I’m not sure right now, we might fundraise for this separately, charge the individual funds or ask a small set of private donors. I think our operations costs come out to around ~$700k/year (but a large fraction of that are variable costs so if we are moving less money we’ll also end up having lower overheads).
So you estimate 2.4M in donations this year and 700K operations? How was that ratio last year? And how much do you expect to decrease operations if donations remain low/decline?
LTFF made ~10M in grants last year (I think similar figures for EAIF). The 700k figure is from last year rather than a projection going forwards. So <4% operational overhead.
Also, to be clear, most of the operational costs are on the grantmaking side, not on the donation side. It will be extremely inaccurate to model EA Funds as primarily doing donation forwarding.
I’m not sure which number you are quoting here, but you can find the specific numbers here.
Some things to note * our money granted is much higher than our money donations from the public figure as we received money from institutional donors like Open Phil. * operations costs track grantmaking more than donations as ~ all of the variable costs are incurred through grantmaking so our operations costs should decrease naturally if we are doing less grantmaking
* operations costs are for all four EA Funds funds, not just eaif and ltff
Thanks! I’m multiplying the quoted numbers in the OP.
Just to be clear, I’m not anti-overhead (often the opposite), and 4% is low. @calebp I wrongfully thought this was just EAIF, not all funds, so thank you for making me aware of my mistake. It’s interesting to learn that most of the operational cost goes to the grant making side and I’m happy it’s on that side. Thanks and good luck with the funds!
Thanks for this update.
Where will funding for operations come from now? (And how much does EA Funds spend on operations?)
I’m not sure right now, we might fundraise for this separately, charge the individual funds or ask a small set of private donors. I think our operations costs come out to around ~$700k/year (but a large fraction of that are variable costs so if we are moving less money we’ll also end up having lower overheads).
Does the figure for operations costs include EA Funds’ share of general EVF operations overhead (e.g., HR, legal)?
EA Funds pays EV for ops support, otherwise it’d be a lot cheaper (Just Caleb’s salary + occasional contractors).
So you estimate 2.4M in donations this year and 700K operations? How was that ratio last year? And how much do you expect to decrease operations if donations remain low/decline?
LTFF made ~10M in grants last year (I think similar figures for EAIF). The 700k figure is from last year rather than a projection going forwards. So <4% operational overhead.
Also, to be clear, most of the operational costs are on the grantmaking side, not on the donation side. It will be extremely inaccurate to model EA Funds as primarily doing donation forwarding.
I’m not sure which number you are quoting here, but you can find the specific numbers here.
Some things to note
* our money granted is much higher than our money donations from the public figure as we received money from institutional donors like Open Phil.
* operations costs track grantmaking more than donations as ~ all of the variable costs are incurred through grantmaking so our operations costs should decrease naturally if we are doing less grantmaking
* operations costs are for all four EA Funds funds, not just eaif and ltff
Thanks! I’m multiplying the quoted numbers in the OP.
Just to be clear, I’m not anti-overhead (often the opposite), and 4% is low. @calebp I wrongfully thought this was just EAIF, not all funds, so thank you for making me aware of my mistake. It’s interesting to learn that most of the operational cost goes to the grant making side and I’m happy it’s on that side. Thanks and good luck with the funds!