As the founder of a non-EA nonprofit, here are some things that the EA folks should be thinking about:
1 - For EA to survive, it needs to become a toolkit not a cause.
Philanthropy in general, such as the Gates Foundation, loves giving money to organizations that do research about philanthropy. Rather than EA being about giving to specific causes, EA can become a meta-analysis of what works and doesn’t work in philanthropy, and that it is a meta-layer on top of philanthropy rather than a specific cause. All of the EA people who want to work in EA should instead see themselves as people who want to contribute to improving philanthropy generally, and EA is a mindset for assessing giving.
2 - If you want to make an impact, work for a nonprofit that is making an impact, not for infrastructure
The point of EA is to funnel money to effective charities, like Give Directly. If you care about making an impact, why not just apply to work at those organizations, like Give Directly, and help them raise money for their causes? Cut out the middle man of EA itself and commit to the causes that EA cares about.
3 - Longterism needs to be divorced from EA for EA to survive as a coalition of individual donors.
Longtermism work is mostly think-tanky type work, and that is either funded by billionaires or it happens in academia. For EA to thrive here, it needs to embed itself in the world of think-tanks or otherwise find another billionaire patron, but it won’t survive from individual donations. For example, if EA can convince the 10,000 EA-committed folks to donate $100 per year to be a member of EA, it can raise $1m per year through these donations—that’s not going to be enough to sustain the movement.
As the founder of a non-EA nonprofit, here are some things that the EA folks should be thinking about:
1 - For EA to survive, it needs to become a toolkit not a cause.
Philanthropy in general, such as the Gates Foundation, loves giving money to organizations that do research about philanthropy. Rather than EA being about giving to specific causes, EA can become a meta-analysis of what works and doesn’t work in philanthropy, and that it is a meta-layer on top of philanthropy rather than a specific cause. All of the EA people who want to work in EA should instead see themselves as people who want to contribute to improving philanthropy generally, and EA is a mindset for assessing giving.
2 - If you want to make an impact, work for a nonprofit that is making an impact, not for infrastructure
The point of EA is to funnel money to effective charities, like Give Directly. If you care about making an impact, why not just apply to work at those organizations, like Give Directly, and help them raise money for their causes? Cut out the middle man of EA itself and commit to the causes that EA cares about.
3 - Longterism needs to be divorced from EA for EA to survive as a coalition of individual donors.
Longtermism work is mostly think-tanky type work, and that is either funded by billionaires or it happens in academia. For EA to thrive here, it needs to embed itself in the world of think-tanks or otherwise find another billionaire patron, but it won’t survive from individual donations. For example, if EA can convince the 10,000 EA-committed folks to donate $100 per year to be a member of EA, it can raise $1m per year through these donations—that’s not going to be enough to sustain the movement.