I think a lot of the stuff Deena touches on in “3 Basic Steps to Reduce Personal Liability as an Org Leader” are important here too. I think de-centralization has lead to a lot of people doing work independently and then being really under-resourced to handle the pressures of that (and this went 100x in particular response to FTX). I think grantees-as-individuals need to be very careful about not co-mingling funds, making sure taxes are in order, etc. and our current community plan of having a lot of individual grantees may involve getting people to be taking on a lot of legal risk that bigger organizations are in a better position to handle.
I think especially during the FTX era but still now, I have been a bit surprised to see a bias towards wanting to fund many smaller orgs rather than one bigger org. FTX had an explicit preference for newer and less established orgs / individuals and I think that clearly backfired. Some of this makes sense as you want to avoid having “all of your eggs in one basket” / “hedge your bets” but I think big orgs have a lot of great advantages that are underrated by EA funders and others.
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Disclaimer: Obviously I would say this though given that I run a “big org” (Rethink Priorities). I’m speaking for just myself personally here though, not some RP position (there’s a lot of diversity of perspective at RP). Also I am complaining about “funders” here but I am on the EA Infrastructure Fund so maybe I’m part of the problem?
Meta: Just wanted to quickly say that I really appreciate how you communicate on the Forum, Peter. You’re thoughtful, ask productive questions and lay out biases which I find very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to engage with the content on the Forum, and sharing your thoughts.
I think a lot of the stuff Deena touches on in “3 Basic Steps to Reduce Personal Liability as an Org Leader” are important here too. I think de-centralization has lead to a lot of people doing work independently and then being really under-resourced to handle the pressures of that (and this went 100x in particular response to FTX). I think grantees-as-individuals need to be very careful about not co-mingling funds, making sure taxes are in order, etc. and our current community plan of having a lot of individual grantees may involve getting people to be taking on a lot of legal risk that bigger organizations are in a better position to handle.
I think especially during the FTX era but still now, I have been a bit surprised to see a bias towards wanting to fund many smaller orgs rather than one bigger org. FTX had an explicit preference for newer and less established orgs / individuals and I think that clearly backfired. Some of this makes sense as you want to avoid having “all of your eggs in one basket” / “hedge your bets” but I think big orgs have a lot of great advantages that are underrated by EA funders and others.
~
Disclaimer: Obviously I would say this though given that I run a “big org” (Rethink Priorities). I’m speaking for just myself personally here though, not some RP position (there’s a lot of diversity of perspective at RP). Also I am complaining about “funders” here but I am on the EA Infrastructure Fund so maybe I’m part of the problem?
Meta: Just wanted to quickly say that I really appreciate how you communicate on the Forum, Peter. You’re thoughtful, ask productive questions and lay out biases which I find very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to engage with the content on the Forum, and sharing your thoughts.