Transparency

Open and transparent communication is important to us. This page is therefore designed to show our supporters, members and benefactors how we use the donations entrusted to us.

Legal structure

Sentience Politics (or Sentience, for short) was founded in 2014 as a project of the Effective Altruism Foundation and was restructured as an independent association under Swiss law in 2017.

Article 2: Purpose

2.1
The purpose of the Association is to improve the quality of life of as many sentient beings as possible. It promotes sustainability, animal welfare and the concept of anti-speciesism. To this end, it conducts scientific research and makes the results freely available, as well as advocating general conditions and ethics that promote the above goals.

2.2
The Association may pursue these objectives in particular by

  • Organising free public events and larger educational events in the field of popular science,
  • Providing a forum for discussion on the above topics,
  • Writing research papers and making them freely and easily available,
  • Carrying out initiatives and information campaigns on the basis of this,
  • Providing free materials online.

2.3
The Association is not profit-driven and does not pursue any commercial interests.

Our effectiveness criteria

Since Sentience was founded in 2014, we have been pursuing the goal of making a measurable contribution to reducing the suffering of non-human animals in Switzerland in the most effective way possible. This principle of effectiveness is one that we still believe in to this day.

When developing new campaigns, we are guided by the metrics of scope, tractability and neglectedness.

  • Scope: By how much would solving this problem reduce animal suffering?
  • Tractability: How much progress could we expect if we put more resources towards solving this problem?
  • Neglectedness: How many resources are already invested in solving this problem?

The process of developing new ideas involves regular contact with experts from science, politics and the private sector, as well as with other non-profit organisations.

Annual reports

It is important to us that we give new supporters, potential members and benefactors an easily accessible overview of our work and of how we use donations. We do this by providing regular updates on our work, transparently disclosing donation amounts in our annual reports, and actively acknowledging and reflecting on mistakes.