Total Donations

During the first six months of 2017 our supporters donated $686,095.58 to our recommended charities.1 We want to thank all donors for their generous contributions to effective charities which have more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

Highlights of S1 2017

Co-founders Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov win big at the WSOP

  • Liv Boree and Igor Kurganov won the $10,000 Tag Team Event together. This was the first WSOP bracelet for both of them.
  • Their prize was worth $273,964.
  • Liv and Igor decided to donate 50% of their personal share of that prize, $124,560, to REG broken down as follows:
    • $41,520 to the Foundational Research Institute
    • $41,520 to fund REG’s operation itself (not included in the total donations raised)
    • $41,520 to REG to allocate as they see fit

PokerStars donates all fees from $25,000 SCOOP High-Roller and matched up to $50,000

888poker donates all fees from three events at Inferno XL

Unrestricted Donations

Of the donations made during this period, 10.4% or $71,144.67, was given without restriction to allocate to our recommended charities. We decided to give $41,520 (58.4%) to the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) and $29,624.67 (41.6%) to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). (See our FAQ for more details on the allocation process.)

Update to Recommended Charities

We conduct a review of our charity recommendations every six months to ensure they remain the most impactful giving opportunities. If we find that new evidence warrants a change, we update our list of charities accordingly. During this period, we have concluded that our existing recommended charities should remain unchanged. However, we do not forward donations to the Nonhuman Rights Project any longer because of the low donation volume which did not justify the additional overhead.

Donations to the Effective Altruism Foundation

During the first half of 2017, donors decided to give $113,219.90 in unrestricted donations to the Effective Altruism Foundation, $45,687.59 to its project REG, and $41,624.42 to its project FRI. Because of our conflict of interest, we do not allocate any funds to EAF or its projects ourselves. With the exception of FRI (which is one of our recommended charities), we do not include these donations in the overall amount of money raised.

REG’s Finances

We will begin including updates on our finances in this and future semiannual reports. We have budgeted expenses of ~$210,2432 for 2017. This is an increase from last year mainly due to increased staff cost. In 2017, we have received ~$70,7433 in donations from our supporters (see our FAQ for more information on our funding). At the end of 2016 we had reserves of ~$279,591. Given projected expenses, donations received this year so far, and a baseline of 12 months of runway, we have room for more funding of at least ~$70,117. Assuming expansions in 2018, we can absorb between ~$164,084 and ~$445,796 in additional funds.4

1 We receive donations in different currencies. For internal accounting we use CHF as our main currency. For the purpose of this external reports we use the currency exchange rate from June 30, 2017.
2 Originally we had reported ~$200,000 in projected expenses. (corrected on August 30, 2017)
3 Originally we reported to have received $45,687.59. This figure mistakenly excluded some donations. (corrected on August 30, 2017)
4 The information on our room for more funding was added on August 30, 2017.