Hey Vasco! Yeah I think I’d advocate for more aquatic animal orgs at the margin (though I do think that funding in this space is increasing, so this trade-off might not be super clear cut anyway).
I liked Karolina’s response to a similar question during the recent EA Animal Welfare Funds AMA and I usually give a similar response when people ask me about funding SWP—I think new orgs in this space often have a really high Expected Value, so depending on your risk-tolerance for funding I think they represent a really exciting opportunity.
I think SWP itself might be quite a good example of this—we came out of the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program with a seed grant of $100k. We then got a couple of grants from EAAWF ($45k) and ACE Movement Grants ($40k) as well as some smaller donors here and there. I think this got us to the point where we had figured out our main intervention, could secure some Open Philanthropy funding, and start to have impact.
I think it’s very possible SWP has only found a local maximum and that there are other opportunities out there that could help us get closer to the global maximum in this space. So if I was a donor trying to allocate ~$200k, I would put serious effort into looking for new orgs/​opportunities that I thought had a good chance of being more cost-effective than SWP (I think AIM have previously estimated that 20% of their charities could become field-leading—I’m not sure if this is generalisable outside of AIM, but might be a useful baserate for considering opportunities).
I liked Karolina’s response to a similar question during the recent EA Animal Welfare Funds [AWF] AMA and I usually give a similar response when people ask me about funding SWP [Shrimp Welfare Project] - I think new orgs in this space often have a really high Expected Value, so depending on your risk-tolerance for funding I think they represent a really exciting opportunity.
I strongly endorse risk neutrality with respect to total hedonistic welfare, but I am still confused about why Karolina thinks donating to AWF is better than to SWP.
I estimate SWP has been 173 times as cost-effective as cage-free campaigns, but a significant fraction of AWF’s funds go to such campaigns. I guess you [Karolina] think I am greatly overestimating the past cost-effectiveness of SWP, but I do not know why.
Do you think SWP is roughly as cost-effective as the cage-free campaigns funded by AWF for my preferred pain intensities and welfare ranges? How?
I think AIM have previously estimated that 20% of their charities could become field-leading—I’m not sure if this is generalisable outside of AIM, but might be a useful baserate for considering opportunities
I would prefer donating to SWP over an organisation which was certain to become the most cost-effective helping chickens or fish, unless they were going to become way more cost-effective than the field-leading ones. I estimate SWP has been 173 times as cost-effective as cage-free campaigns, and 9.01 k time as cost-effective as Fish Welfare Initiative’s (FWI’s) farm program from January to September 2024 (excluding benefits after this period).
I think the general point still stands that we want to advocate for more aquatic animal charities in the space.
Even if you think shrimps are the most cost-effective donation opportunity currently, a key point we wanted to make was that just because there is a Shrimp Welfare Project doesn’t mean that there isn’t space for more orgs.
Hey Vasco! Yeah I think I’d advocate for more aquatic animal orgs at the margin (though I do think that funding in this space is increasing, so this trade-off might not be super clear cut anyway).
I liked Karolina’s response to a similar question during the recent EA Animal Welfare Funds AMA and I usually give a similar response when people ask me about funding SWP—I think new orgs in this space often have a really high Expected Value, so depending on your risk-tolerance for funding I think they represent a really exciting opportunity.
I think SWP itself might be quite a good example of this—we came out of the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program with a seed grant of $100k. We then got a couple of grants from EAAWF ($45k) and ACE Movement Grants ($40k) as well as some smaller donors here and there. I think this got us to the point where we had figured out our main intervention, could secure some Open Philanthropy funding, and start to have impact.
I think it’s very possible SWP has only found a local maximum and that there are other opportunities out there that could help us get closer to the global maximum in this space. So if I was a donor trying to allocate ~$200k, I would put serious effort into looking for new orgs/​opportunities that I thought had a good chance of being more cost-effective than SWP (I think AIM have previously estimated that 20% of their charities could become field-leading—I’m not sure if this is generalisable outside of AIM, but might be a useful baserate for considering opportunities).
Thanks for clarifying, Aaron!
I strongly endorse risk neutrality with respect to total hedonistic welfare, but I am still confused about why Karolina thinks donating to AWF is better than to SWP.
Do you think SWP is roughly as cost-effective as the cage-free campaigns funded by AWF for my preferred pain intensities and welfare ranges? How?
I would prefer donating to SWP over an organisation which was certain to become the most cost-effective helping chickens or fish, unless they were going to become way more cost-effective than the field-leading ones. I estimate SWP has been 173 times as cost-effective as cage-free campaigns, and 9.01 k time as cost-effective as Fish Welfare Initiative’s (FWI’s) farm program from January to September 2024 (excluding benefits after this period).
I think the general point still stands that we want to advocate for more aquatic animal charities in the space.
Even if you think shrimps are the most cost-effective donation opportunity currently, a key point we wanted to make was that just because there is a Shrimp Welfare Project doesn’t mean that there isn’t space for more orgs.
There are a number of things SWP is not pursuing that could be really impactful, like working on shrimp paste, or brine shrimp, or fish fry.