Cross-posted from my Substack.
Epistemic status: I’ve puzzled over this for a long time but I’m not sure I came to the right answers. I'm sharing this partly because it might help others work on resource allocation, but mostly because some smarter reader might tell me how to do it better.
TL;DR:
* I he...
With the AI windfall, mental health may be taken increasingly seriously by mainstream EA. There’s increasingly room to explore the cause area and answer some of the biggest uncertainties; at the same time, costs of the most effective interventions are continuing to fall. StrongMinds is now treating for ~$35, about a third of GiveWell’s best guess from a few years ago, and is expected to...
GeWWC: Getting What We Can
I was particularly inspired by Kat Woods' statement that fundraising is one of the highest leverage meta-skills you can develop. I work in fundraising, and agree. Holden Karnofsky categorized fundraising as a skill under the aptitude of “organization building, running and boosting” and he also acknowledged in Ep. 110 of the 80,000 Hours Podcast that the lack of a fundraising base as a grantee risk at Open Philanthropy.
So, could we be doing more to attract, train and upskill fundraising professionals? Is it something 80,000 Hours recommends in coaching calls? Should an EA-aligned fund establish or invest in a bootcamp-style course or program that emphasizes membership and smaller-gift fundraising because of it shares so many traits with community building?