Funding for Groups
Last updated March 22, 2023
This page contains all the funding sources that currently provide funding to EA groups and group organizers.
To find CEA's guidelines for what types of expenses EA groups commonly spend on and how much to spend on them, click here. For advice on how to receive and manage funding from CEA's group support grants or rapid funding, click here.
Content
Short Summary of Funding Options
1. Funding for university group organizers (part-time or full-time)
Recommended option: Open Philanthropy University Organizer Fellowship
If you’re a new university group, then we recommend CEA’s University Groups Accelerator Program (UGAP)
For organizers with a strong track record and are interested in full-time entrepreneurial work (inclusive of, but not limited to, university field building): you can apply for Open Philanthropy's Century Fellowship.
2. Funding for university group expenses
Recommended option: CEA Group Support Grants
If you need funding urgently (within 2-5 working days for the money), you can apply for CEA's Rapid Group Funding. Learn more here.
Alternate options:
Open Philanthropy University Group Funding (especially if your group has been funded by Open Philanthropy already)
3. Funding for city / national group organizers (part-time or full-time)
Recommended Option: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (EAIF)
If you want to run a group in one of the locations listed here, then we recommend you apply for CEA’s Community Building Grants Program instead of the EAIF.
4. Funding for city / national group expenses
Recommended Option: CEA Group Support Grants or CEA Rapid Group Funding
Alternate Options:
5. Funding for specific group costs, events, or community building projects
For Events: CEA Events Support
For Community Building Projects: Open Philanthropy's call for outreach and community building projects
For Translating EA/EA-adjacent content to non-English languages: Open Philanthropy
If you have any questions about getting funding, please email groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
Your Funding Options
1. Funding for University Group Organizers
Purpose: The Open Phil Uni Organizer Fellowship provides part-time or full-time funding for individuals who want to direct or support university student groups focused on topics relevant to improving the long-term future, including EA, longtermism, rationality, or specific cause areas.
Organizers must work at least 10 hours per semester, and may request funding for up to full-time work. You can learn more here about what types of organizers they're looking to fund and their goals with the program.
Duration of funding: They are likely to fund newer organizers for only a semester to a year at a time, but are happy to consider 2-year renewals for experienced organizers.
Amount funded: Full-time-equivalent funding starting in the following ranges, pro-rated for part-time organizers:
In the US: $45,000 – $80,000 per year for undergraduates, and $60,000 – $95,000 per year for non-undergraduates (including those no longer at university).
In the UK: £31,800 – £47,800 per year for undergraduates, and £35,800 – £55,900 per year for non-undergraduates.
Funding amounts in other countries will be set according to cost-of-living and other location-specific factors. Exact funding amounts will depend on a number of factors, including location, role, track record, and university.
More details on other benefits can be found on the webpage.
Turnaround time: They expect to make final decisions on most applicants within three weeks of receiving their applications, with some applications taking up to six weeks.
Purpose: CEA’s University Group Accelerator Program (UGAP) aims to turn a new university EA group consisting of a couple of interested organizers into a mid-sized university group. It offers stipends for the main organizers, regular meetings with an experienced mentor, training, and useful resources to run your first intro program.
Duration of funding: One semester
Amount funded: $1,800 per organizer to work 5-7 hours per week on your group for a semester.
If you would like to get funding to work more than 5-7 hours per week on your group, you can apply for additional funding from Open Phil's uni organizer fellowship.
Stipends are adjusted partially by the cost of living in your country, with a base of $1,800 a semester for those in the U.S.
Turnaround time: The next round of UGAP will likely occur on August-December 2023. Learn more here. Register here to be notified when you can apply!
If you’re considering applying to Open Phil's Uni Organizer Fellowship, you may want to consider the Century Fellowship, a 2-year program that supports promising people early in their careers who want to work on challenges the world may face this century that could have a lasting and significant impact on the long-term future.
The scope of this program overlaps with the scope of the university organizers fellowship, but is intended to give more support and flexibility (including $100K+ / year in funding) to people who would be especially promising applicants. Open Phil will automatically forward applications to this program to other funding sources that are a good fit and will email you for additional application information if necessary.
Descriptions of plans may be very broad or uncertain, e.g. "I’m broadly interested in community building, but I’m still thinking about plans and I’m not sure what exactly I want to do."
Feel free to email centuryfellowship@openphilanthropy.org with questions.
Note on the EA Infrastructure Fund:
Previously the EA Infrastructure Fund gave funding for university group organizers and expenses. As of August 2022, they have stopped accepting applications for EA university group funding, given that these can now be handled by Open Philanthropy and CEA.
2. Funding for University Group Expenses
Purpose: Group Support Funding can cover your group's running expenses or fund a specific group project. This funding is open to all types of EA groups (not just university groups). These include EA books, food and drinks at events, software, advertising costs, venue hiring, and retreat costs - similar to the expenses covered by Open Philanthropy below. You can find our expenses guidelines here.
Amount funded: There is no specific limit on the amount of money groups can request. Our default amounts that groups can apply for range from 2,500-4,000 USD per year for smaller groups, and 8,000-9,000 USD per year for larger groups.
Turnaround time: You will usually get a decision about your grant usually within 5 working days (or 3 working days if your grant is urgent), unless we have further questions to ask you.
It will then take 1-2 weeks before you receive the due diligence form (if you haven't done this before) and the grant agreement. After signing the agreement, you will usually receive the funds within 1-2 weeks (for UK and US groups) or 2-3 weeks for other countries.
Purpose: Open Philanthropy also provides funding to university groups for their expenses. Expenses Open Phil would be interested in providing funding for include:
Promotional materials (including banners, posters, flyers, stickers, shirts or other merchandise)
Group-relevant books to give away to students
Food for group meetings, events, tabling, retreats, 1-on-1s
Venue and travel costs for retreats (including for group organizers, potential members, relevant professionals, and/or students from other universities)
Software and subscription costs
Equipment costs for events
Honorariums and travel expenses for speakers
Rent and furnishing costs for dedicated office spaces
Subsidies for group housing
Travel and housing expenses for members to visit key geographic hubs
Costs to host a large conference
Even if your expense idea isn’t on this list, they’d like to hear about it.
Amount funded: Historically, smaller and newer groups have used $5,000 - $10,000 per year, while larger groups have used $10,000 - $100,000+. They encourage you to err on the side of requesting more money if you can think of an impactful way to use it.
Turnaround time: They expect to make decisions on most requests within three weeks of receiving them, with some requests taking up to six weeks.
Fast Funding
Purpose: For groups and organizers (of any type of EA group) already in touch with the CEA groups team that have an urgent upcoming expense (or recently desired reimbursement) that could be covered in the Group Support Grant, you can apply for our rapid group support funding.
Amount funded: Up to $5,000
Turnaround time: Applications will be responded to usually within 2-3 working days. For groups in the US and UK, the money will arrive in your bank account usually as soon as you enter your bank details. For other countries the transfer will usually take up to 3 days.
3. Funding for City / National Group Organizers
Purpose: Individuals who want to get funding for their time to run a city or national EA group can apply to the EAIF.
Duration of funding: 6 months or less usually for first-time paid organizers, though up to 12 months can be given for some groups/organizers
Amount funded: Similar to Open Philanthropy's Uni Organizer Fellowship, although you can request the amount you would like, and the EAIF will see if they can give you that amount.
Turnaround time: The EA Infrastructure Fund will usually respond with a funding decision within eight weeks. If you need to hear back sooner, you can let them know in the application form, and they will see what they can do.
Purpose: Support for city & national groups in select locations (listed here), including organizer funding, group expenses funding, opportunities for ongoing mentorship, peer-knowing sharing sessions, and bi-annual peer retreats.
Amount Funded:
Organizers receive grants to cover their salaries, typically from $60,000-$80,000, with some variation based on cost of living and duration of time on the CBG program.
Each group receives group expenses of at least £20,000 per FTE for books, travel, professional development, co-working spaces, equipment, and outsourcing tasks. We’re excited to provide additional funding if groups have good uses for funds.
Duration: A CBG recipient’s first grant provides funding for one year. Subsequent grants may provide funding for up to two years.
Turnaround time: We assess all applications on a rolling basis, and usually within 2 weeks of when you apply.
4. Funding for City / National Group Expenses
Alternate Options:
For those in select locations: CEA’s Community Building Grants Program
All these options were talked about earlier above.
5. Funding for Specific Group Costs, Events, or Projects
Purpose: CEA wants to support more in-person conferences and events to help connect members of the EA community. You can apply for financial support for conferences & events, guidance on how to run the event effectively, assistance in identifying speakers and co-organizers, and free access to event management resources (e.g. Swapcard and Zoho).
Amount funded: Event organizers are paid $38 / hour by default; Grants have ranged from $5,000 to $150,000.
Turnaround time: Applications are open in batches. Please contact ollie@eaglobal.org and start your subject line with “CE application:” if you have an off-cycle request.
Note: If you’re applying for funding for an event with less than 100 attendees or for retreats with less than 30 attendees, we’d encourage you to just apply for CEA's Group Support Funding.
The main benefit of CEA Events Support is getting paid for your time spent organizing the event, guidance on how to run the event effectively, and free access to event management resources.
For Community Building Projects: Open Philanthropy's call for outreach and community building projects
Open Philanthropy is seeking proposals from applicants interested in growing the community of people motivated to improve the long-term future via certain types of outreach projects.
These include programs that engage with promising young people and projects aiming at widespread dissemination of high-quality content relevant to EA or longtermism. Learn more via this post of theirs.
Open Philanthropy is also seeking bilingual people to help translate EA/EA-adjacent web content into non-English languages. They're looking for people who are able to work full- or part-time (at least 5 hours a week), either a) translating content themselves, or b) hiring non-EA professional translators and reviewing their work for quality.
Learn more via this post. Apply here if you’re interested in paid opportunities, part- or full-time, to help get content translated.
Still unsure?
If your funding need doesn’t fit into a category listed above, we recommend emailing groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org or applying to the EA Infrastructure Fund.