James Herbert
Bio
Participation1
I'm currently a co-director at EA Netherlands (with Marieke de Visscher). We're working to build and strengthen the EA community here.
Before this, I worked as a consultant on urban socioeconomic development projects and programmes funded by the EU. Before that, I studied liberal arts (in the UK) and then philosophy (in the Netherlands).
Hit me up if you wanna find out about the Dutch EA community! :)
Posts 16
Comments242
Does anyone want to develop a version of Talos/Tarbell/AIM/Horizon but for comms roles?
Last year, we at EA Netherlands spent considerable time developing such a programme idea in collaboration with someone with significant experience in science and technology communications. Our funding application wasn't successful but I think the idea still has legs, especially given the results of the MCF talent needs survey. If you're interested, let me know and perhaps we can hand over what we developed and you can give it another go.
- Should we work with EA-aligned orgs to support them methodologically with their impact management and MEL, or with non-EA orgs to motivate them to shift towards a more EA-aligned approach regarding impact management?
- Not sure, both options have their merits. The Mission Motor is focused on doing the latter for animal welfare organisations, maybe touch base with them to see what their experience has been (if you haven't already).
- Do you know EA-related orgs that could need support with impact planning (e.g. with developing a Theory of Change), tracking, or analysis?
- I know lots of city and national organisations funded by the Centre for Effective Altruism's Community Building Grants programme would like to improve their M&E (including ourselves at EA Netherlands, but we've already got outside support). Perhaps you could contact Naomi, who is responsible for this programme.
- What is your intuition on the level of capacity spent on and knowledge about impact management in EA organizations?
- I'm most familiar with community-building EA organisations like ourselves. My impression is that EA CB orgs tend to do better than the average non-profit, but we're still nowhere near as good as we ought to be.
- Do you work for an organization yourself (or know one well) that might want to build a ToC with us or do a tracking or measurement workshop?
- At EA Netherlands we're already getting outside support with our M&E but I think other national organisations would be interested. Again, I'd consider contacting Naomi from CEA. Right now she's putting together the programme for our next retreat and several requests have been made for M&E training.
There's also a Cole Killian EA Forum account with one comment from 2022. Looks like he's deleted things though. I googled the post 'SBF, Pascal's Mugging, and a Proposed Solution' and found a dead link. It's on Internet Archive though, you can check it here.
This is a pity. My impression is that you added a lot of value, and the fact you're leaving is a signal we’ll have fewer people like you involved. It’s probably a trade-off, but I don’t know if it’s the right trade-off. Thanks for your contribution!