Thanks for the detailed explanation and really cool to see that youâre using ICAPs as well now (we do that same at Animal Advocacy Africaâsee our review)!
One question: How would you include the volunteering of one of your co-founders in terms of a cost-effectiveness estimate? I imagine that this leads to an underestimation of your costs and an overestimate of marginal cost-effectiveness (additional funds could not be spent as efficiently, since you cannot add more similar volunteers)? Is this a topic that any funders or evaluators of your work ever raised? (Itâs a question Iâm generally curious about, just thought you may have some unique insights on this due to your situation. Not questioning the cost-effectiveness of your work.)
Thanks for your work, I highly appreciate the community!
Thank you for your comment, you are raising an important point! Youâre absolutely right that having Constance volunteer full-time has been an extraordinary help, and we havenât explicitly accounted for this in our internal cost-effectiveness (CE) estimates yet. This would pose an interesting challenge when thinking about marginal cost-effectiveness, as her contribution isnât something that additional funds could replicate directly.
For now, weâve only used our historical CE estimates as a âsanity checkâ while designing our 2025 goals and budget, ensuring they align broadly with our plansâso we didnât strongly anchor on this data. For now, our numbers seem to check out nevertheless, because other shifts in our team and budget (e.g., changes in staffing and salaries) have kept our average costs per FTE relatively stable (e.g., in 2024 we operated on ~$240k with 4.5 FTE, including Constance, and for 2025, we expect to hold 4.5 FTE at ~$260k). Additionally, weâve introduced more automations, outsourced tasks to volunteers where appropriate, and focused our resources on programs that have shown the most promise. We expect that these steps have helped ensure weâre using our funds more effectively, and hopefully counteract this limitation.
That said, we see the need to revisit these estimates in greater detail, especially as we evaluate our end-of-year community survey results. Funders havenât raised this specific concern with us so farâperhaps because theyâre more focused on our theory of change, specific projects, and broader impact metrics. However, your point is a valuable reminder to incorporate these nuances more explicitly in our future planning.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective and for your support of the community. We deeply appreciate it!
Thanks for the detailed explanation and really cool to see that youâre using ICAPs as well now (we do that same at Animal Advocacy Africaâsee our review)!
One question: How would you include the volunteering of one of your co-founders in terms of a cost-effectiveness estimate? I imagine that this leads to an underestimation of your costs and an overestimate of marginal cost-effectiveness (additional funds could not be spent as efficiently, since you cannot add more similar volunteers)? Is this a topic that any funders or evaluators of your work ever raised? (Itâs a question Iâm generally curious about, just thought you may have some unique insights on this due to your situation. Not questioning the cost-effectiveness of your work.)
Thanks for your work, I highly appreciate the community!
Thank you for your comment, you are raising an important point! Youâre absolutely right that having Constance volunteer full-time has been an extraordinary help, and we havenât explicitly accounted for this in our internal cost-effectiveness (CE) estimates yet. This would pose an interesting challenge when thinking about marginal cost-effectiveness, as her contribution isnât something that additional funds could replicate directly.
For now, weâve only used our historical CE estimates as a âsanity checkâ while designing our 2025 goals and budget, ensuring they align broadly with our plansâso we didnât strongly anchor on this data. For now, our numbers seem to check out nevertheless, because other shifts in our team and budget (e.g., changes in staffing and salaries) have kept our average costs per FTE relatively stable (e.g., in 2024 we operated on ~$240k with 4.5 FTE, including Constance, and for 2025, we expect to hold 4.5 FTE at ~$260k). Additionally, weâve introduced more automations, outsourced tasks to volunteers where appropriate, and focused our resources on programs that have shown the most promise. We expect that these steps have helped ensure weâre using our funds more effectively, and hopefully counteract this limitation.
That said, we see the need to revisit these estimates in greater detail, especially as we evaluate our end-of-year community survey results. Funders havenât raised this specific concern with us so farâperhaps because theyâre more focused on our theory of change, specific projects, and broader impact metrics. However, your point is a valuable reminder to incorporate these nuances more explicitly in our future planning.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective and for your support of the community. We deeply appreciate it!