State of EA Poland in 2025, Goals for 2026, and Funding Opportunity

TL;DR

Despite operational setbacks, EA Poland made solid progress on the goals outlined in our December 2024 post:

• In February, we published and promoted The Life You Can Save in Polish, generating 2,153 downloads.
• In August, we launched Dobra Kariera - a local high-impact career initiative.
  • Published and promoted the 80,000 Hours Guide in Polish (80 000 Godzin), generating 2,052 downloads.
  • Conducted 25 career 1-1s.
• In October, we got AI Safety Poland to a new level, with a strong team, dedicated career advisory (8 advisees so far), and regular events attracting 30+ attendees.
• Więcej Dobra, the Polish effective giving platform, is now formally a standalone charity run by Daniel Wyrzykowski, and it has recently received its second grant from an EA org. 

We see the above as a promising foundation. However, a path from the initial interaction with EA and its content to exerting a direct impact might take years. To increase the chance of such an impact crystallizing, we need time to convert the generated interest into deeper engagement. That is how we help keep the drive afloat and lead to so-called Significant Actions (e.g., career shifts into EA cause areas or 10% Pledges).  

To enable it, we are now seeking $20,000 (out of $72,500 in total) that will fill the gap for 2026 and secure 2 FTEs (mine, i.e. Chris Szulc's - executive director, and Diana Krasocka's - comms and ops manager). 

Currently, 24 regular donors cover 25% of our budget, with an average monthly subscription of $70. We would greatly appreciate it if you joined this marvelous group, assuming you have carefully considered what the best use of your money is, impact-wise.  

Support us here: 

Progress and goals

I am planning to update this post in the first week of January to capture all the relevant data from 2025. 

In hindsight, I see that I could have formulated the goals for 2025 better. 

They sometimes don't point at the lagging metrics, i.e., Significant Actions (e.g., career shifts into EA cause areas or 10% Pledges), and they don't distinguish the levels of effort required across the leading metrics, which I call the Catalytic Actions (e.g., EAG(x) attendance, participation in ML4Good, Intro Fellowship). 

I will write in plural whenever I don't express my personal opinion and have little doubts that I can speak on behalf of EA Poland or AI Safety Poland. 

AI Safety Poland

Why? 

Poland has a deep pool of STEM talent and growing traction around AI Safety. 

Progress made in 2025 (mainly Oct-Dec):

I didn't set any goals for the project in the Dec. 2024 post, as I expected it to be mostly autonomous. Eventually, I got more involved with AIS Poland, and I love working with this team. 

• 15x AIS-dedicated career 1-1s (properly promoted only since October).
  • Career 1-1s are run by Jakub Kryś, a Research Scientist at SaferAI.
• Workshop for 25 people at ML in PL conference.
• In-person event post-ML in PL conference with ~40 attendees.
• Four AI Safety Poland Talks were held, with an average of 25 attendees each.
• AI Safety Poland Slack: 191 members, 85 monthly active (incl. math, AI, physics PhDs, and staff of the top national AI research institutes like IDEAS NCBR or NASK).
• >100 Luma subscribers and LinkedIn followers.
• A local workshop with David Quarel from LISA (and ARENA) with 30 attendees.

Case:

Patryk Wielopolski, PhD in AI, was researching the topic of AI Safety on his own and came across our website. He signed up for a career 1-1 with Jakub Kryś, and although he already had some understanding of the field, Jakub managed to help him picture what Patryk already knows, what he doesn’t, and what might be of interest for him. As a result, Patryk learned about and then participated in ML4Good. 

In the meantime, he also joined AI Safety Poland as a co-organizer, becoming a key contributor to its development. Although it's not attributable to AIS Poland, it's worth noting that Patryk pursues further development in the AIS space, and he is expected to start a job in an AIS org in the coming months.

Goals for 2026:

We will finalize our ToC by the end of 2025 based on the community survey results (underway) and update the goals with the concrete numbers. However, we will most likely:

• Continue AIS-dedicated career 1-1s; perhaps, due to the crowdedness in the AIS job market, with an emphasis on supporting talented individuals in funding acquisition.
  • Filip Sondej, an independent AIS researcher funded by OpenPhil (now Coefficient Giving), will help us mentor promising individuals locally (thank you!).
• Continue the bi-weekly webinars with AIS experts. The agenda is ready till the beginning of February 2026, with an overall pipeline of around 15 speakers.
• Organize the local meet-ups in the largest Polish cities (frequency to be determined).

We are considering:

• ML4Good in Poland.
• Co-working space in a city with enough interest.
• Reading club.
• Matching the community members for 1-1s.
• Applying for funding for a part-time field builder to coordinate all of the above.

Note:

EA Poland incubated the group and helped with a few things, like funding the website, initiating AIS-dedicated career advisory, and ToC development. 

However, it's the AI Safety Poland organizers who stand behind the execution of the key activities: 

• Jakub Kryś: career advisory and AI Safety Poland Talks;
• Patryk Wielopolski: AI Safety Poland Talks, outreach, meet-ups;
• Jakub Nowak: website;
• Marcel Windys: Slack and local meet-ups. 

Thank you guys!

I expect AIS Poland to become an autonomous, impact-generating project already in 2026. 

EA Poland could then help incubate another group, e.g., Biosecurity Poland.

Dobra Kariera: 80,000 Hours Guide / 80 000 Godzin and Career 1-1s

Why (on earth would you set up yet another high-impact career (HIC) initiative)?: 

• We hypothesize that fundraising from non-EA sources will be easier for the HIC initiative than for the meta EA org, and we will be testing it from 2026 onwards.
  • Career guidance is universally relatable and addresses a well-recognized gap in Poland
  • There are institutional grants we can try obtaining for that purpose.
  • We can also form commercial partnerships.
• We find experimenting with non-EA sources important because:
  • From our perspective, reliance on EA sources seems risky. That’s because we had a negative experience in the past, and feedback from grantmakers is uncommon. As a result, even though we’ve been recently funded by orgs like OpenPhil (now Coefficient Giving) and EA Funds, if we get rejected in the future, we don’t expect to learn why.
  • Getting more funds to EA rather than from EA seems like a good idea.
• We think stabilizing and growing EA Poland is worth it because:
  • There seems to be a raison d'être for EA groups in pretty much any country. Local groups are well- and sometimes uniquely-positioned to support things like: long-term engagement, moral circle expansion, value-drift prevention, sustaining motivation, or things as specific as positive-impact-oriented civil service.
  • The above is probably a kind of work to be pursued for generations, so I think it makes sense to diversify funding in the first years of operation to ensure stability and future growth.
  • Poland has recently become the 20th largest economy in the world, and the forecasts for the coming years suggest we will keep doing pretty well. That makes it an increasingly promising country philanthropy-wise.
  • As an EU member state, Poland and its citizens can shape policies affecting 450 million people living in the EU, and given the Brussels effect, sometimes beyond. The same goes for other animals. In a country like this, having people driven by moral ambition, aware of such rights, and eager to use them for good might be really impactful (although I don’t know how likely it is to affect a policy through the public consultations).
  • The number of people attributing Significant Actions to EA Poland is growing every year, which signals that we know how to achieve the right outcomes. We now want to optimize and scale it up.

Why 80,000 Hours Guide and career 1-1s?: 

• 80,000 Hours was among the top performers in RP’s 2022 EA survey rankings, helping people learn about EA, get involved in it, and exert more positive impact.
• 80 000 Godzin is the kind of product that can outlive our team, as it can just hang on the websites to be downloaded for free.
• “Personal contact with EA” was also a top-ranked factor and informed our pilot of 1-1 sessions as both advising and engagement tools. 

The goals set in the Dec. 2024 forum post and progress made in 2025 (mainly Aug–Nov):

• 500 - 1000 downloads of the guide with 5–15 readers taking follow-up actions such as attending events, pursuing intro fellowships, or career 1-1s.
• The goal assumed we would have 0 PLN to boost the marketing campaign, but we ended up receiving an EA Funds grant for this purpose.
  • 2,010 downloads of the 80 000 Godzin so far
  • We see people taking follow-up actions due to Dobra Kariera as a whole, and the 5-15 goal has been easily met. However, these actions should have been broken down into ones that are medium effort (career 1-1) and higher effort (intro fellowships). Moreover, attributing the action specifically to the guide isn’t easy to track. People often seem to start reading the guide, subscribe to Dobra Kariera newsletter (~2000 subscribers), follow our active social media, and apply for a career 1-1s in ~one go.
• Conducting 70-90x 1-1s.
  • 34 general career 1-1s (nearly all of them new to EA)
    • Average Likelihood to Recommend: 9.7 (n=15)
  • 15 AIS-dedicated career 1-1s (I mention it both here and in AIS Poland project, because when the goal was set, I didn’t know we would be splitting it)
  • Due to operational challenges (team shrinking and the key employee on a longer sick leave), the general career 1-1s were properly launched only in mid-August. Moreover, the application is relatively demanding, and we want to keep it that way.
  • AIS-dedicated career 1-1s were properly promoted only since October, as we’ve been polishing the outreach strategy and infrastructure.
• Inspiring a career-related Significant Action, e.g., pursuing an internship, degree, or a job in a primary EA cause area among 5-10% of the participants.
  • Too early to tell, although the initial signals suggest that sticking to 10% of consultees taking a Significant Action might be a good goal. 

Case:

Martyna holds a Master’s degree in Asia-Pacific Affairs and wrote her master's thesis on semiconductors.

She learned about Dobra Kariera from our social media ads and has never heard of 80,000 Hours or EA before. Reading 80 000 Godzin sparked her interest in AI Governance. It also helped her notice she could potentially use her interest in China and her ability to speak Chinese for good. A career 1-1 with one of Dobra Kariera’s consultants boosted the notion that such paths are worth exploring.

Since then, Martyna applied to an AI Safety course and held several 1-1s with the EA community members.

In the meantime, she participated in our in-person event in Warsaw and volunteered to host a webinar with a New Incentives representative, hence becoming an active member of the EA Poland community.

Goals for 2026:

• 120–180 general career 1-1s
  • ~10% of consultations leading to Significant Actions, such as:
    • Full-time work at an EA organization or within a key EA cause area
    • Receiving a grant to carry out work in an EA cause area
    • Internship or contract in an EA organization / cause area
    • Choosing a career path (including a field of study) aligned with a key EA cause
  • ~20% of consultations leading to so-called Catalytic Actions, such as:
    • Participation in Intro to EA Fellowships
    • Attendance at EAG(x)
    • Participation in programs like ML4Good, SPAR, or ARENA

We are considering:

• Publishing a Polish audiobook version of 80 000 Godzin
  • To be produced with ElevenLabs pro bono.
  • We are planning to clarify the goals, e.g. # of listeners by the end of 2025.
• Introducing High-Impact Professional’s 6-week Impact Accelerator Program to experienced professionals locally.

The % of consultations leading to Significant or Catalytic Actions is based on a small sample and will be verified along the way as we gather more data.

Note:

The career 1-1s are run by a team of absolutely magical team of volunteers from EA: Maciej Bartylak, Dorota Kowalczyk, Michał Skowronek, Zuza Matuszewska, Tomek Kurcz, Kacper Łepecki, Dawid Przybylak, Dariusz Redlicki, Gabi Jadłowska. Thank you guys! <3 

They (and a few more people who haven’t had the capacity to hold 1-1s so far) went through an 8-hour-long training developed and run by Maria Gembarzewska-Truong. 

The Life You Can Save (TLYCS)

Why? 

• According to Rethink Prioritie's EA survey results from 2022, TLYCS is the 2nd most popular book that led people to learn about EA.
• It is the kind of outcome that can outlive our team, as the book can just hang on the websites to be downloaded for free.

The goals set in the Dec. 2024 forum post and progress made in 2025:

• 2,000 - 5,000 downloads of the book with 10–30 readers taking follow-up actions such as attending events, pursuing intro fellowships or career 1-1s.
  • 2,153 downloads
  • >200k reached via ads/influencer partnerships
  • >100 attendees at in-person launch events
  • >408 newsletter subscribers

The action encouraging Pledges is yet to take place (most likely in Dec. 2025). It got postponed due to the operational challenges (team shrinking, comms and ops manager on sick leave)

Conclusion:

The book is now available on three platforms: efektywnyaltruizm.org, wiecejdobra.pl, and thelifeyoucansave.org. 

Apart from serving as a valuable reference resource for the EA advocates, we expect it to continue generating passive impact (people who will come across the book by themselves and take EA-aligned actions inspired by it) and delayed impact (people who read the book because of our campaign and will take EA-aligned actions beyond 2025). 

We’ll track these actions via community engagement and the GWWC website.

Community

Why? 

Community helps attract morally ambitious individuals, sustain motivation, prevent value drift, and support long-term engagement.

The goals set in the Dec. 2024 forum post and progress made in 2025:

As in the previous year, our focus on other projects put constraints on our ability to expand the community. 

Probably the most important metric, the number of Significant Actions taken attributable to EA Poland’s efforts, will be updated here in the first week of January, but I expect it to be 5-10.  

• Increasing the number of active Slack users to 105–110.
  • 111 monthly active Slack members as of Nov. 2025
    • It was 80 in Nov. 2023; 91 in Nov. 2024
• Supporting 2–3 new autonomous EA projects, incl. the recruitment of a new Intro Fellowship coordination team.
  • I should have specified that, apart from the Intro Fellowship, I mainly mean seeding the new groups. We didn’t have the capacity for this.
  • Intro Fellowship team is handling the coordination well, but it will be on EA Poland’s side to promote the program. As such, I don’t expect it to become fully autonomous, and we didn’t have much capacity for promoting it.
• Growing attendance at local group events by 30-50%.
  • Strategie Dobra with 45 attendees - an event concerning high-impact careers in Warsaw.
    • We hold half-day-long events in Warsaw yearly, but in the previous years, they attracted 20-30 people. 

Other activities managed by EA Poland’s staff:

• ~50 individuals from Poland assisted by me through 1-1s (intro to (Polish) EA, brainstorming, coaching, mentoring).
  • I expect this number to be similar to the previous year, but I didn’t have a good tracking system/category of 1-1s back then, and I don’t think it’s worth spending more time on analyzing it now.
• The development and piloting of the rationality workshop by Maria Gembarzewska-Truong.

Key things that happened largely thanks to the EA Poland’s community members: 

• ~50 people have engaged with the Jagiellonian University group through fellowships and other events in its first year of operation, with 20 being regular members.
• ~30 people attended an AIS event organized by the group at the University of Warsaw.
• 15 people completed a 2-month-long, ECTSed Intro to EA course at the top Polish university.
• 10-15 people meet monthly in Warsaw.
• 17 people participated in the online Intro Fellowship.
• 29 Polish community members participated in EAGxPrague.

Case:

Magdalena has recently joined Kickstarting for Good as a Research Manager and sent me the following message: 

“You contributed greatly to this change, and I am very grateful, because if you hadn't reached out on Facebook a few years ago, I don't know if I would have become so closely involved with EA.”

The journey from the first interaction online, through the in-person meetup, EAGxWarsaw, loads of proactive activities on Magdalena’s side, to landing an EA job took about 2.5 years. 

She presents yet another confirmation that the kind of activities we choose to prioritize today (promoting 80,000 Hours, holding career 1-1s) may bear fruit in years to come. 

Goals for 2026: 

• Seeking a grant of $12k - $35k (there are several scenarios on the table) to contract a Polish EA-aligned influencer, Orestes, to produce and promote a long-format video introducing effective altruism. 

3 years ago, Orestes produced a YT material presenting the key concepts of EA, which was viewed by 16k people and was very well received.

These days, our projects generate increasing interest in the concept, but we lack a comprehensive, up-to-date, and low-effort reference material in Polish. 

In the meantime, we experience occasional publications of articles that tend to present EA as a Silicon Valley bros’ philosophy. 

As such, creating content that will explain both the principles behind the idea and the controversies around it seems valuable and urgent. 

• 5–10 Significant Actions attributable to EA Poland’s efforts (both delayed, i.e., initiated in the previous years, and those taking place the same year they got initiated), excluding SA’s taken due to Dobra Kariera.
• Increasing the number of monthly active Slack users to 125-130.
• Assisting personally at least 50 active community members and those who proactively seek ways to engage with or contribute to EA through 1-1s.
• Assisting our EA Fellowships coordinator in promoting 3-4 editions of Intro to EA to attract at least 40 participants in total. 

Our increasing focus on high-impact careers limits our ability to manage and expand the community. Depending on the fundraising progress, we might want to recruit a dedicated person for this purpose. 

Więcej Dobra

The Polish effective giving platform is now formally a standalone charity run by Daniel Wyrzykowski, and it has recently received a grant from OpenPhil (now Coefficient Giving). The project, a fundraising campaign for New Incentives, is pending, and initial results look promising, but I will leave the updates on that to Daniel.

What I want to note here is that Daniel receiving already his second grant from an EA org for Więcej Dobra seems like a strong signal that the incubation and the passing of the project went well. 

Having the platform autonomous and in good hands will enable EA Poland org to focus on high-impact careers. 

Funding Diversification

Why? 

We strive to create a resilient organization that will last and help exert more positive impact for generations.

The goals set in the Dec. 2024 forum post and progress made in 2025:

• Securing 1 - 1.5 FTE (32.7k - 49k USD) for the whole of 2026, with 10-15% coming from non-EA sources by the end of December 2025.
  • As of today, we have about 0.7 FTE secured for the whole of 2026.
  • We won’t manage to attract non-EA funds this year. 

Other data:

• Grant executed in 2024/2025: OpenPhil (now Coefficient Giving)
• Grants executed in 2025: EA Funds, Anima International
• Over 25% of 2025 salaries covered by the regular donors (in Nov. 2023, it was <0,1%)
• ~8% of 2025 salaries covered by a High Net Worth Individual
• We got registered as a public benefit organization, which was a long, low-fun, energy-draining bureaucratic process. However, it now allows Polish taxpayers to allocate 1.5% of their annual income tax to EA Poland. We expect to see the first results of it in August 2026.

Challenges:

• In January 2025, due to funding constraints, our team shrank from 2 ⅓ FTE to 2 FTEs as Maria Gembarzewska-Truong, the Co-Director of EA Poland, stepped down. The spread of responsibilities affected the remaining team’s capacity.
• Diana Krasocka ended up on a 4-month sick leave.
• As a result, for ⅓ of this year, I was the only employee running EA Poland.
• I had to channel more attention from funding diversification to the coordination of the existing projects, so the goal of expanding my fundraising efforts to non-EA sources got postponed to 2026. 

Goals for 2026:

• Secure 2–2.5 FTEs for 2027 ($72k–$90k), incl. 10–15% from non-EA sources by the end of December 2026.

Note: 

Both EA Funds and Anima International’s grants end in December 2025. 

We will be applying for an extension of the former, and we are already in talks about the extension of the latter. However, EA Funds might take ~2 months to decide from the moment they receive our application, which we will submit closer to the end of the pilot. The past rejections from EA funding orgs did not include feedback, which makes estimating our chances of success more difficult. 

Filling the 2026 gap promptly would allow us to focus on what we expect to yield the best long-term results, rather than on time-intensive short-term fundraising.

How can you help?

We are seeking $20,000 (out of $72,500 in total) to fill the gap for 2026 and secure 2 FTEs (executive director and comms/ops manager). 

It will remove the uncertainty and allow us to focus on the activities aimed at the best long-term outcomes, both in terms of attracting more funds from non-EA sources and assisting people with Significant Actions. The alternative means pursuing short-term fundraising activities aimed at filling the mentioned gap.

1 FTE for a month costs about $3,000 ($1,630 net + taxes, compulsory social security, accounting, and ~3% buffer; I write “about” due to the currency rates variation; today it’s $2,988).

Currently, 24 regular donors cover 25% of our budget, with an average monthly subscription of $70. We would greatly appreciate it if you joined this marvelous group.

If you’d like to support us:

or get in touch https://calendly.com/chris-szulc/30min?month=2025-11

We’re incredibly grateful to all of our current and past supporters. Thanks to you, we’ve made it this far. 

Let’s embrace that multiplier effect in 2026 together!

Thanking spree (in random order): 

EA Poland is a collective, massive effort, and I find working hand in hand with such compassionate and devoted people to be one of the greatest privileges of my role. 

Diana, I’d have to invent a new language to be able to express the gratitude you deserve for all that top-quality work of yours. I am so glad you are back. 

Maria Gembarzewska-Truong - I value immensely that you are present and contribute despite all the challenges! 

Marta Strzyga, Kasia Mizio, Jakub Nowak - thank you for keeping an eye on the fundamental strategic and fiscal decisions as the Supervisory Board. 

Weronika Żurek did some serious heavy-lifting setting up EA university group at Jagiellonian University and successfully passing the torch to new board members: Anna Karpierz and Gosia Michałek. Great job, Weronika, and good luck, ladies! 

Kacper Łepecki has been going on with the monthly Warsaw meet-ups for over two years now! Cheers for your devotion! 

Intro Fellowships continue only thanks to Wojciech Fijarczyk coordinating it, and our brave moderators: Gabriel Dunin-Borkowski and Zuza Matuszewska - thank you guys!

Zuza Matuszewska, your omnipresence is impressive and bound to generate a significant impact. I am really grateful that you joined us!

Thank you, Karo, for guiding us through Dobra Kariera’s brand development! 

Huge thanks to Natalia Jasiak, Diana Krasocka, Angelika Kałdus for your contribution to Dobra Kariera creation and marketing strategy development.

Again, Natalia Jasiak, I find your sustained contribution to the way EA Poland is perceived online crucial and inspiring. Thank you! 

Thanks a lot, Alicja Stalmach, Allan Talbot, Ania Cygan, for your pro bono help with turning the concepts into the visual identification. 

Andreas Chrysopoulos, what a pleasure to work with such a professional as you are! You truly know how to make them websites sexy. And thank you for your generosity with Dobra Kariera’s web! 

Kinga Kadróg, I think we’d be struggling with the logo up until this day if it wasn’t for your intervention :D Thank you!

Dorota Kowalczyk, wow, we did it :D Thank you for all the work on the guide! 

Marta Strzyga, Kasia Sumiło, same here! Thank you so much for your contribution in making 80 000 Godzin possible.

Maciej Bartylak, it’s so great to have you on the team! I truly value your contribution to the optimization of EA Poland through automations and discussions. 

Daniel Polak - I will never forget all the huge support with OPP and GDPR you provided... Thanks so much! 

Tomek Kurcz and Karolina Markowska - it’s so great to know that we can count on you whenever there’s a worthy event to be organized in Wrocław! Thank you!

Magda Kwapisiewicz, Karolina Markowska, Maksymilian Woch, Diana Krasocka, Natalia Jasiak - thank you for your help with organizing Strategie Dobra. What a wonderful event it was!

Rylan, Marek, Rafał, Ewelina, Kamil, Michał, Wojtek, Wiktor, Tomek, Paweł, Jakub, Łukasz, Filip, Marcel, Piotr, Jana, Weronika, Marcin, Adam, Franciszek, Mateusz, Ania, Ewa, Przemysław, Aleksandr, Asia, Christiaan, … - thank you for your trust!