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This post collects some information about the candidates in the Donation Election, with an emphasis on what marginal donations to the candidates would accomplish. It also includes some information about other projects ⬇️.

Please let me know if you spot mistakes or you'd like to add more context.[1] If your project isn’t on this list, please feel free to write about it in the comments.

Update: the winners in the Donation Election have been announced

Consider also: 

Candidates in the Donation Election

Cross-cause & meta (6)

These projects work across different cause areas, or help build effective altruism

LogoBasicsMore info

Charity Entrepreneurship: Incubated Charities Fund

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund · Giving  What We Can

EAIF: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (EA Funds)

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

Giving What We Can · Giving What We Can

GWWC: Giving What We Can

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Baseline funding would put them on stable financial footing for 2024 to support their operations, to support more donations and donation pledges. Fundraising for their expansion budget would allow them to grow (e.g. reach more potential donors), conduct and share more research, support the wider/international effective giving ecosystem, and more.
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

Giving What We Can (Charity Elections)

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Operations of the programme (0.5 FTE salary and a bit extra for promotions and outreach, to set up charity elections at schools) and improving measurement of impact (from here).
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

Rethink Priorities

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

TLYCS: The Life You Can Save

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • According to this, each dollar invested in TLYCS generated around $18 in donations to its recommended charities (possibly outdated). ($17 here.) 
    • Recommended by Founders Pledge.

Animal welfare (7)

These projects focus on reducing animal suffering. This recent post suggests that a lot more funding should go towards animal welfare. 

LogoBasicsMore info

ACE: Animal Charity Evaluators (Movement Grants)

Topics wiki page (ACE)

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Their “impact” page shares giving metrics, annual reports, and testimonials. They estimate that in the 2022–2023 fiscal year, they helped influence around $8.3 million in donations within the animal advocacy movement.
    • Supported by the AWF and Open Philanthropy
Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund · Giving  What We Can

AWF: Animal Welfare Fund (EA Funds)

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

Faunalytics

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

FWI: Fish Welfare Initiative

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Several in-field studies to test interventions that might be more promising than their current programs (improving stocking density and/or water quality), as well as expanding the current program to 100 more farms, and other work like policy and stakeholder work. (See 2024 goals here.)
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

GFI: Good Food Institute

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

THL: The Humane League

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • In their 2023 review, ACE estimated that THL had a 2024-2025 funding gap of $10.5M. Additional marginal funding would support activities like securing new cage-free commitments and holding companies accountable for their cage-free commitments. Funding is needed for travel and digital advertising to pressure companies and recruit new supporters to power our campaign. They also have expansion plans for the Open Wing Alliance.
    • Here’s a comment about how THL would use more funding (and here’s THL UK. (Note that THL UK is not a candidate in the Donation Election.)
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

WAI: Wild Animal Initiative

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

Catastrophic risksfar future (6)

Various cases have been made for the importance of reducing catastrophic/existential risks

LogoBasicsMore info

ALLFED: Alliance To Feed The Earth In Disasters

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • More neglected research into improving resilience and response capabilities in scenarios like an extreme collapse of critical infrastructure (e.g. loss of electricity or industry) — which could be caused by an extreme pandemic, other priority projects, and translation of research into policy and tech development. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Some estimates suggest that this work might be more cost-effective than GiveWell interventions for saving lives in the present generation and more cost-effective than AGI safety for improving the long-run future. 
    • ALLFED has been supported by the LTFF

Founders Pledge (Global Catastrophic Risks Fund)

Topics wiki page (Founders Pledge)

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

Founders Pledge (Patient Philanthropy Fund)

Topics wiki page (Founders Pledge)

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Marginal donations would grow “humanity’s emergency fund.” Donations are invested while the fund grows, and when it hits $10M, the investment strategy will be updated. After 10 years or when the balance reaches $100M, the fund will spin out (until then, all operational expenses are covered by Founders Pledge). See more.
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund · Giving  What We Can

LTFF: Long-Term Future Fund (EA Funds)

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

MIRI: Machine Intelligence Research Institute

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • More technical research and public outreach. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

NTI (biosecurity): Nuclear Threat Initiative: Biosecurity Program

Topics wiki page (NTI)

Fundraiser

Global health and wellbeing (5)

The world could be a lot better than it is, and it’s important to approach improving global health and wellbeing cost-effectively

LogoBasicsMore info

AMF: Against Malaria Foundation

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Donations would go towards distributing anti-malaria nets. (“100% of the funds we receive from the public buys nets. We achieve this because we have a significant level of pro bono support from organisations and individuals.” From here.) Their current funding gap means that only 65% of the net distribution they plan for 2024-2026 in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be funded.
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

GiveDirectly

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

GiveWell: All Grants Fund

Topics wiki page (GiveWell)

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Donations support the highest-impact giving opportunities GiveWell identifies. ¾ of this will probably go to top charities. (See more.)
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund · Giving  What We Can

Global Health and Development Fund (EA Funds)

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • They recommend grants to GiveWell top charities as a baseline, but recommends higher-risk grants if they believe them to be more effective (in expectation) than GiveWell top charities. Examples include J-PAL’s Innovation in Government Initiative. (More here.)
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

Malaria Consortium: Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention

Topics wiki page

Fundraiser

  • What extra donations would buy
    • In 2022, they used funding to implement seasonal malaria chemoprevention (reaching almost 24 million children in seven countries in Africa), conduct related research, engage with external stakeholders, and more.
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness

Other projects that have shared information about their funding gaps

Thanks a bunch to @tobytrem for help with this section!

If your project isn't listed here, consider sharing information about it in the comments. 

LogoBasicsMore info
Cross-cause & meta

Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA)

A charity for building and nurturing the EA community; running EA conferences, the EA Forum, supporting groups, writing newsletters and content, and more. 

Donate

Topics wiki page

Centre for Enabling EA Learning and Research (CEEALAR)

A free/subsidized living space for people seeking to do the most good they can with their time/resources.

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Donations would extend CEEALAR’s runway, which currently stands at 3 months. It costs $15,500/month to host an average of 20 grantees at CEEALAR. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • A recent alumnus used their time at CEEALAR to transition from data science to AI safety research. 
    • Two other guests started the project ML4Good while at CEEALAR. 
    • More stories and details here

Doebem

A charity evaluator identifying effective giving opportunities in Brazil and globally. 

Donate

Topics wiki page

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Donations would help Soebem cover their operating costs ($200k pays for 18 months). 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Doebem estimates that they can reach $5M directed towards effective charities.
    • More detail is given here

EA Poland

A charity that  organizes and grows the EA community in Poland. 

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • EA Poland is looking to pay for its 3 full time staff to work for another year. They’ve currently fundraised for one half-time staff member. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • EA Poland works on a range of outreach projects, from promoting high impact careers in Polish schools to AI safety field building. More details here
Animal welfare

Impactful Animal Advocacy

A project building infrastructure for a better connected animal advocacy movement. 

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • They have 5.5. months of runway; more fund project maintenance (salary, Slack Pro, travel, etc.), organizational growth, and projects like improvements to the Slack, focused newsletters, etc. 
  • They describe their work, share community stories, and more in their recent post

Legal Impact for Chickens

A charity that sues companies that break animal welfare commitments. 

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Salary for an administrative employee to give the lawyers on staff more time for litigation. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Recommended by ACE.
Catastrophic risks and far future

ML Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) Program

A program that helps talented scholars upskill and get into AI safety.

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Extra donations could allow them to mentor 10-15 additional scholars, at $21K per scholar.  
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Alumni have founded AI safety organizations, worked for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, etc. and pursued independent funded research. More details here

PIBBSS

A program that facilitates research into the analogy between natural and artificial systems, in order to progress work on AI safety. 

Donate: contact@pibbss.ai

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Additional research affiliates, at $35k per individual for 6 months. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Reflections on 2022’s programme are here

Riesgos Catastróficos Globales (RCG)

A charity that investigates science policy opportunities to improve the management of GCRs in Spanish speaking countries.

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • A longer runway for RCG; in August, this only reached to October (2023) (see more).
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
Global health and wellbeing

High Impact Medicine (Hi-Med)

A program for promoting impact-driven careers and giving amongst medical students and professionals. 

Donate

Topics wiki page

  • What extra donations would buy
    • This project currently runs 1:1s, local groups, an intro fellowship, and more. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Testimonials of medical professionals and students who are shifting their careers towards impact are here

Maternal Health Initiative

A charity that helps Ghanaian women access family planning help and resources.  

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy (and a separate post)
    • Donations will determine the quality and reach of MHI’s 2024 programmes. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • Reaches ~40,000 clients annually through the people they train. 
    • More considerations here

Solar pumps for income generation in Malawi

A project of the charity Solar4Africa, which builds and distributes solar technologies in Africa. 

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • A subsidy to make a solar pumping system affordable to low income farmers. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • On the charity’s own estimation, a $150 donation produces $500 of income annually for Malawian farmers. 
    • More estimates of cost-effectiveness are here. 

Spiro

A new charity that aims to identify, screen and treat children living with TB sufferers. 

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Spiro is raising $198,000 for its first year of operations. It will spend this on its pilot programme, country visits, and more
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • TB is neglected, and this intervention is estimated to be highly cost-effective. GiveWell has also funded and recommended TB programs in the past. (See more here.)

Vida Plena

A program that trains local communities to provide mental health care for depression in Latin America. 

Donate

  • What extra donations would buy
    • Treatment for people with depression, payment for organizers, and further research into the effectiveness of these interventions. 
  • Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness
    • In the 2022 pilot study, 75% of patients experienced clinically significant depression reduction. 

Thank you! 

Donation Election Fund | Giving Portal

  1. ^

    Feel free to message me or leave a comment. 

    In some cases, I might add a link to your comment. I might not be able to include too much info (in the interest of space), and I might still keep what’s currently written or edit what you share before adding it.

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