For better and/or for worse, the membership organization’s ability to get stuff done would be heavily constrained by donor receptivity. Taking EA Norway as an example, eirine’s comments tell us that (at least as of ~2018-2021), “[t]he total income from the membership fee covers roughly the costs of organising the general assembly,” that “board made sure to fundraise enough from private donors for” the ED’s salary, but that most “funding came from a community building grant from the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA)” (which, as I understand it, means Open Phil was the primary ultimate donor).
To me, that both constrains both how thoroughly democratic a membership association would be and how far afield from best practices a democratic membership association could go.
For better and/or for worse, the membership organization’s ability to get stuff done would be heavily constrained by donor receptivity. Taking EA Norway as an example, eirine’s comments tell us that (at least as of ~2018-2021), “[t]he total income from the membership fee covers roughly the costs of organising the general assembly,” that “board made sure to fundraise enough from private donors for” the ED’s salary, but that most “funding came from a community building grant from the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA)” (which, as I understand it, means Open Phil was the primary ultimate donor).
To me, that both constrains both how thoroughly democratic a membership association would be and how far afield from best practices a democratic membership association could go.