REG Semiannual Report S1 2016

This is the semiannual report detailing all money moved by REG. As always, it’s intended to create transparency about where REG donations are allocated. In the first half of 2016, REG supporters donated a total of $301,847 [1] to highly effective charities.

The exact allocation of all (i.e., restricted and unrestricted) donations is shown in the interactive pie chart below [2].

Allocation of unrestricted donations

In total, we granted out $97,805 in unrestricted donations to highly effective charities in the first half of 2016. These figures include some donations from previous quarters that we granted out together with Q1 and Q2 2016. The REG board allocated them as follows:

Table 1: Allocation of unrestricted donations in S1 2016 [3]

Charity Amount (in $)
Humane Slaughter Association 22,456
Animal Ethics 21,831
Machine Intelligence Research Institute 21,346
Swiss Vegan Society 10,826
Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy 10,673
 Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) 10,673
Total 97,805

 

 

Appendix: Charities receiving unrestricted funds in S1 2016

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) is an organization seeking to change the legal status of at least some nonhuman animals from that of property to that of persons, who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty. NhRP’s work seems especially promising because it could create a precedence for anti-speciesist legislation.

Animal Ethics works to spread anti-speciesist messages in academia and to a general audience. They research topics related to anti-speciesism and animal issues, particularly wild animal suffering, and write up their findings in academic papers and essays aimed at a general audience

The Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) promotes the humane treatment of all food animals worldwide. It provides technical information about handling and slaughter, staff training, and funding of science and technology and gives advice to governments and industry to make slaughter more humane.

The Swiss Vegan Society (VGS)  promotes a vegan lifestyle, especially in Switzerland. It was founded in 2011 and offers information to people who are interested in a vegan diet. The VGS has increasingly aligned its work with an effectivity focused mindset. Initial funding seems promising to further support this development.

The Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy (CEVA) aims to increase the impact of vegan advocacy worldwide. CEVA is a program of Beyond Carnism, a charitable organization dedicated to exposing and transforming carnism, the invisible belief system that conditions people to eat certain animals but not others. CEVA’s outreach activities to educate about and challenge carnism (and thus speciesism) as effectively as possible shows great promise to reduce the suffering of sentient beings.

The Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) does foundational mathematical research to ensure smarter-than-human artificial intelligence has a positive impact. As more and more human cognitive feats come to be reproduced by artificially intelligent systems, we can expect to encounter a number of unprecedented risks and benefits. These and other under-explored questions will only become more pressing as progress in computer science allows AI systems to act with increasing autonomy and efficiency.

Sentience Politics is an anti-speciesist political think-tank. It advocates a society which grants moral consideration to all sentient beings, regardless of their species membership. A part of the Effective Altruism movement, Sentience Politics uses rationality and empirical science in order to identify and implement the most effective strategies for reducing as much suffering as possible. In May 2016, Sentience Politics organized the first Sentience Conference in Berlin, Germany with more than 300 participants to discuss coordination among the effective animal advocacy community and effective strategies.

Sentience Politics is a project incubated by the Effective Altruism Foundation, REG’s parent organization.

 

[1] A previous version of this article stated that the overall amount raised was $276,847. This number ignored $25,000 donated to support REG that were already listed in the pie chart.

[2] Other: $200 granted to Mercy for Animals and $91.05 granted to GiveWell.

[3] Update January 2017: We originally allocated $44,287 in unrestricted funds to Sentience Politics but reallocated these to Animal Ethics ($21,831) and the Humane Slaughter Association ($22,456) because Sentience Politics informed us that the amount of donations they could absorb decreased due to some recent strategy changes.