TL;DR: After our spring pilot with 4 local communities, 35 participants, and valuable learnings, we're launching an improved version of Scaling Altruism for Fall 2025. We're seeking representatives of local communities who want to run introductory courses with reduced operational burden through centralized coordination.
What is Scaling Altruism?
Scaling Altruism helps local effective altruism communities organize high-quality introductory courses while dramatically reducing operational costs through centralized coordination. Instead of each group reinventing the wheel, we handle the complex logistics so local contacts can focus on what they do best: community building and outreach.
What to expect?
We (course coordinators) will take on most of the tasks of organizing a course, so you (local contacts) can focus on other aspects of community building.
You won't have to worry about managing applications, scheduling groups, and creating the online infrastructure for the program. We take care of coordinating and supporting mentors and participants, keeping track of everything to ensure that the course is running smoothly. However, you will be able to follow along and have the opportunity to get in touch with people who are doing the course from your community.
We will still ask you to do your own outreach and marketing to attract participants. While we can help by providing form, email and marketing templates and discussing strategies, we believe that you know the best outreach opportunities in your local context. We will also ask you to invite facilitators from your community and - if you have the capacity - facilitate a group yourself as well.
With all this, you can expect the 2-3 weeks before the course to be a bit more intensive (1-10 hours per week, depending on your outreach strategy and intensity) and the course weeks to be minimal time commitment (0-3 hours per week, depending on whether you facilitate a group).
Ideal Partner Groups
We're looking for groups:
- Want to run introductory EA courses but lack operational capacity
- Either have a large local community, but not enough capacity to coordinate several course groups
- Or have a small local community struggling to organize a course due to lack of overlapping availability between a small number of applicants
- Have some facilitator capacity (optional) or the ability to recruit volunteers to facilitate
- Can commit to local outreach efforts
- Look to run an online course - or in-person when it is locally feasible
- Can accommodate European time zones (expandable based on interest)
Timeline and Next Steps
- Applications open to become a local contact: until 28 September
- Marketing phase: 29 September - 12 October
- Course launch: 27 October
- Course duration: 6 weeks (shortened from pilot)
- Curriculum: Made by EA Austria based on the EA Handbook
Spring 2025 Pilot Results
Our pilot program coordinated courses across 4 local EA groups, demonstrating both the potential and challenges of centralized coordination:
Key Metrics
- 87 applications received
- 60 participants placed into groups
- 35 participants started the course
- 16 participants completed part one (46% retention)
- 6 participants finished the optional part 2
- 15 standout participants
- Standout: identified by their facilitator as promising EA members
- 9.4/10 average recommendation score from completers
- 8.3 average rating of belonging to the EA community after the course
Key Learnings and Improvements for 2.0
Based on our pilot experience, we're implementing several developments in two main areas:
- Boosting engagement by better managing expectations, improving the selection process, and increasing group size
- Further decreasing the time needed from local contacts by sharing more templates and reducing the need for interaction between coordinators and local contacts (e.g., by having fewer online calls)
Fill in this form. With any questions, feel free to contact our team at [email protected]
If you’d be interested in joining as a participant or facilitator, keep an eye out for updates. We are going to open applications on 29 September.
