Re: target of 125 people. This is a relatively high bar: it’s focused on people who have taken significant action based on a good understanding of EA principles. So the bar is somewhat higher than the GWWC pledge, because we interview people and get a sense of why they chose the path they’re in and what would change their mind. We think that for most people this means >100 hours of engagement with quality content, plus carefully thinking through their career plans and taking action toward those plans (which might include significant donations).
I actually think that $20,000 per person in this position would still be a good deal: the expected lifetime value of a GWWC pledge might be around $73,000, and some people might be doing things significantly more promising than the average GWWC pledge. I don’t think that will be the full cost—e.g. these people will probably also benefit some from e.g. the Forum or 80k resources. However, I also think that these 125 people only represent some of the value that groups work creates (e.g. groups also help persuade people to take less intensive action, and to retain and empower people who are already engaged). I also think there’s a fair chance that we beat this target.
We arrived at 125 by estimating the number of individuals we think met this definition in 2019, applying a ~30% growth rate in the community, and then increasing this number further within key populations. One of our internal benchmarks is that the cohort of engaged EAs recruited in 2021 is more demographically diverse than the cohort of engaged EAs recruited in 2020.
Thanks for your questions.
Re: target of 125 people. This is a relatively high bar: it’s focused on people who have taken significant action based on a good understanding of EA principles. So the bar is somewhat higher than the GWWC pledge, because we interview people and get a sense of why they chose the path they’re in and what would change their mind. We think that for most people this means >100 hours of engagement with quality content, plus carefully thinking through their career plans and taking action toward those plans (which might include significant donations).
I actually think that $20,000 per person in this position would still be a good deal: the expected lifetime value of a GWWC pledge might be around $73,000, and some people might be doing things significantly more promising than the average GWWC pledge. I don’t think that will be the full cost—e.g. these people will probably also benefit some from e.g. the Forum or 80k resources. However, I also think that these 125 people only represent some of the value that groups work creates (e.g. groups also help persuade people to take less intensive action, and to retain and empower people who are already engaged). I also think there’s a fair chance that we beat this target.
We arrived at 125 by estimating the number of individuals we think met this definition in 2019, applying a ~30% growth rate in the community, and then increasing this number further within key populations. One of our internal benchmarks is that the cohort of engaged EAs recruited in 2021 is more demographically diverse than the cohort of engaged EAs recruited in 2020.
Thanks for the explanations Max!