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I can’t figure out how to get off the ground my environmental impact project.
A while ago I started a project to crowdfund ecosystem restoration, attempting to address the downsides of existing initiatives that I've encountered. We’ve managed to get the interest of a few municipal authorities, who are ready to pledge a decent amount of land for the project. We've also got a few first contributors from the US and the EU.
The problem is, I can’t figure out how to get more contributors, and we need at least 50 more people before the end of the year to be able to conduct first field works next season, or to even keep the project afloat.
People tend to like the idea, but I can’t convince them to contribute, and I can’t get help from anywhere. I’ve tried so many things, but nothing seems to work.
I honestly just don’t know what to do, and I’m afraid, that I’ll have to shut down the whole project before even making any impact, and it makes me feel devastated…
Hi. I’m seeking advice on how to get more people to contribute towards an environmental impact project I’ve been working on.
I don’t know if I have such bad luck or what, but I have a tremendous problem when reaching out to people, organizations, or media. If anyone even bother to respond, then it is either a statement that this is ‘such an important and needed project’ (but it seems not so important for them to support it), and they ‘wish me luck’ (I can’t do anything with just wishes), or if they declare initial interest and support, then it ends with ghosting. Not to mention a few openly hostile encounters.
If everyone who declared their support went through with their promises, we’d be already planting, and here I am, stuck in a chicken-and-egg situation, where people expect me to show completed projects to even consider support, while I need initial support to start them.
I was thinking that I am doing everything by the book regarding initial outreach, but I just can’t get any positive results, and I don’t know what to do to get unstuck…
I really like the website. It has nice design.
I would try to talk to people at EAG or EAGx and ask for total honesty. I would say that most people might think it's low impact.
I gave it about 15 minutes to come up with some reasons why people might be reluctant to support you: in general EAs don't focus that much on climate change. Out of all the things that you can do for climate change, planting trees doesn't seem to be the most effective thing to do. You can read about it here. Also, there is a bunch of organizations already doing that (and they also roughly plant 1 tree per dollar).
I’ve made a post outlining what we are trying to make differently in comparison to existing planting initiatives. Also ecosystem restoration is deemed to be one of the most effective way for carbon recapture, and as soon as we confirm with our partners the minimum 40-year guarantee, we’ll also get below 10 USD per ton. Plus each hectare will provide hundreds of dollars worth of other ecosystem services, as we won’t be creating industrial plantations but aiming for more natural forests. We just need a little push to jumpstart field operations.
One of the problems with EA is that people are extremely nice and don't want to tell you that either
There are more but it's very common to hear this kind of positive feedback but no commitment/further engagement. When people wish you well/luck, this is them being polite/nice and saying they aren't interested but that sounds too mean. Furthermore, they really do wish you luck as they probably wish most people luck on their projects.
In your case, I expect it to be a mixture of the 3 perhaps, depending on the case. People are being nice to you and don't want to crush your hopes. Furthermore, if in the EA community, few people care, as a top priority, about climate change.
This also commonly happens in the for profit world. Investors/VCs rarely say they are a no. They will usually give some excuse like it not being the right time or they aren't in this space and such. This allows them to keep the door open to invest in the future if you defy their expectations or just not be seen as a dick/someone you don't want to interact with to preserve their reputation or if they change their mind because someone told them the investment is good.
A good motto to go by when raising funds is "fuck yes or no" meaning if it isn't an enthusiastic yes with clear things they want further for funding or a promise of funding, it's a no.
I experienced people being very honest with me but it might be because I mostly interact with AI safety people
It isn’t aimed at EA community, as I haven’t encountered such reactions, but in a broader context, I would prefer if people would just be honest and tell that they appreciate, but it isn’t their priority right now, and not promise support and then ghost. So far EA folks are the most honest and upfront ones :)
Although it would be nice if people were more into climate action, as environment is a cornerstone of all other human activities.