I actually did something similar: a 1-month internship in Kigoma, Tanzania, for an EA-inspired for-profit. I paid all costs apart from housing. I also think being an EA group organiser made it easy for them to take me. (Unfortunately?) I learned that it was not a great personal fit for me, but it was still a good experience, and I think the founders appreciated my contribution. 

In retrospect and purely from an impact perspective, I guess that it would have been more impactful if I had donated the equivalent cost of my flight tickets and vaccines to them. With that money, my botec says that they could maybe have gotten 3-6x more than the value I produced, by hiring East African students for a total of 3-6 months worth of internships. If the money didn't come from my pocket but from the university, like it did for Annika, that wouldn't have been a counterfactual. 

In retrospect, from a not-impact perspective, I'm happy I did the internship. I gained a lot from it.

For context, I live in Finland. 

I've noticed local role models in your community are important in addition to the big-name leaders that you mentioned. I'm a community builder in Finland, and members of our community have often said that seeing and talking to people from the same country who do impressive stuff has helped them be more ambitious in their careers or even consider that they can have an impact instead of just being passive observers of EA.

PS. Here's a list of past Forum posts related to EA Finland in chronological-ish order.

• A Brief History of EA Finland
• EA Finland: from a philosophy discussion club to a national organization (longer history)
• Giving Guide for Student Organisations – An ineffective outreach project
• EA Finland Annual Review 2023
• How to set up a career advising system for your local EA group
• EA Finland Annual Report 2024 (+spring 2025 updates)
• Organizing EA Crash Courses: A Retrospective from EA Finland 

Thank you for the clarification Nicole!

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.

Did you see GWWC's 2025 strategy post?