Terra Praxis designs and implements strategies that leverage science, technology and energy innovation for a prosperous planet

We co-founded TerraPraxis to design and implement strategies that leverage science, technology and energy innovation for a prosperous planet. Our mission is to innovate and accelerate scalable, equitable solutions for unsolved areas of the climate challenge. 

Our special focus is on enabling high-impact rapid transitions for neglected parts of the decarbonization challenge. 

We work with an extensive global network to define, incubate and initiate scalable strategies that fulfil the twin missions of prosperity and decarbonization. 

Terra Praxis

We're growing a greener future with millions of trees in the ground and planting projects underway worldwide. 

#TEAMTREES

Where are these millions of trees being planted? All over the world! Get the latest info on our current projects at teamtrees.org, or check out our social media for regular updates. 



#teamtrees

We partner with global communities to support literacy and gender equality in education.

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read’s innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools in low-income communities during two time periods that are most critical in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education.   We work in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions.   Room to Read has benefited 16.8 million children across more than 37,000 communities in 16 countries. Learn more at www.roomtoread.org.

Room to Read

Partnering with indigenous and other local communities to protect tropical forests and strengthen traditional culture.

We see a future where healthy tropical forests and thriving local communities exist in harmonious relationship with each other, contributing to the well-being of the planet. We believe that our collective future depends on protecting these forests. Our work is focused on stopping threats to the forest and its people, or on mitigating those threats.

Amazon Conservation Team

Catalyzing resilient solutions, scaled to meet the climate challenge.

CATF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing atmospheric pollution through research, advocacy, and private sector collaboration.

Clean Air Task Force

Delivering unconditional cash directly to the world's poorest households via secure mobile transfers. 

Since 2009, GiveDirectly has delivered more than $580 million in unconditional cash transfers to families in need. These one-time cash transfers allow recipients to invest in what they need most and have been shown to improve their earnings, children’s school attendance, health, nutrition, and mental well-being.
 
GiveDirectly uses government data to target villages where most or all residents are living in extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as earning under $2.15/day. In-country GiveDirectly staff enroll one member of each household in the entire village to receive a one-time transfer of about $1,000 USD sent in two installments using mobile money. Recipients can then withdraw the mobile funds as cash with local agents and use the funds to invest in what they need – whether it’s on starting a business, education, making their home safer/sturdier, healthcare, or livestock.
 
GiveDirectly uses rigorous experimental research (randomized controlled trials) to measure the impact of their unconditional cash programs and answer public policy questions, generating evidence on key design and implementation questions across varied contexts. You can find over 300 studies on the positive impacts of cash transfers in GiveDirectly’s Cash Research Explorer.

GiveDirectly

The Top Charities Fund supports the highest-priority funding needs among our top charities.

We find and recommend outstanding giving opportunities and publish our research to help donors give more effectively and with greater confidence.

All donations here support our Top Charities Fund. Donations to the Top Charities Fund are granted on a rolling basis to support cost-effective funding opportunities at our top charities. We use our latest research to grant the funds to the top charity (or charities) where we believe they’ll do the most good.

Learn more and view past grants at https://www.givewell.org/top-charities-fund


Photo caption: At health centers in Sierra Leone supported by Helen Keller Intl, mothers who bring their children in for twice-yearly vitamin A supplemention can also receive comprehensive counseling about birth control options that are available to them free of charge. Combining family planning and children's healthcare services benefits both mother and child. 2019.

Top Charities Fund

BERI's mission is to improve human civilization’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing. 

BERI is an independent 501(c)(3) public charity. Our mission is to improve human civilization’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing. Currently, our main strategy is to take on ethical and legal responsibility, as a collaborator, for projects deemed to be important for reducing existential risk. These projects mostly revolve around reducing risk from technologies that may pose significant civilization-scale dangers, as determined by research collaborators who have adopted existential risk reduction as both their primary career ambition and their primary area of intellectual focus.

Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative

Improving the lives of egg-laying hens through feed fortification. 

Healthier Hens is a new Effective Altruism aligned animal welfare organization. Our vision is to cost-effectively improve the well-being of millions of farmed egg-laying hens. We are investigating the potential of an intervention focused on alleviating pain and improving hen health and welfare by optimizing the nutritional quality of layer hen feed, as recommended by the Charity Entrepreneurship research team. Our end goal is to lobby for legislation that sets minimum standards for nutrients in poultry feed and help enforce those standards nationwide.

While impactful, the egg industry’s ongoing positive transition to cage-free systems does not address the deeply neglected issue of poor bone health in layer hens, a major welfare problem prevalent across all housing systems on commercial farms. More than half of all hens experience at least one unnoticed and untreated fracture in their lifespan, which equals tons of neglected pain. We choose to act now and in doing so seek to achieve unprecedented counterfactual impact and healthier hens!

One of the first steps we must take is to properly analyze the nutrient levels in commercial and farmer-made feed, as well as assess bone deviations and fractures. For $25 we can pay for transportation for our farm visits, fr $70 we can test one feed sample and for $175 we can assess the bone health of 30 hens through palpation. And in preparation for our pilot, $1800 would allow us to provide optimal feed to 500 hens.

Healthier Hens is (Federal Tax ID: 88-1680823) a California charitable trust with federal tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Healthier Hens are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Healthier Hens

Supporting highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to the triple challenge of climate change, air pollution and energy poverty.

The Founders Pledge Climate Change Fund exists to leverage each dollar and fund the most effective, neglected climate solutions.
 
Climate change is an incredibly complex problem borne out of how we produce and consume energy; it's intertwined with challenges of economic development, energy poverty, and emissions-fueled air pollution. It is an environmental and humanitarian crisis we must urgently address. 

We aim to take a holistic approach that recognizes the global nature of this challenge and the fact that, despite its urgency, we are still in the early days of climate action. We address the worst-case scenarios of climate damage, and look for solutions that can reduce current carbon emissions and accelerate the transition to clean energy to meet global demand, especially in developing countries. Through the Fund, we:

- Accelerate innovation in neglected technologies
- Catalytically grow the most effective climate organizations
- Promote policy leadership and paradigm shaping

### Our Approach to Grantmaking
When evaluating potential grants, we consider several key points:

- **Counterfactual impact.** Our grants are designed to create a meaningful outcome that would not otherwise have happened. This means that you can rely on the Funds to create meaningful, real change, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
- **Impact-driven philanthropy.** This fund prioritizes the highest-impact solutions to challenges. We assess where the gaps are, which opportunities may be neglected by other funders, and where the biggest wins are in terms of making the biggest difference.
- **The organization’s funding gap.** Not all organizations are set up to scale up their programming and many can’t productively absorb large amounts of unsolicited funding. We evaluate all potential grantees’ capacity for growth and consider how much money they could put to good use.
- **Organizational strength.** Particularly with unrestricted funding, it’s important to have trust in the leadership and capacity of the organizations we support. We look at their track record of success and their transparency about failures as well as successes, and we only support those organizations which are exceptionally well run.
- **Time-critical opportunities and funding certainty.** While Founders Pledge members give to our top climate charities regularly, sometimes there are time-critical opportunities which require fast decisions. We will use the Fund to make grants that enable such short-term opportunities and stability for high-impact funding opportunities thereby increasing the impact compared to individual giving to specific organizations.
- **Portfolio approach.** Because most climate damage comes from particular severe outcomes – with a world of 4 degrees of warming being much worse than twice as bad as a world with 2 degrees – and because every particular strategy – such as energy innovation – might underdeliver, we pursue a portfolio approach to maximize positive impact. This means we will diversify our bets in ways that, when one approach fails (such as energy innovation), the others we promote (such as carbon removal) can be expected to be particularly important and still available.

### Frequently-Asked Questions

**Can charities apply for money from the Fund?**
The Funds do not generally accept applications from charities, and we request that charities do not send unsolicited applications for funding. If the Fund Managers choose to open up an application round, this will be publicized. 

**How frequently will you make grants from the Fund?**
In general, Fund Managers will review grantmaking decisions on a quarterly basis. Decisions will be made based on the value of Funds and the available options for high-impact grantmaking. We may disburse funds outside of quarterly review dates if we become aware of a particularly promising and time-sensitive funding.

**How will my contribution be used?**
All funds are granted out. The Fund is not an investment vehicle. The Fund does not use any percentage of contributions to cover staff time or other overhead costs. Every dollar contributed to the Fund will be used to make grants directly to end-user organizations creating a real difference.

### More Questions?

To learn more about the Founders Pledge Climate Change Fund, please visit [founderspledge.com](https://founderspledge.com/funds/climate-change-fund) or email the Fund Managers at [funds@founderspledge.com](mailto:funds@founderspledge.com).

Founders Pledge: Climate Change Fund

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Monthly donations help nonprofits focus on mission and long-term impact, not fundraising. Cancel anytime.

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Author of 5 #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers, investor (FB, Uber, Twitter, 50+ more), host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast (500M+ downloads)

Instructions to get up to $300 matched: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/oMBKeyx7ir8Jnbenz/make-a-usd50-donation-into-usd100-6x

Helped schools in Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia and provide scholarships for girls. Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.

Because I know Dr. Mark Plotkin, the enthobotanist and conservationist who co-founded this organization, and I've seen the impact of their work on the expansive nature and indigenous people of the Amazon. In a sense, much of our global well-being, and much of the future of medicine (and avoiding pandemics), depends on preserving "the lungs of the planet."

We pledged to give 1% more of our annual income to people living in extreme poverty this year

GiveWell saves lives for only ~$5,500 per life

I donated because BERI's mission is to improve human civilization’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing, BERI is doing great work to this end, and I believe our civilization is currently not devoting nearly enough resources to this mission.