“Few people know that we tried to start something pretty similar to Rethink Priorities in 2016 (our actual founding was in 2018). We (Marcus and me, the RP co-founders, plus some others) did some initial work but failed to get sustained funding and traction so we gave up for >1 year before trying again. Given that RP −2018 seems to have turned out to be quite successful, I think RP-2016 could be an example of a failed project?”
I think EA Funds, Founders Pledge and Farmed Animal Funders didn’t exist back then, and this would have been out of scope for ACE (too small, too little room for more funding, no track record) and GiveWell (they don’t grant to research) at the time, so among major funders/evaluators, it pretty much would have been on Open Phil. But Open Phil didn’t get into farm animal welfare until late 2015/early 2016:
The story is more complicated but I can’t really get into it in public. Since you work at Rethink you can maybe get the story from Peter. I’ve maybe suggested too simplistic a narrative before. But you should chat Peter or Marcus about what happened with Rethink and EA funding.
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3c8dLtNyMzS9WkfgA/what-are-some-high-ev-but-failed-ea-projects?commentId=7htva3Xc9snLSvAkB
“Few people know that we tried to start something pretty similar to Rethink Priorities in 2016 (our actual founding was in 2018). We (Marcus and me, the RP co-founders, plus some others) did some initial work but failed to get sustained funding and traction so we gave up for >1 year before trying again. Given that RP −2018 seems to have turned out to be quite successful, I think RP-2016 could be an example of a failed project?”
Seems somewhat misleading to leave this out.
Interesting. I hadn’t heard about this.
I think EA Funds, Founders Pledge and Farmed Animal Funders didn’t exist back then, and this would have been out of scope for ACE (too small, too little room for more funding, no track record) and GiveWell (they don’t grant to research) at the time, so among major funders/evaluators, it pretty much would have been on Open Phil. But Open Phil didn’t get into farm animal welfare until late 2015/early 2016:
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/incoming-program-officer-lewis-bollard/
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/page/12/?q&focus-area=farm-animal-welfare&view-list=false
So seeing and catching RP this early on for a new farm animal welfare team at Open Phil was plausibly a lot to ask then.
The story is more complicated but I can’t really get into it in public. Since you work at Rethink you can maybe get the story from Peter. I’ve maybe suggested too simplistic a narrative before. But you should chat Peter or Marcus about what happened with Rethink and EA funding.