EA in its Infancy

I first encountered Effective Altruism back in 2013, when I attended an event at the University of Basel where this then-young movement presented itself. At that time, EA had already made its way to Switzerland, but was still largely unknown in Germany. The movement’s core ideas immediately made sense to me, since I was already familiar with utilitarianism through Peter Singer and had always approached ethical questions very rationally. I particularly valued Effective Altruism’s scientific approach, partly because I had worked as a measurement engineer and scientist from 2005 to 2012. During that time, I gained extensive experience with evidence-based work and metrology.

My Focus: Animal Welfare

What especially caught my interest was that many of the organisers were active in both the animal rights and EA scenes. Two years earlier, I had reoriented my career to dedicate myself full-time to reducing animal suffering. Animal welfare is particularly relevant as a cause area because it affects so many sentient beings and remains severely neglected despite support from EA.

Founding Animal Society

That’s why I co-founded Animal Society in 2021 – with a clear EA mindset: Our focus is on advancing legislative reforms and institutional change. This area is enormously impactful but almost completely neglected. While the animal rights movement invests heavily in vegan outreach and corporate campaigns, there’s a lack of political engagement. To our knowledge, Animal Society is the only organisation worldwide that focuses on changing democratic institutions to politically represent the interests of animals. For this work, I often travel from Animal Society’s headquarters in Stuttgart to places where important decisions are made: Strasbourg, Brussels, and Berlin.

Effective Giving for Animal Welfare

I also support animal protection through donations. Here, I focus on small, highly competent and innovative organisations, as these are often more agile, have low overhead costs, and achieve significant impact with limited resources. Currently, I donate to Expertise for Animals, Animal Ask, Will Kirche Tierschutz, Vegan Hacktivists, and of course Animal Society.

Creating Impact Through Collaboration

EA has shown me how crucial research, professionalism, and fundraising are to effectively reduce suffering. What’s particularly important to me is optimised movement ecology: effectiveness doesn’t just come from individual performance, but also from strategic and appreciative collaboration.