Our current very rough estimate is that our average $ spent on corporate campaigns and all supporting work (which is ~40% of our total animal grant-making) achieves the equivalent of ~7 animals spared a year of complete suffering. We use this a rough benchmark for BOTECs on new grants, and my best guess is this reflects roughly the range we should hope for the last pro-animal dollar.
Founders Pledge also did a direct comparison between The Humane League and the Against Malaria Foundation here. They’ve done their own research, and summarizing others’ and theirs together: “Cost-effectiveness analyses have found that for every dollar donated, the lives of between 10 and 160 birds are affected.”
On estimates, from Lewis Bollard’s recent AMA:
Rethink Priorities’ estimate “Corporate campaigns affect 9 to 120 years of chicken life per dollar spent” (on average, not on the margin).
Founders Pledge also did a direct comparison between The Humane League and the Against Malaria Foundation here. They’ve done their own research, and summarizing others’ and theirs together: “Cost-effectiveness analyses have found that for every dollar donated, the lives of between 10 and 160 birds are affected.”
Charity Entrepreneurship has some research on this, and Animal Charity Evaluators has estimates of number of animals affected by corporate campaigns for specific charities, too; you can see their reviews of recommended charities working on corporate campaigns, and this model and this spreadsheet. (I’m an intern at ACE, but only speaking for myself.)
But also see Global poverty could be more cost-effective than animal advocacy (even for non-speciesists) by Peter Hurford.
Thank you so much!! This is really helpful and I’m taking a look at it now, and that last article looks like it gets to the center of my concern.