Is RP research donor-driven in terms of priorities? Do you worry that Rethink could become vastly more focused on some cause areas over others due to available funding in the space, as opposed to more neglected areas that could be more impactful?
I do think RP, like nearly any other organization, has to “follow the money” and given that RP has historically relied a lot on restricted assets we do end up matching donor priorities. I think this could be good as it gives an independent check on our prioritization and encourages us to be responsive to the needs of the broader dollar-weighted EA community.
On the other hand, it is unlikely that donor priorities are indeed the best thing for us to work on and as we are funding constrained in all of our areas I do worry that we will be steered toward particular areas more than I’d like from impact assessment alone. This is one reason why we’ve been trying to make a large push to get more unrestricted funding for RP.
Is RP research donor-driven in terms of priorities? Do you worry that Rethink could become vastly more focused on some cause areas over others due to available funding in the space, as opposed to more neglected areas that could be more impactful?
I do think RP, like nearly any other organization, has to “follow the money” and given that RP has historically relied a lot on restricted assets we do end up matching donor priorities. I think this could be good as it gives an independent check on our prioritization and encourages us to be responsive to the needs of the broader dollar-weighted EA community.
On the other hand, it is unlikely that donor priorities are indeed the best thing for us to work on and as we are funding constrained in all of our areas I do worry that we will be steered toward particular areas more than I’d like from impact assessment alone. This is one reason why we’ve been trying to make a large push to get more unrestricted funding for RP.