“New donation opportunity: the Center for Wild Animal Welfare” by Ben Stevenson, RichardP
The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) is a new policy advocacy organization, working to improve the lives of wild animals today and build support for wild animal welfare policy. We’re now fundraising for our first year, and the next $60,000 will be matched 1:1 by a generous supporter. We’ve already started engaging policymakers on wild animal-friendly urban infrastructure (e.g. bird-safe glass). In 2026, we plan to keep engaging on urban infrastructure; start working on additional policy areas like fertility control and pesticide policy; and pursue agenda setting (e.g. publishing a State of Wild Animal Welfare Policy report). Wild animal welfare is one of the world's most important and neglected issues. Governments routinely make decisions that affect trillions of wild animals without considering their individual wellbeing. We want to change this: CWAW is one of the first organizations in the world dedicated to ensuring policymakers consider the individual welfare of wild animals. Our focus on near term policy will help wild animals now, and also build future support by proving that wild animal welfare is a legitimate and tractable policy concern. CWAW is co-founded by Richard Parr MBE, a former policy adviser to the UK Prime Minister, and Ben [...] ---Outline:(02:27) Why support wild animal welfare policy?(07:37) What we've achieved already(09:38) What we'll do in 2026(14:51) How will CWAW use marginal funding?(15:45) Who we are(16:17) Endorsements(18:30) How to help ---
First published:
November 18th, 2025
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uko8rxrcmYB54ZnBH/new-donation-opportunity-the-center-for-wild-animal-welfare
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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“To a first approximation, all farmed animals are bugs” by Bob Fischer
To a first approximation, all farmed animals are bugs. (Recalling, of course, that shrimps is bugs.) We don’t know much about their needs in current production systems. The Arthropoda Foundation is trying to fix that. If we want to help the most numerous farmed animals, we have to answer some basic empirical questions. Arthropoda funds the scientists who provide those answers. Good science isn’t cheap, fast, or flashy. But if we don’t fund it, we’re left guessing about the welfare of the most numerous animals on farms (and in the wild). The stakes are too high for guesswork. This year, Arthropoda granted out ~$160K to fund seven studies. That's seven studies for at least a trillion farmed animals. (And untold numbers of wild animals.) We could easily grant out much more. And with a staff person, we could actively develop projects to support. But as it is, we’re at capacity. In its current form, Arthropoda costs about $175K per year, at least 80% of which covers grants. The rest covers costs associated with learning more about the state of the industry, running a small coordination event, and legal compliance with charitable regulations. We’re about $55K short for 2026. Anything [...] ---
First published:
November 17th, 2025
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mdcSeMwkBEYhdTAWF/to-a-first-approximation-all-farmed-animals-are-bugs
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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“Some hardworking dads in EA” by Julia_Wise🔸
It's hard to divide anything 50/50. In many families, even if both parents have paid jobs, one parent will lean into parenting more, and the other will lean harder into paid work. In male/female couples it's usually the woman who owns more of the parenting work, and that can feel unfair if the arrangement comes from assumptions rather than a willing choice. I want to highlight some counter-examples from the effective altruism space, to show it's really possible to make an intentional choice about who does what. @Jeff Kaufman and I both travel for work, but he's more fearless than I am about having the kids solo. Once while I was at an EA conference during the annual vacation with his side of the family, he took our four-year-old and two-year-old to the beach, and also took his sister's two-year-old because she was working. Then, during this trip where he was responsible for three preschoolers, he potty-trained our toddler. My friend has pursued jobs focused on impact, while her husband has a normal job he's not pursuing for altruistic impact. He does more of the childcare while she commutes part of the week to another city [...] ---
First published:
November 13th, 2025
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m8B5kYHdiz5BiW9qH/some-hardworking-dads-in-ea
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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“Historical EA funding data: 2025 update” by Jacco Rubens🔸
Long time lurker, first time poster - be nice please! :) I was searching for summary data of EA funding trends, but couldn't find anything more recent than Tyler's post from 2022. So I decided to update it. If this analysis is done properly anywhere, please let me know. The spreadsheet is here (some things might look weird due to importing from Excel to sheets) Observations EA grantmaking appears on a steady downward trend since 2022 / FTX. The squeeze on GH funding to support AI / other longtermist priorities appears to be really taking effect this year (though 2025 is a rough estimate and has significant uncertainty.) I am really interested in particular about the apparent drop in GW grants this year. I suspect that it is wrong or at least misleading - the metrics report suggests they are raising ~$300m p.a. from non OP donors. Not sure if I have made an error (missing direct to charity donations?) or if they are just sitting on funding with the ongoing USAID disruption. Methodology I compiled the latest grants databases from EA Funds, GiveWell, OpenPhilanthropy, and SFF. I added summary level data from ACE. To remove [...] ---Outline:(00:41) Observations(01:26) Methodology(02:12) Notes ---
First published:
November 14th, 2025
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NWHb4nsnXRxDDFGLy/historical-ea-funding-data-2025-update
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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“If wild animal welfare is intractable, everything is intractable.” by mal_graham🔸
Author's note: This is an adapted version of my recent talk at EA Global NYC (I’ll add a link when it's available). The content has been adjusted to reflect things I learned from talking to people after my talk. If you saw the talk, you might still be interested in the “some objections” section at the end. Summary Wild animal welfare faces frequent tractability concerns, amounting to the idea that ecosystems are too complex to intervene in without causing harm. However, I suspect these concerns reflect inconsistent justification standards rather than unique intractability. To explore this idea: I provide some context about why people sometimes have tractability concerns about wild animal welfare, providing a concrete example using bird-window collisions. I then describe four approaches to handling uncertainty about indirect effects: spotlighting (focusing on target beneficiaries while ignoring broader impacts), ignoring cluelessness (acting on knowable effects only), assigning precise probabilities to all outcomes, and seeking ecologically inert interventions. I argue that, when applied consistently across cause areas, none of these approaches suggest wild animal welfare is distinctively intractable compared to global health or AI safety. Rather, the apparent difference most commonly stems from arbitrarily wide "spotlights" applied to [...] ---Outline:(00:31) Summary(02:15) Consequentialism + impartial altruism → hard to do good(03:43) The challenge: Deep uncertainty and backfire risk(04:41) Example: Bird-window collisions(05:22) We don't actually understand the welfare consequences of bird-window collisions on birds(06:08) We don't know how birds would die otherwise(07:06) The effects on other animals are even more uncertain(09:16) Four approaches to handling uncertainty(10:08) Spotlighting(15:31) Set aside that which you are clueless about(18:31) Assign precise probabilities(20:06) Seek ecologically inert interventions(22:04) Some objections & questions(22:17) The global health comparison: Spotlighting hasnt backfired (for humans)(23:22) Action-inaction distinctions(25:01) Why should justification standards be the same?(26:53) Conclusion ---
First published:
November 14th, 2025
Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2YjqfYktNGcx6YNRy/if-wild-animal-welfare-is-intractable-everything-is
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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