International Shrimpact Day™ Fundraiser

November 25th - December 2nd, 2025

🪖 Join the Shrimp Wars

This giving season, FarmKind (a non-profit dedicated to fixing factory farming) is partnering with Glenn from United States of Exception to launch something unprecedented: a friendly, tongue-in-cheek fundraising war against GiveDirectly's annual Substack campaign.

While they have the big names and cash transfers, we have 440 billion crustaceans on our side.

The Mission: Rally Substack's most thoughtful writers to raise funds for Shrimp Welfare Project — one of the world's most innovative and cost-effective charities, reducing the suffering of over 1500 animals per dollar. We’ll provide matching funding to incentivise more donations.

The Timeline: Publish your post between November 25th (which we’re officially registering as International Shrimpact Day™) and December 2nd (Giving Tuesday).

🤩 Why this matters (and why it works)

The opportunity is massive:

440 billion shrimp are farmed annually — 4x the total number of humans that have ever lived and 5x the total number of cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and other poultry farmed each year.
The scientific consensus is that shrimp are likely capable of feeling pain (see our sources). With 440 billion likely sentient individuals at stake, this is a risk worth taking seriously.
They suffer on intensive factory farms. Current practices include eyestalk ablation (crushing eyestalk of female breeder shrimp without anesthetic) and slaughter by asphyxiation.
Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) is the first and only organization dedicated entirely to helping them. They’re recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators and are exceptionally cost-effective, helping ~1,500 animals per dollar.

We know Substack posts can work to raise funds for charity:

Last November, a handful of Substack posts about shrimp welfare (in particular Bentham's Bulldog's piece) generated tens of thousands of dollars in donations, helping millions of shrimp. All the attention even led to a Daily Show segment about Shrimp Welfare Project.

Glenn declared it International Shrimp Welfare Day. This year, we're making it official.

The "Shrimp Wars" angle

We're timing our campaign alongside GiveDirectly's annual Substack fundraiser, creating a playful competition, e.g. "they might raise more money, but we’ll still have a bigger impact”. To be clear, we think GiveDirectly is a great charity (in fact, one of FarmKind’s co-founders donated a total of $19,701 to them back in his for-profit days). But we think this lighthearted rivalry will be positive-sum because:

Cut through donation fatigue: It’s a fresh narrative that makes both campaigns more memorable
More intrigue on social media: "😯 Humans or shrimp — who will Substack pick?" is more likely to go viral than each fundraiser would in isolation
Cross-pollination benefits: Our audiences discover GiveDirectly, theirs discover shrimp welfare, everyone wins

You don’t have to make your post anything to do with Give Directly. This is an optional angle that isn’t core to the fundraiser.

🎁 What’s in it for you?

Help thousands of animals suffer less: You can use your writing to make a massive positive impact. We can quantify your impact using our ‘matching codes’ (more on this below). FarmKind will also provide a 20% donation match for the Shrimpact Day campaign while funds last.
Gain exposure: Be a part of a campaign with dozens of other writers. We’ve just started outreach, and 17 have already committed across philosophy, science, politics and culture, plus Scott Alexander (Astral Codex Ten) has agreed to ‘signal boost’ the campaign. The campaign landing page and live ‘leaderboard’ will drive readers between blogs, potentially getting you in front of many thousands of new readers.
You can be yourself and get creative: The question of whether/why to help shrimp is a rich topic which you’re welcome to approach however you like. Write what genuinely interests your audience. Be direct or be abstract and poetic. Approach the topic through philosophy, economics or art history – the choice is yours!”

⚙️ How it will work

Publication timeline: You can publish any time between November 25th (Shrimpact Day) and December 2nd (Giving Tuesday). Calls to donate will crescendo throughout this period, building momentum toward the Giving Tuesday finale when many people make their year-end charitable decisions.
Readers choose their favorite post and get a 20% bonus: When someone decides to donate, they'll choose which writer's personalized code (e.g. "Glenn") to use when making their gift. This serves as their "vote" for their favorite post and adds a 20% bonus from FarmKind’s Bonus Fund as an extra incentive. We’ll show a live leaderboard of how many donors chose each writer and who is helping the most shrimp.
Side events and prizes: We plan to organize talks on Substack Live Video with academics and public intellectuals (e.g. Jonathan Birch, Jeff Sebo or Peter Singer) to raise awareness about Shrimpact Day and raise funds in real-time. We’ll offer the largest donor during the campaign a call with Shrimp Welfare Project’s founder and the writer who wrote their favorite post. We’ll also have “the little shrimp that could” award, to the blog with the highest vote-to-follower ratio amongst all entrants.