The largest grant (accounting for nearly a quarter of all EA Community funding) went to a project run by CEA’s former Director of Strategy.
Just as a more transparent reference, this refers to a grant to me and the LessWrong team to build the new LessWrong and EA Forum platforms. It’s correct that we are located in the Bay Area, but importantly LessWrong and the EA Forum itself are not specific to a geographic location, and I actually think of them as key parts of having more distributed community-building infrastructure.
It’s also important because there has been very little investment in Bay-Area EA community building in the past few years, even though it is one of the biggest EA hubs, and I don’t want people to think this grant helped much with that. We do sometimes run events, but we are first and foremost an online-community building organization.
I also find it important to point out that I was the director of strategy for CEA US, not all of CEA. At the time I was at CEA the organization was much less integrated and I think CEA at the time was better modeled as two organizations, both of which were much smaller than CEA is now.
Thanks for providing these additional details. I’ve edited OP to reflect that your role was with CEA US, not CEA as a whole.
It’s also important because there has been very little investment in Bay-Area EA community building in the past few years, even though it is one of the biggest EA hubs, and I don’t want people to think this grant helped much with that.
Great point. I was surprised at how few resources went to CB efforts in the Bay Area relative to those in Oxbridge/London. Seems like adding a Bay Area based manager to the Meta Fund could help with this.
Just as a more transparent reference, this refers to a grant to me and the LessWrong team to build the new LessWrong and EA Forum platforms. It’s correct that we are located in the Bay Area, but importantly LessWrong and the EA Forum itself are not specific to a geographic location, and I actually think of them as key parts of having more distributed community-building infrastructure.
It’s also important because there has been very little investment in Bay-Area EA community building in the past few years, even though it is one of the biggest EA hubs, and I don’t want people to think this grant helped much with that. We do sometimes run events, but we are first and foremost an online-community building organization.
I also find it important to point out that I was the director of strategy for CEA US, not all of CEA. At the time I was at CEA the organization was much less integrated and I think CEA at the time was better modeled as two organizations, both of which were much smaller than CEA is now.
Thanks for providing these additional details. I’ve edited OP to reflect that your role was with CEA US, not CEA as a whole.
Great point. I was surprised at how few resources went to CB efforts in the Bay Area relative to those in Oxbridge/London. Seems like adding a Bay Area based manager to the Meta Fund could help with this.