This is our sixth annual transparency report (see our reports for 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014).
In 2019, REG donors gave a total of $3,107,538 to highly cost-effective charities.1 We estimate our expenses during the same year at about $14,7412, resulting in a fundraising multiplier of 1:211.
This total figure reflects all donations that have been significantly influenced by us. That is, if a donor would think that REG (at least) significantly influenced them to make a donation, we include that donation. We count donations made through our website as (at least partially) influenced by us, as well as some instances of donors giving to our recommended charities directly. In the latter case, we include the donation if the donor confirms that our influence was essential. Since this metric leaves out any donations to our recommended charities from people who never get in touch with us, our actual impact is likely somewhat underrepresented (also see our FAQ on this question).
We only included parts of the $3,421,526 total from the 2019 edition of the Double Up Drive in our report. We counted all the matching funds that had been provided ($1,710,763) as having been influenced by us as a result of our efforts to promote effective giving in the poker community. As with all matching challenges, however, there are good reasons to believe that participating donors would have made some donation in any case. So we estimated conservatively that only 15% was donated as a result of the matching challenge. This adds up to $1,967,377 (around 57% of the total).
Donation distribution by charity
The donations in 2019 were distributed as follows:
| Charity | Donation Total |
| GiveWell | $372,034 |
| Against Malaria Foundation | $335,920 |
| The Good Food Institute | $331,792 |
| Forethought Foundation | $272,279 |
| International Pollutants Elimination Network | $270,916 |
| Animal Charity Evaluators: Recommended Charity Fund | $269,526 |
| Centre for Effective Altruism | $218,746 |
| StrongMinds | $204,591 |
| International Refugee Assistance Project | $196,115 |
| REG Fund | $191,499 |
| Malaria Consortium | $151,079 |
| 80,000 Hours | $103,429 |
| Massachusetts Bail Fund | $64,294 |
| EA: Long-Term Future Fund | $41,705 |
| Humane Slaughter Association | $31,360 |
| GiveDirectly | $24,821 |
| Helen Keller International | $20,761 |
| SCI Foundation | $17,784 |
| Animal Charity Evaluators | $2,073 |
| Machine Intelligence Research Institute | $1,331 |
| Wild Animal Initiative | $361 |
| Deworm the World Initiative | $234 |
| Total | $3,122,649 |
Donation distribution by cause area
Our recommended charities fall into one of three cause areas: global poverty alleviation, animal welfare, and reducing risks from emerging technologies. Each cause area received the following amount of donations:
Poverty Alleviation
In 2019, donors gave $1,398,141 (45% of all donations raised) to charities working on alleviating suffering from poverty-related causes. The fundraising multiplier for poverty alleviation in 2019 is 1:95. The largest single recipient in this cause area was GiveWell, which received $372,034.
Animal Welfare
In 2019, donors gave $635,111 (20% of all donations raised) went to charities working on preventing or alleviating the suffering of animals, especially in factory farming. These charities can also have an impact on a range of global problems, including climate change, global hunger, water shortage, and pandemic risk. Our fundraising multiplier for animal welfare in 2019 is 1:43. As in the year before, the single largest recipient in this cause area was the Good Food Institute, which received $331,792.
Risks from Emerging Technologies
In 2019, donors gave $506,813 (16% of all donations raised) went to charities pursuing research on global catastrophic risks and risks of astronomical future suffering. Our fundraising multiplier in this cause area in 2019 is 1:41. The largest recipient of donations in this cause area was the Forethought Foundation, which received $272,279.
Other
In 2019, donors gave $582,584 (19% of all donations raised) to charities which don’t neatly fit into our cause area framework: $218,746 to the Centre for Effective Altruism, $196,115 to the International Refugee Assistance Project, $103,429 to 80,000 Hours, and $64,294 to the Massachusetts Bail Fund.
REG Fund
In 2018, we launched our own fund. Its mission is to support research and policy efforts to prevent the worst technological risks facing our civilization. During the course of 2019, we raised a total of $191,499 for it. We also made six grants totaling $221,306. You can find details about the individual grants here.
1 In addition to the donations listed above, we raised $54,535 for the Effective Altruism Foundation, our parent organization, in 2019. We do not include this in our totals (anymore) because these funds might be used to cover our expenses.
2 This is an estimate since we’re a project of the Effective Altruism Foundation and our staff is also involved in other projects. Similarly, our donation infrastructure is used for multiple purposes, not just REG.