Amanda Hungerford on Open Philanthropy's funding for farmed animal welfare

How I Learned to Love Shrimp

We interviewed Amanda Hungerford, Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer at Open Philanthropy. Open Philanthropy is one of the largest funders of farmed animal welfare, giving tens of millions of dollars each year.
We spoke to Amanda about common misconceptions about Open Philanthropy's grantmaking, challenges with corporate campaigns, strategies that Amanda is excited about, and much more.
This was a really exciting episode for us to record so we hope you enjoy it too!

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Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. What has Amanda changed her mind on recently (00:01:22)

3. Amanda's journey into animal advocacy (00:03:22)

4. Overview of the Farm Animal Welfare team (00:05:31)

5. Common misconceptions about Open Philanthropy (00:07:44)

6. Corporate campaigns (and their challenges) (00:13:46)

7. Approaches that Amanda is excited about (00:23:21)

8. The difficulties of grant evaluation (00:29:39)

9. Capacity building vs direct work (00:35:03)

10. Which grants have done better than expected (00:36:36)

11. What Open Phil doesn't usually fund, and why (00:38:53)

12. Measurability bias (00:40:06)

13. Alternative proteins (00:42:05)

14. How Open Phil finds grantees (00:42:44)

15. Tips about applying for a grant (00:48:08)

16. The future of OpenPhil funding (00:50:54)

17. Impact of AI on animal welfare (00:56:02)

18. Closing questions (00:59:11)