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.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Facebook page | mercyforanimals |
| Website | http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ |
| Donate page | http://www.mercyforanimals.org/donate |
| Twitter username | MercyForAnimals |
| Wikipedia page | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_for_Animals |
| Instagram username | mercyforanimals |
| Timelines wiki page | https://timelines.issarice.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Mercy_For_Animals |
| Org Watch page | https://orgwatch.issarice.com/?organization=Mercy+For+Animals |
| Key people | Nathan Runkle |
| Launch date | 1999 |
| Cause area | Count | Median | Mean | Minimum | 10th percentile | 20th percentile | 30th percentile | 40th percentile | 50th percentile | 60th percentile | 70th percentile | 80th percentile | 90th percentile | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 37 | 600 | 373,015 | 4 | 12 | 40 | 200 | 399 | 600 | 1,129 | 2,000 | 261,000 | 1,000,000 | 6,638,000 |
| Animal welfare | 35 | 1,000 | 394,302 | 4 | 12 | 28 | 184 | 399 | 1,000 | 1,129 | 3,000 | 261,000 | 1,000,000 | 6,638,000 |
| 2 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| Donor | Total | 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Philanthropy (filter this donee) | 13,774,000.00 | 3,000,000.00 | 6,899,000.00 | 375,000.00 | 500,000.00 | 3,000,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Robert Yaman (filter this donee) | 8,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8,000.00 | 0.00 |
| David Barry (filter this donee) | 3,666.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3,108.81 | 557.99 | 0.00 |
| Peter Hurford (filter this donee) | 3,300.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3,300.00 | 0.00 |
| Tyler John (filter this donee) | 3,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Jonathon Smith (filter this donee) | 3,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 2,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Holly Elmore (filter this donee) | 1,129.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1,129.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Josh Jacobson (filter this donee) | 1,072.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1,072.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Zachary Groff (filter this donee) | 1,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Michael Sesser (filter this donee) | 900.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 600.00 | 300.00 | 0.00 |
| Amy Johnson (filter this donee) | 797.14 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 398.57 | 398.57 | 0.00 |
| Elizabeth Van Nostrand (filter this donee) | 500.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 500.00 |
| Patrick Brinich-Langlois (filter this donee) | 500.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 500.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Jay Feldman (filter this donee) | 200.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 200.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Saulius Šimčikas (filter this donee) | 184.04 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 184.04 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Matt Reardon (filter this donee) | 100.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 100.00 | 0.00 |
| Håkon Harnes (filter this donee) | 76.06 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 76.06 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Nick Brown (filter this donee) | 39.86 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 39.86 | 0.00 |
| Vidur Kapur (filter this donee) | 31.55 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 27.61 | 3.94 | 0.00 |
| Nathan Blevins (filter this donee) | 25.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 25.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Grace King (filter this donee) | 13.15 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.15 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Vincent Söderberg (filter this donee) | 12.36 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 12.36 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Cornelis Haupt (filter this donee) | 10.60 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.60 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Samuel Hilton (filter this donee) | 6.34 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.34 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 13,801,564.70 | 3,000,000.00 | 6,899,000.00 | 375,000.00 | 500,000.00 | 3,008,364.34 | 18,700.36 | 500.00 |
| Title (URL linked) | Publication date | Author | Publisher | Affected donors | Affected donees | Affected influencers | Document scope | Cause area | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farmed animal advocacy: Where are we, and what’s next? | Zoë Sigle | EA Global: SF 22 | 2022-08-22 | Zoë Sigle | EA Global | Mercy For Animals | Review of current state of cause area | Animal welfare/factory farming/corporate campaign | In this talk, Zoë Sigle talks about corporate campaign work and its effect on the extent of animal suffering in farms. She talks about the campaigns to improve the condition of layer chicken by moving them to cage-free systems. She also talks about the need for constant monitoring and the variety of tactics needed to work collaboratively with corporations but also put pressure on corporations to make progress on animal welfare issues. | ||
| Some thoughts on recent Effective Altruism funding announcements. It's been a big week in Effective Altruism | 2022-03-03 | James Ozden | Open Philanthropy FTX Future Fund FTX Community Fund FTX Climate Fund | Mercy For Animals Charity Entrepreneurship | Miscellaneous commentary | Longtermism|Animal welfare|Global health and development|AI safety|Climate change | In this blog post, cross-posted at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Wpr5ssnNW5JPDDPvd/some-thoughts-on-recent-effective-altruism-funding (GW, IR) to the EA Forum, James Ozden discusses recent increases in funding by donors aligned with effective altruism (EA) and makes forecasts for the amount of annual money moved by 2025. Highlights of the post: 1. The entry of the FTX Future Fund is expected to increase the proportion of funds allocated to longtermist causes to increase to become more in line with what EA leaders think it should be (based on the data that https://80000hours.org/2021/08/effective-altruism-allocation-resources-cause-areas/ compiles). 2. Grantmaking capacity needs to be scaled up to match the increase in available funds. 3. The EA movement may need to shift from marginal thinking to coordination dynamics, as their funding amounts are no longer as marginal. 4. Entrepreneurs, founders, and incubators are needed. 6. We need to be more ambitious. | ||
| Announcing our 2019 Charity Recommendations | 2019-12-02 | Toni Adleberg | Animal Charity Evaluators | Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Anima International The Good Food Institute The Humane League Compassion in World Farming USA Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations Faunalytics Animals Now Compassion in World Farming International Mercy For Animals The Nonhuman Rights Project | Evaluator consolidated recommendation list | Animal welfare | In this blog post, Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) announces its 2019 end-of-year recommendations. Top charities are Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries, Anima International (a newly formed charity from a merger of two charities including Otwartke Klatki (Open Cages)), The Good Food Institute, and The Humane League. Standout charities include two of general interest: Compassion in World Farming USA and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, and one of special interest: Faunalytics. ACE also lists other charities it reviewed in 2019, linking to its comprehensive review for each: Animals Now, Compassion in World Farming International, and The Nonhuman Rights Project. It also suggests to donors to donate to its Recommended Charity Fund, from which it disburses money to its recommended charities every January and July. There is a companion blog post https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/comparison-chart-of-our-2019-recommended-charities/ that includes a comparison chart and more details on how to use it to compare charities. Also, the accompanying blog post https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/the-process-leading-to-our-2019-recommendations/ goes into more detail on the process leadinig up to the recommendations | ||
| EA Giving Tuesday Donation Matching Initiative 2018 Retrospective (GW, IR) | 2019-01-06 | Avi Norowitz | Effective Altruism Forum | Avi 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 commentary | The 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 | ||
| Where ACE Staff Are Giving In 2018 and Why | 2018-12-21 | Erika Alonso | Animal Charity Evaluators | Sofia Davis-Fogel Toni Adleberg Erika Alonso Gina Stuessy Kathryn Asher Jamie Spurgeon Trent Grassian Melissa Guzikowski | Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Otwarte Klatki Animal Equality Encompass Sinergia Animal Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming USA The Humane League L214 International Rescue Committee New York Public Library Give Power Animal Charity Evaluators Recommended Charity Fund The Good Food Institute Effective Animal Advocacy Fund StrongMinds Global Catastrophic Risk Institute New Harvest We Animals Against Malaria Foundation GiveWell top charities Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Beckley Foundation Christopher Sebastian Animal Aid GiveDirectly | Periodic donation list documentation | Animal welfare|Global catastrophic risks|Global health and development | Continuing an annual tradition started in 2016, Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) staff describe where they donated or plan to donate in 2018. Unlike 2017, there is no mention of the Effective Altruism Funds, with most funds-style donations going to the ACE-run Recommended Charity Fund and Effective Animal Advocacy Fund. Donation amounts are not disclosed, likely by policy | |
| Mercy For Animals Appoints New President As Nathan Runkle 'Steps Out' | 2018-01-13 | Maria Chiorando | Plant Based News | Mercy For Animals | Status change | Animal welfare | The article discusses the stepping down of Mercy For Animals founder Nathan Runkle from the role of President, and his replacement by Matt Rice, who has worked at the organization for a decade | ||
| Where the ACE Staff Members Are Giving in 2017 and Why | 2017-12-26 | Allison Smith | Animal Charity Evaluators | Jon Bockman Allison Smith Toni Adleberg Sofia Davis-Fogel Kieran Greig Jamie Spurgeon Erika Alonso Eric Herboso Gina Stuessy | Animal Charity Evaluators The Good Food Institute Vegan Outreach A Well-Fed World Better Eating International Encompass Direct Action Everywhere Animal Charity Evaluators Recommended Charity Fund Against Malaria Foundation Animal equality The Nonhuman Rights Project AnimaNaturalis Internacional The Humane League GiveDirectly Food Empowerment Project Mercy For Animals New Harvest StrongMinds Centre for Effective Altruism Effective Altruism Funds Machine Intelligence Research Institute Donor lottery Sentience Institute Wild-Animal Suffering Research | Periodic donation list documentation | Animal welfare|AI safety|Global health and development|Effective altruism | Continuing an annual tradition started in 2016, Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) staff describe where they donated or plan to donate in 2017. Donation amounts are not disclosed, likely by policy | |
| Staff Members’ Personal Donations for Giving Season 2017 | 2017-12-18 | Holden Karnofsky | Open Philanthropy | Holden Karnofsky Alexander Berger Nick Beckstead Helen Toner Claire Zabel Lewis Bollard Ajeya Cotra Morgan Davis Michael Levine | GiveWell top charities GiveWell GiveDirectly EA Giving Group Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Effective Altruism Funds Sentience Institute Encompass The Humane League The Good Food Institute Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming USA Animal Equality Donor lottery Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly | Periodic donation list documentation | Open Philanthropy Project staff members describe where they are donating this year, and the considerations that went into the donation decision. By policy, amounts are not disclosed. This is the first standalone blog post of this sort by the Open Philanthropy Project; in previous years, the corresponding donations were documented in the GiveWell staff members donation post. | ||
| How to end animal agriculture as soon as possible | 2017-09-27 | Robert Wiblin Lewis Bollard | 80,000 Hours | Open Philanthropy | Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming The Humane League The Humane Society of the United States Humane Society International The Good Food Institute Animal Equality Animal Charity Evaluators | Broad donor strategy | Animal welfare/factory farming | Podcast with interview of Lewis Bollard (Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer at the Open Philanthropy Project) by Robert Wiblin of 80000 Hours, along with transcript. The podcast covers the strategy of the Open Philanthropy Project. 80000 Hours is an Open Philanthropy Project grant recipient and Wiblin was also on the board of Animal Charity Evaluators, an animal welfare-focused grant recipient that is discussed in the podcast. | |
| Updates on selected recommended charities’ room for more funding | 2017-06-14 | Toni Adleberg | Animal Charity Evaluators | The Good Food Institute Mercy For Animals The Humane League Animal Equality | Evaluator consolidated recommendation list | Animal welfare | Animal Charity Evaluators reports results of a check-in with all its 2016 top charities and one standout charity (Animal Equality) that had previously been a top charity. It verifies that all of them still have room for more funding, therefore continues to recommend them | ||
| Why Are the US Corporate Cage-Free Campaigns Succeeding? | 2017-04-11 | Lewis Bollard | Open Philanthropy | Open Philanthropy | The Humane League Mercy For Animals The Humane Society of the United States Compassion in World Farming USA | Review of current state of cause area | Animal welfare/factory farming/cage-free campaign | Lewis Bollard, Open Philanthropy Project Program Officer for Animal Welfare, who brought passion about cage-free campaigns to the organization when he joined, provides a timeline of cage-free campaigns and an assessment of the success of these campaigns, and the role of the Open Philanthropy Project as a funder. | |
| Responses to common critiques | 2016-12-21 | Jon Bockman | Animal Charity Evaluators | Animal Charity Evaluators Animal Equality The Good Food Institute New Harvest The Humane League Mercy For Animals | Evaluator retrospective | Animal welfare | This post is written in response to criticism of Animal Charity Evaluators, largely criticism that came in as part of and after Harrison Nathan's post https://medium.com/@harrisonnathan/the-actual-number-is-almost-surely-higher-92c908f36517 Bockman agrees that the leafleting report is inaccurate and of low quality, and says that ACE was focused this year on new research and not on updating the outdated reports. He also explains the position taken by ACE on cost-effectiveness, the lack of diversity in recommendations, and concerns about diverting resources from other groups | ||
| The Actual Number is Almost Surely Higher: An Evaluation of Effective Animal Activism | 2016-12-09 | Harrison Nathan | Animal Charity Evaluators The Humane League Mercy For Animals Vegan Outreach The Good Food Institute The Humane Society of the United States Faunalytics | Review of current state of cause area | Animal welfare | Harrison Nathan is critical of Animal Charity Evaluators and their top charities, in particular, the way the organizations justify their programs. He calls their approach pseudoscientific, and also believes the effective altruist movement has blind spots and is easily co-opted by industry, not sensitive on matters related to wild-animal suffering, and has too many conflicts of interest | |||
| Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 2016 | 2016-12-09 | Natalie Crispin | GiveWell | Elie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Josh Rosenberg Rebecca Raible Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Lewis Bollard Chelsea Tabart Sarah Ward Chris Somerville Ajeya Cotra Chris Smith Isabel Arjmand | A political campaign GiveWell top charities International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation UPMC Center for Health Security Donor lottery EA Giving Group GiveDirectly Center for Applied Rationality Malaria Consortium Animal Charity Evaluators Northwest Health Law Advocates StrongMinds Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative The Humane Society of the United States The Humane League Mercy For Animals Humane Society International Compassion in World Farming USA The Good Food Institute Citizens for Farm Animal Protection The END Fund Causa Justa Planned Parenthood International Refugee Assistance Project | Periodic donation list documentation | GiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2016. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell | ||
| Updated Recommendations: December 2016 | 2016-11-28 | Jon Bockman | Animal Charity Evaluators | Mercy For Animals The Humane League The Good Food Institute VEBU Animal Equality The Humane Society of the United States Vegan Outreach Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries | Evaluator consolidated recommendation list | Animal welfare | Mercy For Animals and The Humane League remain top charities, and The Good Food Institute added to the list; Animal Equality moved from top charity to standout charity; VEBU added to standout charities | ||
| MERCY FOR ANIMALS. Archived Version: November, 2016 | 2016-11-01 | Animal Charity Evaluators | Mercy For Animals | Evaluator review of donee | Animal welfare | Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) publishes an updated review of MFA. The review points to undercover investigations and the approach to consumer outreach as strengths. It also notes that although ACE is skeptical about the online ads program, general funds are not directed to it as it is fully funded by donors explicitly interested in online ads, so this is not an argument against funding | |||
| Where I Am Donating in 2016 | 2016-11-01 | Michael Dickens | Effective Altruism Forum | Michael Dickens | Animal Charity Evaluators The Good Food Institute Mercy For Animals Raising for Effective Giving | Single donation documentation | Animal welfare, AI risk | Dickens described his evaluation of each of the four finalists and the reasoning behind his (tentatively) final decision to give to The Good Food Institute | |
| Grisly Undercover Video Shows Chickens Being Starved To Produce More Eggs | 2016-10-11 | Nico Pitney | Huffington Post | Open Philanthropy | Humane Society International Mercy For Animals Animal Equality People for Animals The Humane League | Third-party coverage of donor strategy | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaign/international | Provides some context for the move by the Open Philanthropy Project in mid-2016 to expand its cage-free campaign funding internationally. | |
| Broiler chicken search in Effective Animal Activism group on Facebook | 2016-08-27 | Brian Tomasik Chris Byrd | Third-party coverage of donor strategy | The Humane Society of the United States Mercy For Animals | Third-party coverage of donor strategy | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken | Just a few Facebook posts -- no coherent strategy articulation yet | ||
| Initial Grants to Support Corporate Cage-free Reforms | 2016-03-31 | Lewis Bollard | Open Philanthropy | Open Philanthropy | The Humane League Mercy For Animals The Humane Society of the United States | Broad donor strategy | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaign/international | Written to explain a bunch of grants already made in 2016-02 to support cage-free reforms in the United States for egg-laying chicken. The blog post had a heated comment section, potentially influencing future Open Phil communication on the subject. | |
| Where the ACE Staff Members Are Giving and Why | 2015-12-21 | Leah Edgerton | Animal Charity Evaluators | Jon Bockman Allison Smith Erika Alonso Jacy Reese Kieran Grieg | Animal Charity Evaluators Vegan Outreach Mercy For Animals Direct Action Everywhere The Humane League Animal Equality Farm Sanctuary The Humane Society of the United States Animal Equality Nonhuman Rights Project New Harvest Charity Science Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Raising for Effective Giving | Periodic donation list documentation | Animal welfare|Global health and development|Effective altruism | Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) staff describe where they donated or plan to donate in 2015. Donation amounts are not disclosed, likely by policy | |
| Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 2015 | 2015-12-09 | Elie Hassenfeld | GiveWell | Elie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Sean Conley Josh Rosenberg Jake Marcus Rebecca Raible Milan Griffes Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Claire Zabel Nicole Ross Lewis Bollard | GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation GiveWell GiveDirectly Wikimedia Foundation Center for Global Development Martha’s Table Country Dance and Song Society Northwest Health Law Advocates Mercy For Animals The Humane League Animal Charity Evaluators Raising for Effective Giving Humane Society of te United States | Periodic donation list documentation | GiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2015. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell | ||
| MERCY FOR ANIMALS. Archived Version: December, 2015 | 2015-12-01 | Animal Charity Evaluators | Mercy For Animals The Good Food Institute | Evaluator review of donee | Animal welfare | Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) publishes an updated review of MFA. The review includes a caveat stating lower confidence about the marginal value of additional donations, in particular the parts spent on "easily expanded" activities like online ads. Room for more funding estimates are also updated, with an estimate of $300,000 for usable funding. The review also talks about the possible launch of The Good Food Institute using some of this funding | |||
| Updated Recommendations: December 2015 | 2015-12-01 | Jon Bockman | Animal Charity Evaluators | Animal Equality Mercy For Animals The Humane League Animal Ethics Animals Australia Faunalytics New Harvest Nonhuman Rights Project Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries The Humane Society of the United States Vegan Outreach | Evaluator consolidated recommendation list | Animal welfare | 2015 recommendations list; top charities are Animal Equality,Mercy For Animals, and The Humane League; five new standout charities added to existing four | ||
| MERCY FOR ANIMALS. Archived version: December, 2014 | 2014-12-01 | Animal Charity Evaluators | Mercy For Animals | Evaluator review of donee | Animal welfare | Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) publishes its second detailed review of Mercy For Animals. The qualitative contents remain similar to the May 2014 review. The main changes are to the estimates of room for more funding and the expected allocation of additional funding | |||
| MERCY FOR ANIMALS. Archived Version: May, 2014 | 2014-05-01 | Animal Charity Evaluators | Mercy For Animals | Evaluator review of donee | Animal welfare | Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) publishes its first detailed review of Mercy For Animals. The review gives the charity a "Top Charity" status. It identifies the following strengths: the main program (undercover investigations) and the approach to individual/consumer level outreach has high expected effectiveness. It identifies uncertainty about organizational stability as a weakness | |||
| Staff members’ personal donations | 2013-12-12 | Holden Karnofsky | GiveWell | Holden Karnofsky Elie Hassenfeld Alexander Berger Natalie Crispin Eliza Scheffler Timothy Telleen-Lawton Sean Conley Josh Rosenberg Ben Rachbach Howie Lempel Jake Marcus | GiveDirectly Mercy For Animals Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Against Malaria Foundation Deworm the World Initiative The Humane Society of the United States | Periodic donation list documentation | GiveWell staff describe their annual donation plans for 2013. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell |
Graph of top 10 donors (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations
| Donor | Amount (current USD) | Amount rank (out of 37) | Donation date | Cause area | URL | Influencer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Philanthropy | 3,000,000.00 | 2 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-fre/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2021 | Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford | Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate engagement on animal welfare. MFA plans to use this funding to continue its cage-free and broiler welfare corporate campaigns in Latin America and the United States, respectively." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant follows up on several past grants for similar uses, and reasons for past grants, including strong track record, probably apply. Nothing is explicitly mentioned on the grant page. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason is given for the amount, but the amount is about half the amount of the previous two-year grant. The smaller grant amount may reflect a shorter timeframe of this grant. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the end of the two-year timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2019 (2019-07) that had a very similar intended use of funds. It is likely motivated by the end of the previous grant. Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Latin America. |
|
| Open Philanthropy | 6,638,000.00 | 1 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-free/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2019 | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: This larger grant appears to have been under consideration at the time of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (May 2018) that said: "We expect to evaluate the merits of a longer renewal of our support to MFA closer to the end of 2018." Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate engagement on animal welfare and capacity building. MFA plans to continue its broiler chicken campaigns and cage-free egg enforcement work in the U.S. and Canada and its cage-free egg campaigns in Brazil and Mexico." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant follows up on several past grants for similar uses, and reasons for past grants, including strong track record, probably apply. Nothing is explicitly mentioned on the grant page. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason for the amount is provided; this is a much larger grant than any past grant to MFA. The grant page says: "The grant amount was updated in February, March, and July 2020, and in March 2021." Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This larger grant appears to have been under consideration at the time of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (May 2018) that said: "We expect to evaluate the merits of a longer renewal of our support to MFA closer to the end of 2018." The timing of the grant is likely determined by the evaluation being completed. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2021 (2021-06) for a very similar intended use of funds suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Canada|Brazil|Mexico. |
|
| Open Philanthropy | 261,000.00 | 8 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-welfare-campaigns | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: This seems like a followup grant to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns and is likely informed by considerations affecting that and earlier grants, and also by the progress since then. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of broiler chickens. [...] Their welfare is impacted by genetics, overcrowding, inhumane slaughter, and environmental factors like chronic sleep deprivation due to lighting schedules optimized for growth. Broiler welfare campaigns seek to address these causes of suffering." |
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| Open Philanthropy | 375,000.00 | 7 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: Discretionary grant Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its broiler chicken welfare corporate campaigns in the U.S." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page links the grant to two past grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (broiler chicken welfare) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns (cage-free egg campaign). Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant happens around two years after the linked previous two-year grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (broiler chicken welfare) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns (cage-free egg campaign) suggesting that its timing is related to their expiration. Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "We expect to evaluate the merits of a longer renewal of our support to MFA closer to the end of 2018." Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants from Open Phil to Mercy For Animals (including https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-welfare-campaigns in January 2019 with a similar scope) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-14. |
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| Open Philanthropy | 500,000.00 | 6 | Animal welfare/factory farming | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-india-animal-welfare-reform | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: The grant is one of five grants made around the same time supporting farm animal welfare work in India. A budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Mercy_For_Animals_India_Farmed_Animal_Advocacy_Budget.pdf is included. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support new farm animal welfare work in India. The grant will help support undercover investigations, corporate campaigns, research, and policy-related campaign activities over the next two years." The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Mercy_For_Animals_India_Farmed_Animal_Advocacy_Budget.pdf has a breakdown per year is: $135,000 for investigation costs, $40,000 for investigations-related research costs, $50,000 for compensation for two corporate campaign staffers, $25,000 for compensation for one policy advocate staffer/lobbyist. Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about the grant primarily because of Mercy For Animals’ track record of successful undercover investigations in the U.S.; our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard’s, confidence in Mercy For Animals’ relevant leadership staff; and the potential opportunity we see in India—one of the world’s largest producers of eggs, fish, and chicken—to encourage farm animal welfare reforms and advocacy." Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Mercy_For_Animals_India_Farmed_Animal_Advocacy_Budget.pdf has a breakdown per year is: $135,000 for investigation costs, $40,000 for investigations-related research costs, $50,000 for copmensation for two corporate campaign staffers, $25,000 for compensation for one policy advocate staffer/lobbyist. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is one of five grants made around the same time supporting farm animal welfare work in India. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Phil to Mercy For Animals suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: India; announced: 2017-08-03. |
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| Open Philanthropy | 1,000,000.00 | 3 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: A budget proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Final_MFA_Broiler_Welfare_Campaign_Proposal_for_the_Open_Philanthropy_Project.pdf was sought. The grant page lacks further detail. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns to promote the welfare of broiler chickens." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken for more. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget proposal gives total annual campaign costs of $500,000 / year for two years. The breakdown is as follows: six broiler welfare corporate outreach staff positions ($300,000), broiler welfare corporate campaign expenses ($150,000), public relations to secure media coverage on broiler welfare issues and campaigns ($25,000), and campaign volunteer recruitment to increase number of active broiler welfare campaign volunteers ($25,000). Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken for more. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Phil to Mercy For Animals suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Canada; announced: 2017-01-10. |
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| Open Philanthropy | 1,000,000.00 | 3 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-international-cage-free-advocacy | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: The donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more background. For this specific grant, a budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/MFA_Budget_International_Cage-Free_Campaigns_Expansion_8-1-16.pdf was obtained from the grantee. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant to "end the confinement of hens in battery cages. [...] [The grant will] support Mercy For Animals’ work in Latin America and Asia." A simplified budget ($500,000/year) is at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/MFA_Budget_International_Cage-Free_Campaigns_Expansion_8-1-16.pdf with breakdown of $212,500 for Brazil, $192,500 for Mexico, $40,000 for Asia, and $55,000 for international campaign coordination from the United States. Donor reason for selecting the donee: No reasons specific to the grantee are listed, but https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms lists several reasons for the general focus on cage-free reforms, and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d describes the reasons for the internationalization phase. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing matches the timing of other grants in this second phase (internationalization) of corporate cage-free campaign spending. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor retrospective of the donation: Several further grants from Open Philanthropy to Mercy For Animals suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil|Mexico; announced: 2016-10-03. |
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| Patrick Brinich-Langlois | 500.00 | 21 | -- | https://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/ | -- | Offsetting a month of omnivore diet. | |
| Open Philanthropy | 1,000,000.00 | 3 | Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaign | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns | Lewis Bollard | Donation process: This donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more. The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Our_process says: "As MFA is one of the main organizations running corporate animal welfare campaigns, we contacted MFA to discuss the possibility of funding the organization for corporate cage-free campaigns." Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Proposed_activities says: "MFA will use this grant to build a corporate cage-free egg campaigning team. Now that advocates have gotten almost all major fast food and food service chains to go cage-free, MFA’s goal is to get the rest of the grocery industry to go cage-free as well." Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Case_for_the_grant says: "We believe corporate cage-free egg campaigns are a particularly cost-effective approach for reducing farm animal suffering [...] [MFA] seems well-positioned to campaign for corporate cage-free reforms, particularly given its past experience with campaigns in the grocery sector. [...] more than two million Facebook followers, 200,000+ member email list, celebrity contacts, network news connections, top investigations unit, and grassroots network [...] We believe the most likely outcome [...] slightly worse than the estimate of 120 hens spared per dollar that we gave previously. [...] Even if returns are sublinear, we believe cage-free egg campaigns would still be relatively cost-effective; if, for example, our $1 million grant to MFA only generates one major grocer victory over two years [...] 25 hens spared per dollar." Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Follow-up_expectations says: "We expect to have a conversation with MFA staff every 3-6 months for the next two years, with public notes if the conversation warrants it. At the one-year mark, we expect to provide an update on this grant, either by publishing public notes or by producing a brief write-up. Towards the end of the grant, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance." Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup conversation with Nick Cooney of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Nick_Cooney_08-01-16_%28public%29.pdf would happen on 2016-08-01. Several followup grants from Open Phil to MFA suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-03-10. |
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| Nathan Blevins | 25.00 | 32 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 25.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| David Barry | 3,108.81 | 10 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 3,900.00 AUD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Michael Sesser | 600.00 | 19 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 600.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Samuel Hilton | 6.34 | 36 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 4.82 GBP (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Grace King | 13.15 | 33 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 10.00 GBP (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Holly Elmore | 1,129.00 | 15 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 1,129.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Josh Jacobson | 1,072.80 | 16 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 1,072.80 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Amy Johnson | 398.57 | 23 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 500.00 AUD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Vidur Kapur | 27.61 | 31 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 21.00 GBP (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Saulius Šimčikas | 184.04 | 27 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 140.00 GBP (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Vincent Söderberg | 12.36 | 34 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 100.00 SEK (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Cornelis Haupt | 10.60 | 35 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 13.33 CAD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Jay Feldman | 200.00 | 26 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 200.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Jonathon Smith | 1,000.00 | 17 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 1,000.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Håkon Harnes | 76.06 | 29 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 600.00 NOK (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Peter Hurford | 2,000.00 | 12 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | http://peterhurford.com/other/donations.html | -- | ||
| Peter Hurford | 1,300.00 | 14 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | http://peterhurford.com/other/donations.html | -- | ||
| Jonathon Smith | 2,000.00 | 12 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 2,000.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Robert Yaman | 8,000.00 | 9 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | Haseeb Qureshi | See https://eahub.org/user/haseeb-qureshi for claim by Haseeb Qureshi of influence on this donation. Currency info: donation given as 8,000.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Peter Hurford). | |
| Matt Reardon | 100.00 | 28 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 100.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| David Barry | 557.99 | 20 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 700.00 AUD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Michael Sesser | 300.00 | 25 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 300.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Amy Johnson | 398.57 | 23 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 500.00 AUD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Zachary Groff | 1,000.00 | 17 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 1,000.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Nick Brown | 39.86 | 30 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 50.00 AUD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Tyler John | 3,000.00 | 11 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 3,000.00 USD (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Vidur Kapur | 3.94 | 37 | Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming | https://github.com/peterhurford/ea-data/ | -- | Currency info: donation given as 3.00 GBP (conversion done on 2017-08-05 via Fixer.io). | |
| Elizabeth Van Nostrand | 500.00 | 21 | -- | https://acesounderglass.com/2014/12/29/how-to-figure-out-how-much-to-donate/ | -- |