Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters donations received

This is an online portal with information on donations that were announced publicly (or have been shared with permission) that were of interest to Vipul Naik. The git repository with the code for this portal, as well as all the underlying data, is available on GitHub. All payment amounts are in current United States dollars (USD). The repository of donations is being seeded with an initial collation by Issa Rice as well as continued contributions from him (see his commits and the contract work page listing all financially compensated contributions to the site) but all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies belongs to Vipul Naik. Current data is preliminary and has not been completely vetted and normalized; if sharing a link to this site or any page on this site, please include the caveat that the data is preliminary (if you want to share without including caveats, please check with Vipul Naik). We expect to have completed the first round of development by the end of July 2024. See the about page for more details. Also of interest: pageview data on analytics.vipulnaik.com, tutorial in README, request for feedback to EA Forum.

Table of contents

Basic donee information

We do not have any donee information for the donee Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters in our system.

Donee donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 10 28,082 288,308 2,499 2,499 7,497 10,000 25,000 28,082 70,000 175,000 427,000 979,000 1,159,000
Global catastrophic risks 8 28,082 348,510 2,499 2,499 7,497 10,000 28,082 28,082 175,000 427,000 979,000 1,159,000 1,159,000
Existential risk 1 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000
1 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000 70,000

Donation amounts by donor and year for donee Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters

Donor Total 2023 2021 2019 2018 2017
Jaan Tallinn (filter this donee) 2,740,000.00 1,586,000.00 1,154,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Donor lottery (filter this donee) 70,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 70,000.00 0.00
Effective Altruism Grants (filter this donee) 28,082.21 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 28,082.21
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (filter this donee) 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund (filter this donee) 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 10,000.00 0.00 0.00
Patrick Brinich-Langlois (filter this donee) 9,996.00 0.00 0.00 7,497.00 2,499.00 0.00
Total 2,883,078.21 1,586,000.00 1,154,000.00 42,497.00 72,499.00 28,082.21

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (14 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
Zvi’s Thoughts on the Survival and Flourishing Fund (SFF) (GW, IR)2021-12-14Zvi Mowshowitz LessWrongSurvival and Flourishing Fund Jaan Tallinn Jed McCaleb The Casey and Family Foundation Effective Altruism Funds:Long-Term Future Fund Center on Long-Term Risk Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters The Centre for Long-Term Resilience Lightcone Infrastructure Effective Altruism Funds: Infrastructure Fund Centre for the Governance of AI Ought New Science Research Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative AI Objectives Institute Topos Institute Emergent Ventures India European Biostasis Foundation Laboratory for Social Minds PrivateARPA Charter Cities Institute Survival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Miscellaneous commentaryLongtermism|AI safety|Global catastrophic risksIn this lengthy post, Zvi Mowshowitz, who was one of the recommenders for the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grant round based on the S-process, describes his experience with the process, his impressions of several of the grantees, and implications for what kinds of grant applications are most likely to succeed. Zvi says that the grant round suffered from the problem of Too Much Money (TMM); there was way more money than any individual recommender felt comfortable granting, and just about enough money for the combined preferences of all recommenders, which meant that any recommender could unilaterally push a particular grantee through. The post has several other observations and attracts several comments.
ALLFED 2019 Annual Report and Fundraising Appeal (GW, IR)2019-11-23Aron Mill Alliance to Feed the Earth in DisastersBerkeley Existential Risk Initiative Donor lottery Effective Altruism Grants Open Philanthropy Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Future of Humanity Institute Donee donation caseAlternative foodsAron Mill provides a summary of the work of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) in 2019. He lists key supporters as well as partners that ALLFED worked with during the year. The blog post proceeds to make an appeal and a case for fundraising ALLFED. Sections of the blog post include: (1) research output, (2) preparedness and alliance-building, (3) ALLFED team, (4) current projects, and (5) projects in need of funding.
EA orgs are trying to fundraise ~$10m - $16m (GW, IR)2019-01-06Hauke Hillebrandt Effective Altruism Forum Centre for Effective Altruism Effective Altruism Foundation Machine Intelligence Research Institute Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research Sentience Institute Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Rethink Priorities EA Hotel 80,000 Hours Rethink Charity Miscellaneous commentaryThe blog post links to and discusses the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10zU6gp_H_zuvlZ2Vri-epSK0_urbcmdS-5th3mXQGXM/edit which tabulates various organizations and their fundraising targets, along with quotes and links to fundraising posts. The blog post itself has three points, the last of which is that the EA community is relatively more funding-constrained again
EA Giving Tuesday Donation Matching Initiative 2018 Retrospective (GW, IR)2019-01-06Avi Norowitz Effective Altruism ForumAvi Norowitz William Kiely Against Malaria Foundation Malaria Consortium GiveWell Effective Altruism Funds Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Effective Animal Advocacy Fund The Humane League The Good Food Institute Animal Charity Evaluators Machine Intelligence Research Institute Faunalytics Wild-Aniaml Suffering Research GiveDirectly Center for Applied Rationality Effective Altruism Foundation Cool Earth Schistosomiasis Control Initiative New Harvest Evidence Action Centre for Effective Altruism Animal Equality Compassion in World Farming USA Innovations for Poverty Action Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Future of Life Institute Animal Charity Evaluators Recommended Charity Fund Sightsavers The Life You Can Save One Step for Animals Helen Keller International 80,000 Hours Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Vegan Outreach Encompass Iodine Global Network Otwarte Klatki Charity Science Mercy For Animals Coalition for Rainforest Nations Fistula Foundation Sentience Institute Better Eating International Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research Raising for Effective Giving Clean Air Task Force The END Fund Miscellaneous commentaryThe blog post describes an effort by a number of donors coordinated at https://2018.eagivingtuesday.org/donations to donate through Facebook right after the start of donation matching on Giving Tuesday. Based on timestamps of donations and matches, donations were matched till 14 seconds after the start of matching. Despite the very short time window of matching, the post estimates that $469,000 (65%) of the donations made were matched
Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) Progress Report & Giving Tuesday Appeal (GW, IR)2018-11-20David Denkenberger Effective Altruism Forum Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Donee donation caseAlternative foodsDavid Denkenberger, founder of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), provides a progress report of the organization, which was founded a year ago. He also seeks funding, in particular suggesting that donors use the Facebook/Giving Tuesday matching event on November 27, and explains in detail how the organization expects to be able to use additional funding
Cost-Effectiveness of Foods for Global Catastrophes: Even Better than Before? (GW, IR)2018-11-19David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Review of current state of cause areaAlternative foods|AI safetyAs part of research funded by Effective Altruism Grants, Denkenberger updates his estimate of a year ago at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7XRjb3Tx8j36AcBpb/should-we-be-spending-no-less-on-alternate-foods-than-ai-now (GW, IR) comparing alternative foods and AI safety. His new estimate is that alternative foods give between 3 and 300 times more return for the 100 millionth dollar invested than AI safety does. The author thanks Ozzie Gooen for developing Guesstimate, Oxford Prioritisation Project for the AI model, and Joshua Pearce, Anders Sandberg and Owen Cotton-Barratt for reviewing content. The work is not an official publication of ALLFED, but should be understood as somewhat linked because of Denkenberger being the driving force behind ALLFED
2017 Donor Lottery Report (GW, IR)2018-11-12Adam Gleave Effective Altruism ForumDonor lottery Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Global Catastrophic Risk Institute AI Impacts Wild-Animal Suffering Research Single donation documentationGlobal catastrophic risks|AI safety|Animal welfareThe write-up documents Adam Gleave’s decision process for where he donated the money for the 2017 donor lottery. Adam won one of the two blocks of $100,000 for 2017
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20172017-12-21Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyJaime Yassif Chloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Nick Beckstead Daniel Dewey Center for International Security and Cooperation Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Good Call Court Watch NOLA Compassion in World Farming USA Wild-Animal Suffering Research Effective Altruism Funds Donor lottery Future of Humanity Institute Center for Human-Compatible AI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Centre for Effective Altruism 80,000 Hours Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Donation suggestion listAnimal welfare|AI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Effective altruism|Criminal justice reformOpen Philanthropy Project staff give suggestions on places that might be good for individuals to donate to. Each suggestion includes a section "Why I suggest it", a section explaining why the Open Philanthropy Project has not funded (or not fully funded) the opportunity, and links to relevant writeups.
How you can save expected lives for $0.20-$400 each and reduce X risk (GW, IR)2017-11-26David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters LaunchAlternative foodsThe blog post announces the formation of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED). Funding through an Effective Altruism Grants grant, and a teaching release and funding for three students from Tennessee State University, Denkenberger's employer, is acknowledged
Should we be spending no less on alternate foods than AI now? (GW, IR)2017-10-29David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Review of current state of cause areaAlternative foods|AI safetyAs part of research funded by Effective Altruism Grants, Denkenberger compares alternative foods and AI safety in terms of how they can effectively use funding, arguing that both causes are important, but for the next $100 million of funding, allocating it to alternative foods would generate more return. He advocates that x-risk-focused donors consider spending on alternative foods as part of their budget that is not already allocated to AI safety
Saving expected lives at $10 apiece? (GW, IR)2016-12-14David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Review of current state of cause areaAlternative foodsDavid Denkenberger announces the publication of his paper http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-016-0097-2 showing striking cost-effectiveness of preparing for global food catastrophes. The paper was referenced, while in the works, in previous posts https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sfAZgN8DQth9BhbSN/advice-wanted-on-expanding-an-ea-project (GW, IR) and https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CAoEMopMv3EMNiKKC/my-cause-selection-dave-denkenberger (GW, IR)
Advice Wanted on Expanding an EA Project (GW, IR)2016-04-23David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Alternative foodsIn this blog post, Denkenberger seeks thoughts on how to best achieve his goal of helping the world prepare for global food catastrophes by investing in alternative foods. The post includes nine alternatives, and comments are invited weighing the alternatives
Essay Competition on Preparation for Global Food Catastrophes (GW, IR)2016-03-16David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Review of current state of cause areaAlternative foodsThis sponsored essay contest is an indicator of early interest by Denkenberger in alternative foods and recovery from global food catastrophes. This interest would eventually lead him to the formation of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED)
My Cause Selection: Dave Denkenberger (GW, IR)2015-08-16David Denkenberger Effective Altruism ForumDavid Denkenberger Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Broad donor strategyAlternative foodsThis blog post by David Denkenberger is one of the early indicators of his interest in alternative foods and his assessment that it is the most promising of causes among global catastrophic risks and at large. This research was an early precursor leading to the formation of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED)

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (10 donations)

Graph of top 10 donors (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations

Graph of donations and their timeframes
DonorAmount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 10)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Jaan Tallinn1,159,000.0012023-04Global catastrophic riskshttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h1-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Olle Häggström Steve Omohundro Daniel Kokotajlo Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2023 H1 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios. In each simulation, Recommenders specify a marginal value function for funding each application, and an algorithm calculates a table of grant recommendations by taking turns distributing funding recommendations from each Recommender in succession, using their marginal value functions to prioritize. The Recommenders then discuss their evaluations and update the simulation with their new opinions, using approval voting to prioritize discussion topics, until the end of the last meeting when their inputs are finalized. Similarly, funders specify and adjust different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's ninth grant round.

Other notes: In this grant round, there are two funders: Jaan Tallinn and Future of Life Institute, and the breakdown of each grant by funder is not provided. We are inferring that the entirety of the amount is being funded by Jaan Tallinn, since https://futureoflife.org/grant-program/2023-grants/ does not include the grant. However, as of 2023-11-26, https://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html does not include the grant either.
Jaan Tallinn427,000.0032023-02-16Global catastrophic riskshttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Nick Hay Alyssa Vance Scott Garrabrant Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2022 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal value functions. Recommenders specified a marginal value function for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's eighth grant round and the fourth one with a grant to the grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant recommendation in the future grant round https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h2-recommendations suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Jaan Tallinn979,000.0022021-12-16Global catastrophic riskshttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Zvi Mowshowitz, one of the recommenders, writes in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) "ALLFED noticed something few others had noticed or done much about, that being ready could make a huge difference if the nukes did fly in terms of people not starving to death and civilization holding together, and that almost no effort was being made to get ready. [...] ALLFED is especially interested in very cheap, practical solutions that aren’t going to be fun for anyone, but would promise to get the calories into people, and be able to be implemented at scale when the time comes. I bought the case that the cause was super neglected and in danger of not getting funding, and could have a huge impact even if that was with small probabilities multiplied together. When I did Fermi calculations, this was a very good investment."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the third one with a grant to the grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant recommendation in the future grant round https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h2-recommendations suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Grant made via the Players Philanthropy Fund ($100,000) and The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County ($879,000). The other two funders in this SFF grant round (Jed McCaleb and The Casey and Family Foundation) do not make grants to ALLFED. Zvi Mowshowitz, one of the recommenders, writes in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) in more detail about the concerns raised: "(1) Capacity. Could ALLFED scale? Could it remain effective, hire and manage well, and so on? Was it mostly the one person who produced value? (2) Amateurism. Basically a ‘yes, thank you, you founded the space, but now we should leave this to the professionals no?’ kind of vibe thing. (3) Feasibility. Are their ideas good? I had this too, as noted above. (4) Honesty. There were concerns, especially around impact calculations." He then goes into details about his thoughts on each of the concerns, in particular on the honesty and ALLFED's previous calculations of its own impact. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 11.05%; announced: 2021-11-20.
Jaan Tallinn175,000.0042021-07-16Global catastrophic riskshttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Ben Hoskin Katja Grace Oliver Habryka Adam Marblestone Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fifth grant round. In a previous grant round (2019 Q4), SFF had made a grant to the grantee, but Tallinn had not made any direct grants.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant recommendation in the future grant round https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h2-recommendations suggests continued satisfaction with the grant outcome.

Other notes: Grant made via the Players Philanthropy Fund. Although Jed McCaleb also participates in this grant round as a funder, he does not make any grants to this grantee. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 1.84%.
Survival and Flourishing Fund10,000.0082019-12-05Global catastrophic riskshttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlAlex Flint Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Eric Rogstad Oliver Habryka Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2019 Q4 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2019-q4-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different Recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn and SFF). In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this November 2019 round of grants is SFF's second round and the first with a grant to the grantee. BERI had previously granted money to the grantee.

Other notes: Jaan Tallinn also participates as a funder in this grant round, but makes no grants to the grantee in this grant round. The grant is made via Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 1.09%; announced: 2019-12-15.
Patrick Brinich-Langlois7,497.0092019-12-03Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/Giving Tuesday Facebook match Donation via Facebook Fundraisers on Giving Tuesday; fully matched by Facebook.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative25,000.0072019-03-12Existential riskhttp://web.archive.org/web/20190623203105/http://existence.org/grants/--
Patrick Brinich-Langlois2,499.00102018-11-27Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--
Donor lottery70,000.0052018-11-12--https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SYeJnv9vYzq9oQMbQ/2017-donor-lottery-report (GW, IR)Adam Gleave The blog post explaining the donation contains an extensive discussion of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), and also includes a response statement from ALLFED founder David Denkerberger. Gleave writes in the post: "I am somewhat more excited about ALLFED than GCRI since their research agenda seems more directly impactful and there is a clearer pathway for growth. However, I see more downside risks to ALLFED, and in particular would expect GCRI to be in a better position to work productively with governments. ALLFED has a large team of volunteers, which increases reputational risks. I view support for ALLFED at this stage as mostly a test of the tractability of R&D in this area, and to enable them to continue to build relevant collaborations." Earlier in the post, he writes: "If I had an additional $100k to donate, I would first check AI Impacts current recruitment situation; if there are promising hires that are bottlenecked on funding, I would likely allocate it there. Otherwise, I would split it equally between ALLFED and GCRI. In particular, I recommend a proportionally greater allocation to GCRI than I made. My donation to ALLFED increased their 2018 revenue by 50%: although they have capacity to utilize additional funds, I expect there to be some diminishing returns.". Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 70.00%.
Effective Altruism Grants28,082.2162017-09-29Global catastrophic riskshttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iBy--zMyIiTgybYRUQZIm11WKGQZcixaCmIaysRmGvk-- Writing two papers on alternative foods that could be scaled up in time to feed everyone in the case of a global catastrophe. This research is predicated on there being an ~80% chance this century of a 10% global food shortfall, and a ~10% chance of agricultural collapse. See http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1fc/effective_altruism_grants_project_update/ for more context about the grant program. Currency info: donation given as 20,960.00 GBP (conversion done on 2017-09-29 via Bloomberg).