Rethink Charity

Donor Briefing: 11/2017

2018-03-02 General Operations

Thanks for taking the time to check our November briefing.

 

Two-sentence breakdown – RC is excited to announce the soft launch of Rethink Charity Forward, Canada’s first cause-neutral donation routing fund for high-impact charities around the world. Below we expand on our 2018 plans and budgets for the full repertoire of RC projects that have been appropriately wrapped for Giving Season.

 

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Your full RC Briefing

Read time: 3 minutes

Project Updates

 

Rethink Charity

 

– Giving Season has been kind to Rethink Charity after an early fundraising boost from a series of #givingtuesday campaigns attempting to receive matching from Facebook and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was truly a pleasure to see more than 100 EAs coordinate to take advantage of the Facebook/BAMGF match for effective charities. See this FB group for results.

– The EA Survey 2017 Series published once again in November with information on how people get into EA, with help from special guest Ben Todd, CEO and co-founder of 80,000 Hours.

 

RC Forward

– We soft launched RC Forward, a donation routing service that allows Canadian donors to receive tax benefits for donations to effective charities in the US.

– Donors may choose between four separate cause area funds for unrestricted donations, as well as nine charities we’ve set up direct donation pages for, and more to come.

– By expanding the causes and charities supported, RC Forward could raise upwards of $1,000,000 for effective charities in 2018.

 

Students for High-Impact Charity (SHIC)

– SHIC finalized plans for the 2018 workshop experiment outlined in this post.

 

Local Effective Altruism Network (LEAN)

– LEAN is putting the finishing touches on the 2017 Impact Assessment on local groups, planning to publish quantitative findings in the first week of December, along with corresponding qualitative findings toward mid-month.

– Have a sneak peek of the rough and ready quantitative findings here.

 

What’s Next

All of our projects are currently seeking funding for the coming year and we hope you’ll diversify your Giving Season donation portfolio by adding these important movement building initiatives. We’re confident these projects carry more potential for impact than at any time in the past.

 

Key funding opportunities include RC Forward plans to facilitate $1M routed to effective charities, SHIC plans to bring workshops to local students in Vancouver, and LEAN plans to become a grant making entity for EA groups worldwide. If you are interested in funding any of these projects, please contact Tee at [email protected].

 

Hope you enjoyed the read!

Donor Briefing: 10/2017

2018-03-02 General Operations

Thanks for taking the time to peruse our October RC briefing.

 

Two-sentence RC breakdown – RC is in the process of publishing on key reflections and analyses of major projects, including SHIC’s revised impact strategy and the LEAN impact assessment. We’re at critical junctures in our prioritized projects – SHIC announced a new workshop experiment for 2018, and we’re weeks out from launching Rethink Charity Forward, a new donor-advised fund (DAF) that will allow Canadians to make tax-deductible contributions to effective charities outside of Canada.

 

 

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Your full RC Briefing

Read time: 4 minutes

Project Updates

 

Rethink Charity

 

Our more focused approach to specific projects in October has positioned RC well for Giving Season. Conclusions from the LEAN impact assessment will shape our strategic direction in the coming months, but we’ve invested more time into building long-term impact returns into our plans. In particular, SHIC is taking the longview of 2018 programming, and our regranting efforts could move quite a bit of money to effective charities for years to come.

 

Publishing on the EA Survey 2017 Series continued through October with a longitudinal take on whether priorities in EA have changed over time.

 

SHIC

– SHIC announced a new workshop experiment set to launch in early 2018 (Section III)

– We also unveiled a revised approach to program impact and objectives (Section IV)

 

LEAN

– LEAN is putting the finishing touches on the impact assessment, set for completion in early November. Early highlights from X surveys and X interviews from group leaders include:

– High demand for research into group management, metrics, and advice on how to measure impact.

– LEAN-provided websites often cited as very useful for outreach efforts, and many would find additional technical support beneficial.

 

Regranting

– We inherited the Charity Science DAF in Canada that moved ~$600,000 to GiveWell recommendations last year. RC will expand access to include nearly a dozen effective charities in total. Our service will be called Rethink Charity Forward (website forthcoming).

– RC Forward will contain four funds: Global Health, Human Empowerment, Animal Welfare, and Far Future. Canadian donors will also be able to give tax-deductible contributions specifically to the Against Malaria Foundation, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, GiveDirectly, and several other effective charities.

 

What’s Next

November will be crucial for coordinating our projects as Giving Season approaches. Rethink Charity Forward is set to officially launch in the coming weeks, though we can already process donations to the charities and funds listed above. The forthcoming LEAN assessment posts should be important to wider movement-building discussions within the effective altruism community, and SHIC will nail down details for the 2018 workshop experiment. As a closing note, Tee will be at EA Global London and looks forward to seeing some of you there! Please feel free to reach out to him!

 

Thank you for your support.

Monthly Donor Briefing: 09/2017

2017-10-06 General Operations

Thanks for taking the time. These monthly donor briefings are designed to be quick reads that keep you in the know about Rethink Charity. More detailed updates will come in bimonthly/quarterly intervals.

 

Listen to three-minute audio version of this briefing here.

 

Two-sentence RC breakdown – RC is now maturing into a period of evaluation and proactivity since the consolidation of projects announced in May. Key highlights here include plans for a large-scale SHIC workshop experiment, the ongoing LEAN assessment, our release of the 2017 EA Survey, and major developments on regranting avenues in the UK and Canada.

 

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Your full RC Briefing

Read time: 3 minutes

Project Updates

 

Rethink Charity

We’re taking a more focused approach to our projects since the rebranding in May. This includes throttling down on .impact (independent EA projects) and online peer-to-peer fundraisers, and reassessing the value our major programs (e.g. LEAN assessment). We’re currently prioritizing SHIC and international regranting efforts as the highest-impact use of our time.

 

–  We initiated the EA Survey 2017 Series reporting on 2015 and 2016 survey data with what we perceive as strong interest from the community.

– RC jointly established EAUK with EA London, an official effective altruism charity with regranting capability.

 

SHIC

– SHIC is planning a longitudinal workshop experiment set to launch in early 2018. This will put to the test our data-driven approach to identifying high-potential students most inclined to engage with effective charity in the long-term. More on this next month.

 

LEAN

– LEAN is currently undergoing its most comprehensive impact assessment to date. The future of LEAN within RC is contingent upon the outcome of the assessment.

 

Donor-Advised Funds (DAF)

– Plans are in motion to inherit Charity Science’s DAF that moved ~$600,000 to GiveWell top charities in 2017. The DAF will then be cause-neutral, expanding our services beyond GiveWell-recommended charities.

– Through a partnership with Chimp, we will be able to offer tax benefits to Canadians for both Canadian and non-Canadian charities. This was previously quite restrictive.

 

What’s Next

 

The shift in our priorities reflects what we think will achieve the highest multiplier effects over time, not simply high initial rates of return. This is why we’re favoring regranting efforts over online fundraisers, and allocating more bandwidth to SHIC while LEAN is under assessment.

 

We’re thrilled with your support – all of RC is pushing hard to keep it.