Thanks for working on this. I just want to point out that if a charity helps say one animal per dollar, the real cost for the animal advocacy movement is a bit higher if you account for the following:
Opportunity cost of staff: People working at animal advocacy charities often accept lower salaries than they could earn elsewhere. Some might have been earning-to-give if they weren’t directly working in the field, potentially donating substantial amounts to animal causes.
Hidden costs: Volunteer time, pro bono services, and other non-monetary contributions often aren’t factored into cost calculations but represent real resources.
Diminishing returns: animal advocacy interventions may be becoming less cost-effective over time as the easiest wins (“low-hanging fruits”) were addressed first.
Failed interventions: For every successful approach we discover, there were likely multiple attempted interventions that didn’t work. The “research and development” costs of finding effective strategies should ideally be factored into overall movement costs.
I don’t know if I advise you to change anything based on this though. Your estimates are already quite conservative and perhaps it’s best to avoid complicating things with considerations like these.
Thanks for working on this. I just want to point out that if a charity helps say one animal per dollar, the real cost for the animal advocacy movement is a bit higher if you account for the following:
Opportunity cost of staff: People working at animal advocacy charities often accept lower salaries than they could earn elsewhere. Some might have been earning-to-give if they weren’t directly working in the field, potentially donating substantial amounts to animal causes.
Hidden costs: Volunteer time, pro bono services, and other non-monetary contributions often aren’t factored into cost calculations but represent real resources.
Diminishing returns: animal advocacy interventions may be becoming less cost-effective over time as the easiest wins (“low-hanging fruits”) were addressed first.
Failed interventions: For every successful approach we discover, there were likely multiple attempted interventions that didn’t work. The “research and development” costs of finding effective strategies should ideally be factored into overall movement costs.
I don’t know if I advise you to change anything based on this though. Your estimates are already quite conservative and perhaps it’s best to avoid complicating things with considerations like these.
Thanks Saulius! The in-some-cases 100% adjustments for conservatism should easily cover considerations like this. I agree they exist and matter