About us
Rethink Priorities is a multidisciplinary think-and-do tank that identifies areas where resources can be most effective.
We conduct rigorous research and data analysis across animal welfare, global health and development, and emerging fields such as AI cognition. We then translate that research into action by guiding funders, advising organizations, and incubating high‑impact projects.
Why we exist
When Peter Wildeford and Marcus A. Davis founded Rethink Priorities in 2018, they saw a gap in the philanthropic landscape: too few organizations were providing the rigorous comparative analysis needed to allocate resources optimally.
Today, our cross-cause perspective allows us to understand key trade-offs, helping funders assess opportunities using transparent, evidence-based frameworks.
We also identify emerging areas before they become crowded, when early, rigorous work can have an outsized influence.
Vision
We envision a world where evidence and rigorous thinking shape how resources are allocated, leading to significantly better lives for humans and animals—present and future.
Mission
To close critical knowledge and intervention gaps across priority areas so philanthropists, policymakers, and advocates can make high-impact decisions with confidence, and to support the practical work that turns those decisions into meaningful change.
Our Values
Striving for impact
We actively seek the highest-impact opportunities and direct resources where they’ll make the greatest difference.
Seeking the truth
Intellectual honesty is foundational to everything we do. We follow the evidence, embrace uncomfortable questions, and let rigorous analysis guide our conclusions.
Supportive environment
We foster collaboration and honest exchange across our team and partners. Brilliant work emerges when people are empowered to flourish.
Aiming for excellence
We hold ourselves to the highest standards of research quality and operational rigor. We’re transparent about both our strengths and limitations.
Cultivating innovation
We maintain a learning mindset and encourage creative, independent thinking. We experiment, iterate, and aren’t afraid to try novel solutions.
Theory of Change
How we create change
Our approach assumes that high-quality, decision-relevant research can meaningfully influence how resources are allocated, and that better allocation leads to improved outcomes for humans and animals.
Inputs
What we bring
- Expert researchers across animal welfare, global health and development, AI strategy, and digital cognition.
- Cross-cause perspective to compare trade-offs and prioritize effectively.
- Methodological rigor in cost-effectiveness analysis, surveys, modeling, and philosophy.
- Trusted partnerships with funders, policymakers, and advocates.
- Operational infrastructure to incubate and fiscally sponsor new initiatives.
Outputs
What we produce
- Action-guiding research and analysis: cost-effectiveness models, intervention evaluations, and cross-cause prioritization reports.
- Practical frameworks and tools, including decision models and measurement methodologies.
- Strategic guidance and advisory briefs.
- New initiatives filling ecosystem gaps.
- Public reports, briefings, and convenings.
Impact
Results for humans and animals
- Reduced suffering for farmed and wild animals as policies improve, welfare standards strengthen, and advocacy strategies become more effective.
- Improved health and well-being in underserved populations as funding and policy decisions increasingly prioritize cost-effective and neglected interventions.
- Stronger preparation for emerging global risks, including the responsible development and governance of advanced AI and digital cognition.
- A more effective ecosystem that allocates resources based on rigorous evidence, coordinates around shared priorities, and achieves greater collective impact than fragmented efforts would allow.
Activities
What we do
- Identify neglected problems and evaluate promising interventions.
- Build decision-making frameworks, models, and measurement tools.
- Provide strategic advising to funders and organizations.
- Incubate and fiscally sponsor high-impact projects.
- Convene stakeholders to coordinate around evidence-based priorities.
- Communicate findings in accessible, actionable formats.
Outcomes
Changes we enable
- Better decisions: stakeholders use our research to guide strategy.
- Resource reallocation: funding shifts toward high-impact opportunities.
- Stronger organizations: improved program design.
- Coordinated ecosystems: movement aligned around shared priorities.
- Responsible field development: emerging areas shaped early with careful frameworks.
- New capacity: incubated projects grow into sustainable organizations.
Featured Impact
Moral Weight Project
We developed a rigorous framework for comparing welfare capacities across species, helping funders decide how to allocate resources between humans and animals.
The research examined 90 empirical traits across 11 farmed species and produced the welfare range table, now being used by multiple organizations, including Animal Charity Evaluators, and explored by government agencies in the US and the Netherlands.
Shifting attention to emerging and neglected issues
Our work on lead exposure, a neglected issue causing 1.5 million deaths annually, helped redirect $8 million in funding toward more cost-effective interventions.
Our research, conducted in 2021 and 2023, has become increasingly relevant given the recent momentum to address lead exposure, highlighted by the launch of the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future in 2024 and the Lead Exposure Action Fund in 2025, which committed at least $104 million to this issue.
Advancing Shrimp Welfare
When we began researching shrimp welfare in 2019, no organization focused on this issue, despite 440 billion farmed shrimp being killed for food each year.
Our research changed that: it inspired the launch of Shrimp Welfare Project, informed corporate campaigns that secured welfare commitments from major retailers, and contributed to animal sentience legislation in the UK and Chile.
Transparency
At Rethink Priorities, we hold ourselves accountable to our donors, partners, and the communities we serve. We strive to operate transparently and accountably.
Keep exploring
Research Database
Browse our research library covering global health
and development, animal welfare, AI, cause
prioritization, and more.
Join our Substacks
Join RP Research Digest and RP Strategic Animal Insights for jargon-free, critical research delivered in a condensed, approachable format.
Media center
Visit our media center to find recent media coverage of
Rethink Priorities, the latest press releases and contact
details for our media relations team and key experts.
Support our work
Fund research and strategy that guides grantmakers, policymakers, and nonprofits toward the most
cost-effective, evidence-backed solutions.
