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← RETHINK PRIORITIES

Form 990 for tax year 2023

Filed by RETHINK PRIORITIES.

Totals

Total revenue
$20,897,904
Total expenses
$14,326,795
Contributions and grants received
$18,971,388
Grants paid
$26,566
Program service revenue
$1,693,680
Investment income
$232,684
Other revenue
$152
Total assets, end of year
$16,266,409
Total liabilities, end of year
$1,419,170
Net assets or fund balances, end of year
$14,847,239
Program services expenses (Part IX)
$10,277,471
Management and general expenses
$3,590,053
Fundraising expenses
$459,271
Program service expenses (Part III)
$10,277,471

Program services were 71.7% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Revenue

Part VIII, the statement of revenue.

  • 1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants

    $18,971,388

  • 2a · Program service revenue: Research contracts

    total $1,693,680 · related or exempt $1,693,680

  • 3 · Investment income

    total $251,333 · excluded $251,333

  • 4 · Income from investment of tax-exempt bond proceeds

    total $0

  • 5 · Royalties

    total $0

  • 6d · Net rental income or loss

    total $0

  • 7a · Gross sales of assets other than inventory

    securities $1,000,189

  • 7b · Less cost or other basis and sales expenses

    securities $1,018,838

  • 7c · Gain or loss

    securities -$18,649

  • 7d · Net gain or loss

    total -$18,649 · excluded -$18,649

  • 8c · Net income from fundraising events

    total $0

  • 9c · Net income from gaming

    total $0

  • 10c · Net income from sales of inventory

    total $0

  • 11a · Other revenue: Miscellaneous

    total $152 · excluded $152

  • 11e · Other revenue, total

    $152

Functional expenses

Part IX, the statement of functional expenses.

  • 1 · Grants to domestic organizations and governments

    total $26,566 · program services $26,566

  • 2 · Grants to domestic individuals

    total $0

  • 3 · Grants to foreign organizations and individuals

    total $0

  • 4 · Benefits paid to or for members

    total $0

  • 5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees

    total $510,456 · program services $253,630 · management and general $239,003 · fundraising $17,823

  • 6 · Compensation of disqualified persons

    total $0

  • 7 · Other salaries and wages

    total $8,383,334 · program services $6,391,147 · management and general $1,723,615 · fundraising $268,572

  • 8 · Pension plan contributions

    total $200,471 · program services $134,639 · management and general $58,948 · fundraising $6,884

  • 9 · Other employee benefits

    total $298,950 · program services $208,736 · management and general $81,287 · fundraising $8,927

  • 10 · Payroll taxes

    total $1,253,030 · program services $967,075 · management and general $251,425 · fundraising $34,530

  • 11a · Fees: management

    total $0

  • 11b · Fees: legal

    total $153,046 · management and general $152,734 · fundraising $312

  • 11c · Fees: accounting

    total $21,735 · management and general $21,735

  • 11d · Fees: lobbying

    total $551 · program services $551

  • 11e · Fees: professional fundraising services

    total $0

  • 11f · Fees: investment management

    total $0

  • 11g · Fees: other

    total $1,695,497 · program services $971,399 · management and general $655,819 · fundraising $68,279

  • 12 · Advertising and promotion

    total $0

  • 13 · Office expenses

    total $23,121 · program services $20,264 · management and general $2,822 · fundraising $35

  • 14 · Information technology

    total $191,846 · program services $47,507 · management and general $129,884 · fundraising $14,455

  • 15 · Royalties

    total $0

  • 16 · Occupancy

    total $29,518 · program services $1,384 · management and general $28,134

  • 17 · Travel

    total $886,660 · program services $680,073 · management and general $175,435 · fundraising $31,152

  • 18 · Travel or entertainment for public officials

    total $0

  • 19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings

    total $0

  • 20 · Interest

    total $0

  • 21 · Payments to affiliates

    total $0

  • 22 · Depreciation, depletion and amortization

    total $0

  • 23 · Insurance

    total $42,859 · program services $11,760 · management and general $30,310 · fundraising $789

  • 24a · Other expenses: Facility Rentals

    total $349,642 · program services $339,689 · management and general $7,849 · fundraising $2,104

  • 24b · Other expenses: Other

    total $106,363 · program services $73,327 · management and general $28,485 · fundraising $4,551

  • 24c · Other expenses: Program supplies

    total $85,303 · program services $81,877 · management and general $2,568 · fundraising $858

  • 24d · Other expenses: Survey expenses

    total $67,847 · program services $67,847

  • 24e · All other expenses

    total $0

Balance sheet

Part X, book values.

  • 1 · Cash, non-interest-bearing

    beginning of year $5,560,589 · end of year $1,397,961

  • 2 · Savings and temporary cash investments

    beginning of year $5,028,508 · end of year $7,777,438

  • 3 · Pledges and grants receivable

    beginning of year $247,048 · end of year $6,967,840

  • 4 · Accounts receivable

    beginning of year $690,150 · end of year $123,170

  • 5 · Loans and receivables from officers and key people

    end of year $0

  • 6 · Loans and receivables from disqualified persons

    end of year $0

  • 7 · Other notes and loans receivable

    end of year $0

  • 8 · Inventories for sale or use

    end of year $0

  • 9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges

    end of year $0

  • 10c · Land, buildings and equipment, net

    end of year $0

  • 11 · Investments: publicly traded securities

    end of year $0

  • 12 · Investments: other securities

    end of year $0

  • 13 · Investments: program-related

    end of year $0

  • 14 · Intangible assets

    end of year $0

  • 15 · Other assets

    end of year $0

  • 17 · Accounts payable and accrued expenses

    beginning of year $88,977 · end of year $314,217

  • 19 · Deferred revenue

    beginning of year $1,061,188 · end of year $704,953

  • 25 · Other liabilities

    end of year $400,000

  • 27 · Net assets without donor restrictions

    beginning of year $2,754,474 · end of year $978,336

  • 28 · Net assets with donor restrictions

    beginning of year $7,621,656 · end of year $13,868,903

Mission and programs · 2023

Mission

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.

  • Special Projects: RP's Special Projects (SP) team supports priority projects that RP fiscally sponsors, incubates, or directly launches. Since the SP program launched in July 2022, some notable achievements include: 71 fiscal sponsorship expressions of interest received; 12 projects supported; $5.1m total direct costs of supported projects in 2023 alone; 7 sponsee hiring rounds completed; 71 sponsee staff onboarded (total) of which 42 sponsee staff recruited directly by SP; 20 visa sponsorship applications (UK & US); 8 in-person events; 23 days of on-site event support; and 219 total event attendees. In 2023, the following projects were fiscally sponsored or incubated at RP: Epoch, Existential Risk Alliance (ERA), Apollo Research, Effective Altruism Consulting Network (EACN), Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute (QURI), Condor Camp, The Insect Institute, and Insect Welfare Research Society. The SP team also supported founder search for field building for AI Policy and provided event planning services to the Cooperative AI Foundation.

    Expenses $3,364,864 · Grants $26,566 · Revenue $4,800

  • 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 over the course of the year include: publication of our research about the potential effects of plant-based alternatives in replacing animal-based products and our findings on the role of price, taste, and convenience in driving food choice; continued efforts to lead EU policy reform with an EU farmed fish policy reform roadmap brief; success in launching The Insect Institute by building an academic community around insect welfare through research and dissemination activities, with fifteen academics and six students collaborating with us and another seventeen academics expressing interest for future work; convening the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum to provide an annual space for leaders of animal advocacy organizations to strategize together and strengthen the movement; and estimating that shrimp production for human food is more important in scale-i.e., in the number of individuals affected?than the problem of insect farming, wild fish captures, or the farming of any other vertebrates used for human consumption.

    Expenses $1,858,374 · Revenue $4,800

  • AI Policy and Strategy: In 2023, Rethink Priorities' (RP's) AI Governance and Strategy Department launched into a new think tank called Institute for AI Policy and Strategy (IAPS). A brief overview of IAPS' four main workstreams and 2023 accomplishments follows: (1) Compute governance work aims to establish a firmer empirical and theoretical grounding for the fledgling field of compute governance, to inform ongoing policy processes and debates, and to develop more concrete technical and policy proposals. In 2023, RP published a report on AI chip smuggling into China, prominently mentioned in The Times online newspaper. RP also co-authored a forthcoming 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. Both of these above-mentioned reports have received positive feedback and interest from researchers and senior US policymakers. The authors have been asked to deliver briefings on their findings to audiences, including through roundtable discussions co-hosted by CNAS and in the Foundation for American Innovation's podcast. (2) Lab governance work aims to identify concrete interventions that could improve the safety, security, and governance of frontier AI labs' systems via voluntary lab commitments, standards, or regulations. Program accomplishments from 2023 include publications which describe how frontier AI developers can respond to risks discovered after deployment of a model through a toolkit of "deployment corrections expansion on previous cybersecurity work to provide a wide-ranging yet actionable framework for risk management of emerging threats from AI; and, working with the Centre for the Governance of AI (GovAI) to examine the risks and benefits of open-sourcing in highly capable foundation models. (3) AI regulations work aims to focus on US AI standards, regulations, and legislation, using methods including case studies from other sectors. Some highlights from 2023 include the production of a series of outputs drawing lessons from risk management and regulation in other sectors and co-authoring on a forthcoming paper about Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress. (4) China & international governance work aims to to improve decisions at the intersection of AI governance and international governance or China. Work was conducted on questions related to international governance regimes for frontier AI, China-West relations concerning AI, and relevant technical and policy developments within China. Some highlights from 2023 include working with GovAI on a report on international AI safety dialogues and working with the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) on a forthcoming report on possible risks from AI alignment efforts and how to avoid them.

    Expenses $1,513,962 · Revenue $42,981

As filed on the 2023 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

  • Marcus Davis Co-CEO

    Director

    Total calculated
    $168,662
    From this org
    $144,922
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $23,740
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $144,922
    Bonus
    not reported
    Other
    not reported
    Deferred
    $4,345
    Nontaxable benefits
    $19,395
    Filer's total
    $168,662

  • Samara Mendez

    Senior Economist

    Total calculated
    $165,931
    From this org
    $130,985
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $34,946
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $130,985
    Bonus
    not reported
    Other
    not reported
    Deferred
    not reported
    Nontaxable benefits
    $34,946
    Filer's total
    $165,931

  • Abraham Rowe

    COO

    Total calculated
    $159,611
    From this org
    $140,366
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $19,245
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $140,366
    Bonus
    not reported
    Other
    not reported
    Deferred
    $4,196
    Nontaxable benefits
    $15,049
    Filer's total
    $159,611

  • Peter Hurford Co-

    CEO

    Total calculated
    $159,405
    From this org
    $147,892
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $11,513
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $147,892
    Bonus
    not reported
    Other
    not reported
    Deferred
    $4,345
    Nontaxable benefits
    $7,168
    Filer's total
    $159,405

  • William McAuliffe

    Senior Researcher

    Total calculated
    $147,311
    From this org
    $120,683
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $26,628
    Hours/week
    40

  • Greer Gosnell

    Senior Researcher

    Total calculated
    $139,703
    From this org
    $130,236
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $9,467
    Hours/week
    40

  • Amanda El-Dakhakhni

    Snr. Research Mgr.

    Total calculated
    $136,943
    From this org
    $130,660
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $6,283
    Hours/week
    40

  • Melanie Basnak

    Senior Researcher

    Total calculated
    $132,156
    From this org
    $120,683
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $11,473
    Hours/week
    40

  • Elysha Png

    Director

    Total calculated
    $12,079
    From this org
    $12,079
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Abi Olvera Secretary

    Director

    Total calculated
    $10,698
    From this org
    $10,698
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    10

  • Ozzie Gooen

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Cameron Meyer

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Vicky Bond

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • JueYan Zhang Treasurer

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Nikolai Vetr President

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Niel Bowerman

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Answered yes

  • 3 · Compensation committee
  • 3 · Form 990 of other organizations
  • 3 · Compensation survey or study
  • 3 · Approval by the board or compensation committee

Answered no

  • 4a · Severance or change-of-control payment
  • 4b · Supplemental nonqualified retirement plan
  • 4c · Equity-based compensation arrangement
  • 5a · Pay contingent on this organization's revenues
  • 5b · Pay contingent on a related organization's revenues
  • 6a · Pay contingent on this organization's net earnings
  • 6b · Pay contingent on a related organization's net earnings
  • 7 · Other non-fixed payments
  • 8 · Paid under the initial-contract exception

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

Taxable family on this return

Schedule R Parts I, III and IV, as filed. These record ownership and control, not shared board members or money moved.

Disregarded entities

Part I: entities that legally are the filer and file no return of their own.

Provenance

Return type
form_990
Tax year
2023
Filed
12 November 2024
IRS schema version
2023v5.1
Source object
202433179349301723

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