Meet the candidates in the Forum’s Donation Election (2024)

By Toby Tremlett🔹 @ 2024-11-18T12:10 (+55)

The Donation Election has begun!


You can vote here, find out more about the voting system here, and donate to the Donation Election fund here

This post introduces our candidates. We’re splitting by cause area for easy reading, but you’ll be voting on them all together.  

Vote!

Note 1:  We will be running final eligibility checks in the next few days, so a few candidates may be removed from the list. I won’t post publicly about removing specific candidates because eligibility in the Donation Election shouldn’t affect your decision on whether to donate to them or not — eligibility is mostly based on whether the charity has the right kind of legal charitable status in the UK or US. 

Note 2: Summaries of marginal funding posts are courtesy of ChatGPT- take them with a pinch of salt and let me know if they are wrong. 

Global Health

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

ARMoR (Alliance for Reducing Microbial Resistance)

  • A nonprofit dedicated to combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a growing global health threat established through Charity Entrepreneurship.
  • Fund core operations ($10,000 per month of full operations)
  • Hire a full-time researcher ($34,000 per year) to produce research outputs and analysis
  • Support EU advocacy campaign and in-country contractors ($48,000-$49,000) for policy lobbying and advocacy work

Vida Plena

  • A program that trains local communities to provide mental health care for depression in Latin America.
  • Individual Support: $233 per person to sponsor participants through the 8-week group interpersonal therapy program, particularly helping vulnerable populations access mental health care
  • Staff Expansion: $9,600 annually per group facilitator to hire and maintain trained staff who can each manage up to eight therapy groups
  • Geographic Growth: $50,000 to expand beyond Quito and Otavalo into more rural areas, including recruitment and training of new facilitators to reach their goal of 2,000 people by 2025

New Incentives

  • Provides small cash incentives to increase childhood vaccinations and cost-effectively save lives. A GiveWell top charity.

 

  • Expand operations to reach an additional 1.9 million infants in Nigeria by 2027
  • Scale up from current 9 states to 13 cost-effective states in Nigeria
  • Continue providing $16 per infant cash transfers to incentivize vaccination completion

Giving Green

  • A charity evaluator focused on climate change. It was incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship.
  • $10k: Invest in automation tools for donor list and media outreach management
  • $50k: Upgrade website and branding through professional communications firm
  • $200k: Add one new staff member (either researcher or communications specialist) with 2-year runway

Against Malaria Foundation

  • A British charity that provides funding for mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) to populations at high risk of malaria.

 

 

  • Immediately allocate $81.5M to address current critical funding gaps
  • Deploy $75M within 6 months for near-term net distribution needs
  • Utilize $100M in 7-12 months for medium-term malaria prevention programs

One Acre Fund

  • An agricultural service provider that supports Africa's smallholder farmers to build resilient communities.
  • Hire and train more local Field Officers to deliver the core program and agricultural training in new communities
  • Scale up procurement and distribution of farm inputs/equipment through the organization's warehouse and market point network
  • Expand community engagement and farmer enrollment programs to reach additional farming families in 2025

NOVAH (No Violence At Home)

  • A nonprofit organization focused on preventing intimate partner violence, particularly in East Africa.
  • Fund their 2025 budget of $310,000, with a current projected funding gap of $160,000-$230,000
  • Produce and broadcast a 10-episode radio drama reaching 500,000 listeners across two regional stations in Rwanda
  • Conduct quantitative impact study with 500+ couples to measure effectiveness of the intervention

ACTRA (Acción Transformadora)

  • Empowers at-risk men to avoid a life of crime through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, helping them gain control over their choices and identities.
  • $20,000 for basic program improvements (additional city visit, CBT expert consultation, better staff salaries)
  • $50,000 for enhanced implementation (curriculum design, partner support, office space)
  • $128,000 for research partnerships and formal program evaluation

Kaya Guides

 

A nonprofit incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship focused on reducing depression among youth in India through a guided self-help program delivered via WhatsApp.
  • Scale the digital-only guided self-help program to reach more Hindi-speaking populations in India
  • Enhance technology infrastructure to incorporate LLM support alongside human guides
  • Expand partnerships with WHO and governments to implement the mental health intervention more broadly

Animal Welfare

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

EA Animal Welfare Fund

  • Their mission is to alleviate the suffering of non-human animals globally through effective grantmaking.
  • Fund more high-impact grant applications ($1.5M) and scale up successful past grantees ($1M), particularly in areas like cage-free campaigns and welfare research
  • Fill funding gaps created by Good Ventures/Open Philanthropy's exit from key areas ($1.75M), especially in shrimp welfare, farmed insects, and wild animal welfare
  • Expand active grantmaking ($2M) to support strategic initiatives like coordinated fish welfare work and corporate cage-free accountability campaigns in neglected regions

Fish Welfare Initiative

A nonprofit organization that conducts research on ways to improve fish welfare—especially the welfare of farmed fish—and implements interventions based on this research.
  • Expand remote monitoring capabilities through 1-2 studies on satellite/drone-based water quality monitoring
  • Scale up the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture farm program to improve 1M fishes' lives and evaluate water quality improvement methods
  • Launch China operations by hiring first full-time local staff member to develop species-specific standards and continue field-building work

The Humane League UK

  • A registered charity in England and Wales working to end the abuse of animals raised for food.
  • Continue fighting against Frankenchickens (fast-growing chicken breeds), particularly through corporate campaigns and legal action
  • Address their £236k funding gap to maintain current activities without drawing from reserves
  • Support follow-up actions based on their court verdict, including either increased corporate pressure campaigns or enforcement of court obligations

The Humane League

  • A nonprofit that works to improve animal welfare standards through corporate outreach, media outreach, and grassroots campaigns.
  • Expand the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) with $8 million to build regional teams, hire more campaigners, and provide $2-2.4 million in annual grants to member organizations working on cage-free campaigns globally
  • Grow the Animal Policy Alliance (APA) with $1.5 million to expand from 23 to 30 members and provide up to $750k in grants to support US-based animal advocacy groups
  • Scale up core support teams (Operations, Communications, Development) to meet the expanded needs of both OWA and APA programs

Connect For Animals

  • A nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for animal rights and promoting a better world for animals, primarily by working towards ending factory farming.
  • Allocate $20,000 for marketing contractors, social media ads, and video content to grow the platform to 10,000+ users within 12 months.
  • Dedicate $10,000–$20,000 to hire a fundraising contractor to develop a sustainable funding model and secure diverse revenue streams.
  • Invest in expert contractors to address critical gaps in marketing and fundraising, enabling long-term growth and impact.

Hive

  • A global community for farmed animal advocates whose mission is to connect advocates across regions to amplify their impact, working towards a vision of ending animal suffering.
  • Maintain current capacity by funding 2 additional FTE positions ($100,000) to match 2024's staffing levels of 4.5 FTE
  • Expand operations with 3 part-time regional ambassadors ($40,000) to bridge language and cultural gaps in neglected regions like Africa, Asia, and Latin America
  • Increase program capacity by upgrading part-time roles to full-time ($35,000) for communications, events, and individual fundraising initiatives

Faunalytics

  • A nonprofit that provides animal advocates with access to relevant research.
  • Create global databases ($65,000) tracking farmed animal advocacy interventions, polling data, and investigation history
  • Conduct secondary data analyses ($35,000) of existing datasets on food consumption, CAFO impacts, and institutional spending
  • Expand staff capacity ($300,000) by hiring development support and additional research scientists/analysts

Legal Impact for Chickens

  • A charity that sues companies that break animal welfare commitments.
  • Fill ~$90,000 gap in their 2025 budget to maintain capacity for litigating four simultaneous lawsuits
  • Hire top-quality contract attorneys and expert witnesses for specialized legal expertise
  • Fund private investigators to gather accurate case information when needed

Sentient

  • A reader-supported news outlet whose primary mission is to increase public awareness of the welfare of sentient beings, the health of the planet, and human longevity.
  • Hire a rural reporter ($65,000-$75,000 salary) to expand local news coverage and connect with farming communities
  • Sustain current operations including fact-checked journalism and disinformation debunking
  • Support ongoing Public News Service partnership to convert articles into audio content reaching rural audiences

AVA International

  • A nonprofit focused on animal and vegan advocacy, aiming to create a world where animals are removed from the food system and other human uses.
  • Fund Travel Awards to bring 60-100 additional advocates to the Brazil Summit, prioritizing farm animal advocates from underrepresented regions who earn under $30k/year
  • Improve conference quality through professional public speaking workshops for speakers and enhanced recording quality for YouTube content
  • Expand the Travel Award Program to increase accessibility for diverse advocates, particularly those from organizations with budgets under $250k

Veganuary

  • A non-profit that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond.
  • Address a $67,570 funding gap for 2024 and $154,000 for 2025 to sustain operations and expand capacity-building services.
  • Conduct critical research on policy effectiveness, consumer behavior, and advocacy in underrepresented regions like the Global South and Middle East.
  • Equip advocates with actionable insights and tools to enhance evidence-based animal advocacy strategies.

Scarlet Spark

  • A nonprofit that provides free leadership development and organizational support to animal protection organizations.
  • Fill the remaining 9% ($39,000) funding gap in the 2025 operating budget of $424,000
  • Hire new consultants to meet the excess demand for one-on-one support services
  • Expand service offerings to help more animal protection organizations

Arthropoda Foundation

  • Supports research that can inform advocacy on the most pressing problems facing arthropods.
  • Fund humane slaughter research ($67,000) to develop electrical stunning protocols for black soldier fly larvae
  • Support stocking density and substrate studies ($20,000-$100,000) to improve insect living conditions
  • Implement automated welfare assessment ($53,000) to develop acoustic monitoring for early detection of insect distress

Shrimp Welfare Project

An organization focused on reducing the suffering of billions of farmed shrimps globally.
  • Purchase more electrical stunners at $55k each to help 120M+ shrimp annually per device (achieving ~2,000 shrimp helped per dollar per year)
  • Deploy stunners to early-adopting producers to build industry momentum toward widespread adoption
  • Scale up the Humane Slaughter Initiative (HSI) program, as all other operational costs are covered by grants through 2026

Animetrics

A nonprofit that does research and offers free capacity-building services for animal welfare orgs. 
  • Keep operations going.
  • Continue free support to organizations to help them do more with less.
  • Conduct more in-depth research on critical issues, such as policy effectiveness and consumer behavior.
  • Equip advocates worldwide with actionable insights and tools for better advocacy strategies.

Wild Animal Initiative

A nonprofit that works to understand and improve wild animal welfare.
  • Increase annual grantmaking budget back to $2 million, enabling more research funding for wild animal welfare science projects
  • Pursue additional partnership opportunities with organizations like Conservation X Labs, NYU Wild Animal Welfare program, and various universities (potentially up to 5 or more partnerships)
  • Expand research output and community-building activities, including developing more scientific publications, hosting workshops, and growing their academic research community

Biosecurity and Pandemics

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

Nucleic Acid Observatory

 

  • An organization that aims to prevent global catastrophic biological risks by detecting novel agents spreading in the human population or environment.
  • Hire additional staff, particularly computational researchers to develop detection methods and a partnerships manager to build external relationships
  • Expand their pilot biosurveillance system to detect engineered threats before 1% of population infection (currently requires ~$470k more annually for wastewater sequencing)
  • Maintain flexible funding reserves to quickly pursue new promising approaches without needing to raise specific grants first

AI Safety

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

MATS Research

  • A program that helps talented scholars upskill and get into AI safety.
  • Support additional scholars in the Summer 2025 Program at $35,000 per scholar
  • Provide program essentials for new scholars (housing, office space, seminar access)
  • Enable more research mentorship opportunities and potential London extension phase participation

Apart Research

  • A non-profit organization focused on ensuring the safety and alignment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
  • Improve accessibility and outreach with $7k–$25k for a professional website redesign and public release of internal resources, enabling greater global participation in AI safety research.
  • Expand conference attendance with $20k, supporting additional team members to present and engage with the AI safety community at key events.
  • Continue critical research projects with $15k–$30k, including AI evaluation methodology advancements and extending work on LLM benchmark testing and risk assessments.

PIBBSS

  • A program that facilitates research into the analogy between natural and artificial systems, in order to progress work on AI safety.
  • Fund affiliate researcher salaries to expand research capacity in non-prosaic AI safety
  • Support summer fellowship programs (~$20,000 per fellow for 3 months)
  • Scale field-building and research initiatives up to $3M over 18 months if large funding secured

Whylome

  • A nonprofit research organization based in Fairfax, Vermont, dedicated to advancing scientific research with a focus on ushering in a 21st-century scientific revolution.
  • Hire consultants and assistants to accelerate model building
  • Enable faster literature review and research analysis
  • Maintain current organizational operations

The Midas Project

  • A nonprofit organization focused on advocating for the responsible development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI).
  • Use $119,000 to sustain and scale operations through mid-2025, prioritizing hiring a program director and campaigner to expand impact.
  • Allocate funds to improve digital platforms, including hiring contractors to enhance website and tool functionality.
  • Strengthen advocacy campaigns targeting AI safety, focusing on influencing company policies and raising public awareness.

PauseAI

  • Encourages Americans to help bring about an indefinite, global pause on frontier AI development – until we can be confident that the technology is safe for humanity – through education of all stakeholders, including the public and professionals in the industry.
  • Salaries ($260k/year) to maintain core team of Executive Director, Operations Director, and Organizing Director
  • Event costs ($7.5-15k/year) for quarterly protests, monthly flyering, and community events
  • Operating expenses ($24k/year) covering bookkeeping, software, insurance, and payroll tax

Risks of Global Catastrophe

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED)

  • A nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that people have enough to eat in the event of a global catastrophe, through research on resilient food, policy engagement, and technology development.
  • Launch policy advocacy campaigns ($100-250K per country) targeting nuclear winter preparedness in specific countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, or Brazil
  • Build a refrigerated greenhouse in Australia ($200-400K) to simulate and study nuclear winter conditions for crop viability research
  • Develop emergency response technologies, including a satellite communications system ($300K) and vital services protection for extreme pandemics ($300K)

Observatorio de Riesgos Catastróficos Globales (ORCG)

  • A charity that investigates science policy opportunities to improve the management of GCRs in Spanish speaking countries.
  • Support pandemic preparedness initiatives ($85K-140K total) including hospital protocol analysis with IMSS Mexico, Biological Weapons Convention training paper, and North American trade agreement research
  • Fund food security projects during sunlight reduction scenarios ($95K-145K total) covering Brazil's vulnerability report and Argentina's tabletop exercises
  • Develop OECD Emerging Risks Strategy handbook ($100K-150K) to improve government risk management systems and international coordination

Effective Giving

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

One for the World

  • An organization that aims to educate students and young professionals about effective giving and encourages them to pledge to donate at least 1% of their income to effective charities.
  • Hire a fourth full-time employee focused on implementing the growth strategy
  • Expand corporate workplace events program, which is their fastest-growing source of pledges
  • Invest in community and partnership events as a new growth opportunity

Meta– or mixed

LogoCharity basicsBioWhat they’ll do with Marginal Funding

Rethink Priorities 

  • A think tank dedicated to informing decisions made by high-impact organisations and funders.
  • Allocate $30,000 to identify policy levers for advancing shrimp welfare in Europe, focusing on pathways to influence EU regulations protecting crustaceans.
  • Dedicate $100,000 to empirical studies on humane pesticides, aiming to reduce suffering for common agricultural insect species if sentient.
  • Invest $140,000 in research on cost-effective interventions at the intersection of global health and climate change, targeting donors interested in cross-causal impacts.

QURI

  • A nonprofit set up to study forecasting and epistemics.
  • Allocate $200,000 to maintain the two-person team and cover operational expenses, ensuring continued development of tools like Squiggle and Squiggle Hub.
  • Expand efforts in education and outreach within the EA and AI safety ecosystems, leveraging a backlog of product updates and new tools to engage users.
  • Focus on AI-driven cost-effectiveness modeling, improving automation for simple models and advancing epistemic tools for guiding AI safety efforts.

High Impact Professionals

  • An organization that focuses on increasing the impact of working professionals in the effective altruism community.
  • Hire a Director of Programs (partial year with $191K baseline budget, full year with $232K maximum budget)
  • Expand Impact Accelerator Program and Talent Directory to achieve 50 career transitions in 2025 (up from current target of 35)
  • Extend operations beyond February 2025 runway to sustain current programs and team (Executive Director & Director of Operations)

The Unjournal

  • An organisation that works to organize and fund public journal-independent feedback, rating, and evaluation of hosted papers and dynamically-presented research projects.
  • Extend baseline operations by 6 months to evaluate ~20 additional research papers ($150,000)
  • Fund new initiatives including interactive LLM tools ($10k-50k), Pivotal Questions project ($50k), and hire part-time communications director ($30k-60k)
  • Expand evaluation capacity through increased evaluator compensation ($40k/year), additional research fellows ($10k-20k per role), and support for live events ($5k-10k per event)

Some marginal funding posts are from organisations who haven't applied to be part of the donation election. You can read those here and here