Payout Date: December 31, 2018
Total grants: USD 341,000
Number of grantees: 11
Contents
Introduction
Thank you for donating to the EA Animal Welfare Fund. This is our first round of grants as a new team: the below grants are the result of each of us recommending grants, and all of us then discussing and ultimately voting on which ones to approve. This month’s disbursements, 11 grants totalling $341K, fit roughly into four categories:
EAA movement building
Charity Entrepreneurship: $75K
Encompass: $50K
EAA research
Rethink Priorities: $75K
Faunalytics: $20K
Utility Farm: $20K
NYU academic prize: $10K
Important and neglected countries
Andrzej Skowron (Poland): $30K
Єдина Планета / “Unique Planet” (Ukraine): $20K
Prof. Carmen Tong (Hong Kong): $20K
Cell-based meat
Modern Agriculture Foundation (Israel): $20K
CellAG UK: $1K
EAA movement building
Charity Entrepreneurship - $75k
Supporting the incubation of promising new animal welfare charities. Charity Entrepreneurship is a research and training program aimed at creating multiple high-impact charities. In 2019, their incubation program will be focused on the broad cause area of animal welfare. They aim to connect talented individuals with high-impact charity opportunities, and provide them with the means to fulfill these opportunities. The proposed $50,000 grant will increase the size and number of seed grants that they can distribute. Currently, they are funded to award ~3 grants of ~$50k. They are able to give out up to $500k (5 $100k grants) in the best case but forecast giving out $300k on more realistic timelines. They claim that larger seed grants will increase the number of applicants and will also provide them with a more preferable level of stability, allowing them to focus more heavily on long-term impact and prioritise planning over fundraising. We are excited to see the emergence of new animal welfare charities and view this grant as a promising giving opportunity for this reason. They have a strong track record of high-quality research and the Charity Science team, who founded Charity Entrepreneurship, have already incubated a promising new global health charity.
Encompass - $50k
Building a more racially inclusive, equitable, and diverse farmed animal movement. Encompass is working to make the US farmed animal advocacy movement more reflective of the diversity of the United States, and inclusive and welcoming to everyone. We believe this is important and relatively neglected work. Executive Director Aryenish Birdie has significant experience in the animal movement as well as other social justice movements, and she has established an impressive board and advisory council to guide her. Encompass is seeking funding to hire their first staff member in 2019 in order to build their mentorship program and other movement-building trainings and events.
EAA research
Rethink Priorities - $75k
Prioritization and research into animal welfare interventions. Peter Hurford and Marcus A. Davis are leading the team at Rethink Priorities with an increased focus on researching animal advocacy interventions. For example, they plan to vet claims about the efficacy of corporate campaigns and assess plausibly impactful work on wild animal welfare. They have recently scaled up, hiring several new researchers, and they are in need of funding to support specific research projects as well as their general operations. While Rethink Priorities has a limited track record of animal advocacy research, we are taking a bet on their team and strategy. Many of their researchers have significant experience in other fields, and we believe they can bring a fresh and critical eye to new animal advocacy interventions.
Faunalytics - $20k
Effective animal advocacy research. Faunalytics conducts original research on a broad range of topics related to effective animal advocacy. They use their research to support other animal charities by connecting them with information. Faunalytics conducts independent research like impact evaluations, opinion polls, surveys, and focus groups. They also work with client organizations on various research projects and they provide resources for individual advocates through the content library they host on their website. Faunalytics has published some important work, like their study on veg recidivism, and they have several promising projects in their pipeline.
Utility Farm - $20k
Researching tractable interventions to improve wild animal welfare. Within the animal advocacy movement, there seems to be an increasing interest in helping wild animals, but research on effective interventions is severely lacking. Utility Farm is a research organization that takes a practical approach, prioritizing the research of potentially tractable interventions. For example, they published a report on humane insecticides and they are currently research interventions to reduce the suffering of birds and small mammals caused by feral and free-ranging cats. We believe that research on wild animal welfare is both important and relatively neglected, so we are happy to support it where we can.
NYU academic award - $10k
Incentivising academic work to end factory farming. $10,000 has been recommended for an NYU academic award(s) for student or early career work related to ending factory farming. The NYU faculty committee will take a wide approach to candidate and project eligibility for the award(s) (i.e. not restricting the award to M.A / M.S students or any particular academic field). This grant aims to expand the academic community working in this neglected space and increase the quality of the work produced.
Important and neglected countries
Andrzej Skowron - $30k (Poland)
Undercover investigations and factory farm photography in Poland. Skowron, an employee of Otwarte Klatki, takes powerful photos of factory farms (I recommend his website), which are shared with all animal advocates. He’ll use these funds to buy a new car for his visits to factory farms (he wrote that “at this moment my car is very old and it is getting unsafe to travel with it”), and possibly to hire a part time assistant to take care of publicity and research, so he can spend more time taking photos.
Єдина Планета / “Unique Planet” - $20k (Ukraine)
Movement building and anti-fur advocacy in Ukraine. Ukraine has 220M land farm animals and perhaps 45M more farmed fish, but very little organized factory farming advocacy. This group is currently focused on banning fur, which seems both less important and less tractable than other farm animal issues right now. But I see significant value to building the farm animal movement in Ukraine, and this is the only local group I’m aware of interested in factory farming.
Prof. Carmen Tong - $20k (Hong Kong)
Institutional meat reduction outreach. Carmen Tong, a professor at Hong Kong University, is working with Mercy For Animals to promote meat-free Mondays in local schools. I’m unsure about the cost-effectiveness of institutional meat reduction work generally, but see value to boosting all forms of advocacy in Hong Kong, given its connection to China and that it has the world’s highest rate of meat and seafood consumption.
Cell-based meat
Modern Agriculture Foundation - $20k
Promoting clean and plant-based meats in Israel. This grassroots group is doing GFI-like work in promoting clean and plant-based meats in Israel, which has the potential to be a hub for both industries given the research and startups already there. The Foundation has a relatively limited track record, but we view this as a trial grant of how it could use more funds as it seeks to expand its work.
CellAG UK - $1k
Coordinating and connecting individuals working or interested in cellular agriculture in the UK. CellAG UK is a new and small organisation who hope to help people connect with established organisations, promising individuals, and upcoming opportunities in the cellular agriculture and clean meat space in the UK. This grant will support the organisation’s events in 2019: CellAG UK currently expect to organise roughly 3-4 higher profile speaker events, alongside some more intimate networking and discussion groups for those interested in cellular agriculture.