Hi <<First Name>>,
This month’s newsletter includes an update on the EA Forum’s groups and events feature, workshops on using Airtable for EA groups, and a spotlight on EA Blue. There are also lots of opportunities for engaged EAs, including Open Philanthropy’s scholarship program for prospective undergraduate students, Giving What We Can’s ambassador program, and coaching from 80,000 Hours.
We’ve also opened applications for two conferences! Please apply if you are in the fortunate position of being able to travel.
All the best,
Joan, Harri, Catherine and Huw (Groups team, CEA)
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EA Global: London and EAGxPrague: Travel funding available!
Applications are open for EA Global: London (October 29 - 30), and EAGxPrague (December 3-5)! EA Global: London is aimed at highly-engaged members of the community. EAGxPrague will be more suitable for those who have less experience with effective altruism.
We encourage organisers to apply for EA Global: London soon, and to encourage suitable community members to apply, but first do check out the travel restrictions for getting into the UK and returning home, and the conference’s COVID protocol. You may also wish to help community members with the application process.
We have substantial travel funding available to help get people to London, so some attendees can have their trip partly or fully subsidised if needed. To request travel funding, apply for the conference ASAP (and before the early bird deadline of September 19). If your application and request for funding are approved, you will learn this in the acceptance email (if you can pay for your travel upfront and have it reimbursed). If you or your group members require an advance to cover the travel costs, please email groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org by September 19.
We’d like to help international attendees coordinate shared accommodation. Let us know if you’d like to be part of this coordination by emailing groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org by September 19.
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News and Requests
- Marie Davidsen-Buhl is running a marketing workshop this weekend (September 12, 2pm UTC) for organisers of intro programs/fellowships. Sign up here by the end of Friday Pacific Time (September 10).
- The EA Forum is rolling out their groups and events feature to more groups.
- Groups that are listed on the EA Hub will be automatically added. Please check the Hub to ensure your group’s details are correct. If not, click on “Claim this group” to edit, or email groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org with updates.
- If you would like your group's events to be automatically cross-posted to the EA Forum, please fill out this form.
- We’re almost done with our overhaul of the EA Groups Resources! We’re looking for a few organisers to look over the existing structure and some of the content. No special expertise required. Email marisa.jurczyk@centreforeffectivealtruism.org if you’re interested.
- Organizers from EA Oxford and EA Caltech are running workshops on using Airtable for EA groups. See the available times and sign up here.
- Open Philanthropy is accepting scholarship applications for highly promising and altruistically-minded students who hope to start an undergraduate degree at one of the top universities in the USA or UK, and who do not qualify as domestic students for the purposes of admission and financial aid. Visit their website to apply, and to see more details on the program.
- Open Philanthropy also re-opened applications for their early-career funding for individuals interested in improving the long-term future, which can support graduate study and other types of one-off career capital-building activities. Applications need to be submitted by January 21, 2022. See the program page for further information and contact longtermfuturescholarship@openphilanthropy.org with any questions/suggestions.
- EA Impact CoLabs, an EA projects platform to connect projects and volunteers, has just launched, and you may wish to encourage group members wanting to volunteer to join. The team (which includes several group organisers from around the world) is also seeking feedback and volunteers.
- Giving What We Can is looking for high schools to run Charity Elections. Staff and students of high schools can apply to receive sponsorship by October 1, 2021.
- 80,000 Hours currently has increased capacity for one-on-one coaching. Encourage your group members to apply (or apply yourself) here.
- Reminder: EA Virtual Programs will now be offered every month! The next round runs from the week of October 4 through the week of November 28. The deadline to apply is Sunday, September 26. Current offerings include an Introductory Program, an In-Depth Program, and a reading group for The Precipice.
- Online events can be found on the EA Forum, the international EA events Google calendar, the EA online events Facebook group, or the #events channel on the EA Groups Slack (join link).
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EA Israel
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Recent groups support activities
The Centre for Effective Altruism’s groups team has been expanding its support for EA groups! Here are a few updates about what we’ve been working on:
1. Recent retreats and community building fellowships
- 32 university organisers from the UK, US, Hong Kong, and India participated in an online community building fellowship, where participants were paid to plan group activities and got advice from each other and from CEA contractor Will Payne.
- CEA held two events for group organisers, coordinated by CEA contractor Jessica McCurdy. One was a one-day event in Oxford for some UK university organisers, and the other was a weekend retreat in Boston for some US university organisers.
We’ve been piloting a high-touch model, as mentioned in our last EA Forum post. Sadly, we can't do that with all our groups, so we’re mostly prioritising a small number of university groups for now. When we have the capacity, we'll invite other active university groups that are a particularly good fit.
We plan to continue sharing resources and knowledge we’ve gained with groups around the world. We may also be able to assist with advice and funding for groups considering running activities such as retreats for community builders in their own region — get in touch with Catherine (catherine@centreforeffectivealtruism.org).
2. Professionalising EA groups
Several groups have recently received funding which allowed them to have their first paid organisers, through the Community Building Grants program, the EA Infrastructure Fund, or other funders. These include
- Boston EA
- Altruísmo Eficaz (Spanish Speakers’ Virtual Group)
- EA New York University: Abu Dhabi
- EA Malaysia
- Positive Impact Society Erasmus
- Fellowship for Nairobi students
- EA DC
- Harvard Project on Existential Risk
- EA University of California Berkeley
- Swarthmore University EA
- Impactful Careers Society MIT
- Georgetown University EA
- EA Anywhere
- EA Toronto
3. New CEA team members and projects
- Rob Gledhill has been hired as the new manager of CEA’s Community Building Grants program, and will start in October.
- Jessica McCurdy has recently been employed to create a package of resources, one-on-one support, and funding, which is intended to become an easy-to-implement default system for new university groups. Jesse Rothman is advising her. They are assisted by seven university groups who are acting as beta testers for this program.
- Jona Glade and Anneke Pogarell have started investigating workplace- and profession-based EA groups, which will lead to improved support and resources for these groups in the future.
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Jobs, Internships, and Volunteering
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Resources for Groups
- We’ve added some professional and easy-to-modify design templates to the EA groups resources recently, including banners, posters, fellowship advertisements, and more. Find them on the EA Groups Canva Team (using Canva to edit) or on the Graphics page on the EA Resource Hub (contains high-res logos, some generic banners, and graphics editable using Gravit).
- Here are more key resources for EA groups:
- The EA Resource Hub is the main source of online resources.
- Funding for groups
- Connect with other organisers on the EA Groups Slack
- For most groups, Catherine Low is your main CEA contact person. Reach out with any questions about running your group. She can be contacted through the EA Groups’ Slack or by email (catherine@centreforeffectivealtruism.org). We particularly encourage you to reach out if you are having problems in your community or are planning significant outreach or media activities. You can also find a suitable time on Catherine’s Calendly to chat.
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Group Spotlight: EA Blue (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines)
"Running a student group becomes more fun and members become more engaged when you have avenues for fun or bonding (like study spaces on Discord), form close-knit relationships in the org (especially with co-organizers), and emphasize a welcoming culture so that no one is afraid to share what’s on their mind.”
“When the EA Student Summit came around in October 2020, some of our members were a little concerned about the schedule – lots of the talks, workshops, and icebreakers were from 11pm to the wee hours of the morning! This didn’t stop our excitement though, and a lot of us just stayed up or took naps to not miss this cool event.”
Read more about EA Blue here.
If there is an organiser or a group you’d like to see featured, fill in our feedback form with your suggestion!
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