact.
Funds from the challenge campaign will be used to support all SIAI activities: our core staff, the Singularity Summit, the Visiting Fellows program, and more. Donors can earmark their funds for specific grant proposals, many of which are targeted towards academic paper-writing, or just contribute to our general fund
[Continue reading at the Singularity Institute blog.]