Now that 2021 is over, we thought this would be a good time to reflect on what we accomplished during the last year, and what our goals are for 2022.
Our Work in 2021
Accomplishments
The following are some of the things we achieved during 2021:
- We hired two additional staff members, Teo Ajantaival (research) and Winston Oswald-Drummond (operations/outreach).
- We revamped our website, significantly improving the layout and design.
- We published more research on suffering-focused ethics, s-risks, and cause prioritization:
- Teo Ajantaival released the first two essays in a series on minimalist axiologies, the first being Positive roles of life and experience in suffering-focused ethics and the second being Minimalist axiologies and positive lives.
- Tobias Baumann published How can we reduce s-risks? and co-authored S-risk impact distribution is double-tailed with Magnus Vinding.
- Though Magnus spent most of the year writing a forthcoming book on politics (more on this below), he also posted a brief reply to the “near-perfect paradise vs. small hell” objection sometimes raised against certain suffering-focused views.
- We made significant updates to our open research questions page.
- Tobias and Magnus both made podcast appearances, where they discussed a number of topics related to reducing suffering. You can find more details here and here.
- Audiobook and hardcover versions of Suffering-Focused Ethics by Magnus Vinding were released.
Transparency
We think it’s important to be transparent about our work, so we’ll give a quick breakdown of our 2021 budget.
Our total funds available for 2021 amounted to £82,864.99 GBP (£5,061.55 starting balance + £77,803.44 in donations). Of that total, we spent £81,477.45 and carried £1,387.54 forward into 2022. The breakdown of our £81,477.45 in expenses is as follows:
| Expense | Cost (in GBP) |
| Employee salaries (including four paid internships) | 77,966.78 |
| Legal fees | 2,456.65 |
| Website Design and upkeep | 873.30 |
| Paid work test | 180.72 |
We expect the breakdown of our 2022 budget to look similar, but with our total funds being around twice as large.
CRS is entirely funded by individual donors.
Plans for 2022
We have a number of exciting goals for 2022.
Reasoned Politics Book Release
We’ll be releasing a new book, Reasoned Politics by Magnus Vinding, in which he argues that a better approach to politics is possible, and explores how we can best reduce suffering through politics. A more detailed summary can be found here.
Tax-Deductibility
We plan to register CRS as a tax-deductible charity in the U.S. We’re currently in the process of doing this and have incorporated in Washington state.
Research
We’ll continue to investigate topics related to suffering reduction and publish our results.
- Teo Ajantaival is working on completing his minimalist axiologies series, which will include at least two more essays, one that responds to objections to minimalist axiologies and one that explores multi-level minimalism.
- Magnus Vinding will write more essays on ethics and cause prioritization after Reasoned Politics is released, and plans to publish an essay collection on suffering-focused ethics.
- We’ll publish a post on career advice for suffering-focused altruists.
- We’ll keep exploring macrostrategic considerations related to artificial sentience and s-risks.
Work Opportunities at CRS
We’re open to scaling up and hiring for roles in research, operations, and growth. If you’re interested in working with us, we encourage you to apply or contact us with any questions you may have.
Thank you to everyone who supported us during 2021, our biggest year yet! We’re looking forward to making even more progress in 2022.