Update October 13, 2022: Giving What We Can and One for the World are supporting a pared-down version of EA Giving Tuesday in 2022. Read more and sign up for updates in their post. 

Summary 

• We’re actively seeking an EA-aligned organization to lead EA Giving Tuesday in 2022 and future years. If you have ideas or leads, reach out to me (Megan Jamer) at megan@eagivingtuesday.org.
• Since 2017, the EA Giving Tuesday donation matching initiative has helped hundreds of EA donors direct over $1.9M USD in extra funding to effective nonprofits.
• Rethink Charity currently houses EA Giving Tuesday, and needs to hand it over to another EA-aligned organization before giving season.
• If not handed off, EA Giving Tuesday will “hibernate.” It’s likely the website and most of the resources will remain online indefinitely, but may be out of date.

What is EA Giving Tuesday? 

EA Giving Tuesday organizes people around a shared goal: to direct matching funds to highly effective nonprofits that they wouldn't otherwise receive. The project supports donors and highly effective nonprofits, to make it as easy as possible to participate in matching opportunities with counterfactual value. EA Giving Tuesday has historically been focused on Facebook’s Giving Tuesday match.

If you’re unfamiliar with the project, there’s in-depth information on our website, and in the EA Giving Tuesday 2020 retrospective. Since 2019, EA Giving Tuesday has been housed within Rethink Charity. 

How valuable is EA Giving Tuesday?

The project’s main impact metric is matching funds directed to effective nonprofits during Facebook’s match. Here is what donors have accomplished through EA Giving Tuesday’s preparation and coordination efforts: 

The value of the matching funds should be weighed against the resources required to run the project. You can find more information about project inputs in the EA Forum posts linked in the table above.

The project may have other sources of value, including: 

• Offering a way for EAs to collaborate and take tangible action together
• Potentially inspiring EAs to donate more, because of the match
• Being a source of frustration and joy that fuels the creation of potentially dank memes

When does the project need to be handed off by?

A hand off plan will likely need to be in place by September 30, 2022, if EA Giving Tuesday is to be actively run this year. Otherwise, the project will “hibernate.” The next section describes some likely changes under this “hibernation” scenario.

I’m a donor or effective nonprofit that’s participated in EA Giving Tuesday? What does this update mean for me? 

EA Giving Tuesday will very likely “hibernate” if not handed off. Donors and nonprofits will see key changes in this hibernation form:
 

• We expect the website and most of the resources will likely remain online indefinitely.
• Donations will need to be made without a restriction (e.g., “Nonprofit’s X Project”) or the need for a regranting arrangement (e.g., “Nonprofit A via Nonprofit B”).
• We’ll add disclaimers to the website and resources (i.e., instructions and FAQ) to reflect that they won’t have been updated since 2021 and may be out of date.

If the project is handed off successfully with enough lead time before Giving Tuesday, its incoming leadership would plan and execute a 2022 strategy.

What type of organization could be a good fit to lead this project? 

Here’s some characteristics of an organization that could be a great fit: 
 

• The org’s mission involves effective giving and/or EA community building.
• The org is an active member of the EA community, and would take trust and relationships with donors and nonprofits in this community seriously.
• The org either has a U.S.-based person to lead the project, or would be able to source U.S.-based talent for this role.
• The org has experience running complex operational projects.
• The org can take over this project permanently, not just in 2022.

If you have ideas or leads for others that could be a good fit, please email Megan at megan@eagivingtuesday.org.

What resources are required to run EA Giving Tuesday? 

The receiving organization would be responsible for funding all project expenses and for recruiting a team and taking ownership of all of the systems used to run it (HubSpot, Mailchimp, Google Workspace, etc.). 

Funding from EA funding sources could possibly be available for this project. For an idea of the time and resources required to run EA Giving Tuesday in the past, please see the Estimating our impact section of the 2020 retrospective. 

I’ve received feedback that EA Giving Tuesday could be run in a leaner style, by focusing on the few aspects of the project that offer the most value. I basically agree! I think running a leaner project would be a good goal for the new leader to have.

Lead EA Giving Tuesday in 2022 and beyond!

I believe EA Giving Tuesday is a valuable project for the EA community. Unfortunately, neither I nor Avi Norowitz (the project’s leader for several years) are able to lead it.  At this time, Rethink Charity is unable to recruit new leads for the project.

I’m deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this project since 2020 alongside talented and dedicated colleagues. In particular, I have really enjoyed supporting a wide network of donors and nonprofits in the EA community. 

EA Giving Tuesday is an exciting and operationally complex project that empowers donors in the EA community to take action together to maximize the impact of their donations.

If you’d like to help out with finding EA Giving Tuesday an EA-aligned organization to lead the project, please don’t hesitate to reach out – email megan@eagivingtuesday.org!