Funding Strategy Week (2025)
Funding Strategy Week 2025 runs from November 10–16, as part of the Forum’s Giving Season 2025.
It’s a week for exploring how individuals, organisations, and the EA community can make the most effective use of funding — broadly defined. Contributors are encouraged to share practical lessons, analyses, and reflections on how to give, where to give, and how to think about funding strategy as a whole.
What to write about
Funding strategy can include almost anything related to how resources flow toward doing the most good. Possible topics include:
How to give
- Strategy for small donors
- Whether to split your donations or focus on one thing
- Giving now vs. investing to give later
- Giving to tried-and-tested organisations vs. underrated or risky opportunities
- Donor lotteries, prizes, and other nonstandard funding mechanisms
Where to give
- Analyses of neglected or promising funding areas
- Insights from large donors or philanthropic intermediaries (e.g. Open Philanthropy, Founders Pledge)
- How high-net-worth individuals or EA-adjacent donors think about their giving
- Organisational perspectives on fundraising, runway, and diversification
How to think about funding strategy
- The role of diversification and funding circles
- Tradeoffs between high-upside and predictable giving
- How funding concentration shapes cause prioritisation across EA
- Stewardship of funds — e.g. frugality, reserves, and good financial management
Personal and empirical reflections
- Stories from earn-to-give professionals
- Case studies of donation decisions and their impact
- Data visualisations or summaries of EA donation trends (e.g. from the EA Survey or Giving What We Can data)
Funding Strategy Week often sets the tone for the rest of Giving Season, leading into Marginal Funding Week (Nov 17–23), when organisations outline their funding gaps, and the Donation Election, which invites Forum users to help direct real funds to high-impact charities.
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