This matches my understanding, however, I think it is normal for non-profits of the budget size that the EA ecosystem currently is to have this structure.
Bridgespan identified 144 nonprofits that have gone from founding to at least $50 million in revenue since 1970...[up to 2003]...we identified three important practices common among nonprofits that succeeded in building large-scale funding models: (1) They developed funding in one concentrated source rather than across diverse sources; (2) they found a funding source that was a natural match to their mission and beneficiaries; and (3) they built a professional organization and structure around this funding model.
Within this framework, I would describe the EA community currently using a hybrid between “Member Motivator” (cultivating membership of many individual donors who feel personally involved with the community—such as the GWWC model) and “Big Bettor” (such as the relationship between Good Ventures and the ecosystem of EA organizations).
Agree. We should also probably expect it to happen: the income distribution is very heavy tailed, and it becomes easier to donate the more money you have, so we should probably expect the largest couple of donors to account for most of the money.
Otoh, the total US non-profit sector is something like 300 billion per year, and I think billionaire philanthropy is under $30bn, so that would suggest 10% from billionaires as a base rate. (Though a lot of this is to fund local services, churches etc. where we might expect a broader base.)
As another data point, this OECD report says that from 2013-15, half of all philanthropic funding for international development came from the Gates Foundation ($12 billion out of $24 billion total).
This matches my understanding, however, I think it is normal for non-profits of the budget size that the EA ecosystem currently is to have this structure.
- How Non-Profits Get Really Big
Some common alternatives are outlined here: Ten Non-Proft Funding Models.
Within this framework, I would describe the EA community currently using a hybrid between “Member Motivator” (cultivating membership of many individual donors who feel personally involved with the community—such as the GWWC model) and “Big Bettor” (such as the relationship between Good Ventures and the ecosystem of EA organizations).
Agree. We should also probably expect it to happen: the income distribution is very heavy tailed, and it becomes easier to donate the more money you have, so we should probably expect the largest couple of donors to account for most of the money.
Otoh, the total US non-profit sector is something like 300 billion per year, and I think billionaire philanthropy is under $30bn, so that would suggest 10% from billionaires as a base rate. (Though a lot of this is to fund local services, churches etc. where we might expect a broader base.)
As another data point, this OECD report says that from 2013-15, half of all philanthropic funding for international development came from the Gates Foundation ($12 billion out of $24 billion total).