Currently serving as Operations Manager at Rethink Charity, where we run a high-impact donation platform for Canadians, RC Forward. Former Communications Associate at ALLFED and former co-lead at EA Giving Tuesday. I’m a generalist building skills to help me be an effective operations and project manager for small to medium nonprofits that are prioritizing measurement and impact.
I travelled on a bicycle 2015-2019 in Asian and African countries to learn, an experience which compelled me to reorient my career (and catalyzed a great love and curiosity about people and places). I wanted to help humans and animals using evidence more and serendipity less. I’m a former petroleum geologist, BSc Earth Sciences (2011). On my personal time find me travelling, reading, and spending time outside.
I am most interested in animal welfare, global health + development, and pandemic prevention + mitigation. Giving What We Can pledger since December 2020.
mjamer
Changes at RC Forward: Updates on Canadian high-impact donation platform
Thank you for writing this, and to everyone who worked hard to make these EAGx conferences happen!
Oh this is such a lovely post. Thank you for the wonderful mix of data, anecdotes, pictures, and writing. In particular, the personalities of community members really shone through. Congratulations on all of your accomplishments so far, and best wishes for 2023!
Small thing: the table of “favourite community members” is displaying very tall and narrow for me.
Changes to EA Giving Tuesday for 2022
Hi David! I apologize for the very slow response. A few points:
- Your analysis makes me upgrade how important I think diligent time tracking is on this project in future years, segmented by e.g., ‘managerial and tech time’ vs ‘volunteer/student time’
- I don’t have a go-to answer for you on the time costs for EA GT 2021. We had 2 Ops Specialists (Aisha and Mac) each work ~200 paid hours; I worked about 350 paid hours (including hiring and training); Avi worked probably a few hundred volunteer hours (including hiring and training); Gina and a few others worked a small amount of volunteer hours.
- Can the project’s time costs decrease via “learn by doing?” I am somewhat optimistic about this. But it’s tricky because historically, new people have had to be trained on the systems and context every year. So processes can be improved, but a big thing is getting the same people to contribute to the project year after year. And this is tough, because it’s uncertain the project will run any given year, and it’s only seasonal. Ideally, the “institutional knowledge” would sit at an EA org (ideally, with the same people) over the long term.
- Thanks again for your BOTEC, I enjoyed reading it and I imagine it has helped folks in the community evaluate the projects’ value.
I appreciate that—thanks! I have worked a lot on it. A lot of the credit goes to my great EA GT teammates, in present and past years.
Hi David! At present, there’s no funding secured. That said, the project has received funding in past years. I’m relatively confident (70-80%) that for the right org/individual, there are a few different funding sources that would consider funding it.
Thanks for taking the time to complete and share a first-pass assessment, David! I’ll follow up with a bit more info when I’m able.
EA Giving Tuesday will likely hibernate in 2022, unless handed off to another EA-aligned organization
Given that the process to spend the $50 doesn’t have to happen right away (unless I’m mistaken), then maybe it should be emphasized that the signing up part only takes 20 seconds or so.
Thanks so much!
Hi! Great idea. I’m Megan, I work in communications at Rethink Charity and at ALLFED. I’d love to be in the group, although I don’t have a lot of capacity to contribute to it over the next few months. Thanks!
Hello Chloe. I’m also an early career communications generalist who likes running, vegan cooking, and living abroad. Happy to chat about my experiences with any of these, or with working at EA orgs! (I work at Rethink Charity and at ALLFED). My email is megan@rethinkprojects.org. Enjoy the EA Forum!
Thanks a lot, Ben!
EA Giving Tuesday Donation Matching Initiative: 2020 retrospective
EA Giving Tuesday donation matching initiative: a short feedback survey
Interesting to hear about the flexible take you already had on video/audio. Thanks for the response and for editing the post!
Hi Aidan, thanks for the great tips! I read this after the conference, so I’ll have to use some of them next time. “Dive down the rabbit holes of passion” is a fantastic phrase.
Do you have thoughts on mentioning the option for audio-only calls to people you’re wanting to chat with, in case that would make them more comfortable and/or willing to meet in the first place? I for one have only recently gotten over some of my nerves surrounding video calls with new people. Now I find them engaging, but sometimes distracting as well.
During the conference, I wondered if some people find face-to-face networking daunting, and would appreciate the option—for them perhaps an additional benefit of a virtual conference—to choose how and when they use video. I think going forward I’ll offer the option to people I’m connecting with (for them and for me).
Hope you had a great conference!
Thanks Grace, donated!