FWIW, the three mentioned names to me point to different focuses:
EA for Jews: Seems to imply a customized form of EA more tailored to Jews; makes me think of donation opportunities in Israel, or Jewish giving groups, or something.
Effective Tzedakah: Feels all about affecting Jew’s donations to be more effective and less about things like research or careers. It does seem, of these three, the most accessible to non-EA Jews you may hope to attract, but possibly not beyond donations.
Jews in EA: Points to being an affinity group of EAs who want to get together with other Jews. Doesn’t seem like a recruitment organization, but (mainly) a group for those already in EA.
I do think any of these names can be used for the entire multitude of goals this initiative may have, but the focus and first-interpretation of the name seems likely to be understood quite differently.
Thanks Josh, that is helpful! One of the things I’m hoping someone who is better at branding than me can do is come up with a name for this potential group that would encompass primarily the “effective tzedakah” and “Jews in EA” focuses you list above. (With the caveat that the tzedakah concept above is a bit narrower than I understand it—I think tzedakah has become synonymous with charitable donations, but more accurately encompasses social justice broadly, of which donations are a part). Something like “Effective Altruism and Judaism” is broad enough so maybe that would be preferable. Let me know if you have any other potential names or other thoughts!
Agree with Josh’s take on Jews in EA and Effective Tzedakah (though I’d agree strictly speaking the concept of tzedakah is at least broader than charitable giving). I think “Effective Altruism and Judaism” (maybe EAJ?) is my favorite! That said, RE “EA for Jews”—any chance you can ask the folks at EA for Christians how they feel the name has worked out for them?
I’d be happy to chat about it if helpful, I helped found EA for Christians and have spent a bunch of time thinking about different word choices for our name, though you may already be in contact with members of our team.
Our Facebook group is called ‘Christians and Effective Altruism’ I think this wording allows Christians who don’t yet feel comfortable with fully aligning with EA to join and participate which has been useful for us in terms of outreach.
Then in terms of the name for our actual org, I see three options (i) ‘EA for Christians’, (ii) ‘Christians in EA’ and (iii) some wording like our Facebook group name using ‘and’.
Whilst (ii) feels the cleanest, as noted above it reads as an affinity group without the outreach edge which is a core part of our org. (iii) is also inoffensive but sounds like it lacks a mission which I think can also be unattractive when doing outreach. I like the fact that in (i) Christianity is spotlighted, which works with the way Christians are encouraged to think about their Christian identity being the most central to them. The downside is that it risks sounding like it’s EA being used in support of Christians, which obviously isn’t our goal, rather the use of for is meant to imply that EA provides an invaluable toolkit to aid Christians in their God-given mission to serve others.
Thank you Alex and Jeremy ! This input is very helpful, and has informed some discussions I’ve recently had with potential volunteers about what we should call the group.
Alex, I’ve talked with Caleb from your organization, but I think it would be great to bounce some ideas off of you as well re: this branding issue which it seems you’ve given a lot of thought to. For now I’m still going through the list of folks interested in volunteering but once we get a bit further along I’ll send you a message!
FWIW, the three mentioned names to me point to different focuses:
EA for Jews: Seems to imply a customized form of EA more tailored to Jews; makes me think of donation opportunities in Israel, or Jewish giving groups, or something.
Effective Tzedakah: Feels all about affecting Jew’s donations to be more effective and less about things like research or careers. It does seem, of these three, the most accessible to non-EA Jews you may hope to attract, but possibly not beyond donations.
Jews in EA: Points to being an affinity group of EAs who want to get together with other Jews. Doesn’t seem like a recruitment organization, but (mainly) a group for those already in EA.
I do think any of these names can be used for the entire multitude of goals this initiative may have, but the focus and first-interpretation of the name seems likely to be understood quite differently.
Thanks Josh, that is helpful! One of the things I’m hoping someone who is better at branding than me can do is come up with a name for this potential group that would encompass primarily the “effective tzedakah” and “Jews in EA” focuses you list above. (With the caveat that the tzedakah concept above is a bit narrower than I understand it—I think tzedakah has become synonymous with charitable donations, but more accurately encompasses social justice broadly, of which donations are a part). Something like “Effective Altruism and Judaism” is broad enough so maybe that would be preferable. Let me know if you have any other potential names or other thoughts!
Agree with Josh’s take on Jews in EA and Effective Tzedakah (though I’d agree strictly speaking the concept of tzedakah is at least broader than charitable giving). I think “Effective Altruism and Judaism” (maybe EAJ?) is my favorite! That said, RE “EA for Jews”—any chance you can ask the folks at EA for Christians how they feel the name has worked out for them?
I’d be happy to chat about it if helpful, I helped found EA for Christians and have spent a bunch of time thinking about different word choices for our name, though you may already be in contact with members of our team.
Our Facebook group is called ‘Christians and Effective Altruism’ I think this wording allows Christians who don’t yet feel comfortable with fully aligning with EA to join and participate which has been useful for us in terms of outreach.
Then in terms of the name for our actual org, I see three options (i) ‘EA for Christians’, (ii) ‘Christians in EA’ and (iii) some wording like our Facebook group name using ‘and’.
Whilst (ii) feels the cleanest, as noted above it reads as an affinity group without the outreach edge which is a core part of our org. (iii) is also inoffensive but sounds like it lacks a mission which I think can also be unattractive when doing outreach. I like the fact that in (i) Christianity is spotlighted, which works with the way Christians are encouraged to think about their Christian identity being the most central to them. The downside is that it risks sounding like it’s EA being used in support of Christians, which obviously isn’t our goal, rather the use of for is meant to imply that EA provides an invaluable toolkit to aid Christians in their God-given mission to serve others.
Thank you Alex and Jeremy ! This input is very helpful, and has informed some discussions I’ve recently had with potential volunteers about what we should call the group.
Alex, I’ve talked with Caleb from your organization, but I think it would be great to bounce some ideas off of you as well re: this branding issue which it seems you’ve given a lot of thought to. For now I’m still going through the list of folks interested in volunteering but once we get a bit further along I’ll send you a message!