This year I am shifting £10k into a Donor Advised Fund so that I have some resources available for active grant making.
I think there is a reasonable chance I will come across opportunities to get people to start new high impact projects, and in doing so could have more impact than if I gave to the EA Funds. My reasoning for think this is set out below. I think fairly small sums of money (~£15-30k, which could fund a salary for 6-12 months) could be enough to get someone to take a career risk and try a new project. I don’t earn enough to comfortably give that much in a single year so putting something aside to make sure I access to funds feels useful.
Happy to receive feedback on my reasoning. Happy to receive suggestions of smallish projects to fund. If anyone is considering a new project (especially in longtermist policy) do reach out to me maybe I can help you get it going!!
*** Why aim to do active grant making?
Based track record and learnings. Each year I reflect on my previous years giving and what I have learned and have done well and have done better. When reflecting on my past donations I note that I am particularly happy with my own (~£15k) attempt at active grant making trying to encourage Natalie and Tildy to scale up the APPG for Future Generations (who I later ended up working for) which I think has been very impactful.
I have seen it work as a recipient. I have been the recipient of active grant making (~£15k) that prompted me to work full time for EA London (back before there were accessible EA funds for community builidng from any institutions) and am extremely grateful for this. This seems to have been an effective donation ahead of the curve as since there there has been a massive scale up in resources for local community organisers all around the world.
Good theory of change. Not everyone who has a good idea will necessarily have the confidence to take it forward and make it a reality. It seems reasonable that as someone who is well networked in EA I could bump into these people. I have some familiarity with both seeking and giving funding and I expect supporting such potential entrepreneurs with my own money could be the thing they need to get going.
I have relevant expertise in policy and EA Funds do not. In particular the Long-Term Future Fund receives numerous applications for policy projects (I know of at least a few) but does not appear to fund any such work. My charitable guess is this is because they lack the expertise to vet such projects. Longtermist policy seems to be extremely tractable right now (at least the UK, Ireland, the UN the OECD all seem to be very receptive). It seems plausible that I can find ways to support such projects. Similarly the Global Health and Development Fund does not appear to support small start-up projects and I have some expertise in that too.
***
I also donated about £450 via the Every.org matching campaign so as to have donations doubled, with $300 to animal welfare (THL, GFI, Animal Welfare Index) $200 to global poverty (AMF, Malaria Consortium) and $100 to EA meta (Rethink Priorities).
Note: the donation to the DAF is via a donation swap as I don’t have my own DAF
This year I am shifting £10k into a Donor Advised Fund so that I have some resources available for active grant making.
I think there is a reasonable chance I will come across opportunities to get people to start new high impact projects, and in doing so could have more impact than if I gave to the EA Funds. My reasoning for think this is set out below. I think fairly small sums of money (~£15-30k, which could fund a salary for 6-12 months) could be enough to get someone to take a career risk and try a new project. I don’t earn enough to comfortably give that much in a single year so putting something aside to make sure I access to funds feels useful.
Happy to receive feedback on my reasoning. Happy to receive suggestions of smallish projects to fund. If anyone is considering a new project (especially in longtermist policy) do reach out to me maybe I can help you get it going!!
***
Why aim to do active grant making?
Based track record and learnings. Each year I reflect on my previous years giving and what I have learned and have done well and have done better. When reflecting on my past donations I note that I am particularly happy with my own (~£15k) attempt at active grant making trying to encourage Natalie and Tildy to scale up the APPG for Future Generations (who I later ended up working for) which I think has been very impactful.
I have seen it work as a recipient. I have been the recipient of active grant making (~£15k) that prompted me to work full time for EA London (back before there were accessible EA funds for community builidng from any institutions) and am extremely grateful for this. This seems to have been an effective donation ahead of the curve as since there there has been a massive scale up in resources for local community organisers all around the world.
Good theory of change. Not everyone who has a good idea will necessarily have the confidence to take it forward and make it a reality. It seems reasonable that as someone who is well networked in EA I could bump into these people. I have some familiarity with both seeking and giving funding and I expect supporting such potential entrepreneurs with my own money could be the thing they need to get going.
I have relevant expertise in policy and EA Funds do not. In particular the Long-Term Future Fund receives numerous applications for policy projects (I know of at least a few) but does not appear to fund any such work. My charitable guess is this is because they lack the expertise to vet such projects. Longtermist policy seems to be extremely tractable right now (at least the UK, Ireland, the UN the OECD all seem to be very receptive). It seems plausible that I can find ways to support such projects.
Similarly the Global Health and Development Fund does not appear to support small start-up projects and I have some expertise in that too.
***
I also donated about £450 via the Every.org matching campaign so as to have donations doubled, with $300 to animal welfare (THL, GFI, Animal Welfare Index) $200 to global poverty (AMF, Malaria Consortium) and $100 to EA meta (Rethink Priorities).
Note: the donation to the DAF is via a donation swap as I don’t have my own DAF