Back home and working at a museum for the summer; trying to figure ways to boost their YT channel.
I know it's low effort, but could you please offer any advice?
Thanks!
Some links if it helps (pls "Like"! and sub)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdhFjgLraMM
I've been developing a free community resource platform called Gather, and I'd love to get honest feedback before continuing to expand it.
Gather is designed to make it easier for people to find help when they need it most. Using your current location, it displays nearby food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, emergency housing, healthcare and urgent care, addiction recovery services, crisis support, clothing assistance, and other nonprofit or public assistance organizations in one place.
But Gather is intended to be much more than a resource directory. One of its core features is helping reduce food waste while getting more food to people who need it. Grocery stores can subscribe to the platform and quickly post surplus food that would otherwise be discarded. Nearby food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and other aid organizations receive alerts so they can claim and coordinate pickup of available donations before they go to waste. All Subscription proceeds are intended to benefit Partnership to End Addiction.
Gather also includes a community support system that allows aid organizations to create public wish lists of the supplies they need most—everything from hygiene products and diapers to blankets, cleaning supplies, and other essentials. Individuals experiencing hardship can submit requests for needed items through participating organizations. When a donor purchases those items, they are shipped directly to a participating aid organization for local pickup, providing a simple and organized way to connect donors with people in need.
For people who simply want to help their community, Gather also provides an easy way to purchase essential supplies for individuals experiencing homelessness or financial hardship through participating organizations, allowing donors to contribute tangible items where they're needed most.
My goal is to build a platform that not only helps people locate assistance, but also strengthens connections between donors, nonprofits, grocery stores, volunteers, and the communities they serve.
The project is still actively being developed, and I'd really appreciate constructive feedback.
If you work with a nonprofit, grocery store, healthcare organization, or community program, would something like this be useful?
Whether you're a developer, someone who works in the nonprofit sector, or simply someone who wants to help others, I'd genuinely appreciate your perspective.
You can check it out here:
https://live-gather.org
Thanks for taking the time to look it over. Every piece of feedback helps move the project closer to becoming a genuinely useful tool for communities.
Next Friday we will be teaming up with 20+ other subreddits to help raise funds for UkraineAidOps, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity run by an international group of volunteers who have been supplying Ukraine’s frontline with life‑saving equipment. Their support includes protective gear (helmets, plates, anti‑thermal suits), medical supplies, reconnaissance and heavy‑lift drones, and unmanned ground vehicles for casualty evacuation.
Since the spring of 2022, they have worked with numerous combat formations, including the legendary 82nd Air Assault Brigade and 93rd Mechanized Brigade, and have even supported the operation in Kursk.
Made in blender.
Edit: Please take this entire post with a huge grain of salt, and see it more as a thought experiment than as donation or lifestyle advice!
Hi, I’ve recently started looking into neuron deaths as a way of measuring overall harm caused and wanted to answer the question in the title for myself. I thought some here might also be interested. For transparency: These calculations and estimations were done with the help of AI (Google Gemini), and I did not independently verify them. The text is however entirely written by me.
Part 1: Why neuron deaths? For anyone not familiar, a neuron is a brain cell, and neurons are used by some within the EA space as a proxy for how capable of complex emotions and suffering an animal might be. This is highly controversial, but if you use this proxy it allows you to compare suffering between animals.
A few examples:
Nematodes (Roundworms): ~ 300 neurons
Micro-arthropods like Mites and Springtails: ~ 5 000 neurons
Earthworm ~15 000 neurons
Centipedes like Spiders: ~50000 neurons
Shrimp ~100 000 neurons
Ant ~250 000 neurons
Field Mouse ~ 10 000 000 neurons
Salmon ~13 000 000 neurons
Hamster ~ 80 000 000 neurons
Chicken ~220 000 000 neurons
Cat ~ 250 000 000 neurons
Dog ~ 500 000 000 neurons
Octopus ~ 500 000 000 neurons
Pig ~ 2 000 000 000 neurons
Cow ~3 000 000 000 neurons
Human ~ 86 000 000 000 neurons
Elephant ~ 257 000 000 000 neurons
Part 2: Neuron deaths per m² of agricultural land
AI estimates that 1m² of cropland contains roughly:
20 000 000 nematodes
125 000 Micro–arthropods like Mites and Springtails
275 Insects like Ants and Beetles
200 Centipedes like Spiders
300 Earthworms
There is no scientific consensus on which of these exactly are conscious and able to feel pain, but AI thinks the cutoff point might be between Micro-arthropods and Earthworms (meaning Micro-Arthropodes and animals with fewer neurons are likely not conscious/able to feel pain and earthworms and animals with more neurons likely are). Going forward, this calculation will only include soil animals with ~15000 neurons or more per individual.
Over a year, many generations of soil animals are killed, Gemini’s best estimate for total neuron deaths of likely conscious animals per m² is 80 000 000 neurons.
What about rodents? In addition to this, AI estimates 30 rodent deaths per hectare of farmland per year, or 0,003 rodent deaths per m². With a mouse having ~10 000 000 neurons, this brings the total to 80 030 000 neuron deaths of likely conscious animals per m².
Part 3: Total neuron deaths per diet per year:
AI estimates that:
- A conventional Vegan diet requires ~ 1000m² of cropland per year
- An organic vegan diet requires ~ 1200m² of cropland per year (Due to lower calorie output per m² of organic farming)
- A conventional non-Vegan diet requires ~ 3200m² of cropland per year (largely due to animal feed being grown)
- An organic non-Vegan diet requires ~4500m² of cropland per year.
AI also estimates that organic farming results in ~40% fewer neuron deaths per m² – or 48 018 000 neuron deaths per m².
This means total neuron deaths through the cropland alone of:
Organic Vegan: 57 621 600 000
Conventional Vegan: 80 030 000 000
Organic non-Vegan: 216 081 000 000
Conventional non-Vegan: 256 096 000 000
For non-Vegan diets we of course have to include the direct deaths of the animals eaten as well, Gemini’s best estimate is that this is roughly 10 000 000 000 additional neurons, bringing the totals to:
Organic Vegan: 57 643 200 000
Conventional Vegan: 80 030 000 000
Organic non-Vegan: 226 081 000 000
Conventional non-Vegan: 266 096 000 000
Meaning that by this statistic, the old „crop deaths though argument“ still falls flat, as a Vegan diet overall still causes way fewer neuron deaths, but also meaning that the animals directly killed for your diet are not the biggest contributor to overall neuron deaths.
Part 4: Comparing an organic Vegan diet to a conventional Vegan diet + donations:
AI estimates that eating a conventional Vegan diet is roughly 800$ cheaper per year than eating an organic Vegan diet.
Based on Animal Charity Evaluators estimates of how many animals’ living conditions are improved or how many Vegan meals certain organizations provide per $ donated, using AI again I tried to calculate neurons saved per $ donated:
For living conditions improved:
For this calculation I assume that alleviating suffering of one animal through interventions like cage-free campaigns or shrimp stunning before slaughter makes the animals’ lives roughly 10% better, equivalent to 10% fewer neuron deaths or 10% less suffering. This 10% is a completely made up number just so I can have this calculation, I have no justification for it:
Shrimp Welfare Project: Reduces suffering of 5 700 000 000 shrimp each having 100 000 neurons by 10% at a budget of 4 000 000 $, equivalent to 14 250 000 neurons ‚saved‘ per $.
The Humane League: Reduces suffering of 160 000 000 chickens each having 220 000 000 neurons by 10% at a budget of 21 000 000 $, equivalent to 167 620 000 neurons „saved“ per $
Animal Welfare Observatory: Reduces Suffering of 67 000 000 chickens each having 220 000 000 neurons by 10% at a budget of 2 100 000, equivalent to 701 900 000 neurons „saved“ per $
For Vegan Meals served:
Based on the calculations above, one Conventional Vegan meal (1/1095th part of yearly diet) creates 73 086 000 neuron deaths, while one Conventional non-Vegan meal creates 243 010 000 neuron deaths. Thus providing one Vegan meal to a person that would otherwise have eaten a non-Vegan meal ‚saves‘ 169 923 000 neuron deaths.
The Brazilian Vegetarian Society is estimated to replace 116 meals per dollar, resulting in 19 711 000 000 neurons „saved“ per dollar.
Comparison of conventional Vegan + donating vs. Organic Vegan diet:
For this part I multiply the 800 $ saved by buying conventional with the neurons saved per dollar estimates.
Organic Vegan diet: Causes 57 621 600 000 neuron deaths
Conventional + donating to Shrimp Welfare Project: Causes 80 030 000 000 neuron deaths, the donation prevents an equivalent of 11 400 000 000 neuron deaths of suffering, resulting in a total of 68 630 000 000 neuron deaths.
Conventional + donating to The Humane League: Causes 80 030 000 000 neuron deaths, the donation prevents an equivalent of 134 096 000 000 neuron deaths of suffering, resulting in a total of 54 066 000 000 neurons ‚saved‘
Conventional + donating to Animal Welfare Observatory: Causes 80 030 000 000 neuron deaths, the donation prevents an equivalent of 561 520 000 000 neuron deaths of suffering, resulting in a total of 481 490 000 000 neurons ‚saved‘
Conventional + donating to Brazilian Vegetarian Society: Causes 80 030 000 000 neuron deaths, the donation prevents an equivalent of 15 768 900 000 000 neuron deaths of suffering, resulting in a total of 15 689 000 000 000 neurons ‚saved‘
Part 5: Conclusion & Notes
If you were to take these – sometimes made up and mostly estimated by AI & highly controversial – numbers as a basis for deciding if you should eat Organic or not:
- Eating Organic Vegan is better than eating Conventional Vegan and donating to Shrimp Welfare Project
- It is better to eat Conventional Vegan and donate the difference to the Humane League, Animal Welfare Observatory or Brazilian Vegetarian Society than to eat Organic Vegan.
- This is overall definitely an argument for Veganism, but highlights that even as Vegans what type of produce we eat can have a huge impact on how much suffering we create.
- Based on these numbers you could argue our movement should focus a lot more on soil life suffering than we currently do
- Interestingly, looking at Animal Welfare organizations through a lens of neurons makes Shrimp Welfare Project, (which reduces the suffering of the highest number of individual animals per dollar donated) the least effective organization out of the 4 included, and makes providing Vegan meals or reducing the amount of animal products eaten the highest impact intervention. - SWP are still most likely more effective than the vast majority of other Animal Welfare Organizations, I only included 4 of the highest performing here, them being bad on this metric does not make them bad overall.
- Since humans have such a high amount of neurons, out of interest I also compared to one organization focusing on human suffering, the Against Malaria Foundation, as they are often seen as the most effective organization in human lives saved per dollar. They prevent one death per 6000$ donated, meaning 14 333 000 neurons saved per dollar, making them slightly more effective than Shrimp Welfare Project in neurons per $, but not effective enough to justify eating a conventional Vegan Diet and donating to them over.
- By this metric, donating to the Brazilian Vegetarian Society (highest impact Vegan meal organization I could find) is:
~ 1375 times more effective than donating to the Against Malaria Foundation (highest impact organization focusing on human suffering I could find),
~ 28 times as effective as donating to Animal Welfare Observatory (highest impact organization focusing on farmed animal suffering I could find.)
Also meaning donating to Animal Welfare Observatory is ~49 times as effective as donating to Against Malaria Foundation
- I personally do not think neurons are an ideal way to measure capacity to suffer, but they are the least bad and least subjective way I know of.
- If you did include Nematodes and their neuron deaths, due to their sheer numbers their suffering alone is the biggest source of suffering in the world by far, and our movement should almost exclusively focus on them.
- From a perspective of Wild Animal Suffering, an argument could also be made that fewer animals living in conventional farmland is a net positive in overall suffering experienced.
- I am also posting this on the Effective Altruism Forum.
- Take this with a huge grain of salt! I am certainly oversipmplifying and overlooking an impossibly large number of factors here to the point where I do not think or recommend you should use this as a basis for your donation decisions or for deciding if you do in fact buy organic Vegan or conventional Vegan food. The only statement I would dare to make with some certainty here is that even including soil and crop deaths, a Vegan diet is the lowest harm diet by far.
Edit: Minor formatting changes.
I've been building something that sits somewhere between a daily game, a contest, and a personal archive.
Every day, members get a prompt.
They can submit a photo, story, observation, memory, or response.
Other members vote on the submissions.
The best submissions win cash prizes.
Voters are rewarded too.
The part I find most interesting is what happens over time.
After hundreds of prompts, people aren't just playing a game anymore.
They're accidentally building a record of what they noticed, valued, remembered, photographed, laughed at, cared about, and paid attention to over the years.
Most platforms create a feed.
I'm experimenting with whether a platform can create a personal archive instead.
Would you use something like this?
What am I missing?
Donation matching through July 3 to reduce factory farming & animal suffering
Hi all, I'm the founder of Clean Meat Alliance, a 501(c)(3), metafundraising nonprofit dedicated to funding alternatives to factory farming.
Today, we are trying a new strategy: Building the largest ever email list of pro animal gamers and game developers. Sign up here!
A large email list is important because indie gamers want their product seen by as many people as possible early on. A couple hundred signups won't do. We need thousands to make an impact on future indie games. This is a test as to whether that's even possible. If we don't reach 1000 signups within two months, we may choose to scrap the project.
How does this help animals?:
This is an experimental project. We think this will be cost effective (marketing costs only) and allow us to piggyback on the success of an indie game to raise money for animals. We want suggestions from you all too though, so please give us ideas.
We always argue about the economics of collectivism, but we ignore its psychological root: second handedness.
Altruism stems from a psychology of dependence. It’s an intellectual abdication. The core anxiety isn’t “how will I feed myself alone?” It is: “who am I if someone else isn't dictating my purpose?”
You see this clearly in how people approach the "meaning of life." Most aren't looking for a canvas to paint on; they want a moral checklist.
An independent egoist doesn't need external rules to justify their existence. They don't look for a checklist; they form a personal aesthetic ideal. They use their own mind to project a vision of what is possible, and that vision serves as their motivational guide to create and achieve.
This is why dependence inherently breeds resentment toward the independent (what Ayn Rand called the "hatred of the good for being the good"). The mere existence of a self directed individual exposes the collectivist's life as a massive evasion. They must shackle the creator to maintain the illusion that the herd is necessary.
As Nathaniel Branden pointed out, the genuine egoist is entirely free of this resentment. Their primary drive isn't to beat others or compare themselves to the herd, it is simply to achieve.
One mindset lives to create value. The other lives to destroy it out of spite for their own dependency.
Demanding a social checklist to justify your existence isn’t strength. It is the ultimate weakness: a mind terrified of its own independence, using slave morality as a mask.
Engineering + math graduate whose goal is to maximize impact. I am currently deciding between two career paths, but have been struggling a lot to determine which would be more impactful:
Note: For personal and practical reasons, it is unlikely that I would found a highly sophisticated hard-tech company, i.e. one that requires advanced fabrication / other specialized technologies.
TLDR: Has anyone here faced or thought seriously about a similar decision? If so, how did you decide where you had more counterfactual impact?
One way I’ve tried is through estimating the number of “counterfactual days saved.” Here’s my crude analysis:
- If a robotics bottleneck takes 600 researcher-years to solve and 400 researchers are already working on it, adding me would move the solution from 600/400 = 1.5 years to 600/401 ≈ 1.496 years, or about 1.37 days earlier. If 50 startups benefit, and I work on three such bottlenecks over my career, that gives roughly 3 × 50 × 1.37 ≈ 205 startup-days saved.
- In contrast, if I found five successful simple hard-tech startups, and each brings a useful idea to market one year earlier, that is 5 progress-years saved.
This crude analysis is missing many important factors, but on first glance, it seems that the startup path is more impactful, assuming I am unlikely to be an exceptional researcher in robotics (which I think is probable).
If anybody has a better way of comparing impact between academic and startup paths, though, would deeply appreciate it — I have been stuck at a crossroads for quite a bit…
Threem months ago we launched Euzoia's app: A cash commitment app for habit change that sends the penalties to effective charities. With just a few users we already managed to collect over 600 Euros!
AI is a common theme in the EA community, but as a lawyer, I have few to no education about the technology and the risks it causes.
Does anyone has an article or video on the subject from the EA perspective to people who are not tech savvy?
Is there a website that posts in one place measurable impact of individual non-profits and their level of commitment to their cause, longevity, how well they are being run, etc? Thanks!
Hi everyone,
I’m Omar Zaky, Founder & Executive Director of Prosperity Paradox, a youth-led nonprofit providing free financial literacy, entrepreneurship education, and opportunity access for young people across Africa and beyond.
Website: https://prosperityparadox.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theprosperityparadox
We are currently looking especially for content creators who can record short educational videos, reels, and speaking-style content. Editing is not required.
We also welcome volunteers in writing, social media, design, research, and outreach.
Most of our work is remote. We do not charge volunteers or communities. Volunteers are screened, assigned clear tasks, and supervised remotely.
Our focus is simple: free, beginner-friendly resources that help young people build practical money skills, entrepreneurship knowledge, and confidence.
Concerns can be raised through our contact page or email, and we aim to respond within 3–7 days.
Hey, y'all.
Before reading, please keep in mind that I don't NEED these funds; I will continue to provide for my classroom and students as much as I possibly can, but with help, I am guaranteed to provide for the entire year (and not run out of money in February, as I have this school year). Please share!
