Meet the candidates in the Forum’s Donation Election (2023)

Lizka

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:

Donating to the Donation Election Fund or to individual projects
Discussing which of these donation opportunities are most cost-effective and how we should vote in the Donation Election (voting opens on Friday!)

Candidates in the Donation Election

Cross-cause & meta (6)

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

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

Animal welfare (7)

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

Catastrophic risks & far future (6)

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

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.

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.

Thank you!

Donation Election Fund | Giving Portal

^{^}
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.

Logo	Basics	More info
	Charity Entrepreneurship: Incubated Charities Fund Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy Donations to this Fund are used as seed funding for new promising charities incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship. CE's focus areas include health and development policy, mental health, family planning, and animal advocacy, and EA meta. Their early-2024 ideas were announced here. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness A post from March might help inform how new charities will do: After launch. How are CE charities progressing? (these charities had raised $22.5M by that point from their own funders, including GiveWell, Open Philanthropy, Founders Pledge, ACE). More on Charity Entrepreneurship charities' track record here.
	EAIF: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (EA Funds) Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy The EAIF seems to have around $1.5M right now, so marginal donations to the EAIF would go towards grants like expenses for a student magazine covering issues like biosecurity and factory farming for non-EA audiences ($9,000), a shared workspace for the EA community in a major European city, and more. (Open Philanthropy will match donations to the EAIF.) Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness An argument for giving to the EAIF/LTFF is made here. The EAIF has received funding from Open Philanthropy. You can see their public grants here, and some recent grant recommendations and reasoning here.
	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 GWWC’s summary of their impact. They estimate that each dollar invested in GWWC generated $30 in donations for effective charities. GWWC has been funded by Open Philanthropy.
	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 See this project brief for evidence of impact from EA Market Testing team and more.
	Rethink Priorities Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy RP seeks to raise funding to continue publishing research on the Forum, run the EA survey, pursue creative projects like the moral weights work (and other innovative work, which has historically been supported by individual donors), run other promising research projects, spend less time fundraising in the next year, and more. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Here is their review of 2023; in 2023 they worked on ~160 research pieces, informing at least $10M in grants, supported 11 external organizations and initiatives, completed work for ~20 different clients, presented at >15 academic institutions, and organized in-person convenings of stakeholders. They’ve received funding from Open Philanthropy and EA Funds.
	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.

Logo	Basics	More info
	ACE: Animal Charity Evaluators (Movement Grants) Topics wiki page (ACE) Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy Past movement grants can be explored here. 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.
	AWF: Animal Welfare Fund (EA Funds) Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy Marginal grants might look like: Supporting a premiere effective animal advocacy organization implementing cage-free transitions in Latin America as we approach cage-free deadlines ($150k). Supporting a pragmatic organization in Asia, with previous support from other funders, to lobby a government for alt protein support ($10K). In general, the AWF expects to have less funding this year, but they could grant 20%-100% more without any significant decreases to the quality of their grants (several million more at the level of last year’s grants); they have many grant applications that seem promising, and many of their grantees (which tend to be small) have grown a lot. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Giving What We Can researchers decided to recommend the Animal Welfare Fund as a top-rated fund (see full report). You can see their public grants here.
	Faunalytics Topics wiki page Fundraiser	Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Their “impact” page shares assorted engagement numbers, testimonials, and retrospectives. Recommended by ACE, supported by Open Philanthropy and the AWF.
	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 Recommended by ACE, supported by Open Philanthropy.
	GFI: Good Food Institute Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy Funding would enable team growth and research projects responding to specific gaps and needs of stakeholders on the path for alternative protein adoption. Here are their annual reports. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Recommended by ACE, supported by Open Philanthropy.
	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 Recommended by Founders Pledge, GWWC, and ACE, and supported by the AWF and Open Philanthropy.
	WAI: Wild Animal Initiative Topics wiki page Fundraiser	Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Their “transparency” page includes annual reports and more. Recommended by ACE, supported by Open Philanthropy.

Logo	Basics	More 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 You can see some of their past grants on their website, and some potential future grants on page 5 of this report. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness You can see Founders Pledge’s overall 2022 report here.
	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 See more about patient altruism/philanthropy here, and a summary here. You can see Founders Pledge’s overall 2022 report here.
	LTFF: Long-Term Future Fund (EA Funds) Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy Hypothetical grants that the Long-Term Future Fund narrowly rejected (but would fund with more donations) include a grant to a former academic to tackle some unusually tractable research problems in disaster resilience after large-scale GCRs, career transition funding to help someone with software engineering experience to enter a technical AI safety role, and more. (Open Philanthropy will match donations to the LTFF.) See also this comment and their earlier post on marginal grants at different funding levels. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness You can see their public grants here.
	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 Has been supported by Open Philanthropy
	NTI (biosecurity): Nuclear Threat Initiative: Biosecurity Program Topics wiki page (NTI) Fundraiser	Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Recommended by Founders Pledge and has been supported by Open Philanthropy and Longview’s Longtermism Fund

Logo	Basics	More 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 AMF is a GiveWell top charity.
	GiveDirectly Topics wiki page Fundraiser	What extra donations would buy More cash transfers to people in poverty, as well as research on the impact of such programs. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness GiveDirectly was a GiveWell top charity from 2012 to 2022, after which criteria were updated.
	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 You can find detailed writeups of the grants here. The fund is recommended by 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 You can see their public grants here.
	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 Malaria Consortium’s Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Program is a GiveWell top charity.

Logo	Basics	More 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	What extra donations would buy Activities like funding a community organizer in Boston, and paying for travel for EA conference attendees. Arguments or evidence for cost-effectiveness Two quick models compare CEA projects with a hypothetical LTFF grant, and an EA infrastructure grant. This selection of impact stories.
	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 RCG is the only Spanish speaking organization focusing on GCR studies.
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.

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