Is Rethink Priorities’ (RP’s) animal welfare department supported by any unrestricted funds? I have wondered whether making a restricted donation to the animal welfare department could result in some unrestricted funds moving from that to other departments, even if the movement in funds is smaller than the size of the donation. Is there a way of supporting RP’s wild animal welfare research without any unrestricted funds currently supporting it moving to other work (including research on farmed animals)?
Thanks so much for your question and interest in our work!
Is there a way of supporting RP’s wild animal welfare research without any unrestricted funds currently supporting it moving to other work (including research on farmed animals)?
Yes, absolutely. Since we do not currently have any unrestricted funds allocated to wild animal welfare, a restricted donation to this area would not cause funding shifts between departments, or animal welfare sub-causes. Instead, it would directly increase our capacity for wild animal welfare work. In fact, wild animal welfare is the least funded area of our animal welfare portfolio, despite its importance and potential for impact.
Our animal welfare work is primarily funded through restricted donations for specific projects or sub-causes, with most directed toward non-invertebrate and non-wild animal priorities. Only ~11% of RP’s overall funding is unrestricted, and based on our current plans, donating to the Animal Welfare Department would not result in unrestricted funds being redirected elsewhere.
We take donor preferences very seriously. For larger donations, we’re happy to explicitly increase the budget for a department, sub-cause, or project by the exact amount of your contribution, eliminating any potential fungibility concerns entirely. For small donations (relative to project costs), there may be practical limitations if a project requires significantly more funding to proceed, but we’ll inform you if this is the case and will always work to honor donor preferences.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
It is interesting RP’s work on wild animal welfare is not supported by unrestricted funds. It suggests the people at RP responsible for allocating the unrestricted funds think there is other work from RP which is more cost-effective at the margin. How are unrestricted funds allocated? I think it would be great for RP to be transparent about this considering donations become unrestricted funds by default.
Will donations restricted to RP’s work on invertebrate welfare (including farmed, wild, and other invertebrates) also not go towards vertebrate welfare (including humans, and vertebrate animals)? Which fraction of the funds supporting invertebrate welfare are unrestricted? I asked these questions about wild animal welfare, but I am actually specially interested in invertebrate welfare.
Is Rethink Priorities’ (RP’s) animal welfare department supported by any unrestricted funds? I have wondered whether making a restricted donation to the animal welfare department could result in some unrestricted funds moving from that to other departments, even if the movement in funds is smaller than the size of the donation. Is there a way of supporting RP’s wild animal welfare research without any unrestricted funds currently supporting it moving to other work (including research on farmed animals)?
Hi Vasco,
Thanks so much for your question and interest in our work!
Is there a way of supporting RP’s wild animal welfare research without any unrestricted funds currently supporting it moving to other work (including research on farmed animals)?
Yes, absolutely. Since we do not currently have any unrestricted funds allocated to wild animal welfare, a restricted donation to this area would not cause funding shifts between departments, or animal welfare sub-causes. Instead, it would directly increase our capacity for wild animal welfare work. In fact, wild animal welfare is the least funded area of our animal welfare portfolio, despite its importance and potential for impact.
Our animal welfare work is primarily funded through restricted donations for specific projects or sub-causes, with most directed toward non-invertebrate and non-wild animal priorities. Only ~11% of RP’s overall funding is unrestricted, and based on our current plans, donating to the Animal Welfare Department would not result in unrestricted funds being redirected elsewhere.
We take donor preferences very seriously. For larger donations, we’re happy to explicitly increase the budget for a department, sub-cause, or project by the exact amount of your contribution, eliminating any potential fungibility concerns entirely. For small donations (relative to project costs), there may be practical limitations if a project requires significantly more funding to proceed, but we’ll inform you if this is the case and will always work to honor donor preferences.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Thanks for the great clarifications, Daniela!
It is interesting RP’s work on wild animal welfare is not supported by unrestricted funds. It suggests the people at RP responsible for allocating the unrestricted funds think there is other work from RP which is more cost-effective at the margin. How are unrestricted funds allocated? I think it would be great for RP to be transparent about this considering donations become unrestricted funds by default.
Will donations restricted to RP’s work on invertebrate welfare (including farmed, wild, and other invertebrates) also not go towards vertebrate welfare (including humans, and vertebrate animals)? Which fraction of the funds supporting invertebrate welfare are unrestricted? I asked these questions about wild animal welfare, but I am actually specially interested in invertebrate welfare.