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Rethink Priorities Cross-Cause Fund

Rethink Priorities Donor Compass

An interactive tool that translates your moral and empirical assumptions into a personalized cross-cause allocation.

About

What is Donor Compass

Donor Compass helps you find the optimal distribution of donations across cause areas represented by high-impact funds. For most donors, we recommend using Rethink Priorities’ default allocation. It reflects our best all-things-considered judgment on where a marginal dollar does the most good. But if you’re curious how your own values translate into giving recommendations, or you want a more individualized approach, Donor Compass lets you explore.

For a detailed explanation of how the model works, see our Methodology.
For a guided introduction, try our Step-by-Step Walkthrough.

Donor Compass
Launch Donor Compass

How it works

The questions

In simple mode, Donor Compass asks four questions that capture the key assumptions behind any cross-cause allocation:

1

How much moral weight do you give to animal welfare compared to human welfare?

When comparing interventions, how much does improving an animal’s life count relative to improving a human’s? Your answer affects how the model scores animal welfare funds relative to human-focused interventions.

2

How much do you discount effects that happen in the future?

You might value future effects less than immediate ones, e.g., a program that helps people today may feel more certain than one that helps people in 50 years, because a lot can change. This setting lets you decide how much to discount effects based on how far out they occur.

3

Do you want to apply an extra discount for interventions that don't address AI risk?

If transformative AI arrives soon, it could reshape everything, potentially making other long-term work less relevant. Turning this on reduces the weight given to non-AI causes (global health, animal welfare, bio/nuclear risk) to reflect that possibility.

4

How do you want to handle uncertainty and risk?

Every cause has a range of possible outcomes, from pessimistic to optimistic. Do you want to weight them equally (expected value), be skeptical of the rosiest scenarios, or focus more on avoiding the worst outcomes?

Your results

Based on your answers, Donor Compass generates a recommended allocation across our current funds: i We plan to expand the number of funds over time.

  • GiveWell All Grants Fund
  • Lead Exposure Action Fund
  • EA Animal Welfare Fund
  • The Navigation Fund (General)
  • The Navigation Fund (Cage-Free)
  • Longview Philanthropy’s Frontier AI Fund
  • Longview Philanthropy’s Nuclear Weapons Policy Fund
  • Sentinel Bio (Biosecurity)

Results show the percentage and dollar amount allocated to each fund
based on your specified budget. See our methodology to learn more.

Mix with RP worldviews

Not confident going fully on your own views? You can blend your preferences with Rethink Priorities’ expert worldviews using credence-weighted allocation. For example:

  • Your views: 27%
  • RP preset worldviews: 73%

This lets you incorporate expert judgment while
still reflecting what matters most to you.

Explore Donor Compass

For users who want full control, we recommend exploring our
Advanced Mode, which lets you customize every parameter.

Getting started

Step-by-step walkthrough

New to cross-cause prioritization? Our walkthrough guides you through each question with examples and explanations, helping you understand how your choices affect the final allocation.

Go to walkthrough

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