Thanks for the questions—I’ve given some quick thoughts, though for some of the questions I would need more time to give a detailed answer than I think I can provide at the moment.
We think that there is a large amount of variance in the impact of individual grants that we’ve made. What makes you believe this? What kind of criteria are used to evaluate and compare the impact of individual grants?
In evaluating the impact of a grant, one of the main things that determine our assessment is cases of group members where a) we expect them to have large opportunities for positive impact, and b) the group has had a large influence on their opportunities for doing good.
Examples of reasons for us expecting someone to have large opportunities for positive impact include:
They have received a job, internship or study program offer from an organization or institution that we think is impactful (80,000 Hours Jobs board includes many such opportunities)
They have indicated career plans which we think are impactful and well thought through
We’ve interacted with them in person and think that they have a lot to contribute
Examples of reasons for us thinking that a group had a large influence on their opportunities to do good include:
They report the group having a large positive influence on them
They report having been introduced to effective altruism through the group
Additional things that contribute to our assessment include projects that the group has conducted, the group’s health and welcomingness, and the scale of the group’s activities.
So far, we’ve evaluated the first cohort of grants individually. This means that in order to make a decision about providing further funding for a specific group, we compare the group’s reported outcomes against our criteria, rather than against other groups. The judgement about there being a large amount of variance in the impact of grants is based on their individual performance against those criteria. We haven’t yet explicitly compared the impact of different groups against each other; so it’s difficult to give more detail on the reasons for thinking this at the moment.
In evaluating whether to fund a group, we’ll consider evidence of impact (as above) as well as the fit of the applicants and the location that the group is in.
After evaluating the grants made over the course of 2018 we also think that we now have a better understanding of which kinds of grantmaking opportunities will be most impactful. Could you elaborate on this? Which kinds of opportunities do you think will be the most impactful? This seems highly valuable information for aspiring community builders.
Thanks for mentioning this—I agree that it would be useful to share the learnings that we have had so far. This is something I’d like to do at some point in the future, though I can’t commit to a timeline for this at the moment.
Furthermore, community-building seems like a long-term project, so I am quite surprised about the decision to focus so much on just a few opportunities and the confidence in which type of projects are valuable. I would think that exploration is enormously valuable in such an early stage of our international community. Is this because you believe there are large potential downsides?
I agree that exploration is important and that we can learn a lot from trying different things in this space, though I don’t think that making more grants on the margin is the best way to do this. I expect that making relatively fewer grants will leave more capacity for trying things such as exploring different mechanisms of supporting community builders and different types of projects to fund. I expect this to increase the community’s collective understanding of how to do community building more than increasing the number of grants.
You’re correct that I think there are large potential downsides. However, I also think that a more narrow approach would be appropriate even if this weren’t the case.
Thanks for the elaborate response! Allow me to ask some follow-up questions, the topic is close to my heart :)
I expect that making relatively fewer grants will leave more capacity for trying things such as exploring different mechanisms of supporting community builders and different types of projects to fund. I expect this to increase the community’s collective understanding of how to do community building more than increasing the number of grants.
Am I right to take away from this that the EA CB Grants Programme is capacity-constrained? Because I believe this would be important for other funders. I’m afraid there is a dynamic where CB-efforts have trouble finding non-CEA funding because alternative funders believe CEA has got all the good opportunities covered. I believe we should in general be skeptical that a small set of funders leads to the efficient allocation of resources. The grants programme being capacity-constrained would be evidence towards there being impactful opportunities for other funders. How does the programme approach this coordination with other funders?
Relatedly, does CEA prefer to be a large part (>50%) or a smaller part of a community’s funding? Say a community-building effort raises ~1 FTE for 1 year among their own community, would this affect the likelihood of being funded by CEA?
Hi Siebe,
Thanks for the questions—I’ve given some quick thoughts, though for some of the questions I would need more time to give a detailed answer than I think I can provide at the moment.
In evaluating the impact of a grant, one of the main things that determine our assessment is cases of group members where a) we expect them to have large opportunities for positive impact, and b) the group has had a large influence on their opportunities for doing good.
Examples of reasons for us expecting someone to have large opportunities for positive impact include:
They have received a job, internship or study program offer from an organization or institution that we think is impactful (80,000 Hours Jobs board includes many such opportunities)
They have indicated career plans which we think are impactful and well thought through
We’ve interacted with them in person and think that they have a lot to contribute
Examples of reasons for us thinking that a group had a large influence on their opportunities to do good include:
They report the group having a large positive influence on them
They report having been introduced to effective altruism through the group
Additional things that contribute to our assessment include projects that the group has conducted, the group’s health and welcomingness, and the scale of the group’s activities.
So far, we’ve evaluated the first cohort of grants individually. This means that in order to make a decision about providing further funding for a specific group, we compare the group’s reported outcomes against our criteria, rather than against other groups. The judgement about there being a large amount of variance in the impact of grants is based on their individual performance against those criteria. We haven’t yet explicitly compared the impact of different groups against each other; so it’s difficult to give more detail on the reasons for thinking this at the moment.
In evaluating whether to fund a group, we’ll consider evidence of impact (as above) as well as the fit of the applicants and the location that the group is in.
Thanks for mentioning this—I agree that it would be useful to share the learnings that we have had so far. This is something I’d like to do at some point in the future, though I can’t commit to a timeline for this at the moment.
I agree that exploration is important and that we can learn a lot from trying different things in this space, though I don’t think that making more grants on the margin is the best way to do this. I expect that making relatively fewer grants will leave more capacity for trying things such as exploring different mechanisms of supporting community builders and different types of projects to fund. I expect this to increase the community’s collective understanding of how to do community building more than increasing the number of grants.
You’re correct that I think there are large potential downsides. However, I also think that a more narrow approach would be appropriate even if this weren’t the case.
Thanks for the elaborate response! Allow me to ask some follow-up questions, the topic is close to my heart :)
Am I right to take away from this that the EA CB Grants Programme is capacity-constrained? Because I believe this would be important for other funders. I’m afraid there is a dynamic where CB-efforts have trouble finding non-CEA funding because alternative funders believe CEA has got all the good opportunities covered. I believe we should in general be skeptical that a small set of funders leads to the efficient allocation of resources. The grants programme being capacity-constrained would be evidence towards there being impactful opportunities for other funders. How does the programme approach this coordination with other funders?
Relatedly, does CEA prefer to be a large part (>50%) or a smaller part of a community’s funding? Say a community-building effort raises ~1 FTE for 1 year among their own community, would this affect the likelihood of being funded by CEA?