the case for “efficient philanthropy” is relatively weak. I think the largest gap between philanthropist’s incentives and the public good is the philanthropist’s desire to make decisions that look good in retrospect, and that this gap could well cause many of the most important philanthropic interventions to be left on the table. I think the evidence Holden and others cite doesn’t bear significantly on this hypothesis.
Paul Christiano discusses Holden’s argument in The efficiency of modern philanthropy. His main claim is that