Currently Head of Business Operations at 80,000 Hours. Previously managed Gi Effektivt, an effective fundraising platform run by EA Norway. Before that, I was Assistant Executive Director at EA Norway. I co-founded EA NTNU while studying, which was the first EA group in Norway.
\\ Interested in operations and finance controlling. Also fundraising, philanthropic advising, community building, and project management. My current plan is to continue working in meta EA.
\\ I have a masters engineering degree at NTNU, Trondheim, Norway in industrial economics and technology management. My engineering field is computer science, with a focus on artificial intelligence and operations research.
Jørgen Ljønes🔸
Karma: 605
Thanks for your comment. In our previous posts we explored the nature of the operations talent gap, and among other things surveyed EAs working in operations roles about what traits and skills they believed to be important in their job, and how these skills could be acquired.
From our previous post [part 2]:
″...work experience with operations, running logistics at events and workshops, and project management are mentioned as ways in which the respondents gained some of their skills. Furthermore, internships, volunteering and doing independent side projects were mentioned as concrete ways to gain certain skills, while also being less costly than taking a job somewhere.”
“Other mentions in the survey were reading articles and books on business-related topics, trying to improve the organisations you work at, and getting feedback from colleagues and experienced operations people. [...] In terms of other ways which one could acquire these skills, the respondents proposed attending workshops, and work experience in the private sector or non-EA organisations. They also mentioned taking tutorials on relevant topics, coaching from others, and online courses.”
We share your concern that short-term experience will not provide participants with a significant increase in skill level of any relevant skill. Still, we think that an intensive project with deliberate practice, supported by solid mentoring, could provide useful and enhance participants skills. At least if the target group of the camp is juniors. Also, we would add that given the third mechanism mentioned in our post, we believe that most of the value will come from finding already skilled people and help them signal their skill level and motivation reliably, rather than relying on significant up-skilling during the camp.
That’s great! Thanks for the offer! We’ll add your name to a list of resources we’ll consider for the camp. That being said, developing the content is not a priority in the next month.
Pre-announcement and call for feedback: Operations Camp 2019
So you want to do operations [Part two] - how to acquire and test for relevant skills
So you want to do operations [Part one] - which skills do you need?
As of now it is quite low effort. We got a website that works like a donation portal providing information about GW orgs in Norwegian, general arguments for why one should give effectively and transparent information about the Effect Foundation. The main value here is the information is provided in Norwegian and that we support Norwegian payment methods. These payment methods are no or low fees so there are some savings in transaction cost by donating through us rather than directly.
In addition to the website we use Facebook to promote the organizations and effective giving, and we use the new facebook fundraising feature. Also we have a promotional video shown on national television 1-2 days a year(http://effective-altruism.com/ea/l0/eacommersials_on_national_tv_in_norway_for_free/).
We have experimented with donor events (AMF visited Oslo last year for a talk and get together at a pub afterwards) and reaching out to companies and their CSR-projects (http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1js/project_report_on_the_potential_of_norwegian/).
I’m interested in hearing how the fundraising drive went and what the current situation of EA London is?
A short review of the Effect Foundation in 2017
Project Report—On the Potential of Norwegian CSR-donations to Effective Charities
Reorganizing EA NTNU into agile self-organizing teams
What happend to this post? Is it retracted? The autor seem to be deleted or something. I was interested in learning how others with insight in this topic would respond and follow the debate.
I would love to see more of the same kind of overview for other careers like computer science, consulting and economics. 80.000 hours should consider integrating such concrete, practical guides for choosing sub-fields.
EA introduction course and YouTube playlists
In order to be eligible for tax deduction you mean? No, they have to be registered inside the EEA, though.
EDIT: Ah, you meant for sending in videos. I don’t know actually. Will try to find an answer.
EDIT again: Yes, the charities have to be “nationwide” and they are stating that they want to promote “ideal organisations and the voluntary work in our country”. This is from the larges commercial TV station, but I think the same goes for the smaller media channels as well.
EA-commercials on national TV in Norway—for free!
Book-campaign in Norway—The plan and a request for input
Meetup : Lunch meeting: Aid—Does it work?
Great with all the tips for a successful birthday fundraiser! But I’ve got a couple of questions that I would like to see your thoughts on.
I) People you meet on a regular basis, like your best friends of nearest family, do you include them on the email list? Isn’t it like texting people while you talk to them? A bit weird and too formal?
II) I imagine you want to do this again next year, but could you send the same email again? Do you think people will think differently about the email and you contacting them with a fundraising call every year?
I’m thinking of giving “Giving games” for Christmas this year.
Family and friends gets a envelope with two cards. A nice Christmas card saying they now have x NOK to give on a charity of their choosing. Then it presents some interesting recommendations and encourage them to look more into them if they want to. When they have decided they have to write it down on an accompanying empty (but postaged) card addressed to me and when I get the card after Christmas I will donate the money.
Have somebody else though of something similar? Do you have any ideas that could make it more interesting or better in any way?
Thank you for an interesting comment. Would you say that we should expect more impact from the fact that we are identifying and referring strong candidates, and providing them with a strong signal of their competence, motivation and EA understanding, than from any learning and experience they might build during the camp?