Question: Is donating small amounts AI safety organisations going make a non-negligible difference?
Answer: Many parts of the AI alignment ecosystem are already well-funded, but a savvy donor can still make a difference by picking up grantmaking opportunities which are too small to catch the attention of the major funding bodies or are based on personal knowledge of the recipient.
One way to leverage a small amount of money to the potential of a large amount is to enter a ［https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/donor-lottery donor lottery］, where you donate to win a chance to direct a much larger amount of money (with probability proportional to donation size). This means that the person directing the money will be allocating enough that it's worth their time to do more in-depth research.
For an overview of the work the major organizations are doing, see the ［https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BNQMyWGCNWDdP2WyG/2021-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison 2021 AI Alignment Literature Review and Charity Comparison］. The ［https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/far-future Long-Term Future Fund］ seems to be an outstanding place to donate based on that, as they are the organization which most other organizations are most excited to see funded.