2021 was the third year that we at Charity Entrepreneurship held our annual Incubation Program. Interest in the program was very high, with over 2000 applications submitted. 27 participants representing 16 countries graduated from the 2-month intensive training program, including teams that will start new organizations, individuals that are being hired by high-impact organizations, regional groups that will conduct research under our mentorship, and a foundation that will focus on providing grants to high-impact interventions.

We are delighted to announce the launch of five new charities and want to thank our funders: EA Funds, Open Philanthropy, and the CE Seed Network (a group of high-impact professionals) for their generous donations, which totaled to $537,000 in grants offered to the charities this year.

The 2021 incubated charities are: 

• Training For Good - delivering a range of training programs to fill important EA capability gaps and raise the utilization rate of EA talent
• High Impact Professionals - enabling working professionals to have the biggest positive impact possible
• Shrimp Welfare Project - improving the lives of hundreds of millions of farmed shrimp in Southeast Asia
• Healthier Hens - improving the welfare of farmed egg-laying hens via a cost-effective intervention focused on feed fortification
• Center for Alcohol Policy Solutions - saving lives and promoting well-being through alcohol taxation

TRAINING FOR GOOD

Co-founders: Cillian Crosson, Jan-Willem van Putten, Steve Thompson
Website: trainingforgood.com 
Contact: [email protected] 
CE Incubation Grant: $175,000

Description of the intervention: 
Training for Good (TFG) will upskill people to tackle the most pressing global problems. TFG will deliver a range of training programs to help solve skill bottlenecks in EA cause areas and raise the rate of talent utilization within the EA movement. 

Background of the intervention:
Talent utilization: There are over 6,000 committed EAs, the majority of whom want to pursue impactful careers. Yet many are struggling to find concrete opportunities to implement EA in their lives. TFG aims to raise the rate of talent utilization within the EA movement by creating training programs that enable large numbers of people to enter impactful careers.

Skill bottlenecks: Funding for many EA cause areas has grown faster than the number of people interested in them. This has led to a “funding overhang” and an increase in certain skill bottlenecks. TFG aims to solve these skill bottlenecks in EA cause areas by developing targeted programs that fill current skill gaps and advance the capabilities needed to deploy funds effectively in the future.

Near-term plans: 
TFG intends to experiment with different approaches to training before choosing where to narrow their focus. They will pilot the following four training programs within year one:

• Salary Negotiation for Earning-to-Givers: In November 2021, TFG is launching a training program to help E2Gers maximize their donation potential. If you are interested in participating, please complete this application form by midnight on 7th November.
• Effective Careers in the Civil Service: In January 2022, TFG will launch a training program for aspiring policymakers. If you are a current or aspiring policymaker within Europe (including UK and other non-EU countries), please complete this needs survey to help us identify the most important skill gaps.
• EA for Experienced Professionals: Around May 2022, TFG will host a week-long retreat, training corporate executives with 10+ years experience in basic EA concepts and connecting them to the EA movement to fill management skill gaps in key EA organizations.
• Grantmaking for Impact: Around July 2022, TFG will run a training program for aspiring EA grantmakers to help solve the grantmaker bottleneck within the EA movement.

TFG will assess whether training can serve as an effective solution to the skill bottlenecks facing EA. Given the potential benefits, the information value of this exploration appears high. The co-founding team has extensive experience designing and delivering professional training programs on topics such as leadership, decision-making, and Effective Altruism.

For more details on TFG, read their introductory post on the EA forum. To hear about upcoming programmes, sign up to their newsletter.

HIGH IMPACT PROFESSIONALS

Co-founders: Devon Fritz, Federico Speziali
Website: highimpactprofessionals.org
Contact: [email protected]
CE Incubation Grant: $100,000

Description of the intervention: 
The mission of High Impact Professionals (HIP) is to enable working professionals to have the biggest positive impact possible. We are building a community of HIPs working together for the greater good, contributing to the effective altruism movement with not only their money but also their time and skills.

Background of the intervention: 
According to the most recent EA Surveys, over half of all EAs are in the private sector and more than a third are pursuing earning to give. The surveys also show that this large group wants to become more engaged with EA, not only through increased donations but also with their time and skills. Further, many in this cohort feel disconnected from their impact and are at risk of value drift. Despite the large impact potential, this issue is quite neglected and there have been limited efforts to support these EA working professionals. 

We want to help those within this group to realize their potential impact. Through our efforts, we also expect to mitigate many issues identified within EA. We hope to reduce the frustration that many EAs experience in not finding a job at an EA organization and prevent the value drift of those who, up to now, have had fewer ways to stay engaged with the community. 

Near-term plans: 
High Impact Professionals’ strategy for year one has 4 main pillars: 

1. Building a community of HIPs that can support each other and find better ways to have an impact.
2. Matching HIPs with high-impact organizations to enable them to contribute with their skills and time.
3. Supporting HIPs promoting impactful initiatives in their workplaces.
4. Supporting HIPs in having more impact with their donations.

By the end of Q4 2021 we plan to do the following:

• Pilot our first impactful workplace initiative: helping HIPs host fundraising events at their organizations or workplaces.
• Identify and interview HIPs to better understand their needs and skills.
• Reach out to effective organizations to map their current needs.

SHRIMP WELFARE PROJECT

Co-founders: Andres Guillermo Jimenez Zorilla, Aaron Boddy, PhD
Advisory Board member and shrimp welfare specialist: Simão Zacarias, PhD
Website: https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/
Contact: [email protected] 
CE Incubation Grant: $100,000
Donation Page: https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/donate 

Description of the intervention: 
Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) aims to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of farmed shrimp in Southeast Asia.

Background of the intervention: 
300 billion shrimp are farmed each year. This is more than 4x the total number of all farmed land animals put together. They suffer from terrible conditions, such as:

1. Eyestalk ablation - crushing or cutting off the eyestalk of shrimp to force rapid maturation, causing prolonged pain, stress, and higher mortality levels
2. Lack of environmental enrichment, inadequate feeding, and high stocking densities - Unable to burrow, poorly fed, and living crammed against one another, shrimp are afflicted by high stress, leading to aggressive behavior (including cannibalism) and exacerbating disease outbreaks
3. Poor water quality - such as chronically low oxygen levels, which can cause suffocation, disease, and death

They are a highly neglected species, and organizations such as Rethink Priorities have been raising the issue of invertebrates’ suffering for a couple of years now.

Near-term plans: 
Demand Side - We intend to work on the demand side, reaching out to relevant stakeholders along the supply chain to improve welfare standards for shrimp. Some of the “Asks” we are considering include requiring their suppliers meet certain water quality metrics, reduce eyestalk ablation, and limit stocking densities.

Supply Side - We will also work with farmers in Vietnam to improve water quality (focusing on oxygen levels). The intention is to identify farmers that are part of the supply chain of the organizations we will be working with on the demand side. From conversations with organizations that have been involved in the transition to cage-free hens, we feel that our probabilities of success are maximized if we can directly link supply and demand, creating a (today non-existent) market for higher-welfare shrimp. 

Outreach - In addition to our supply- and demand-side work, we aim to increase the awareness of shrimp welfare as a cause area by participating in relevant conferences and webinars. We also hope to assist in research work relating to the welfare of shrimp. Rethink Priorities is currently researching shrimp and prawns, and we may update our intervention(s) based on their published report.

HEALTHIER HENS

Co-founders: Isaac Esparza, Lukas Jasiunas, PhD, Dr. Kikiope Oluwarore 
Website: healthierhens.com
Contact:[email protected]
CE Incubation Grant: $100,000

Description of the intervention:
Healthier Hens will work on improving the welfare of farmed egg-laying hens via a cost-effective intervention focused on feed fortification.

Background of the intervention: 
Millions of egg-laying hens needlessly suffer from painful bone fractures, osteoporosis, and high mortality rates due to suboptimal feed standards. Hens are now producing 10 times as many eggs as they were naturally born to do, and this forced increase of production weighs heavily on their well-being by depleting their bodies of key nutrients, including calcium, phosphorous, and vitamin D. By adding an optimal level of these nutrients to their feed, we can cost-effectively reduce the suffering of >72 million hens (over 10 years) and allow them to express their natural behaviors via improved welfare. As recent studies have shown, this neglected issue occurs not only in battery cages but also in cage-free systems (the preferred housing system), so we must act now to achieve unprecedented counterfactual impact and more healthier hens.

Near-term plans: 
Healthier Hens’ Year 1 SMART goals include choosing a country of operations and running a proof-of-concept pilot with 4 farms, exploring and evaluating 3 intervention models (i.e., feed production, collaboration with mills, subsidizing the purchase of supplements) by conducting in-country research (expert interviews, data gathering, etc.), running a CEA for each, and piloting the strongest option. In addition, we intend to ensure that the industrial partners we collaborate with do not become dependent on us or otherwise benefit financially from our intervention. Finally, we will establish a mutually beneficial working relationship with local NGOs and make sure that our communication and collaboration efforts are effective in the context of ongoing cage-free and Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) campaigns.

CENTER FOR ALCOHOL POLICY SOLUTIONS

Founder: Kristina Sperkova
Website: http://www.alcoholpolicysolutions.center
Contact: [email protected]
CE Incubation Grant: $62,000

Description of the intervention: 
The Center for Alcohol Policy Solutions (CAPS) aims to save lives and promote well-being through alcohol taxation. CAPS partners with decision-makers to develop and implement evidence-based, public health oriented alcohol taxation - the single most effective and cost-effective solution to preventing and reducing alcohol-related harm.

Background of the intervention: 
The total harm, i.e., harm to alcohol users as well as second-hand damages, caused by alcohol is double that of tobacco. The World Health Organization has identified proven solutions with alcohol taxation as being the single most impactful best buy to prevent and reduce alcohol harm. Nevertheless, most countries do not implement modern public health oriented alcohol taxation systems. This is what CAPS aims to change.

Near-term plans: 
CAPS’ first country of operation will be Sri Lanka. Cost-effectiveness analysis shows that this intervention has the potential to be highly cost-effective with a Benefit:Cost ratio of $83.94. It could avert 25,700 DALYs for $128 per DALY. CAPS aims to launch the organization, systematize and disseminate compelling evidence about the potential of alcohol taxation in Sri Lanka, and get an innovative advocacy initiative off the ground in the first 12 months of operation. By the end of the first year, they hope to establish a partnership with the government sector to develop and advance alcohol taxation.
 

JOIN INCUBATION PROGRAM IN 2022

If you're interested in attending our Incubation Program in 2022, sign up to our newsletter for updates on when we’ll start accepting applications (next round: December 2021) or contact us at [email protected]