You're pledging to donate if the project hits its minimum goal and gets approved. If not, your funds will be returned.
The Shape Agency is a for profit business that provides comms, lobbying, advocacy and strategy support to unions, nonprofits and other mission-driven organisations in Australia. Our services help grow the reach and impact of organisations across a range of issue areas but people working in AI Safety or other effective altruist cause areas such as animal welfare routinely point to a lack of funding as a reason they're unable to do more in communicating their work.
Staff at Shape are ex journalists and political advisers with a real knowledge of how the system works and how charities can use the media, social media and new media such as podcasts and substacks to advance their agenda with government and policymakers. Receiving funding would allow the agency to offer services that are needed, but not yet used in Australia, New Zealand and across the Asia-Pacific region because until now, cost has been a barrier.
This project will drive earned media and therefore, national attention on the priorities of our clients. While we don't claim to know what clients would want in advance of undertaking this work, here are some examples from organisations we've had preliminary conversations with about this model:
For a charity like Good Ancestors, this might look like placing stories in national newspapers about the importance of making Australia a global centre for training AI frontier models.
For Give Industries, this could be helping secure a TV segment on 60 Minutes that focuses on their work in the Profit for Good movement to inspire others to begin businesses with a view to giving away their funds to EA causes.
For the Alliance for Animals, this may take the form of providing lobbying support for the key legislative priorities in animal welfare ahead of state elections in Australia's largest states, Victoria and New South Wales.
The funding would allow us to commit to providing our services regardless of budget. This mean the same advocacy, comms and lobbying support that we have provided at our commercial rates would be provided at a discounted rate where organisations are able to pay for this in order to ensure we can help more clients, or it would involve pro-bono services where budgets prevent any payment at all.
All staff at the agency can be found here, although the applicant's bio, Michael Chaitow, is available below: https://theshapeagency.com.au/meet-shape/
Michael is a strategist, campaigner and communications specialist who has spent the past 15 years working at the intersection of politics, advocacy and community life — on three continents and across issues that don’t come with easy answers. Prior to joining Shape he ran digital campaigns at GetUp and grew the social media following of shadow cabinet ministers across Australia and human rights organisations in New York and DC.
He’s led everything from fundraising drives to media blitzes, shaped strategy for organisations on the frontlines of social change, and worked behind the scenes in parliaments, press offices and policy shops. Whether it’s helping movements grow or governments listen, Michael brings a mix of strategic insight, sharp writing and political nous to the table.
His work has featured across Channel 10, ABC News, the Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, the Guardian, the Independent, Bloomberg and many other publications.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchaitow/
We have played a role in securing some of the largest political victories in Australia, from supporting the successful campaign to legislate equal marriage to driving the communications strategy for government agencies in the transition to renewable energy across the country. A list of our largest successes and victories can be found at: https://theshapeagency.com.au/our-work/
The most likely cause of failure in this work will the challenge of aligning political incentives for the kinds of change our clients are advocating for. This could mean a failure for Australia to take meaningful steps on animal welfare or AI Safety or it could mean that countries across the region receive a lack of media coverage on these issues, contributing to a culture of complacency.
This is what we hope to overcome by working to support as many organisations as we can working on these issues because they are expert on these issues, and we are expert at how to tell stories that motivate change in government and in public attitudes.
We have no yet raised funding because we currently work only with clients who we charge commercial rates. The aim of this project is to change that so that we can better service smaller, more EA aligned nonprofits.