Several years ago Zvi Mowshowitz founded Balsa Research, a tiny nonprofit research organization currently focused on quantifying the impact of the Jones Act on the American economy, and working towards viable reform proposals.

While changing century-old policy is not going to be easy, we continue to see many places where there is neglected groundwork that we’re well positioned to do, and we are improving at doing it with another year of practice under our belts.

We’re looking to raise $200,000 to support our work this giving season, though $50,000 would be sufficient to keep the lights on, and we think we are also well positioned to do more with more funding.

Funds raised this round will support Balsa's policy advocacy, either in Jones Act and shipping or potentially in other planned cause areas of housing reform and NEPA reform if there is capacity to significantly expand.

Donate here to fund our mainline policy work.

One additional possibility for Balsa, that would be funded entirely separately if it did happen, is for Zvi Mowshowitz to use Balsa as a piece of philanthropic infrastructure to help guide new philanthropic money coming online in 2026 if there [...]

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Outline:

(01:34) What Balsa Got Up to in 2025

(05:42) A quick glance at our budget

(06:24) Balsa in 2026, and Our Ask

(07:38) Complete the Jones Act policy binder

(08:12) Receive and publicize findings from the two funded economic studies

(08:33) Fund at least one high-quality study from the labor RFA

(09:09) Continue monitoring Section 301 and SHIPS Act developments, contributing input where it seems high-leverage

(09:56) What Additional Funding Enables

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First published:
December 23rd, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cE8B9jDoAq9Agtt2K/keeping-up-against-the-joneses-balsa-s-2025-fundraiser

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Keeping Up Against the Joneses: Balsa’s 2025 Fundraiser” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma)