Funding for Groups

Last updated July 14, 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)

2. Funding for university group expenses

3. Funding for city / national group organizers (part-time or full-time)

4. Funding for city / national group expenses

5. Funding for specific group costs, events, or community building projects

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:

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: $1,500 per organizer to work 5-7 hours per week on your group for a semester.

Turnaround time: The next round of UGAP will be on August-December 2023. Applications have closed for it. Learn more about UGAP here. Register here to be notified when you can apply for the next round, which will probably run from January to May 2024.

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

Recommended Option: CEA Group Support Grants

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: On average, you'll get a decision about your grant in 15 days (or 8 days if it's urgent). We recommend you apply at least five weeks before your group needs the funding.

Purpose: Open Philanthropy also provides funding to university groups for their expenses. Expenses Open Phil would be interested in providing funding for include:

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

Recommended Option: CEA's Rapid Group 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 on average within 4 working 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: 

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:

All these options were talked about earlier above.

5. Funding for Specific Group Costs, Events, or Projects

For EAGx Events: CEA

Purpose: EAGx conferences are locally-organized conferences designed primarily for people:

Learn more about why and how to apply to run an EAGx event here.

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.

For translating EA/EA-adjacent content to non-English languages: Open Philanthropy

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.