The Nonlinear Library EA - FarmKind (a new animal fundraising platform) is live - Please DON'T DONATE by Aidan Alexander
Aug 2, 2024
07:19
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: FarmKind (a new animal fundraising platform) is live - Please DON'T DONATE, published by Aidan Alexander on August 2, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
TL;DR
FarmKind is a new effective giving platform dedicated to tackling factory farming
We've just launched - www.farmkind.giving
There are many ways you can help us if you're interested - details below
FarmKind's aim
Factory farming is one of the most neglected cause areas relative to the amount of suffering it causes. Globally, Farmed Animal Funders estimates that just $200 million is channeled specifically to this issue,[1] while more than 10 billion land animals (excluding insects) are factory farmed annually in the US alone.[2]
Even when it comes to effective altruism, factory farming is a minority within a minority. We estimate that less than 10% of the funds raised by effective giving organizations go to factory farming.[3]
All this despite the fact that proven interventions in the lives of factory-farmed animals remain arguably some of the most cost-effective ways to prevent suffering that we have yet discovered.
The lack of funding has several consequences:
1. Proven strategies for reducing suffering are being scaled more slowly.
2. Promising new interventions struggle to get off the ground.
3. The space is overly reliant on a few large funders, posing many structural risks.
FarmKind's mission is to increase funding for farmed animal charities by bringing in new donors and donations.
To do this, we've built a platform inspired by the innovative work of Prof. Joshua Greene and Dr. Lucius Caviola and their Giving Multiplier platform, tailored specifically to raise money for farmed animal charities. People donate because they feel compassion but also want their donations to be spent wisely and have an impact. FarmKind seeks to meet both these motivations so people can feel good while they do a huge amount of good too.
We work with expert charity evaluators, including Animal Charity Evaluators, to find charities that are super-effective at making the lives of factory-farmed animals better. We help donors give to a curated set of these charities while, at the same time, splitting their donation with their favorite charities. Then FarmKind boosts both donations with a bonus.
We hope that, by increasing funding to these higher-profile and more thoroughly evaluated organizations, we will be able to free up other funders to look at interventions that require more vetting than we currently have the capacity for.
Our story so far
FarmKind was incubated in the first Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program of 2024, in April this year. Since then, founders Aidan Alexander and Thom Norman have been working to launch our giving platform as soon as possible.
We have now launched our platform and are receiving donations. You can find us here: www.farmkind.giving
To get to this point so far would not have been possible without the amazing support of a lot of people who want to see a better world for animals. In particular, our platform would not have been possible without Hive's Douglas Browne, Violet Studios or Every.org. Many others have helped us get to launch, are too many people to list here, but please check out our acknowledgements on our site here.
DON'T donate through us (please)
If you're reading this post, our platform isn't aimed at you. We aim to convert new donors to supporting effective farmed animal welfare. If people who would have given to our recommended charities anyway donate through our platform it doesn't add any value, and what's more, by using up limiting matching funding, donating through our platform hurts our ability incentivise counterfactual donations.
If, however, you're the type of person who gives to ACE recommended charities already, you may be interested in giving to them via our bonus...
TL;DR
FarmKind is a new effective giving platform dedicated to tackling factory farming
We've just launched - www.farmkind.giving
There are many ways you can help us if you're interested - details below
FarmKind's aim
Factory farming is one of the most neglected cause areas relative to the amount of suffering it causes. Globally, Farmed Animal Funders estimates that just $200 million is channeled specifically to this issue,[1] while more than 10 billion land animals (excluding insects) are factory farmed annually in the US alone.[2]
Even when it comes to effective altruism, factory farming is a minority within a minority. We estimate that less than 10% of the funds raised by effective giving organizations go to factory farming.[3]
All this despite the fact that proven interventions in the lives of factory-farmed animals remain arguably some of the most cost-effective ways to prevent suffering that we have yet discovered.
The lack of funding has several consequences:
1. Proven strategies for reducing suffering are being scaled more slowly.
2. Promising new interventions struggle to get off the ground.
3. The space is overly reliant on a few large funders, posing many structural risks.
FarmKind's mission is to increase funding for farmed animal charities by bringing in new donors and donations.
To do this, we've built a platform inspired by the innovative work of Prof. Joshua Greene and Dr. Lucius Caviola and their Giving Multiplier platform, tailored specifically to raise money for farmed animal charities. People donate because they feel compassion but also want their donations to be spent wisely and have an impact. FarmKind seeks to meet both these motivations so people can feel good while they do a huge amount of good too.
We work with expert charity evaluators, including Animal Charity Evaluators, to find charities that are super-effective at making the lives of factory-farmed animals better. We help donors give to a curated set of these charities while, at the same time, splitting their donation with their favorite charities. Then FarmKind boosts both donations with a bonus.
We hope that, by increasing funding to these higher-profile and more thoroughly evaluated organizations, we will be able to free up other funders to look at interventions that require more vetting than we currently have the capacity for.
Our story so far
FarmKind was incubated in the first Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program of 2024, in April this year. Since then, founders Aidan Alexander and Thom Norman have been working to launch our giving platform as soon as possible.
We have now launched our platform and are receiving donations. You can find us here: www.farmkind.giving
To get to this point so far would not have been possible without the amazing support of a lot of people who want to see a better world for animals. In particular, our platform would not have been possible without Hive's Douglas Browne, Violet Studios or Every.org. Many others have helped us get to launch, are too many people to list here, but please check out our acknowledgements on our site here.
DON'T donate through us (please)
If you're reading this post, our platform isn't aimed at you. We aim to convert new donors to supporting effective farmed animal welfare. If people who would have given to our recommended charities anyway donate through our platform it doesn't add any value, and what's more, by using up limiting matching funding, donating through our platform hurts our ability incentivise counterfactual donations.
If, however, you're the type of person who gives to ACE recommended charities already, you may be interested in giving to them via our bonus...