EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

As part of "Marginal Funding Week" for the 2024 Giving Season on the EA Forum, we would like to share how Rethink Priorities (RP) would use additional funding beyond what we anticipate we will receive from our major funders. RP has many well-defined, high-impact projects that could greatly benefit from extra resources. Even after factoring in support from current large donors, we have substantial room to transform further funding into impact.

Gratitude and growth: Support our momentum into 2025

As we wrap up another year, we feel a deep sense of gratitude for the support from the community of individuals and groups that support and use our work. RP was able to make meaningful progress—from conducting research that advances new areas to supporting projects that shape the future of effective altruism (EA). Donor support at the end of last year made this possible. With this backing, we have strengthened [...]

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Outline:

(00:34) Gratitude and growth: Support our momentum into 2025

(01:56) How RP creates impact

(04:59) 2024 at a glance

(06:05) How your individual contribution makes a difference for our work

(08:53) 2025 strategy and research plans

(09:30) Animal Welfare

(10:59) Some specific ways we could use additional funding

(14:37) Global Health and Development

(15:51) Some specific ways we could use additional funding

(19:40) Surveys and Data Analysis

(21:31) Below, we outline a number of independent projects we are interested in pursuing.

(23:52) Worldview Investigations

(24:52) Sample projects that you can support with your funding include:

(26:54) Special Projects

(27:28) Why we need your support

(30:43) Acknowledgments

The original text contained 14 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

The original text contained 2 images which were described by AI.

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First published:

November 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SDJKMbvuLyppJNiGD/rethink-priorities-funding-needs

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Summary

• FWI has an unusually large funding gap right now: $730K of our $920K 2025 budget.
   
• Why donate to FWI? At an overall cost-effectiveness of about 1 fish helped per dollar, we’re probably not the most cost-effective organization right now at reducing immediate farmed animal suffering. However, we are investing in fairly novel interventions for helping fishes, such as satellite imagery monitoring and feed fortification, that we believe still make FWI a promising donation opportunity.
   
• To learn more, you can see our Donation Page FAQ or our recent strategy post. Or just keep reading below!

The Value of Marginal Funding at Fish Welfare Initiative

As of this post's date of publication, FWI currently has an unusually large funding gap for 2025. Specifically, we are still seeking to raise about $730,000 of our $920,000 2025 budget.

What impact and outcomes would your donation to FWI support? In terms of marginal cost-effectiveness, we roughly [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) Summary

(00:54) The Value of Marginal Funding at Fish Welfare Initiative

(04:50) Programs that Marginal Funds will Support

(07:12) Learn More

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First published:

November 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mmFAJEB6pBzzHL5Lj/marginal-funding-to-support-novel-fish-welfare-interventions

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Crosspost of this on my blog. I'd appreciate if you could share this, as, for reasons I'll explain, I think convincing people on this issue is insanely important.

Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.

—Proverbs 31:8

Imagine that you came across 1,600 shrimp about to be painfully killed. They were going to be thrown onto ice where slowly, agonizingly, over the course of 20 minutes, they’d suffocate and freeze to death at the same time, a bit like suffocating in a suitcase in the middle of Antarctica. Imagine them struggling, gasping, without enough air, fighting for their lives, but it's no use.

Fortunately, there's a machine that will stun every shrimp, so that they’ll be unconscious during their deaths, rather than in extreme agony. But the machine is broken. To fix it, you’d have to spend a dollar. Should you [...]

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First published:

November 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qToqLjnxEpDNeF89u/the-case-for-giving-to-the-shrimp-welfare-project

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We just published an interview: Sarah Eustis-Guthrie on why she shut down her charity, and why more founders should follow her lead. Listen on Spotify, watch on Youtube, or click through for other audio options, the transcript, and related links. Below are the episode summary and some key excerpts.

Episode summary

I think one of the reasons I took [shutting down my charity] so hard is because entrepreneurship is all about this bets-based mindset. So you say, “I’m going to take a bunch of bets. I’m going to take some risky bets that have really high upside.” And this is a winning strategy in life, but maybe it's not a winning strategy for any given hand. So the fact of the matter is that I believe that intellectually, but l do not believe that emotionally.

And I have now met a bunch of people who are really good at [...]

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Outline:

(00:32) Episode summary

(02:33) Highlights

(02:36) What its like to found a charity

(05:51) Yellow flags and difficult calls

(09:15) Disappointing results

(11:26) The ups and downs of founding an organisation

(15:56) Entrepreneurship and being willing to make risky bets

(19:28) Why arent more charities shutting down?

(22:02) How to think about shutting down

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First published:

November 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Qqfg6tvxpLTQC4jDq/207-why-she-shut-down-her-charity-and-why-more-founders

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Tl;dr: This weekend (15-17 November), we will broadcast 30+ hours of live EAGxVirtual 2024 speaker talks! Everyone, including those that aren’t registered for the conference, can watch.

View the schedule and watch live here.

This is part of our goal of making content and opportunities accessible to the global EA community.

The livestream is only a portion of the programming available to registered attendees. Full access includes 20+ office hours, 25+ meetups, workshops, and access to Swapcard networking with 1000+ attendees. Sign up to get notified about the next virtual conference.

———

In our announcement post, we explained why we are hosting a virtual event – to connect the global EA community. We’ll do this by providing access to EA content, the ability to meet others through Swapcard 1-on-1s and cause area/affinity group meetups, giving visibility to high-impact opportunities, and other unique programming.

In [...]

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Outline:

(01:24) What we are excited about this weekend

(02:07) Why we’re publicly livestreaming the talks

(03:24) What's next after EAGxVirtual?

(03:49) Huge thanks to the EA Community for supporting us

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First published:

November 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/P9bTboEcGwbArwtpR/livestreaming-30-hours-of-eagxvirtual-2024-and-discussion

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Summary

We are a new organization, just incubated through the AIM Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. Our first year goal is to adapt an incredibly cost-effective crime prevention program to the Latin American context for the first time. Doing so successfully could allow us to scale massively from year two on, as government funding for programs as ours is often available in the region.

We received seed funding for a bare-bone implementation budget, but more funding would allow us to take less risks, move faster and increase the quality of our first year's implementation (more details below). Also, our program would greatly benefit from an additional implementation research budget for potential research partners.

Finally, our partnership to receive funding is not set up, so we will not be able to participate in next week's donation election. Therefore, the counterfactual value of reaching out to us and arranging a donation a [...]

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Outline:

(00:08) Summary

(01:34) Background

(04:49) Scarcely Funded: First Year Implementation

(06:24) Need for Funding: Implementation Research

(07:38) Conclusion: Why Invest in Our Vision?

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First published:

November 14th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uWpceCaA6GZt6vvA4/presenting-actra-preventing-crime-through-a-scalable-group

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This is a link post.

Dear Giving What We Can community,

We are writing to share exciting news: on Tuesday the 11th of November, the boards unanimously voted to appoint Sjir Hoeijmakers as the new global CEO of Giving What We Can.

Sjir was appointed after a rigorous recruitment process. The search committee received applicants from a wide pool, ultimately interviewing five final-stage candidates. Sjir excelled in each stage of the process, showing remarkable character, competence, and humility throughout. He has a strong understanding of the effective giving community and has already excelled in temporary roles as Acting and Interim CEO this year. The committee also received feedback from a large number of stakeholders, including the boards, the GWWC team, funders, and partners. Throughout this process, it became clear that Sjir will be a highly capable leader for the organization and help guide GWWC and the team to reach their [...]

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First published:

November 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KXycun5WuzKDv6vGL/announcing-sjir-hoeijmakers-as-the-new-ceo-of-giving-what-we

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Rethink Priorities’ Animal Welfare (AW) Department is seeking individuals who might be interested in collaborating with us on a research project or task-specific basis, as a contractor. Submit this form by December 15 if you are interested, we will evaluate candidates should a project arise that requires your expertise or skills. We will be in touch to discuss any opportunities that may come up.

Note: This is not a formal hiring round. We are not currently hiring for any specific position.

About Rethink Priorities’ Animal Welfare work

Rethink Priorities’ AW Department is a hub and platform that advances and pioneers evidence-based and reason-driven change for animals. We are dedicated to developing breakthroughs that foster human societies’ capability to accelerate the end of factory farming and reduce the suffering of animals living in the wild.

Our core programs are the following:

• Research: We accelerate the development of evidence-based findings [...]

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Outline:

(00:42) About Rethink Priorities’ Animal Welfare work

(01:50) What We Are Looking For

(03:04) What We Offer

(03:30) Interested? Fill out this form!

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First published:

November 14th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bxPQvxbrWbLMBn8xC/expressions-of-interest-contracting-for-rethink-priorities

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Rethink Priorities' Worldview Investigations Team is sharing research agendas that provide overviews of some key research areas as well as projects in those areas that we would be keen to pursue. This is the last of three such agendas posted in November 2024. While we have flagged specific projects we'd like to work on, these are not exhaustive. We would recommend that prospective donors reach out directly to discuss what might make the most sense for us to focus on.

Introduction

We have limited altruistic resources. How do we best spend them? This question is at the heart of Effective Altruism, and it encompasses many key themes that deserve attention. The Worldview Investigations Team has previously completed a number of projects addressing fundamental questions of this kind: for example, the CURVE sequence, the CRAFT sequence, and the Moral Weights Project. This agenda outlines new projects, proposes extensions of these [...]

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Outline:

(00:36) Introduction

(02:57) Evaluating Impact

(03:01) Value and Moral Uncertainty

(06:59) Value Measurements

(10:51) Worldview Diversification

(15:30) Longtermism and Global Catastrophic Risk

(15:34) The Value of Survival and Flourishing

(20:24) Prioritization within Global Catastrophic Risks

(26:42) Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

(26:47) The Right Decision-Guiding Framework

(32:21) Cluelessness

(38:32) Attitudes Towards High-Risk Opportunities

(44:48) Investing Wisely

(44:52) Resource Allocations Over Time

(47:12) Impact Investments

(48:37) Risks of Investing Forever

(49:59) The Philanthropic Spending Landscapes

(52:51) The Structure of Effective Altruism

(52:55) Movement Building and Infrastructure

(59:15) Weirdness in Social Movements

(01:04:30) Acknowledgements

The original text contained 22 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

The original text contained 1 image which was described by AI.

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First published:

November 14th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/P2feavRst6g6ycp6g/resources-allocation-a-research-agenda

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Marginal Funding Post and Year 2 Updates

Vida Plena in Summary

Vida Plena exists to help people rebuild broken relationships, to grow new connections, and to rekindle hope.

Vida Plena means “Flourishing Life” in Spanish and we strive to help people prosper and regain agency over their lives by providing evidence-based treatment for depression. Vida Plena strives to restore what depression robs; connectedness, professional abilities, and physical health. A 2021 Gallup poll ranked Ecuador as among the unhappiest people in the world, but only 0.04% of the national health budget is spent on mental health care.

As a result, vulnerable Ecuadorians in critical need often lack access to mental health support. Vida Plena aims to address this gap by alleviating depression through accessible, evidence-based group interpersonal therapy (g-IPT), recommended by the WHO. We are the only organization dedicated to scaling mental health care across Ecuador, using a community-based [...]

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Outline:

(00:06) Marginal Funding Post and Year 2 Updates

(00:13) Vida Plena in Summary

(01:25) Depression: harming all areas of life

(02:49) It Takes a Village - What We’re Asking For

(02:53) 1. Help a Life Flourish

(05:16) 2. Funding for a Group Facilitator

(05:59) 3. Funds to Expand

(06:52) Hope: The Catalyst for Change

(13:32) Cost-Effectiveness

(14:45) Possible Reasons for Not Funding Vida Plena

(15:18) How You Can Help:

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xiocGtxCBue5m8uh7/everyone-deserves-to-flourish-in-life-vida-plena-helps

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