Effective Altruism for Animals: Maximizing Impact

Applying effective altruism principles to animal welfare advocacy can dramatically increase the impact of resources dedicated to reducing animal suffering.

Key Facts

Animal Charity Evaluators estimates effective animal welfare charities improve welfare of 100-1000x more animals per dollar than average
Corporate campaigns have moved hundreds of millions of laying hens from battery cages with relatively modest organizational budgets
Wild animal welfare affects potentially far more individual animals than farmed animal welfare when considering insect populations
Personal dietary change has smaller expected welfare impact than equivalent time and money donated to effective organizations
The neglectedness of a cause - fewer people working on it relative to its scale - increases the marginal impact of additional resources
Farmed fish and shrimp welfare may be among the most neglected welfare causes relative to the scale of suffering

Welfare Considerations

Effective altruism applied to animal welfare challenges us to think rigorously about where our resources and advocacy can have the greatest impact. This sometimes leads to counterintuitive conclusions - that organizational and corporate advocacy often has far greater impact per dollar than personal consumer choices, or that less charismatic species may represent more neglected and high-impact cause areas. Applying effectiveness thinking is not about caring less but about caring more intelligently to reduce more suffering.

What You Can Do

Donate to Animal Charity Evaluators-recommended organizations rather than general charity selection
Research the impact evidence behind your current animal welfare donations and organizations
Consider shifting some personal behavior change effort toward organizational advocacy or donations
Engage with effective altruism animal welfare communities for ongoing research and discussion
Apply scale-neglectedness-tractability analysis when deciding where to invest advocacy time
Share effective animal welfare giving resources with others who want to have greater impact