My guess is that optimal grantmaking in EA community building is going to be heavily network-based for several reasons.
Running an excellent EA community is a social activity.
Grantmakers gain tons of information about how capable someone is likely to be at doing this by interacting with them socially and that requires meeting them through your networks.
There are some signficant downside risks in funding an EA community builder and network-based funding derisks this.
If an EA community builder does something bad, having been funded by CEA means that it now reflects on the community as a whole and not just on the specific people involved. This means that funders need to both protect against the downside risks as well as fund promising projects. Having someone you know and trust vouch for someone you don’t know is, per unit of time involved, one of the best ways I know of to figure out who is and isn’t like to accidentally cause harm.
There aren’t good objective criteria for evaluating newer community builders.
For someone who has just started running an EA group, it’s hard to provide objective numbers that show that you should be funded. Group size, for example, isn’t a good proxy becuase small groups of highly dedicated, capable people are likely to be more valuable than large groups of less dedicated, less capable people. An evaluation of the community builders themselves is probably required and information from people in your network helps with this.
1. Running an excellent EA community is a social activity.
True, but “running an excellent EA community” is only one of the many types of work that have received CB funding. For instance, only 7% of the EA Grants funding classified as “EA Community” went to support group-related work. Most of the money went to fund philosophical or rationality work, which isn’t as inherently social.
2. There are some signficant downside risks in funding an EA community builder and network-based funding derisks this.
If an EA community builder does something bad, having been funded by CEA means that it now reflects on the community as a whole and not just on the specific people involved. This means that funders need to both protect against the downside risks as well as fund promising projects. Having someone you know and trust vouch for someone you don’t know is, per unit of time involved, one of the best ways I know of to figure out who is and isn’t like to accidentally cause harm.
An easier way to mitigate this type of risk is to avoid plans like “using EAGrants to place bets on risky, unusual, or controversial projects that seem plausibly very valuable in expectation.” Projects that seem risky on an ex-ante basis probably are, even if someone vouches for the person in charge. These projects might still be worth funding, but if they’re funded by non-CEA mechanisms it reduces the reputational risk you describe.
3. There aren’t good objective criteria for evaluating newer community builders.
Agree. But it’s easier to evaluate more established community builders. And even when those established community builders have positive track records, they don’t seem to be getting much funding.
For example, there are plans to run EAGx events at four locations next year that “have been prioritised as they have established and active EA populations”: US (East Coast), Australia, Europe, and Asia. The East Coast of the US and Australia each got one CBG grant for ~1% of total staffing, Asia got none, while Europe got most of the funding as described in OP.
To point 3), there have been recent efforts made by to develop systematic metrics for groups in new/emerging locations here. While this is a first step, it has suggested several proxies for measuring the potential of both group organizers and different locations.
My guess is that optimal grantmaking in EA community building is going to be heavily network-based for several reasons.
Running an excellent EA community is a social activity.
Grantmakers gain tons of information about how capable someone is likely to be at doing this by interacting with them socially and that requires meeting them through your networks.
There are some signficant downside risks in funding an EA community builder and network-based funding derisks this.
If an EA community builder does something bad, having been funded by CEA means that it now reflects on the community as a whole and not just on the specific people involved. This means that funders need to both protect against the downside risks as well as fund promising projects. Having someone you know and trust vouch for someone you don’t know is, per unit of time involved, one of the best ways I know of to figure out who is and isn’t like to accidentally cause harm.
There aren’t good objective criteria for evaluating newer community builders.
For someone who has just started running an EA group, it’s hard to provide objective numbers that show that you should be funded. Group size, for example, isn’t a good proxy becuase small groups of highly dedicated, capable people are likely to be more valuable than large groups of less dedicated, less capable people. An evaluation of the community builders themselves is probably required and information from people in your network helps with this.
True, but “running an excellent EA community” is only one of the many types of work that have received CB funding. For instance, only 7% of the EA Grants funding classified as “EA Community” went to support group-related work. Most of the money went to fund philosophical or rationality work, which isn’t as inherently social.
An easier way to mitigate this type of risk is to avoid plans like “using EAGrants to place bets on risky, unusual, or controversial projects that seem plausibly very valuable in expectation.” Projects that seem risky on an ex-ante basis probably are, even if someone vouches for the person in charge. These projects might still be worth funding, but if they’re funded by non-CEA mechanisms it reduces the reputational risk you describe.
Agree. But it’s easier to evaluate more established community builders. And even when those established community builders have positive track records, they don’t seem to be getting much funding.
For example, there are plans to run EAGx events at four locations next year that “have been prioritised as they have established and active EA populations”: US (East Coast), Australia, Europe, and Asia. The East Coast of the US and Australia each got one CBG grant for ~1% of total staffing, Asia got none, while Europe got most of the funding as described in OP.
To point 3), there have been recent efforts made by to develop systematic metrics for groups in new/emerging locations here. While this is a first step, it has suggested several proxies for measuring the potential of both group organizers and different locations.