In Israel, we have lots of people (in and around EA) who want to be founders, but as far as I know they didn’t apply to CE (or they didn’t get accepted?)
How many such people do you do “user research” with, if any?
Do you understand why they don’t apply and maybe what might get them to apply anyway?
I talked to one person in a CE talk in Israel, someone with at least 5 years of professional experience (in some technical role in the IDF), who said he won’t apply because CE seems to have so many candidates already which are probably already really good
I saw an application form [related to CE but not CE] which was very long and had personality-test kind of questions. I don’t know if CE has these, but I do know that this affects candidates who are thinking of applying to a company (since I talk to lots of candidates)
I’m now (finally) doing a round of user interviews to understand what influences people to apply or not apply. If you know of anyone who you would consider a very talented potential founder that has decided not to apply, I’d love to connect with them to understand their thinking. (I won’t try to change their mind, just understand their reasons.)
And also, I think asking these people (who are probably busy doing some important project) to email you is going to be high friction. I tried (I posted your request in the EA Israel Slack) but I’m also sharing my expectation of a problem.
I’m now (finally) doing a round of user interviews to understand what influences people to apply or not apply. If you know of anyone who you would consider a very talented potential founder that has decided not to apply, I’d love to connect with them to understand their thinking. (I won’t try to change their mind, just understand their reasons.)
I want to add to Steve’s answer: We did extensive user research when we were starting out, both among prospective candidates and among actual successful charity founders, to find out what the barriers are and design the program to address them. Since then we haven’t done systematic research of this sort, but are constantly updating based on hundreds of conversations we have every year with people who could be a good fit, and partly based on that, modify the support we offer to address their concerns.
Coommon barriers for applying to the program: 1) One of them can be that someone does not have enough information about the program. We decided to address that by participating in multiple EAGx conferences this year, having talks, career booths, and meeting people in one-on-one settings. As you know, we have also visited EA Israel and gave a talk addressed to local entrepreneurs. :) 2) The second barrier is that people are sometimes choosing between multiple career options, e.g., getting more education or experience before considering starting a project. We have addressed this by offering coaching calls that people could apply for twice in the last year. 3) The third barrier ( and we have written more about this in another answer on this forum) is when someone has some misconceptions about personality traits, credentials, or expertise needed. That is why we have modified our talks and workshops to explain better who awe are looking for and what traits, in our opinion, make the best nonprofit entrepreneurs.
We have noticed that we are most successful in encouraging people to apply when a team member, or a person who started a charity through our program, can talk to them. Just sharing their experience or more information about the program and the support after the program, can make a big difference. We also want people to consider the application process itself as the best test to check their fit for this career path, that is why we invite them to apply as a form of career development—to see if this is the right path for them.
In Israel, we have lots of people (in and around EA) who want to be founders, but as far as I know they didn’t apply to CE (or they didn’t get accepted?)
How many such people do you do “user research” with, if any?
Do you understand why they don’t apply and maybe what might get them to apply anyway?
I know of ~3 people who’ve applied or are applying, and expect there to be more I don’t know of :)
We would love to do user interviews with people who don’t apply.
How might we find these people and encourage them to tell us what’s holding them back or what’s off putting?
Steve@charityentrepreneurship.com
I only have small hints:
I talked to one person in a CE talk in Israel, someone with at least 5 years of professional experience (in some technical role in the IDF), who said he won’t apply because CE seems to have so many candidates already which are probably already really good
I saw an application form [related to CE but not CE] which was very long and had personality-test kind of questions. I don’t know if CE has these, but I do know that this affects candidates who are thinking of applying to a company (since I talk to lots of candidates)
I notice none of these are in Ula’s list.
If I happen to discover more of these I’ll happily tell you, but I don’t think you should count on me, most of my focus is elsewhere
Hi there
I’m now (finally) doing a round of user interviews to understand what influences people to apply or not apply. If you know of anyone who you would consider a very talented potential founder that has decided not to apply, I’d love to connect with them to understand their thinking. (I won’t try to change their mind, just understand their reasons.)
Steve@charityentrepreneurship.com
Hey,
+1
And also, I think asking these people (who are probably busy doing some important project) to email you is going to be high friction. I tried (I posted your request in the EA Israel Slack) but I’m also sharing my expectation of a problem.
I also heard 1 from someone, for what it’s worth
Hi there
I’m now (finally) doing a round of user interviews to understand what influences people to apply or not apply. If you know of anyone who you would consider a very talented potential founder that has decided not to apply, I’d love to connect with them to understand their thinking. (I won’t try to change their mind, just understand their reasons.)
Steve@charityentrepreneurship.com
Ah, nice!
I want to add to Steve’s answer:
We did extensive user research when we were starting out, both among prospective candidates and among actual successful charity founders, to find out what the barriers are and design the program to address them. Since then we haven’t done systematic research of this sort, but are constantly updating based on hundreds of conversations we have every year with people who could be a good fit, and partly based on that, modify the support we offer to address their concerns.
Coommon barriers for applying to the program:
1) One of them can be that someone does not have enough information about the program. We decided to address that by participating in multiple EAGx conferences this year, having talks, career booths, and meeting people in one-on-one settings. As you know, we have also visited EA Israel and gave a talk addressed to local entrepreneurs. :)
2) The second barrier is that people are sometimes choosing between multiple career options, e.g., getting more education or experience before considering starting a project. We have addressed this by offering coaching calls that people could apply for twice in the last year.
3) The third barrier ( and we have written more about this in another answer on this forum) is when someone has some misconceptions about personality traits, credentials, or expertise needed. That is why we have modified our talks and workshops to explain better who awe are looking for and what traits, in our opinion, make the best nonprofit entrepreneurs.
We have noticed that we are most successful in encouraging people to apply when a team member, or a person who started a charity through our program, can talk to them. Just sharing their experience or more information about the program and the support after the program, can make a big difference. We also want people to consider the application process itself as the best test to check their fit for this career path, that is why we invite them to apply as a form of career development—to see if this is the right path for them.
We have limited capacity, but if you know anyone you think would be a great fit for starting one of our top ideas (https://www.charityentrepreneurship.com/research) this year, feel free to connect with us at ula@charityentrepreneurship.com