Rethink Priorities
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Rethink Priorities' mission is to support organizations, researchers, and changemakers in efforts to generate the most significant possible charitable impact for others in the present and the long-term future.
- Income
- $20.6 million
- Spending
- $20.4 million
- Spent on programs
- 78%
- Reserves
- 2.7 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 88%
- Employees
- 0
- Volunteers
- 2
- Highest pay
- $214,660, associate director (epoch)
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 63 out of 100. Higher than 50% of charities in its peer group (human services, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
10 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 2.7 months of spending.
Debt
16 of 20It owes 21% of what it owns.
Living within its means
12 of 15Income exceeded spending by 1% of income.
Income trend
10 of 15Income fell 1% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1578% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 3 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Good: 80 out of 100. Higher than 8% of charities in its peer group (human services, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
5 of 254 of 8 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (6)
- $9.7 million spent. Special Projects: RP's Special Projects (SP) team supports priority projects that RP fiscally sponsors, incubates, or directly launches. In 2024, some of SP's notable achievements include: 42 fiscal sponsorship expressions of interest received; 10 projects supported; $6.4m total direct costs of supported projects; 7 sponsee hiring rounds completed; 39 total sponsee staff at year end; 6 visa sponsorship applications (UK & US); 9 in-person events; and 216 total event attendees. In 2024, the following projects were fiscally sponsored or incubated at RP: Epoch, Apollo Research, Consultants for Impact (CFI - previously the Effective Altruism Consulting Network), Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute (QURI), Condor Camp, The Insect Institute, Insect Welfare Research Society, the Vista Institute for AI Policy, Global Challenges Project, and provided general administrative support services to Pow-dr.
- $2.3 million spent. AI Policy and Strategy: In 2024, Rethink Priorities' (RP's) AI work was conducted by the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy (IAPS). A brief overview of IAPS' four main workstreams and 2024 accomplishments follows: (1) Compute policy work aims to explore novel interventions and strategic considerations for managing access to massive AI compute resources. In 2024, IAPS work on this area included publishing a landmark paper with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) focused on using on-chip governance mechanisms to manage national security risks from AI and advanced computing, working on a forthcoming (published in 2025) report on location verification for advanced AI chips, and publishing a report analyzing the potential impact of high-end consumer GPUs on the efficacy of US export controls on AI chips. The work has received significant interest from US policymakers. (2) Frontier Security work aims to identify concrete interventions to address AI-related threats to national defense and security and protect innovation. Accomplishments in 2024 include publications analyzing advanced AI companies' RSPs (responsible scaling plans) and providing recommendations, a systematic analysis of regulatory precedents from all federal agencies, an early warning system for dual-use capabilities which lays out info-sharing paths between AI companies, government, and critical defenders, publications examining safety R&D efforts by advanced AI labs and the role the UK government can play in leading AI assurance, multiple RFI responses on key topics regarding AI, and upcoming reports (published in 2025) on differential access for cybersecurity capabilities, and on promising directions in AI reliability R&D. (3) International Strategy work aims to study trends in international coordination and competition around advanced AI. In 2024, published research included advice on topics for AI Track IIs that minimize risks of leaking sensitive information, an analysis of the first wave of AI safety institutes and key questions for the international network of these institutes, as well as analysis of China including counterparts to AI safety institutes and a comparison of US and China's approaches to governing advanced AI. (4) IAPS programs department ran an AI policy fellowship with 13 fellows, who now hold relevant positions in advanced AI labs, US and UK government, and think tanks.
- $1.9 million spent. Animal Welfare: Rethink Priorities' (RP's) Animal Welfare (AW) Department aims to be a leading hub of research and innovation to accelerate the end of factory farming and reduce the suffering of other animals. Through work spanning independent research, consulting services, and applied projects, the team supports advocacy organizations, philanthropic foundations, and other actors to drive evidence-based and reason-driven change for animals. Some notable accomplishments from the Animal Welfare department during 2024 include: A series of case studies demonstrating innovative initiatives that are shifting consumption towards plant-based alternatives in replacing animal-based products; a cost-effectiveness analysis of various interventions (viz., institutional meat reduction work in US and Western Europe, farmed fish stunning in Europe); estimating the production costs and future capacity of the insect farming sector; creating strategic roadmaps for multiple areas of animal advocacy (viz., farmed shrimp, wild animals); and hosting the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum to provide an annual space for leaders of animal advocacy organizations to strengthen the movement.
- $991,236 spent. Global Health and Development: Rethink Priorities' (RP's) Global Health and Development (GHD) Department conducts high quality research on important global health, international development, and climate issues and uses its research to influence relevant stakeholders, such that they move resources towards more cost-effective interventions to ultimately increase wellbeing in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). GHD completed around 20 reports in 2024 on topics such as infectious disease, climate change, and health systems in the developing world. GHD also expanded its consulting services work, advising major foundations on cost-effective giving strategies. It also hosted a second annual global health and development strategy forum, bringing together around 20 different stakeholders working in related areas.
- $641,588 spent. Worldview Investigations - Rethink Priorities' (RP's) Worldview Investigations Team (WIT) exists to improve resource allocation by focusing on tractable, high-impact questions that bear on philanthropic priorities. WIT builds on RP's work as a multi-cause, stakeholder-driven research organization and aims to take action-relevant philosophical, methodological, and strategic problems and turn them into manageable, modelable problems. In 2024, we published a sequence of reports ('Charitable Resource Allocation Frameworks and Tools Sequence') introducing two interactive tools that can be used to inform philanthropic funding: a Portfolio tool for optimising allocations of resources across a portfolio of different causes and a Parliament tool that helps actors navigate normative uncertainty using a 'moral parliament' approach. WIT also developed and published three research agendas, outlining key research questions needing to be addressed in this space, concerning general philanthropic resource allocation, prioritizing animal welfare across different species and digital welfare in the case of advanced digital systems. We also began work related to our digital welfare research agenda, releasing a report outlining 'Charitable Resource Allocation Frameworks and Tools Sequence.' We also presented our work at several academic conferences, including DePauw University ("Risky Giving: Navigating Uncertainty When Trying to Do Good"), University of Guelph ("The Moral Weight Project"), Stanford ("Welfare Comparisons and Moral Weights"), and University of Colorado Boulder ("Getting Animals into BCA").
- $432,942 spent. Surveys and Data Analysis: Rethink Priorities' (RP's) Surveys and Data Analysis Department supported work in a variety of high priority causes in 2024 through conducting surveys, polling, other forms of psychological and behavioral experiments and focus groups, and data analysis. This included running a series of surveys to examine the changing use of LLMs, and their potential influence on automation, in the general public and key industries and occupations, as well as conducting in-depth interviews with a smaller number of advanced users of LLMs. We also ran and published the results of a further wave of our regular Pulse survey, a nationally representative survey of the US population, assessing attitudes towards charitable donation, different cause areas, and their awareness of and attitudes towards effective altruism, as well as artificial intelligence. We also collaborated with academics to produce an academic publication, under review at Technological Forecasting & Social Change, concerning public and expert attitudes towards societal risks from AI. We also independently published a report on the attitudes of the British public regarding extinction risk. We also published several reports related to the effective altruism philanthropic community, concerning the time prioritisation in the community, optimal framings for communicating about the community, personality psychology in the community and community health. We also completed various private surveys and data analyses to inform the work of high impact organizations, for example, concerning attitudes towards baitfish welfare policies, black soldier fly larvae farming and changes in the number of EAs across different global locations.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated November 6, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since May 2020.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated November 4, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.