News, Updates & Events

Newsletter

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December 2025

Rundown to the end of the year!

📍 EAGx Amsterdam — see you there?
We’ll be attending EAGx Amsterdam this week and would love to meet others who are joining.
If you’re around, feel free to reach out and connect.

• Contact — easy way to schedule a call with Ruth
• Work With Us — an overview of current collaboration and contractor opportunities

🤝 Growing momentum for SFE community building
We are very excited to see a significant rise in Compassionate Suffering-Focused community building and community-growth this year. Particularly, CRS (philosophy-centred work) and Sentient Futures (focusing on non-human sentient beings) have been expanding the space with new programs and engagement opportunities!

October 2025

We have been at EAGx Berlin 🎉. See here our quick intro into the project. 

Ruth talked to about 40 people while presenting the Compassionate Future Initiative at the Opportunity Fair, and about 49 participants attended the Suffering Focused Ethics (SFE) meetup. 

Also:

🎉 Save the date!
 The next Compassionate Future Summit is happening in Berlin, 27–31 August 2026. 

Add it to your calendar now and follow us for updates here:

• EA Forum
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Discord

September 2025

August 2025

🌟 The Compassionate Future Summit 2025 – Was Great! 🌟

While I fell ill right after the event and am still recovering, I need to share how amazing our weekend was!

From 21–25 August 2025, we gathered at “Jugenddorf am Müggelsee, Berlin” for the Compassionate Future Summit 2025 – a participant-driven working and community weekend dedicated to reducing and preventing suffering across sentient life and long timelines.

We had 45 ambitious participants from 17 countries, including from 6 countries outside Europe! 

Building on the success of the 2019 Suffering-Focused Ethics Retreat in Switzerland, this year’s Compassionate Future Summit succeeded in attracting and nurturing amazing talent, connecting people, projects, and ideas, and fostering a resilient community culture.

Through Preparation & Content Contribution Calls we encouraged research, content and self development ahead of the event:

• Exploring, discussing and co-developing ideas how event attendance can support both the individual’s impact goals and those of the other event attendees. 
• Reflecting on what cause area(s) attendees want to work on or how they want to optimise their career for impact. Exploratory and rough, but aiming to include:
  • A theory of change — for one’s career trajectory, projects or potential content contribution, ranking strategies by potential impact and risk/benefit ratio
  • Long-term projections (evolution, obstacles, risks and benefits) — how one’s approach might impact future sentient beings in the next 10, 50, & 200 years

The event featured a wide range of talks, workshops, and collaborative sessions, complemented by structured social activities, reflective practices, and community-building exercises.

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who contributed — in preparation calls, in content sessions, and in countless informal conversations. The energy, openness, creativity and compassion you brought made the weekend what it was.

A more detailed report (with highlights and takeaways) will follow soon. And we’ve started organising next year’s Summit (August 2026, probably Berlin again) — so stay tuned!

Also, our online working & community meetups need to be revived soon - Stay tuned for a refreshed format! 

June 2025

📣 We still have around 5 spots left for the upcoming Compassionate Future Summit.

📅 21–25 August 2025 | 📍 Berlin, Germany
​
This participant-driven event brings together ~45 ambitious international changemakers to explore long-term solutions for reducing suffering. Enjoy all-vegan catering, shared bungalows, and a collaborative programme designed to foster connections and inspire new initiatives.

We’ll soon be sharing 10 example content contributions and contributors — but in the meantime, here’s what we suggest to anyone applying in order to get the most out of the preparation for your self and make your content contribution most valuable for the other attendees.

Ideally:
🔹 have a theory of change outlined for your career trajectory or your content contribution, with ranking strategies by their potential for impact and with risk/benefit ratio
🔹 include a long-term outlook — How might your strategy impact future sentient beings in the next 10, 50, or 200 years?

If you’re working on ideas that could meaningfully shape a more compassionate future, we’d love to hear from you! 

🧬 Compassionate Genomics Now Live on Our Website!

After sharing our Compassionate Genomics proposal on the EA Forum for early feedback, we’ve now published it on website as well:
👉 compassionate-future.org/compassionate-genomics

This post introduces our vision for Genomic Welfare with Ethical Care for Moral Predispositions. It’s part of a broader effort to spotlight high-impact, underexplored interventions to reduce suffering across generations.

If you haven’t read it yet, we’d love your thoughts. And if it resonates, please feel free to get in touch and to explore tangible steps for you to take and steer development in the right direction with high potential to reduce suffering in the future.

📍 EAG London (6–8 June 2025): Two Heartening Satellite Meetups on Suffering-Focused Ethics!

We’re excited to share that the Compassionate Future Initiative was present at EAG London! Throughout the weekend, we had the opportunity to engage in many inspiring conversations, build new connections with people egaged in variouse projects and deeply committed to reducing suffering in the near and distant future.

As part of the conference, we hosted two satellite lunch meetups on Suffering-Focused Ethics, S-risks, and the evolving work of the Compassionate Future Initiative
🔹 ca. 34 participants joined us on Saturday
🔹 ca. 14 participants gathered on Sunday

Together, we exchanged ideas on how to advocate for and mobilise high-impact initiatives to reduce suffering for all sentient beings. The level of curiosity, thoughtfulness, and commitment in the room was deeply inspiring.

A huge thank-you to everyone who joined, shared ideas, and helped shape the space. If you couldn’t attend — stay tuned! We’ll be announcing more events and opportunities to connect soon.

March 2025

Updates on the Compassionate Future Summit 

Two Exceptional Guests Confirmed

We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome two remarkable guests whose work has transformed how we think about suffering, ethics, and our responsibilities in the world:

David Pearce – Keynote Speaker

British utilitarian philosopher and co-founder of Humanity+, David Pearce is among the most influential thinkers in suffering-focused ethics. His manifesto, The Hedonistic Imperative, lays out a bold vision for using science and technology to abolish suffering across all sentient life. In it, he argues that this goal is not only ethically urgent, but also technically feasible—through the responsible use of biotechnology and genetic engineering.

David’s idea of a “compassionate biosphere” challenges us to expand the boundaries of moral progress—and inspires bold, practical action to reduce suffering in humans and non-humans alike. We’re deeply honoured to host him.

Jack Hancock-Fairs – Special Guest

Widely known for his compelling YouTube channel Humane Hancock and podcast Humane Hangouts, viewed and listened to by millions, Jack Hancock-Fairs explores urgent topics such as animal ethics, veganism, and wild animal suffering. His work stands out for its rare blend of clarity, emotional depth, and disarming humour.

At the Summit, Jack will be sharing a glimpse of a deeply personal project he's been working on for a number of years.

🌱 Meanwhile, our content contribution calls with participants are in full swing. A wide range of talks, workshops, and collaborative sessions are taking shape, and we look forward to sharing a preview of the rich program in the coming weeks.

January 2025 

Happy New Year! 🎉

What's New?

The Compassionate Future Summit 2025 is Coming Up! 

📅 When: 21–25 August 2025 | 📍 Where: Berlin, Germany

This participant-driven event brings together about 40 ambitious international changemakers to explore long-term solutions for reducing suffering. Enjoy all-vegan catering, shared bungalows, and a collaborative programme designed to foster connections and inspire new initiatives.

👉 Apply here!

Renaming Announcement

As announced during the last community call, we are officially changing our name from International Suffering Abolitionists to Compassionate Future Initiative. Alongside this, our website domain has been updated to:
🌐 compassionate-future.org

2024 Annual Report

2024 Annual Report International Suffering Abolitionists

The 2024 Annual Report reflects our continued engagement in community building, research, and advocacy. Key highlights include:

• Hosting online meetups and in-person events like EAG London and Berlin.

• Promoting genetic and technological solutions to reduce suffering.

• Expanding awareness through online platforms such as newsletters and TikTok.

• Strengthening connections with organisations like CLR and CRS.

Looking ahead, 2025 will see us hosting the Compassionate Future Summit in Berlin and furthering our mission through various initiatives.

Other Plans for 2025

• Monthly Online Meetups

We will continue hosting our monthly Online Working / Community Meetup for the Abolition of Suffering. Stay updated by following us on the EA Forum for announcements about upcoming (online) events.

• EAG London 2025

We plan to participate in EAG London 2025 and explore opportunities to contribute through meetups and workshops.