10 EA Movement Building Project Ideas for Early Career Professionals & Students

Introduction

Just wanted to share these ideas since I don’t have the capacity to do them myself. I wish someone would realize them! Please let me know if you are considering doing any of these projects. I’d be happy to help, provide resources, and connect you with others who might help.

You don’t have to read everything. You can just take a look and read the parts that you find interesting.

Also, please write below if you have any more ideas or know these things already exist or have been tried in the past.

You can also check this different list by Gergo Gaspar.

Duolingo for EA: Gamify EA Learning

Recently, there have been many self-paced learning platforms similar to Duolingo, but for finance, cooking or fitness. Maybe someone could build a similar app using no-code tools like Lovable to see if there is any potential for something similar for EA learning. You’d go chapter by chapter and learn EA concepts, tools cause areas and careers. Since there are many EA-related career paths and lots of small actions people can take to learn or advance in their careers, this could be easily gamified.

Faculty Advertisements

EA already has many great educational programs such as LEAF, BlueDot Fundamentals, AIM, Future Impact Group, MATS, SPAR, and virtual programs. 

Normally, when an organization offers programs targeting undergraduate, or graduate students, they contact the relevant university staff. The staff then use faculty channels to share these opportunities with students. I know this because I receive such announcements all the time.

If one organization or person could form tiels with the relevant faculty staff, then all EA organizations could send their materials to this person or organization to share with the faculties. Faculties could be prioritized according to subject and quality such as policy or ML PhD students, especially in top universities. This can also be done via alumni communications channels where certain Uni Alumni staff can be contacted. Even paid versions of this could have quite a high impact. I am not sure if this is already being done at top schools around the world, but I have not heard of this before or received such an announcement from my own university which is a top school in the region.

Shorter Podcasts

EA already has many great podcasts, but they are often SO LONG and advanced. I’m not sure there are enough short-form, beginner or mid-level podcasts of around 20–30 minutes.

There could be podcasts focusing on niche topics, such as stories about transitioning into AI safety, or interviews with people who have done many 1-1s with students about their careers. The main audience of the latter could be students and newcomers etc. A project like this could also be a good way to test your fit for a communications type of careers as well.

Database of EAs for 1-1s

When someone shows strong engagement with EA ideas, the best way to support them is usually through 1-1s. These are great because they are a relatively low-cost way to get to know the person, build a relationship, share relevant resources and opportunities, and motivate them to take action. 1-1s were key in all of my previous community-building efforts and worked amazingly well.

However, we are not making good use of this tool digitally. Usually, how it goes is that an EA organizer notices someone and offers to do a 1-1 with them. But this doesn’t always happen, and it cannot happen for people who do not have access to a local EA group, like someone who just read 80,000 Hours and wants to get involved but doesn’t know anyone.

This gap could be filled with a database of people who are available for 1-1s. On this website or Airtable database, there could be many people from different backgrounds, and users could book 1-1s with them. Those who offer 1-1s could be financially compensated or donations are made for them per call.

Depending on their capacity, people in the database could also set some prerequisites before talking with someone. For example, one person might require that you finish the Intro Fellowship before booking a chat, while another might want you to have completed both Intro and In-Depth Fellowships and read the 80,000 Hours Career Guide.

These filters could both motivate people to take meaningful steps and ensure that the 1-1 resource is used by those who are serious about EA. It could also benefit more senior members by offering them the same kind of value they get from EAGs, such as connecting a biosecurity researcher or an easy access to someone working in interpretability.

Polished Career Pages

When I meet someone talented and excited about EA ideas, I usually do a 1-1 and send them resources based on their background and interests. However, I wish there was a more polished and structured way to do this.

It would be great to have clean how-to step by step transition intoin AI Safety, Governance, AI Welfare etc. Notion pages. These pages could be similar to the GCP resources but more categorized by career type. Different versions of these pages could be created. 80,000 Hours already provides good materials, but their articles often include long essays. I imagine something more like a structured path,  a simple reading list where the 80,000 Hours article is just the first step, followed by other relevant materials. Templates or exercises could also be added as well.

Cause Prioritization Guide

I am surprised by how few personal cause prioritization resources exist for people who want to choose their own cause area within EA.

I believe prioritization within EA is important and should be taken seriously, but there are no clear step-by-step resources or templates that help people understand the main areas, disagreements, cruxes, and arguments, and ultimately decide where they want to focus.

I made something like this in about an hour, but there should be better versions available. Here’s mine as an example: Cause Prioritization in 5 Steps.

Research and Writing on Talent Bottlenecks

I believe we are doing EA community building somewhat in the dark. We are not segmenting or targeting enough. If we could better understand what kinds of talent are most needed in specific areas and at what seniority level, we could target those groups and attract the right people.

For example, I heard that AI safety lacks experienced communication strategists, and Charity Entrepreneurship is bottlenecked by strong animal welfare founders.

If someone could research and write about these talent needs, and share them with relevant student and professional groups, we could adjust our strategies and directly target these groups instead of relying on random outreach.

Better Incentives for Referrals

Referrals are often the number one reason people sign up for EA programs. That’s why many EA programs already have referral incentives. However, local groups usually cannot make use of these incentives.

If someone could create a short guide on how to set up a referral system for local groups, it would be very useful.

Polished and High-Quality Materials

Many EA groups do similar activities such as Intro Fellowships, 1-1s, and Intro Talks. However, we often end up reinventing the wheel. Each group creates new posters, outreach messages, and application forms from scratch, and their quality is usually not top-notch since organizers are juggling many responsibilities.

To address this, there is the EA Groups Resource Center and EA Groups Canva. However, it would be great if someone could either commission professional graphic designers or collect highly polished materials and templates to upload there. This way, every group would have access to the best possible versions of posters, forms, and templates.

Currently, the Canva posters do not look very professional, and we also need one or two excellent examples of application forms. Best practices could be integrated into these materials so that EA groups can use higher-quality designs and attract people who appreciate well-crafted content.

Incubating Other Local Groups

If you already have some organizing capacity, you can help incubate other groups. Choose a target city or university where you think a university group should exist. Run a few rounds of Intro Fellowships, identify potential organizers, support them, and increase their knowledge. Then help them apply to the Organizer Support Program, where they can get mentorship to officially found their group.

With just three volunteer community builders spending less than 20 hours of work, we were able to incubate a group at a top university in Turkey. They now have three very motivated organizers.

If your group has some extra capacity and your target location seems likely to be self-sustaining, this could be a great idea.

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These are just some ideas I’ve had but don’t currently have the capacity to work on. Still, I’d really love to see some of them happen.

If you’re thinking about starting one of these projects, please let me know. I’d be happy to share resources, give feedback, or connect you with people who might be able to help.

Also, if you know that any of these already exist or have been tried before, please write it below so we can learn from that.

You can also check this different list by Gergo Gaspar.