EA Forum Bot Site
EA Forum

Hide table of contents
Comment Permalink
Rebecca7
0
0

What are your thoughts on taking projects that want to be able to take both charitable and for-profit funding in the long term? (Whether to eg eventually have both a charity and a for-profit entity, or just wanting the flexibility to pick one path or the other after testing things out)

Reply
Jeffrey Poche3
1
0

Hello Rebecca, 
As a 501(c)(3) we cannot directly support for-profit entities, however we can support initiatives that demonstrate clear public benefit. Each situation would need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine eligibility.

For projects exploring dual-path funding models, we may be able to support specific components that align with our charitable purpose, even if we cannot support the entire venture.

Feel free to reach out to discuss your specific scenario—we're happy to explore whether there's a viable path forward for collaboration.

Reply
See in context
by andrewleeke, Jeffrey Poche
3 min read 9

72

Building effective altruismCareer choiceOpportunities to take actionAnnouncements and updatesCommunity infrastructureNonprofit governance
Frontpage
Show all topics

We’re excited to announce SparkWell!

What is SparkWell?

SparkWell is an Anti Entropy program designed to help high-impact nonprofit projects test ideas, develop operational capabilities, and launch as independent entities. We provide a temporary home for a diverse range of promising initiatives.

Why have we built this?

We believe that we’re living through a transformational period in history. Catastrophic risks loom large, whether from climate change, factory farming, pandemics, nuclear or cyber warfare, or the misalignment or misuse of intelligent systems.

A transformational period in history warrants a transformation in philanthropy — and we want to give innovative projects the support they need to test their ideas and scale. We leverage our skills and experience with nonprofit operations to guide enrolled projects through a bespoke acceleration roadmap. 

Within 6–24 months, your project will graduate into an independent entity with operational best practices. This will put you in a position to scale your activities — and help mitigate the catastrophic risks facing us.

What does SparkWell offer?

SparkWell offers 6-month, 12-month, or 24-month tracks to accommodate projects at different stages. We enable each project to:

  • Test ideas
    • Receive tax-exempt funding via Anti Entropy's 501(c)(3)
    • Run your project, including hiring staff, contractors, and managing expenses
    • Receive feedback and develop your theory of change
  • Develop operational capabilities
    • Access your bank account, company card, and dashboard
    • Receive mentorship and resources from your Project Liaison
    • Leave bookkeeping and compliance to us
  • Launch an independent entity
    • Monitor your progress along entity formation milestones
    • Be on track to independence within 6, 12, or 24 months
    • Launch an independent entity when you’re ready

We apply a 7% service fee on funds raised or received during the program. You can learn more about the program here.

Who are we?

The SparkWell team includes:

  • Jeffrey Poche: Responsible for the oversight of the program and for Anti Entropy as a whole. Prior to SparkWell, Jeffrey served as Operations Manager at the Centre for Long-Term Resilience, and before that Chief Operating Officer of Fountain Forward.
  • Andrew Leeke: Manages day-to-day operations. Prior to SparkWell, Andrew co-founded Impact Ops, where he provided consultancy and hands-on support to help high-impact organizations upgrade their operations.
  • Joshua Axford: Advises the team and a selection of its active projects. Prior to SparkWell, Joshua co-founded Impact Ops (where he remains CEO) and has directed operations teams at Effective Ventures, CEA, and the Marine Megafauna Foundation.

Who’s enrolled in the program already?

Currently enrolled projects include:

  • Bedrock Philanthropy (6-month track). Providing bespoke management of philanthropic assets for high net-worth donors.
  • NYC Impact Hub (12-month track). Establishing a co-working space to support a community tackling pressing problems.
  • AI Safety Brazil (24-month track). Increasing Brazilian state and civil society capacity regarding AI safety and governance.
  • Open Memetics Institute (24-month track). Delivering public tools to map how ideas spread, starting with psyop detection.
  • Respira Health (24-month track). Delivering rehabilitation to patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
  • Scale Welfare (24-month track). Identifying cost-effective, scalable solutions to improve farmed fish welfare in Asia.

Who funded this?

SparkWell’s funding comes from two sources:

  • Fees from sponsored project (7% of the funds raised or received during the program); and
  • A grant from EA Funds to build out resources for the program.

How do I apply?

Applying is simple:

  1. Submit your project proposal via our application form.
  2. Applications are assessed based on impact potential, team capabilities, and program fit.
  3. Selected applicants are invited for in-depth discussions with our team.
  4. Final selections made by the SparkWell team with notification to all applicants.

If SparkWell sounds like the right fit for your high-impact project, we invite you to apply! You can also reach out to us at contactus@antientropy.org if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading!

72

0
0

Reactions

0
0

More posts like this

Comments9


Sorted by
New & upvoted
Click to highlight new comments since:
Kaleem13
1
0

Glad that this exists - I was worried about the lack of fiscal sponsors/ops-support orgs available in the EA ecosystem post-FTX crash.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but: why are two of the three people working on this project (Sparkwell) also working on a different but very similar project (ImpactOps)? (e.g. why would someone approach one org over another?). Thanks

Reply
andrewleeke4
2
0
1

Thanks Kaleem!

To add on to what Josh said: It’s currently myself (Andrew) and Jeffrey who are running SparkWell day-to-day. While I co-founded Impact Ops, I no longer work there.

Josh works at Impact Ops, and also advises SparkWell. However, he doesn’t work for SparkWell or on the program day-to-day.

As for the differences between the orgs:

  • SparkWell provides fiscal sponsorship, and associated operational and financial services — as well as monthly check-ins, supplementary advisory support, and more. All of this is covered by the 7% service fee.
  • Impact Ops doesn’t provide fiscal sponsorship. It’s an operations agency, which provides consultancy and hands-on support across a range of nonprofit functions (incl. finance, recruitment, and entity setup).

Given Impact Ops’s experience with managing finances for nonprofits, SparkWell outsources accountancy and bookkeeping etc. to Impact Ops. Appreciate this can be a little confusing! But the headline is that these are separate organizations run by different people, offering different sets of services.

Reply
Josh Axford3
0
0
2

Hi Kaleem, 

Impact Ops has been providing and will continue to provide operational support to Anti Entropy and Sparkwell, hence the involvement of Impact Ops team members both publicly and behind the scenes. 

Via the SparkWell program, AntiEntropy is offering fiscal sponsorship to early stage organisations, this is not something Impact Ops provides. 

To answer your second question more directly, a project would approach SparkWell if they are looking for mentoring and temporary fiscal sponsorship to test their idea before launching a new entity. Whereas a project would approach Impact Ops if they have already decided to launch a new entity and need support doing so, or if they already have an entity and require outsourced support from one of the 6 service areas that Impact Ops provides. 

Impact Ops just posted a 2 year reflection piece on the lessons learned from the first 2 years of serving high impact non-profits which might help clarify the differentiation between Impact Ops and SparkWell- https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NWTEuaMDiGhcJQvLZ/lessons-learned-from-two-years-supporting-high-impact 

Reply
PipFoweraker1
0
0

Commenting to note that Ashgro is another fiscal sponsorship and ops-support org that’s been operating post-FTX as well that focuses on AI safety and adjacent projects.

Reply
Rebecca7
0
0

What are your thoughts on taking projects that want to be able to take both charitable and for-profit funding in the long term? (Whether to eg eventually have both a charity and a for-profit entity, or just wanting the flexibility to pick one path or the other after testing things out)

Reply
Jeffrey Poche3
1
0

Hello Rebecca, 
As a 501(c)(3) we cannot directly support for-profit entities, however we can support initiatives that demonstrate clear public benefit. Each situation would need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine eligibility.

For projects exploring dual-path funding models, we may be able to support specific components that align with our charitable purpose, even if we cannot support the entire venture.

Feel free to reach out to discuss your specific scenario—we're happy to explore whether there's a viable path forward for collaboration.

Reply
Ozzie Gooen4
3
0

Happy to see this!

Reply
David_R 🔸2
0
0

This sounds amazing! 

Would you consider providing support for a startup that is already generating profits and aims to donate at least 10% of revenue to EA affiliated charities (along with innovative charitable initiatives) but could really use help with bookkeeping and scaling up faster?

Reply
Jeffrey Poche2
1
0

Hello David, 
Unfortunately, as a 501(c)(3), we can't provide direct support to for-profit entities.

However, if you'd like to connect, we'd be happy to help you explore alternatives that might work for your charitable giving goals - such as finding somewhere you could set up a donor-advised fund (DAF) or other structures that could streamline your donation process while supporting your growth.

Feel free to reach out if you'd like to discuss options that might be a better fit.

Reply
More from andrewleeke
View more
Curated and popular this week
 ·  · 22m read
 · 
The cause prioritization landscape in EA is changing. Prominent groups have shut down, others have been founded, and everyone’s trying to figure out how to prepare for AI. This is the third in a series of posts critically examining the state of cause prioritization and strategies for moving forward. Executive Summary * An increasingly common argument is that we should prioritize work in AI over work in other cause areas (e.g. farmed animal welfare, reducing nuclear risks) because the impending AI revolution undermines the value of working in those other areas. * We consider three versions of the argument: * Aligned superintelligent AI will solve many of the problems that we currently face in other cause areas. * Misaligned AI will be so disastrous that none of the existing problems will matter because we’ll all be dead or worse. * AI will be so disruptive that our current theories of change will all be obsolete, so the best thing to do is wait, build resources, and reformulate plans until after the AI revolution. * We identify some key cruxes of these arguments, and present reasons to be skeptical of them. A more direct case needs to be made for these cruxes before we rely on them in making important cause prioritization decisions. * Even on short timelines, the AI transition may be a protracted and patchy process, leaving many opportunities to act on longer timelines. * Work in other cause areas will often make essential contributions to the AI transition going well. * Projects that require cultural, social, and legal changes for success, and projects where opposing sides will both benefit from AI, will be more resistant to being solved by AI. * Many of the reasons why AI might undermine projects in other cause areas (e.g. its unpredictable and destabilizing effects) would seem to undermine lots of work on AI as well. * While an impending AI revolution should affect how we approach and prioritize non-AI (and AI) projects, doing this wisel
 ·  · 4m read
 · 
TLDR When we look across all jobs globally, many of us in the EA community occupy positions that would rank in the 99.9th percentile or higher by our own preferences within jobs that we could plausibly get.[1] Whether you work at an EA-aligned organization, hold a high-impact role elsewhere, or have a well-compensated position which allows you to make significant high effectiveness donations, your job situation is likely extraordinarily fortunate and high impact by global standards. This career conversations week, it's worth reflecting on this and considering how we can make the most of these opportunities. Intro I think job choice is one of the great advantages of development. Before the industrial revolution, nearly everyone had to be a hunter-gatherer or a farmer, and they typically didn’t get a choice between those. Now there is typically some choice in low income countries, and typically a lot of choice in high income countries. This already suggests that having a job in your preferred field puts you in a high percentile of job choice. But for many in the EA community, the situation is even more fortunate. The Mathematics of Job Preference If you work at an EA-aligned organization and that is your top preference, you occupy an extraordinarily rare position. There are perhaps a few thousand such positions globally, out of the world's several billion jobs. Simple division suggests this puts you in roughly the 99.9999th percentile of job preference. Even if you don't work directly for an EA organization but have secured: * A job allowing significant donations * A position with direct positive impact aligned with your values * Work that combines your skills, interests, and preferred location You likely still occupy a position in the 99.9th percentile or higher of global job preference matching. Even without the impact perspective, if you are working in your preferred field and preferred country, that may put you in the 99.9th percentile of job preference
 ·  · 6m read
 · 
I am writing this to reflect on my experience interning with the Fish Welfare Initiative, and to provide my thoughts on why more students looking to build EA experience should do something similar.  Back in October, I cold-emailed the Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) with my resume and a short cover letter expressing interest in an unpaid in-person internship in the summer of 2025. I figured I had a better chance of getting an internship by building my own door than competing with hundreds of others to squeeze through an existing door, and the opportunity to travel to India carried strong appeal. Haven, the Executive Director of FWI, set up a call with me that mostly consisted of him listing all the challenges of living in rural India — 110° F temperatures, electricity outages, lack of entertainment… When I didn’t seem deterred, he offered me an internship.  I stayed with FWI for one month. By rotating through the different teams, I completed a wide range of tasks:  * Made ~20 visits to fish farms * Wrote a recommendation on next steps for FWI’s stunning project * Conducted data analysis in Python on the efficacy of the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture’s corrective actions * Received training in water quality testing methods * Created charts in Tableau for a webinar presentation * Brainstormed and implemented office improvements  I wasn’t able to drive myself around in India, so I rode on the back of a coworker’s motorbike to commute. FWI provided me with my own bedroom in a company-owned flat. Sometimes Haven and I would cook together at the residence, talking for hours over a chopping board and our metal plates about war, family, or effective altruism. Other times I would eat at restaurants or street food booths with my Indian coworkers. Excluding flights, I spent less than $100 USD in total. I covered all costs, including international transportation, through the Summer in South Asia Fellowship, which provides funding for University of Michigan under
Recent opportunities in Building effective altruism
77
80,000 Hours for Global Development
Benh713
· · 4m read
5
5
9
Join Cambridge AI Safety Hub's Leadership
Cambridge AI Safety Hub
· · 2m read
0
0
18
We’re hiring an Operations Specialist & a Marketer / Head of Growth
Probably Good
· · 1m read
0
0
View more