Anna, thanks for shedding light on this. I’ve been through my own journey of whether and how to phase shift my career as a Growth Marketing leader into something that can move the needle in the EA community. One of my more skeptical reflections from a few years ago:
I want to believe EA can do more. I’ve read, I’ve watched, I’ve argued with colleagues. The achievable question in my mind is, “How can EA influence a mainstream audience to amplify the impact of its [EA’s] own research and recommendations 1,000x?” I.e., How do we apply EA to EA? And does the movement have the DNA to diversify and scale its giving base?
I never made a post about this, but I shared examples with our colleagues in the space. It’s been interesting to go back to some old notes right now. Here’s one of these examples apropos of the ‘giving base’ point above and forgive me to the extent it’s dated:
...there are a relatively high number of EA giving/funding organizations (i.e. in small EU countries) and relatively low number of EAs working on how to unlock high-impact funding at large international donor organizations (think UNICEF or Red Cross). Given our relative weakness in marketing, customer journey, etc. (relatively little mainstream distribution capability compared to for-profit tech world), you would expect even a 1% chance of unlocking major funding through a large donor org would be worth the effort of shifting resources. Yet this seldom occurs. Some factors affecting why I think we don’t lean into this include (a) skills mismatches, (b) concerns of ‘moral compromise’ and (c) to a lesser extent, cultural distance.
After workshops and EAGs and 80k and HIP (which I highly recommend) and even some consulting for Good Impressions and many, many conversations, I made the choice to continue working in business and earning to give. However, I’m still heavily networked in the community and happy to connect, make intros, compare notes, etc. Thanks and best of luck!
Thanks for sharing this. it honestly makes me a bit sad to read, but in a thoughtful way. I still want to hope there is room to influence this over time, even if it’s slow and uneven.
I really appreciate that you found a way to keep having impact “through the side door,” and to stay engaged with the community rather than fully disengaging. That feels important.
I’d genuinely love to connect, compare notes, and trade ideas or intros 🙏
Anna, thanks for shedding light on this. I’ve been through my own journey of whether and how to phase shift my career as a Growth Marketing leader into something that can move the needle in the EA community. One of my more skeptical reflections from a few years ago:
I want to believe EA can do more. I’ve read, I’ve watched, I’ve argued with colleagues. The achievable question in my mind is, “How can EA influence a mainstream audience to amplify the impact of its [EA’s] own research and recommendations 1,000x?” I.e., How do we apply EA to EA? And does the movement have the DNA to diversify and scale its giving base?
I never made a post about this, but I shared examples with our colleagues in the space. It’s been interesting to go back to some old notes right now. Here’s one of these examples apropos of the ‘giving base’ point above and forgive me to the extent it’s dated:
...there are a relatively high number of EA giving/funding organizations (i.e. in small EU countries) and relatively low number of EAs working on how to unlock high-impact funding at large international donor organizations (think UNICEF or Red Cross). Given our relative weakness in marketing, customer journey, etc. (relatively little mainstream distribution capability compared to for-profit tech world), you would expect even a 1% chance of unlocking major funding through a large donor org would be worth the effort of shifting resources. Yet this seldom occurs. Some factors affecting why I think we don’t lean into this include (a) skills mismatches, (b) concerns of ‘moral compromise’ and (c) to a lesser extent, cultural distance.
After workshops and EAGs and 80k and HIP (which I highly recommend) and even some consulting for Good Impressions and many, many conversations, I made the choice to continue working in business and earning to give. However, I’m still heavily networked in the community and happy to connect, make intros, compare notes, etc. Thanks and best of luck!
Thanks for sharing this. it honestly makes me a bit sad to read, but in a thoughtful way. I still want to hope there is room to influence this over time, even if it’s slow and uneven.
I really appreciate that you found a way to keep having impact “through the side door,” and to stay engaged with the community rather than fully disengaging. That feels important.
I’d genuinely love to connect, compare notes, and trade ideas or intros 🙏