I want to offset my impact on climate change. 

We need to scale up new effective charities. I have a ton of respect for their approach, especially after hearing that they shut down their No Lean Season after collecting evidence that showed lower impact than hoped-for: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/7/18654620/evidence-action-no-lean-season-givewell

I frequently form beliefs based on their data.

We are a think tank dedicated to figuring out the best ways to make the world a better place.

Rethink Priorities is a research organization that conducts critical research to inform policymakers and major foundations about how to best help people and nonhuman animals in both the present and the long-term future.

Our research spans everything from animal welfare to the threat of nuclear war. We explore neglected but promising areas to improve the world and try to further build the community of researchers working on understanding how to do this most effectively.

If you'd like to support one of our fiscally sponsored projects (e.g. Epoch), you can give via Every.org, and let us know how to allocate your gift at info@rethinkpriorities.org.

Rethink Priorities

Support highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to reduce animal suffering on a global scale. 

At least 75 billion farmed land animals and more than a trillion fish are slaughtered each year. That is more than 2000 land animals and 25,000 fish are killed every second. This is possible due to the mechanization and intensification of factory farming, driven by global increase in demand for meat.

Although this situation seems bleak - and the numbers almost too large to comprehend - there are reasons to be hopeful. Recent years have seen rapid progress in the animal welfare movement. Many large companies have pledged to phase out or drastically reduce some of their industry’s most harmful practices. Governments have banned some of these practices outright. And companies working to commercialize alternative proteins, such as plant-based meats, have raised billions of dollars from investors. Yet farm animal welfare remains highly neglected, with just 0.03% of US philanthropic funding going to this cause in 2017. 

By giving to the Founders Pledge Animal Welfare Index, you can spread your donation across several highly-impactful and neglected global initiatives to alleviate suffering and improve the conditions of factory-farmed animals. By pooling your donations, this Index fund allows you to make larger grants and thereby maximize your impact.

### Our Approach to Grantmaking
When evaluating potential grants, we consider several key points:

- **Counterfactual impact.** Our grants are designed to create a meaningful outcome that would not otherwise have happened. This means that you can rely on the Funds to create meaningful, real change, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
- **Impact-driven philanthropy.** The goal of this fund is maximal positive impact, irrespective of this impact being “sexy” or visible. This means we will focus on opportunities that others focused on clear attribution of their work or shiny outcomes might neglect.
- **The organization’s funding gap.** Not all organizations are set up to scale up their programming and many can’t productively absorb large amounts of unsolicited funding. We evaluate all potential grantees’ capacity for growth and consider how much money they could put to good use.
- **Organizational strength.** Particularly with unrestricted funding, it’s important to have trust in the leadership and capacity of the organizations we support. We look at their track record of success and their transparency about failures as well as successes, and we only support those organizations which are exceptionally well run.


To learn more about our approach to Animal Welfare as a cause area, please visit [www.founderspledge.com](https://www.founderspledge.com/research/topic/animal-welfare).

Founders Pledge: Animal Welfare Index

Supports highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to the challenges of global poverty and inequality.

The Global Health & Development Fund addresses the vast inequalities in health, wealth, and opportunity.

While many people alive today can expect to have greater wealth than generations before us, millions of people live in poverty, and billions more struggle to get by. They may lack access to basic healthcare and vaccinations, making them far more vulnerable to deadly diseases, or to quality education, which strengthens their economic future. These are complex, but not unsolvable, problems. Researchers, advocates, and organizations around the world are working to scale up solutions to these problems. By taking a thoughtful, evidence-based approach to philanthropy that accelerates the best of these solutions, we can do immense good.

The Founders Pledge Global Health and Development Fund identifies and supports highly-impactful and neglected development initiatives. By pooling donations and collaborating with other funding and research organizations, this Fund allows individuals to make contributions when and where they will have the largest impact. We aim to:

- Significantly improve the lives of the world's most vulnerable people;
- Eliminate deaths from easily preventable disease;
- Support sustainable, systemic change.

### Our Approach to Grantmaking

When evaluating potential grants, we consider several key points:

- **Counterfactual impact**. Our grants are designed to create a meaningful outcome that would not otherwise have happened. This means that you can rely on the Funds to create meaningful, real change, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
- **Impact-driven philanthropy**. This fund prioritizes the highest-impact solutions to challenges. We assess where the gaps are, which opportunities may be neglected by other funders, and where the biggest wins are in terms of making the biggest difference.
-  **The organization’s funding gap**. Not all organizations are set up to scale up their programming and some may not be able to productively absorb large amounts of unsolicited funding at any given point. We evaluate all potential grantees’ capacity for growth and consider how much money they could put to good use.
-  **Organizational strength**. Particularly with unrestricted funding, it’s important to have trust in the leadership and capacity of the organizations we support. We look at their track record of success and their transparency about failures as well as successes, and we only support those organizations which are exceptionally well run.
- **Time-critical opportunities and funding certainty**. While Founders Pledge members give to our top climate charities regularly, sometimes there are time-critical opportunities which require fast decisions. We will use the Fund to make grants that enable such short-term opportunities and stability for high-impact funding opportunities thereby increasing the impact compared to individual giving to specific organizations.

### Frequently-Asked Questions

**Can charities apply for money from the Fund?**

The Funds do not generally accept applications from charities, and we request that charities do not send unsolicited applications for funding. If the Fund Managers choose to open up an application round, this will be publicized. 

**How frequently will you make grants from the Fund?**

In general, Fund Managers will review grantmaking decisions on a quarterly basis. Decisions will be made based on the value of Funds and the available options for high-impact grantmaking. We may disburse funds outside of quarterly review dates if we become aware of a particularly promising and time-sensitive funding.

**How will my contribution be used?**

All funds are granted out. The Fund is not an investment vehicle. The Fund does not use any percentage of contributions to cover staff time or other overhead costs. Every dollar contributed to the Fund will be used to make grants directly to end-user organizations creating a real difference.

### More Questions?

To learn more about the Founders Pledge Global Health and Development Fund, please visit [founderspledge.com](https://founderspledge.com/funds/global-health-and-development-fund) or email the Fund Managers at [funds@founderspledge.com](mailto:funds@founderspledge.com).

Founders Pledge: Global Health & Development Fund

The Centre for Effective Altruism helps to grow and support the effective altruism community.

Effective altruism is about using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis.

The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is a charity dedicated to building and nurturing a global community of people who are thinking carefully about the world’s biggest problems and taking impactful action to solve them.

We hope that this community can help to build a radically better world: by connecting students and young professionals with relevant experts, we can help them consider their values and find an effective way to contribute that is a good fit for their skills and inclinations.

Centre for Effective Altruism USA

The mission of Coalition for Rainforest Nations (www.cfrn.org) is to slow, stop and reverse global deforestation.

The Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering rainforest countries to assume a leadership role in the fight against climate change. Through policy support, capacity building, and direct finance, CfRN incentivizes developing countries to slow, stop, and reverse deforestation through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) mechanism. REDD+ is now universally recognized as one of the most immediate mitigation actions that preserves the planet’s rainforests and directly addresses the climate emergency.

CfRN’s Origins and the Promise of REDD+
Inspired by the call of Papua New Guinea’s former Prime Minister, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, to equitably preserve the planet’s rainforests, CfRN’s Executive Director, Kevin Conrad, who grew up in Papua New Guinea, and Managing Director Federica’s Bietta, who is from Italy, lead the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. By advancing REDD+, their aim was to give rainforest nations a voice within international climate negotiations and define rainforests as worth more alive than dead. 

REDD+ was introduced in 2005 at the Eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by the newly formed Coalition for Rainforest Nations. Founding nations, Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea, envisioned REDD+ as a way to assign a financial value to forests for the role they play in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and not just as a source of logged timber, agriculture, or grazing lands.  REDD+ (Forestry) is the only sector to enjoy a unique article in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (Article 5).  Furthermore, REDD+ preserves forests at the scale and speed needed to keep 1.5 alive – the goal prescribed under the Paris Agreement of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°Celsius. 

The REDD+ mechanism was developed over the years at successive COP meetings, as shown in the timeline below. As a result of CfRN’s leadership, rainforests are now recognized as a critical climate solution under the UNFCCC.  

What We Do
CfRN’s work encompasses three key areas: policy support; capacity building; and direct finance. The collective goal of these programs is to effectively reward countries for the work they do to preserve their forests. The Coalition provides direct policy support during all UNFCCC negotiating sessions and works in-country to help develop conservation policies, laws, and national forest protection plans. CfRN also trains countries’ experts to build the expertise needed to gather data required by the UNFCCC to report forest conservation results. CfRN works to ensure that rainforest countries are compensated for verified emission reductions under REDD+, as promised under the Paris Agreement. 

Policy Support
As a UNFCCC-recognized Negotiating Group, CfRN establishes and advances positions on behalf of its countries – over fifty rainforest nations —at all UNFCCC sessions. In this capacity, CfRN strives to advance the REDD+ mechanism and ensure that climate finance is allocated equitably to rainforest nations. Currently, CfRN is working to ensure that REDD+ is fully represented in the rulebook of the Paris Agreement. 

Technical Training & Capacity Building 
Countries’ results are eligible for financial compensation through REDD+ only after rigorous measurement, reporting and verification data are submitted, reviewed, and deemed to conform to UNFCCC guidelines. REDD+ results are then registered on the UNFCCC REDD+ Information Hub and made available to the public to review in detail. In its capacity building role, CfRN helps countries develop national technical expertise to take stock of their forest resources, create national plans to preserve them, and submit their data to the REDD+ registry at the UNFCCC in a consistent manner with their climate pledges, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. 

Direct Finance
To date, rainforest countries have not been compensated for the majority of their REDD+ emissions reductions, as promised. Though certain governments including Norway, the U.K., and Germany, have paid bilaterally for some results, this is far from sufficient. CfRN’s finance work helps rainforest nations raise debt funding and receive performance-based compensation. The sale and trading of REDD+ Paris Agreement-compliant carbon credits is a growing source of climate finance. These credits are available for purchase through CfRN’s REDD.plus platform. Over the next few years, our member countries will bring a pipeline of sovereign carbon credits to market representing Paris Agreement-compliant emissions reductions, resulting from member country efforts to keep their rainforests standing. 

Coalition for Rainforest Nations

Evidence Action scales evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty. 

Our organization was founded in 2013 to address a big gap in the fight against global poverty--many of the most promising interventions are either implemented at a very small scale, or not at all. We set out to address this gap by building programs that would scale evidence-based and cost-effective interventions, leading to significant improvements in quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. 

Our model worked. In less than a decade, our two flagship programs, the Deworm the World Initiative and Dispensers for Safe Water, have grown to measurably impact over 280 million people each year. This success is achieved through the dedication and talent of our staff, the hard work of our partners, and the commitment of our supporters.

By 2024, we seek to double our impact. We are strengthening and expanding our existing programs, and working to identify a new generation of evidence-based and cost-effective interventions that we can scale to reach millions more. 

We currently operate three programs:

Dispensers for Safe Water 

Dispensers for Safe Water program delivers free and reliable access to safe water for 4 million people in rural Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi.
In rural parts of low-income countries, most water sources are untreated, meaning that water is not safe to drink directly from the source. Our uniquely-engineered chlorine dispensers are installed next to commonly-used water sources, enabling people to treat their water using a safe and pre-measured dose of chlorine. The chlorine stays active for 2-3 days, ensuring water doesn’t get recontaminated even when stored at home. Adding diluted chlorine to water is a WHO-endorsed approach to improving water quality. 
Dispensers for Safe Water is a cost-effective solution - just over $1.00 delivers safe water access to one person for an entire year. In 2019, our program averted over 380,000 cases of diarrhea among children, one of the main causes of childhood mortality in the countries where we operate.

Deworm the World Initiative

Deworm the World Initiative helps governments launch, scale, and sustain school-based deworming programs.

Over 868 million children globally are at risk of contracting parasitic worm infections. If left untreated, infections can lead to anemia, malnourishment, and impaired mental and physical development—ultimately affecting children’s educational outcomes and income as adults.Our program brings free treatment to children at their schools instead of placing the burden on the families to obtain it. We partner with governments to regularly treat all at-risk children in places where at least 20% are infected with worms, as recommended by the World Health Organization.  

Rigorous research shows that deworming leads to significant improvements to children’s health, education, and long-term wellbeing. In 2019, we helped governments treat over 280 million children in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Pakistan for less than US 50 cents per treatment.

Accelerator:  
 
Evidence Action Accelerator is our engine for new program development that selects, optimizes, and scales interventions with the highest potential to measurably improve the lives of millions of people in the world’s poorest places.  

Each intervention considered by the Accelerator must undergo a multi-stage process of program development, taking it from an evidence-based concept to a fully-developed solution that can be replicated in multiple geographies. We look for three critical aspects during the assessment process: rigorous evidence, cost-effectiveness, and potential for scale. 

We are currently accelerating two promising health solutions: working with the Liberian government to detect and treat maternal syphilis, with the aim of preventing thousands of child deaths and disabilities each year; and supporting the Indian government to improve the distribution of iron and folic acid supplementation to millions of children and adolescents —treating iron deficiency anemia, one of the main causes of disability in the country.





Evidence Action

Communicating the best research and data to understand big global problems and make progress against them.

Poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality: The world faces many great and terrifying problems. Our World in Data focuses on communicating the best research and data that helps us understand and find solutions to the world’s largest problems.

Our World in Data publishes an open-access publication where users can understand the state of the world today, where we are making progress and where we are falling behind. Through interactive data visualizations we can see how the world has changed; by summarizing the scientific literature we can understand why. We cover everything from global poverty to natural disasters, education and health, democracy; we have over 3500 charts across 300 topics.

Our World in Data is free, open-source and provided as a public good. It has millions of users every month, and is cited in research and media across the world every day. This allows millions of people to understand the large problems the world is facing, and how we can solve them. 

Our World in Data

StrongMinds provides life-changing mental health services to women in Africa using innovative community-based group therapy.

According to the WHO, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. In Africa, an estimated 66M women have depression and 85% have no access to treatment. Since 2014, StrongMinds has treated over 200,000 individuals for depression symptoms, with 80% measuring as depression-free after therapy. When a woman recovers from depression, she is more engaged in the community and her economic activity increases. Her family eats more meals and her children go to school more often. When you invest in mental health, you invest in the future of an individual, their family, and their community.

StrongMinds Inc

Exists to end the greatest cause of suffering on the planet: the exploitation of animals for food.

Mercy For Animals exists to end the greatest cause of suffering on the planet: the exploitation of animals for food.

Mercy For Animals

CHS at Johns Hopkins advances policy, science and technology to protect people’s health from epidemics and disasters.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security explores how new policy approaches, scientific advances, and technological innovations can strengthen health security and save lives. Our research focuses on improving organizations, systems, and tools to prevent and respond to outbreaks and other public health crises. We advance policies and practice addressing a range of challenges, including the global rise in emerging infectious diseases, a continued risk of pandemic flu, major natural disasters, and the potential for biological accidents or intentional threats. Interdisciplinary and international collaborations with other experts and policymakers improve and inform our work.

Center for Health Security

Founders Pledge is a global nonprofit empowering entrepreneurs to do the most good possible with their charitable giving. 

We equip members with everything needed to maximize their impact, from evidence-led research and advice on the world’s most pressing problems, to comprehensive infrastructure for global grant-making, alongside opportunities to learn and connect. We’re grateful to be funded by our members and other generous donors. 

Founders Pledge

Instructions to get up to $300 matched: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/oMBKeyx7ir8Jnbenz/make-a-usd50-donation-into-usd100-6x