Jack—excellent posts. I was thinking along similar lines.
Regarding recruiting billionaires (ultra high net worth/UHNW individuals) -- there are allegedly about 3,300 billionaires in the world, including about 1,000 in the US, 400 in China, etc. Many of them made their wealth in relatively traditional industries, most are over age 50, and many like to keep a pretty low profile.
I get the sense that EA donor recruitment has often focused on the nearest, lowest-hanging fruit—young tech billionaires, who tend to live in the Bay Area, NY, London, etc—where EAs tend to live.
However, it might be helpful to pivot a bit towards the older, lower-profile, more traditional UHNWs. It’s easy to young, bright, idealistic EAs to stereotype elderly oil magnates or middle-aged lords of retail empires as unlikely to be sympathetic to EA causes. But these folks usually made their money by being smart, open-minded, practical, and effective, they’re often looking to give back to the world somehow, and they’re often frustrated with the failures of most traditional charities.
Thanks Geoffrey. I would be supportive of efforts aimed at this demographic. My immediate thought is that we might face more resistance from baked in attitudes e.g. ‘giving should be local’ - but I have been pleasantly surprised by how many people in their forties and fifties have started donations after One for the World corporate talks.
Also worth noting that some cause areas like animal welfare have fared better with this ‘old money’ demographic.
Jack—excellent posts. I was thinking along similar lines.
Regarding recruiting billionaires (ultra high net worth/UHNW individuals) -- there are allegedly about 3,300 billionaires in the world, including about 1,000 in the US, 400 in China, etc. Many of them made their wealth in relatively traditional industries, most are over age 50, and many like to keep a pretty low profile.
I get the sense that EA donor recruitment has often focused on the nearest, lowest-hanging fruit—young tech billionaires, who tend to live in the Bay Area, NY, London, etc—where EAs tend to live.
However, it might be helpful to pivot a bit towards the older, lower-profile, more traditional UHNWs. It’s easy to young, bright, idealistic EAs to stereotype elderly oil magnates or middle-aged lords of retail empires as unlikely to be sympathetic to EA causes. But these folks usually made their money by being smart, open-minded, practical, and effective, they’re often looking to give back to the world somehow, and they’re often frustrated with the failures of most traditional charities.
Thanks Geoffrey. I would be supportive of efforts aimed at this demographic. My immediate thought is that we might face more resistance from baked in attitudes e.g. ‘giving should be local’ - but I have been pleasantly surprised by how many people in their forties and fifties have started donations after One for the World corporate talks.
Also worth noting that some cause areas like animal welfare have fared better with this ‘old money’ demographic.