Please vote for PauseAI US in the Donation Election!
Mods, please delete if this is deemed outside the rules.
First, I want to disambiguate that this post entry in the Donation Election is for PauseAI US. I realized today that the EA Forum database of orgs has me associated with just “PauseAI”, which is ambiguous. PauseAI is the overarching name of the movement. PauseAI US is a separate legal entity from the other PauseAIs, the official PauseAI of the United States, and the one that I (Holly Elmore) run.
Second, PauseAI US appears to be doing well in the Donation Election with a good shot at winning! I’m going to make a further case than my AMA and fundraising pitch post for why I think you should select PauseAI US.
It seems that our top competitor at the moment is the Animal Welfare Fund. While the AWF is a great cause, and one I gave a portion of my pledge donations to many times myself in the past, I wanted to point out that PauseAI US, as the smaller organization and a political org that is excluded from many common charitable funding sources, can particularly benefit from smaller donations like this Donation Election in a way that an established fund does not particularly benefit from.
Before I had incorporated PauseAI US, I was working as an individual organizer. I was able to quit my previous job because I received donations ranging from about $400-$10,000 from Giving What We Can donors who didn’t need the donation to be tax-deductible. I also received a Lightspeed grant as an individual. I quickly got to work establishing PauseAI US as a 501(c)(3) election h and PauseAI US Action Fund as a 501(c)(4), a process that is still not complete that can take over a year and a half. I acquired a fiscal sponsor, Manifund, which allows our org to share in their 501(c)(3) status, so I could begin to seek grants from foundations. This is all startup work that the EA Animal Welfare Fund doesn’t have to do.
If you don’t give to the AWF, they won’t go back to being one person or stop existing. PauseAI US is trying to reach that level of stability, but we are still early, and so you have a high leverage opportunity to help. I needed the runway provided by individual donations and a grant offered to an individual for charitable purposes to even get in the big grant game, and this is a game that you get much better at the longer your org’s track record is and the more hours you can dedicate to fundraising. The rich get richer. I am the Executive Director, which at this stage means I’m also the exclusive fundraiser on top of starting and running the org.
All of which is to say, PauseAI US has a bright future. We are ~unique in AI Safety in our grassroots protesting and lobbying approach, our simple, accessible, and moderate but firm stance (“Pause AI”), and our independence from both the AGI companies and Open Philanthropy. If you are reading this, you are well-situated to understand just how important it is that we make it through the straits of these early days and have more precious time to work on the solution to AI danger. Please make the high leverage choice.
Your link is broken—it looks like it’s been pasted twice.
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aYxuFeCcqRvaszHPb/ama-pauseai-us-needs-money-ask-founder-exec-dir-holly-elmore
Fixed it—thank you!