Introduction & explanation
Last updated
Last updated
See also
Our public reports of trials and analysis in the web-book here
The Barriers to Effective Giving living web book
Our regularly updated 'data analysis report' on all the trials and evidence, which you can download HERE as a protected zip file (need to request password, permission granted with consent of participating organizations)
We are a small group of researchers and practitioners. This project is organized by David Reinstein , who maintains this wiki/Gitbook and other resources.
We aim to promote awareness and understanding of the (EA), and "to make giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm." We consider marketing campaigns, charitable appeals, events, and public communication, working both with our partner organizations and in independent surveys and trials. We want to improve the design and messaging of organizations like Giving What We Can and 80000 Hours to improve their outreach methods and maximize their impact. Measuring and testing 'what works and when': While we are also testing and analyzing this rigorously. We help run and track careful data collection and rigorous controlled trials, as well as helping to organize the reporting of less rigorous trials. We robustly analyze the results to better understand which approaches tend to have a more positive impact. Communication: We track, organize, and share what we have learned with the EA community, building and organizing resources and a knowledge base. This will address questions such as:
How to implement and test marketing campaigns?
What has worked to promote EA?
What profiles of people are most likely to be interested in effective altruism?
We strive to be transparent. We want to report and share our data, procedures, code, and evidence without overselling the results.
Coalesce our understanding and evidence on barriers and facilitators of effective altruism, effective giving, and effective action
Run a broad set of high-powered trials (large samples, high-stake real-world contexts, substantial differences between conditions)
... to gather evidence on what works best to promote meaningful actions in specific cases,
... while aiming at
Do profiling, survey, and segmentation activities and trials, building evidence on 'which types of people' are most responsive to effective giving messages and appeals
Share our results, data, and tools, with the relevant EA and research-interested communities. This will enable more and better outreach, promotion, testing, and insight.
As EAMT has progressed, we have encouraged others to do work and pursue initiatives in the 'space' of studying EA messaging, and marketing EA and effective giving. We hope that the resources we have provided, and the connections we have made have contributed to this. As the space changes, the EAMT mission, scope, and activities are adjusting as well.
We are moving towards a heightened focus on
Advising, proposing, and helping to design and coordinate experiments, trials, and initiatives.
Transparent presentation of the results, rigorous statistical analysis
Synthesizing, sharing, and communicating this knowledge and skills base
This work provides substantial public goods, whose benefit is shared among the partner organizations and the EA community.
Other relevant/new organizations and initiatives
Other marketing/implementation resources (including User Friendly, Good Impressions, and Altruistic Agency)
Giving What We Can 'Bequests' (a project we have encouraged and advised)
Effective Giving Collaboration and Summit
We believe the EA Market Testing Team is the first organized collaboration of its kind.
Goals/FAQ link (below in detail, scroll outside margin to skip past it)
For an overview of our progress and ongoing work, see the 'progress and results' document we are building. (Below in detail, scroll outside margin to skip past it)
Note that we cannot publicly share details of ongoing and upcoming trials. We aim to share the results when it is possible. We aim to integrate shareable aspects of this private doc.
For a data-driven dynamic document covering (some of) our trials and evidence see HERE.
If you are interested in getting involved with our project or have feedback for us, contact David Reinstein at daaronr AT gmail.com.
(For an explanation of this Gitbook's structure, content, and aims.
This quote comes from the 2022 Giving What We Can strategy document.
However, we are also careful to be efficient, recognizing the tradeoffs between rigorous experimental design and practical marketing.
Including testing templates, guides and implementation tips
Late-2024 update: This project is on hiatus/moved
Note from David Reinstein: The EA Market Testing team has not been active since about August 2023. Some aspects of this project have been subsumed by Giving What We Can and their Effective Giving Global Coordination and Incubation (lead: Lucas Moore).
Nonetheless, you may find the resources and findings here useful. I'm happy to answer questions about this work.
I am now mainly focused on making a success. I hope to return to some aspects of the EAMT and effective giving research projects in the future. If you are interested in engaging with this, helping pursue the research and impact, or funding this agenda, please contact me at daaronr@gmail.com.