I enjoyed this post. And I appreciated some of the explanation in the intro. E.g. I can imagine this list being inspiring for donors (and hadn’t thought about it like that before).
But is it much different from a list of (non-mega) project ideas?
E.g. see this comment:
“Rethink Priorities’ first incubated charity, Insect Welfare Project (provisional name) might be an example of launching something that eventually could absorb $100M when it finds an effective intervention and scales it. The Shrimp Welfare Project might be another example.”
You could apply this logic to almost any animal charity that’s trying to find interventions that are both cost-effective and scalable.
Once you adopt this perspective, the question could be switched from “which megaproject ideas can we think of?” to “how rapidly will we get diminishing returns on further investment in various plausibly cost-effective project ideas?”
Thanks Jamie! We struggled a lot with this issue when writing the post.
I’m not really sure I see a problem or a difference with the “which megaproject ideas can we think of?”/ “how rapidly will we get diminishing returns on further investment in various plausibly cost-effective project ideas?” distinction. I think if the answer to the second question is “quickly and with only a few million $” then you cut the idea from the list. It’s part of the way to arrive at answers to “which megaproject ideas can we think of?”. Other ideas floated seemed like they would be cost-effective at a small scale but could never absorb $10M because the problem was so small (foie gras bans perhaps) or the low-hanging fruit was uniquely cheap (the first type of a new campaign in a new region/species but hit some blockers or severe diminishing returns as they try to scale), and other ideas didn’t look cost-effective at a small scale only but maybe at large scale if they reach some sort of economies of scale (some sort of policy or subsidization schemes that only gain leverage at large scales).
On the specific example you highlighted, I think “almost any animal charity” would have more weight as a critique if there were many such opportunities. I think the N of animal charities pursuing interventions that could actually both scale & remain cost-effective is relatively small (I don’t see orgs like FWI and Healthier Hens popping up without the deliberate effort of Charity Entrepreneurship and it’s still to be proven if they can scale and remain cost-effective. Even larger orgs like CIWF & THL aren’t obviously only doing cost-effective things). The two we cited (focusing on shrimp and farmed insects) were deliberate because the sheer number of animals affected provide the opportunity that cost-effectiveness could be maintained even if spending a lot of money, unlike other animal charities.
I agree not all the items on the list will turn out to meet strict definitions, or even vague definitions, of megaprojects. The main point of the exercise here was to note the virtual lack of any ideas on animals and prompt discussion and interest, and secondly to actually propose ideas from among which further investigation might find some really compelling megaprojects.
I enjoyed this post. And I appreciated some of the explanation in the intro. E.g. I can imagine this list being inspiring for donors (and hadn’t thought about it like that before).
But is it much different from a list of (non-mega) project ideas?
E.g. see this comment:
“Rethink Priorities’ first incubated charity, Insect Welfare Project (provisional name) might be an example of launching something that eventually could absorb $100M when it finds an effective intervention and scales it. The Shrimp Welfare Project might be another example.”
You could apply this logic to almost any animal charity that’s trying to find interventions that are both cost-effective and scalable.
Once you adopt this perspective, the question could be switched from “which megaproject ideas can we think of?” to “how rapidly will we get diminishing returns on further investment in various plausibly cost-effective project ideas?”
Thanks Jamie! We struggled a lot with this issue when writing the post.
I’m not really sure I see a problem or a difference with the “which megaproject ideas can we think of?”/ “how rapidly will we get diminishing returns on further investment in various plausibly cost-effective project ideas?” distinction. I think if the answer to the second question is “quickly and with only a few million $” then you cut the idea from the list. It’s part of the way to arrive at answers to “which megaproject ideas can we think of?”. Other ideas floated seemed like they would be cost-effective at a small scale but could never absorb $10M because the problem was so small (foie gras bans perhaps) or the low-hanging fruit was uniquely cheap (the first type of a new campaign in a new region/species but hit some blockers or severe diminishing returns as they try to scale), and other ideas didn’t look cost-effective at a small scale only but maybe at large scale if they reach some sort of economies of scale (some sort of policy or subsidization schemes that only gain leverage at large scales).
On the specific example you highlighted, I think “almost any animal charity” would have more weight as a critique if there were many such opportunities. I think the N of animal charities pursuing interventions that could actually both scale & remain cost-effective is relatively small (I don’t see orgs like FWI and Healthier Hens popping up without the deliberate effort of Charity Entrepreneurship and it’s still to be proven if they can scale and remain cost-effective. Even larger orgs like CIWF & THL aren’t obviously only doing cost-effective things). The two we cited (focusing on shrimp and farmed insects) were deliberate because the sheer number of animals affected provide the opportunity that cost-effectiveness could be maintained even if spending a lot of money, unlike other animal charities.
I agree not all the items on the list will turn out to meet strict definitions, or even vague definitions, of megaprojects. The main point of the exercise here was to note the virtual lack of any ideas on animals and prompt discussion and interest, and secondly to actually propose ideas from among which further investigation might find some really compelling megaprojects.