Demographic diversity and inclusion

Last updated: 7th April, 2026

1. Why this matters

Effective altruism aims to work on some of the world’s biggest problems. We want lots of kinds of people to be able to contribute to that project, not only ones who fit within a narrow demographic or cultural range. To achieve this we want people to feel welcome and have a positive experience in the community.

Experience: What is it like to be in the EA community?

Things we want people to experience in the community:

• To be able to contribute their best work, and feel valued for that work
• A sense of excitement about collaborating with others

Things we don’t want people to experience:

• Discrimination or mistreatment
• Feelings of being excluded, even subtly
• Not being taken seriously because of their demographic background
• Being treated primarily as a member of their demographic group rather than as an individual

Presence: Who is represented in EA?

People are always informally scoping out: is this a good space for me? One of the indicators we all use is: are there people like me already present? “Like me” might mean personality, interests, and views, but often also includes visible features like age, race, gender, accent, disability etc.

If an EA-aligned newcomer concludes that effective altruism is not for “people like me,” EA misses the chance to benefit from additional perspectives and skills. Homogeneity can also cause current EA members from underrepresented groups to feel isolated or discouraged.

Downstream effects of demographics: People will judge a group negatively for skewed demographics even if the vibes are otherwise good. For example, if your group has a small proportion of women, some women won’t want to join because they’ll wonder if something weird is going on.

2. General advice on making a positive environment

Much of what’s helpful for people from underrepresented groups is good practice in general. Having a healthy culture as a group will help, even if practices aren’t aimed around demographics in particular.

The most visible characteristics might not be the ones that feel most relevant to people. For example, many EAs from low-income backgrounds have mentioned that this background feels especially salient to them in EA spaces, even though it’s less visible than race or gender.

Check for anything that might actively hurt or put people off

Consider whether there's anything actively off-putting or harmful about your events or community, and focus on addressing that before trying to proactively attract a more diverse group. This is particularly important for groups that are currently not particularly diverse.

• Have you received any complaints about negative behavior?
• Have organizers noticed any comments or behavior that could be inappropriate or insulting? (keep in mind that any one person is unlikely to observe or fully understand all the ways behavior may be experienced as negative by others).
• Are there often discussions of contentious topics that aren’t very related EA principles? Particularly those that might be more personal for members of underrepresented groups. More information and advice.
• Consider asking some other group members or organizers, especially those from underrepresented demographics, about what they think of the group’s dynamics.

Discussion norms can play a significant role here, as it’s fairly common for people from underrepresented groups to find certain discussion styles unwelcoming or off-putting, which can affect their enjoyment of events and willingness to participate.

More info on discussion norms and diversity are below. Tips on moderating and redirecting conversations can be found here and here.

Make it clear that you care about having a positive culture

This can include

• ensuring there are clear, accessible ways for group members to raise concerns
• communicating expectations, for example by talking about group norms, or having a code of conduct

Making visible what diversity you have

• It’s easier to recruit a diverse group of people once you already have some mix already present.
• All else equal, it’s better if some of the more visible roles are held by people from a variety of demographics (especially on gender and race)
• Asking people to take more visible roles:
• There’s a tricky balance here: some proactive attention to demographics can help counter existing biases and imbalances, but you don’t want to indicate “we’re only asking you because of your demographics” as that is insulting.
• When asking someone to step up to a different kind of role (e.g. joining the organizer team), don’t focus on demographics. It can feel too tokenistic. Highlight reasons why that person is a good fit for the role.
• Once there’s a group of people who need to divide up tasks, I think this can be a good time to account for demographics in assigning the roles that have the most visibility to the group. Then I think it can be suitable to say “we’d like the group to have better balance on gender and race, and we know it matters who’s visible, so if you’re willing to do [more visible role] I think that could be really valuable.”
• Don’t pressure people or push them into roles that aren’t a good fit.
• The “diverse people” may get asked a lot to do roles that they don’t especially want. Make sure people don’t feel pressured and take no for an answer if they don’t want to do it.
• Consider people’s skills. If someone isn’t good at staying on top of email, they’re probably not the right one to be in charge of an email-heavy role in the group.

From a student group about their fellowship:

Try to have some women posting about it on Facebook groups (posting on class pages is one of our main ways of advertising the fellowship and I think having a female make the posts actually made a bit of a difference for us though I can't be sure) This can also extend to info sessions etc.

Acknowledge that the group values diversity and would like to make more progress

E.g. “We think EA would be better with a wider range of people than it currently has. That’s true of our group too. We’re always happy to have you refer friends to the group, and we’d especially like it if you can think about friends who come from different backgrounds than we already have a lot of.”

One group writes:

We do a referral form where previous fellows and board members can suggest people, and then we will send them a nice email saying they have been recommended.

You can encourage participants to think of people from groups currently underrepresented (e.g. on gender, on race/ethnicity).

Wording that a student group used on fellowship applications:

We are committed to building a diverse cohort of Fellows. Evidence suggests that underprivileged individuals tend to underestimate their abilities. We do not want the application process to dissuade potential candidates and we strongly encourage interested students to apply regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, etc. We also encourage both undergraduate and graduate/professional students, as well as individuals from all intellectual backgrounds and majors to apply.

From PISE (Erasmus University group), at a time when it was majority-female:

From the start we really wanted to create an open, approachable and generally diverse group. We think that in doing so, we also happened to attract more women. Some of the things we focused on from the start were:

• Collaborating with a broad range of student organizations, especially if their audience had very different demographics than our board (e.g. with student organizations for international students)
• Using a lot of visuals and making sure each image was very inclusive (e.g. images that included people of various ethnicities).Having a recognizable and appealing brand (e.g. orange is our trademark). (Selection of posters)
• Using as little jargon or technical terms as possible in our group name/ promo (e.g. 'positive impact' or 'making a difference' instead of 'effective altruism') and explaining terms well (both in words and visuals) during events. I attached the first presentation we did to give a better idea of how we tried to do that.
• Making all our events/courses sound fun, light-hearted and approachable, rather than very technical or with a strong message about morality (e.g. ' the speaker will discuss whether we should try to help wild animals' instead of 'the speaker will tell us why/how we should help wild animals'.
• In the first months, we mostly promoted events with the more broadly known causes such as global health, mental health and animal welfare.
• We tried to use all popular forms of communication for students, so we also have an Instagram page and a lot of whatsapp groups (e.g. our announcement chat, active member chat etc.)

In addition, part of our success in attracting more women than most EA groups may be due to the founder effect, as we started with 3 women and 3 men (but 2 of the 3 men studied a subject where female students were the majority).

Discussion norms

• A few people doing most of the talking can be ok, if other people are interested in what they’re saying, and if there are chances for other people to speak too (rather than feeling they can’t get a word in edgewise.)
• Other times, a culture that’s debate-y or dominated by a few speakers can be unpleasant and tedious, if the discussions aren’t useful or enjoyable for the other participants.
• If the dominant speakers are people from a majority group, it can be off-putting to people in the minority.
• If you want to shift the culture in some direction, enlist the help of the most active talkers. Explain what kind of change you’d like to see in the ways discussion goes, and ask for their help in moving it in that direction.
• E.g. currently only a few people are doing most of the talking, you’re trying to move things toward sharing the airtime and helping some of the less confident people have space to speak.
• If you have a mostly-male group, consider the breakdown of any smaller discussion groups. In general, when there are multiple women in a group they tend to each speak more and get more credit, than if there was only one woman in the group (e.g. 1, 2). So until you know the group well, it can be better to avoid placing one woman in a group of men, even if this means having some small groups that are only men.
• If you do need to have only one woman in a group for some reason, the facilitator might chat privately with her along the lines of:
• Sorry if the lack of gender balance makes things weird
• [Point out something in her application or that she’s discussed that you thought was interesting or a good point]
• If you ever have ideas about things organizers could do to make the environment better, I’d welcome hearing about that.
• Jargon can be useful, but can keep some people on the outside of the conversation if they don’t know the group’s jargon. It’s helpful for an organizer or other experienced person to be “jargon catcher” rather than making new people guess or ask. When people use jargon, ask, “Could you mention what you mean by earning to give?” or explain, “AMF is the Against Malaria Foundation.”
• Try to include people who seem sidelined or who are new and may not know much about the topic of conversation. You might ask if they have questions or if there are particular things they’d be interested in talking about. If you know about their interests or expertise, mention that as you bring them into discussions. (e.g. Mina, I’m curious for your takes, especially on/given ….. )

Tips from Magnify Mentoring

• Recommending resources/ featuring speakers from a diversity of backgrounds. I recommend looking at the leadership structures of organizations when you have a speaker and either approaching female/non-binary/ trans speakers directly or asking them who they would recommend. This does take more time but it is very doable. I have found LinkedIn to be excellent for this.
• Being really nice to everyone in your group but ensuring that participants from underrepresented groups get as much contact time as your other members and perhaps taking a couple of minutes to say hi to them specifically. For example, are they speaking and being heard? Are they being connected to other services as much as other group members? What services are you connecting them to? Is there a difference?

3. Practical advice for in-person events

Cooking and cleaning tasks

This is most relevant during longer events such as retreats.

Keep an eye out for dividing these tasks approximately proportionally between different genders in your group. It can help a lot if some of the more regular community members (particularly men) are reminded to set a good example.

Consider having a roster where each person signs up for meal prep and clean up tasks. If you notice some people are spending more than their fair share of time in the kitchen or tidying, suggest they take a break and ask some other people to take over the task.

Nametags

Provide nametags, and have all organizers put them on before the event starts.

• For those who aren’t great with names or faces, and especially for people with face blindness, they can help make conversations easier and warmer.
• People don’t like to be mistaken for someone who looks a bit like them.
• It can be helpful for organizers to put their pronouns on their nametag, to signal that the group is welcoming to diverse genders, and so that people who use less common pronouns don't feel singled out if they want people to know their pronouns. You don't want to force anyone to use pronouns, but it's worth making it common rather than an exception.

Alcohol

Alcohol can cause problems in excess or when pushed on people who don’t want to consume it:

• Lowering inhibitions too far, to where bad behavior is more likely
• People avoiding alcohol for health reasons (including past alcohol problems)
• People avoiding alcohol for religious or ethical reasons

If you decide to have alcohol at an event,

• Have it available but not actively encouraged (e.g. don’t have a norm of offering everybody an alcoholic drink)
• Have it in labeled containers, e.g. bottled beer rather than punch with unclear alcohol content
• Have other drinks available too

Physical accessibility

Provide a clear way to contact an organizer to ask specific questions about the space.

Provide information about a meeting space in announcements. Even if a space’s accessibility is less than ideal, at least this allows people to make a decision about whether going is feasible for them. “Classroom B is to the left of the main entrance and up a flight of stairs.“ “We’ll meet on the lower floor of Panera, which is accessible by the stairs or elevator.”

Some information to provide if possible:

• Is there parking nearby?
• Is the venue near public transportation?
• Are lifts or escalators available? Are locations only reachable by stairs?

Background noise

Try to find less noisy, less crowded venues. People who aren’t a native speaker of the language, or who have hearing loss or auditory processing difficulties can find it difficult to hear or pay attention in these environments. (This doesn’t mean you can’t have socials at a pub, but don’t have all your events there.)

4. More experimental advice

We know a few groups that have tried these approaches, but it might be worth trying!

User interviews

Consider asking some group members for short conversations about how things are going for them. Typically users are better at identifying problems (“I don’t like X”) than solutions (“We should try Y instead” — if they haven’t tried Y, they may not have a good picture of the pros and cons of that approach.)

• What’s working well for you in the group?
• What’s not working well for you?
• Have you heard other people’s takes about what’s working well? About what’s not working well?

Surveys or focus groups

Some groups have an anonymous contact form or survey available, so attendees can flag if there was a problem that made them uncomfortable.

EA London ran a focus group on gender balance at their events.

5. Research on improving diversity

The state of research on what works in DEI unfortunately isn’t very strong or very applicable to community groups (as opposed to workplaces). Where there is evidence, it’s often unclear if it generalizes to other kinds of spaces.

Interventions that don’t seem to be helpful overall:

• Mandatory trainings
• Implicit bias tests

Mentorship is better-supported. One EA-related project in this area is Magnify Mentoring.

6. Trajectory of diversity in EA

The main demographic data about the EA community comes from the EA Survey, most recently from 2024. The newest cohort (people who got involved in EA during the last year as of the 2024 survey) is markedly more racially diverse, and more diverse than the newest cohort was in the 2022 survey.

2014-2024: EA Survey participant ratios have gone from about 75% male in early years to about 69% male over the last 6 years.  The cohort of people who got involved in 2024 is markedly more balanced.

7. More resources

• Julia’s EAGxAustralia talk from 2019 on building a diverse, welcoming, and healthy community (38 minutes).
• Our guide on communicating about EA suggests ways to introduce EA ideas in a fashion that may be more appealing to people with a diversity of thoughts.
• History of diversity efforts and trends in EA