This is a collection of resources that I recommend for how, and why, to pursue a career in animal advocacy - particularly if you think animal advocacy might not be for you.
At EAGx Australia 2023, I'm giving a lightning talk on why and how to pursue a career in animal advocacy. I thought I'd make an EA Forum post with links to everything I talk about, as it may help to have all of these resources in one place. The slides from my lightning talk are available here.
Launching independent projects in animal advocacy
- Charity Entrepreneurship incubation programme
- Applications open until September 30
- Please apply!
- Link
- How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit, handbook by Charity Entrepreneurship (link)
- I can confirm this is a truly excellent resource
- "Who Is a Good Fit for a Career in Nonprofit Entrepreneurship?" (link)
- "I Have a Charity Idea. Any Advice?" (link)
- Global list of funders, maintained by Animal Advocacy Africa (link)
- Manifund regranting (link), with some opportunities for longtermist animal advocacy
- How-to guides on lobbying policymakers for animal advocacy, written by Coller Animal Law Foundation (CALF) (link)
Careers in animal advocacy
Longtermism and/or AI in animal advocacy
Online communities
- Impactful Animal Advocacy (Slack): Join here
- Has a channel specifically for AI discussion
- Has a channel specifically for Australia
- Animals and Longtermism (Discord): Join here
- Fish Advocacy (Slack)
Other top-notch resources
Worldview diversity + skepticism on expecting an automatic victory
- Pathways to Victory (link)
- Potential Theories of Change for the Animal Advocacy movement (EA Forum)
- Empirical evidence on whether moral circles exist and how they work:
- Goodwin 2015, "Experimental Approaches to Moral Standing", Philosophy Compass, DOI: 10.1111/phc3.12266 (link)
- Especially see section 7 and endnote 9
- Singh & Hoffman 2022, "Individualist moral principles and the expansion of the moral circle", DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/pqem7 (link)
- Especially see their discussion on historical contingency, the relevance of moral conditions, and contractions of the moral circle
- Non-Consequentialist Considerations For Cause-Prioritization Part 1 and Part 2 (EA Forum)
- Kempers 2022, "Transition rather than Revolution: The Gradual Road towards Animal Legal Personhood through the Legislature", Transnational Environmental Law, DOI: 10.1017/S2047102522000139 (link)
- A new framing to replace "Welfarism vs. Abolitionism" (EA Forum)
- Price-, Taste-, and Convenience-Competitive Plant-Based Meat Would Not Currently Replace Meat (EA Forum)
Specific interventions I referenced in my talk
I have written these articles on a) political advocacy for animals, and b) outreach for reducing meat consumption. They will be published in the coming weeks on the Animal Ask research database.
- Party Politics for Animal Advocacy - Part 1: Animal-focused minor political parties
- Party Politics for Animal Advocacy - Part 2: Establishing groups across or within major political parties
- Meat reduction: How much can digital media and mass media help?
Organisations I referenced in my talk
- Animal Advocacy Careers (link)
- Charity Entrepreneurship (link)
- Fish Welfare Initiative (link)
This is a great list of resources! One thing I'd add is that the effective animal advocacy space is pretty seriously funding constrained right now, and I don't see any signs that the situation is likely to change in the next few years. For that reason, I think it's worth calling out earning to give as a potentially uniquely promising path to impact. Animal Advocacy Careers had a good post on ETG for animals a few months ago.