Animal Advocacy Innovation Hub in the Bay Area

Don't have a Manifund account? Click here to donate!

Project summary

Imagine a cozy, dedicated coworking space in the heart of SF where passionate advocates for animals in the Bay Area could come together to collaborate, innovate, and inspire each other. It would be more than just a place to work—it would be a community.

That’s exactly what we’re trying to build!

We have already kicked off our presence in this new space with a number of different events starting in late Feb 2025:

To keep the momentum going, we are fundraising to support a dedicated hub (tentatively to be hosted at Mox) for thoughtful, impact-oriented, pro-animal people who are committed to suffering reduction for all nonhumans.

Here’s why it matters:

Animal welfare receives only a fraction of philanthropic funding compared to other cause areas, despite its massive scale and tractability. While other cause areas have dedicated spaces for collaboration and innovation, animal advocacy largely operates in isolation:

Addressing a Critical Gap: Animal welfare receives less than 1% of US charitable giving, yet affects billions of sentient beings. The efficiency gains from coworking in person would allow animal welfare people to accomplish more with the staff and budgets they have.

Strategic Location Advantage: The Bay Area has one of the highest densities of animal advocates globally, yet most work remotely without regular in-person collaboration. This hub can give them a space of their own and serve to attract more animal advocates to the Bay, which would very likely increase their impact since the opportunities are much greater here. (part of our theory of change is just convincing our friends/collaborators to move to the Bay)
Direct Impact on Movement Building: Regular co-location drives innovation, accelerates project development, and increases knowledge sharing, and serendipity. We'll actively work to centralize and connect the Bay's animal advocacy community, transforming isolated remote work into collaborative innovation.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Short-term Goals (< 2 months):

Start with an existing core group of animal welfare professionals in the Bay Area. Invite them to events and coworking sessions to try the space out for free.
✅ Co-host Code4Compassion 2025 hackathon

Long-term Goals (> 2 months):

Core members will invite other valuable collaborators and teammates. This will start off slow and be selective for those that are value aligned and looking to work on ambitious and impactful projects.
Collaborations and knowledge exchange occurs between the tech startup/EA members and pro-animal members of Mox
Members of the Hive and AI for Animals communities know to come to a particular space when they visit the Bay Area: we will host co-working sessions and events around major events like AVA Summit or EAG.

By the end of the pilot, we aim to have clear data on:

Optimal usage patterns for our community
Most valuable aspects of the space (e.g., meeting rooms vs. hot desks)
Financial sustainability requirements
Impact on project collaboration and community building

How will this funding be used?

See Mox rates for a baseline here

Minimum Request

10 community co-working days for up to 5 people = $3,000

Ideal Request

10 community co-working days for up to 10 people = $6,000
1 month free membership for up to 20 people = $5,600
Community Manager for the Hub = $4,000

Total: $15,600

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

It would mostly be me setting up the space and recruiting people to come. I run 2-3 in-person events a month in the Bay, which usually aren't disasters, and I used to organize EA coworking days.

I am supported by a remote team and a loose network of friends/volunteers. We've already built Hive, the most active Slack community in either the EA or animal protection space with >3,500 members and >1,000 monthly active users (and still growing after 2 years). Our Bay Area channel alone has >250 members - demonstrating both the concentration of local advocates and our ability to build and maintain engaged communities. Check out the testimonials from our community members.

Above is a graph of our Slack monthly active users on Hive over the past year.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The primary risks of this pilot are insufficient or imbalanced utilization of the space - while we have strong initial interest, the part-time hot desk model may prove inadequate for building lasting community, and usage could end up concentrated among just a few organizations. There are also significant operational challenges in managing a shared space, for which we hope to hire a community manager for. However, even if the space proves unsustainable in its current form, the pilot will provide valuable data about the Bay Area animal advocacy community's actual space needs, working patterns, and willingness to engage in physical collaboration - insights that could prove crucial for designing future movement infrastructure.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

Personally, I am self-funded. AI for Animals is funded by various individual and institutional donors including Open Philanthropy and EA Animal Welfare Fund, but we did not include this physical hub in our funding proposals.

Thanks for your support! Donate on this page (Manifund) or by clicking here.