TLDR: Everyone’s talking about what the money could do, but few about how to decide where it goes.
This post is part of the new series of articles on cross-cause giving and the new wave of philanthropy. Stay tuned to the EA Forum and our Substack for the latest takes on topics such as giving now vs. later, common pitfalls in cause prioritization, and other crucial considerations from the Cross-Cause Fund (CCF) team...
I was born at the end of the cold war, unaware of the danger we were emerging from. Duck and cover drills (as if those could protect schoolchildren from a nuclear blast) were a curiosity of the past.
The farmer-poet Wendell Berry, who wrote about the dread of nuclear war, died recently. From his 1968 “The peace of wild things”:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least...
There's a slack workspace for grantees who wanted to band together to understand how to deal with this. But we haven't been able to make any progress really. I don't know if I can write publicly who manages the workspace, so maybe try emailing Chana Messinger from the CH team at [email protected]
Thanks a lot! Could I get an invite or join? I hope I can contribute, as it became a thing for one of our org.
I actually wrote to Chana already, but she responded that she doesn't manage the group and doesn't know who does nor what the group's rules are. Seems hard to get in.
I just sent a message to the admin linking here.
Thanks! Will wait.
For others - no one has invited me to the group yet. Anyway, AFAIK the Slack group is basically dead and there are no useful messages as the workspace is on a free Slack plan with its only 90 days of message retention. I am somewhat surprised and disappointed we are not able to coordinate on this better 😁...
I contacted about 20 lawyers from the OP's Lawyers reference list, but only 4 got back to me. I talked to them and think I have some relevant info, and we are going to proceed with one of them. I have talked to some other companies/non-profits that got money from FTX and are in similar positions, and I know their experience with the case. As usual, everyone is kinda afraid about sharing anything in writing or in public.
If you are a person who's interested in this or need help or how to even start or what the current state-of-anecdotal-info is, I am happy to share whatever I know at that time.