I’m a big fan of starting new chapters as I’ve discussed with Jon.
Just thought I’d flag that this seemed over optimistic:
“we think it is reasonable to expect a new Giving What We Can Chapter to produce 3-5 new members in their first year”
In my experience of working with GWWC chapters the median chapter produced 0 members a year because it’s hard to get things off the ground. Even the chapters who are putting a lot of effort in do well to get 1 or 2 people to pledge.
I don’t say this to undermine the article—I think the points can still apply if you get one person to pledge. I just want to make clear that if you start a chapter and one person pledges in a year that’s awesome and you’ve probably done a v good job.
A good point! The 3-5 number averages over a number of chapters, many of whom have been running for several years and are well established, and so is likely on the optimistic side.
I absolutely agree with your point that if your chapter produces 1 pledge, that is an amazing achievement that should be congratulated! That said, I don’t think it is right to say that the median chapter produces 0 pledges a year- most chapters which start up and run a successful first year on average result in at least one or two pledges. I should also note that my analysis ignores any flow-through effects of those people at the university who become interested in EA from the chapter’s activity- these are likely also quite large although harder to calculate!
All that being said- the important common ground here is that chapters are awesome, and any chapters which get even a single pledge are doing a very good job!
Maybe I was being too negative in counting the chapters that make a go of trying and then end up fizzling out. If you manage to run a year of events with consistent effort then perhaps getting one or two pledges is fair.
3-5 is higher than when I was working with chapters, but great that it’s that high now.
Yep, completely agree with the overarching point. Keep up the top work.
I’m a big fan of starting new chapters as I’ve discussed with Jon.
Just thought I’d flag that this seemed over optimistic:
“we think it is reasonable to expect a new Giving What We Can Chapter to produce 3-5 new members in their first year”
In my experience of working with GWWC chapters the median chapter produced 0 members a year because it’s hard to get things off the ground. Even the chapters who are putting a lot of effort in do well to get 1 or 2 people to pledge.
I don’t say this to undermine the article—I think the points can still apply if you get one person to pledge. I just want to make clear that if you start a chapter and one person pledges in a year that’s awesome and you’ve probably done a v good job.
A good point! The 3-5 number averages over a number of chapters, many of whom have been running for several years and are well established, and so is likely on the optimistic side.
I absolutely agree with your point that if your chapter produces 1 pledge, that is an amazing achievement that should be congratulated! That said, I don’t think it is right to say that the median chapter produces 0 pledges a year- most chapters which start up and run a successful first year on average result in at least one or two pledges. I should also note that my analysis ignores any flow-through effects of those people at the university who become interested in EA from the chapter’s activity- these are likely also quite large although harder to calculate!
All that being said- the important common ground here is that chapters are awesome, and any chapters which get even a single pledge are doing a very good job!
Maybe I was being too negative in counting the chapters that make a go of trying and then end up fizzling out. If you manage to run a year of events with consistent effort then perhaps getting one or two pledges is fair.
3-5 is higher than when I was working with chapters, but great that it’s that high now.
Yep, completely agree with the overarching point. Keep up the top work.