KS

Karla Still 🔸

Executive director @ Effective Altruism Finland
272 karmaJoined Working (0-5 years)Helsingfors, Finland

Bio

Participation
7

Pet peeve: For posts relevant to the US only, state it. Preferably in the title.  

Comments
42

Sounds like a great event! To give comparable stats for more similar events to the EA North than the international EAG conference, here are some stats from two events by EA Finland

EA Finland retreat Fall 2024

- 3-day event with sleepover. 
- 32 attendees. (57% first-time retreat attendees.)
- Likelihood to recommend 8.9/10
- Shallow connections[1]: Avg: 6.6
- Deeper connections[2]: Avg: 5.2 

Total costs excluding employee costs: 3,775€ (3,214 GBP). Including employee costs: 4,275€
Total cost per participant: 134€ 
Cost per participant after participation fees: 76€ (=65 GBP)
Cost per deeper connection[3]: 14,6€ (=12,5 GBP). Same range as EA North's 11 GBP

Humans in EA Finland event, spring 2025

A 1-day event with 13 25-minute presentations by community members on any topic loosely related to EA. Topics included: 

  • How I use AI tools to live a better life,
  • No Summer job? Want to do something together?
  • My projects on AI control: LLMs Schelling coordination & training monitors
  • Mental health as a global health problem - and what philosophers can do about it
  • From combustion engines to climate change science. My EA Journey
  • My EA journey and thoughts on career advising

Some stats: 

  • 21 attendees. (5 firstcomers.)
  • "How likely would you join a similar event in 6 months if organised" Avg 4.7/5
  • Feeling welcome and included: 8.6/10

Qualitative feedback: 
Most often mentioned value received (in open field) was 

  • Social needs (6/12)
  • Getting to know people better (6/12)
  • Learning new things/ new ideas (4)
  • A couple also mentioned getting feedback to their projects and increased motivation

 Cost: 
Total costs: 790€ (290€ food costs + ~500€ employee salary costs)
Cost per attendee: 38€/participant (=32 GBP)
Cost per connection is hard to count based on the feedback gathered. 

  1. ^

    "How many people did you have a 5+ minute discussion with for the first time?"

  2. ^

    "How many, if any, people that you didn't know well before the retreat would you now be comfortable asking a favor from?(e.g., someone who might reach out for collaboration, connect you to a job opportunity, etc.)"

  3. ^

    Excluding participation fee, including employee cost. 

If we apply for funding after June 1st, how likely is it that we can get a response from the EA infrastructure fund by mid-August if we state that need in the application?

In the post "Funds and CEA are merging", it was said:

EA Funds will be accepting and evaluating grant applications throughout the merger and spinout process, so you can continue to submit applications. […] Grant requests submitted to EA Funds after 9 May will not be processed until at least 1 August.”

Because it says that the applications will be evaluated continuously, I had interpreted 'processing' to mean the due diligence and payout, not evaluation. But in this post, I get the impression that the pause is more comprehensive because of 

We likely won’t evaluate all applications by 1 June, but we will prioritize time-sensitive and promising applications and aim to complete evaluations for those before the pause

I strongly believe that cultivating a habit of giving, even with small amounts, helps build a long-term culture of altruism

I strongly agree with this! Before I had a stable income, I'd set aside 1€ a month to a separate bank account for charity. Usually, I'd wait a year or more to donate the accumulated money somewhere. (For context, I'm from Northern Europe.) 

Nice idea! I'll share this with the Finnish EA community to ask if someone wants to volunteer. 

Thank you for continuing to share these! I likely would have donated less to the AWF if you didn't share public reports.

(1) I'm also a bit confused about the difference between charitable projects and hosted funds. First, I thought it means it's not possible to donate to funds via GWWC website, but after reading it again, I interpreted it as a change happening rather back-end and won't impact recommendations. Instead, it would be a change in the oversight GWWC promises for the funds. Have I understood it correctly?

I just found that Sebastian Schwiecker had written a blog post on the same topic.
Because of

 I was hoping there were good EA blog posts on this topic, but after spending a while with EA Forum search and Google I didn't find any.

... I'm leaving this link here :) https://effektiv-spenden.org/blog/wie-viel-soll-ich-spenden/

Congrats on making a brave strategic change! 

I'm wondering how you changed from Assiettes Végétales to Anima. Was it just a name change to better reflect the new strategy or a merger to Anima International (if it's also called that in non-profits)?

Load more