# University/city groups EA seeks to amplify its impact through *movement-building.* Organizations like 80,000 Hours and CEA are [putting substantial resources](https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/promoting-effective-altruism/) into developing and expanding the EA community. Building EA groups has been at the core of this agenda, especially in elite and influential places (such as top universities). Key aims include 'creating highly engaged EAs' and encouraging people to pursue impactful careers. ## [Resources and tips](#user-content-fn-1)[^1] {% embed url="" %} {% embed url="" %} [Our Resource Airtable](#independent-university-group-outreach) (in-progress) ## Our collaborative goals Currently, university EA groups operate in conjunction with the Centre for Effective Altruism, but with high levels of autonomy. There is only limited collaboration between groups. Such collaboration could allow them to achieve economies of scale and scope, run more systematic and powerful trials, and share insights and methods that increase student engagement. *The EAMT hopes to help coordinate this, consolidate the evidence, and provide accessible tools to newly-formed groups.* We want to help avoid repeating errors and 'reinventing the wheel' each time. ### **EA groups at universities** The efforts and experience of individual EA groups can provide contextual evidence and insights. The EAMT aims to aggregate this knowledge, find generalizable principles, and disseminate this to the wider EA community. We are focused on meaningful medium-term outcomes, e.g.: 1. Membership and participation in EA organizations, and markers of post-university involvement 2. How career plans are impacted (*focusing on particular programs and paths)* 3. How research and discourse at universities can be influenced ## Relevant organizations and programs The programs below *also* aim for generalizable principles; e.g., their 'starter toolkits' are implemented across a range of cities, universities, and settings. ### Centre for Effective Altruism CEA has [discontinued its focus on university programming](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xTWhXX9HJfKmvpQZi/cea-is-discontinuing-its-focus-university-programming), passing funding and efforts on to Open Philanthropy. However, CEA is still involved in *promotion* through the [University Group Accelerator Program](https://centreforeffectivealtruism.notion.site/centreforeffectivealtruism/University-Group-Accelerator-Program-6df8c8fccf8b4ffbb6488d9dfa275282) (UGAP), which offers guidance and resources to newly formed groups. Furthermore, CEA's [Community Building Grants](https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/how-to-join-the-program) (CBG) Program helps develop national and city-based groups (outside of universities). #### University Group Accelerator Program [UGAP's Outreach Handbook](https://centreforeffectivealtruism.notion.site/UGAP-s-Outreach-Handbook-6eca98516a5d4151b50a492fccfe24ec) may be the [best current source of centralized knowledge for approaches to outreach methods.](#user-content-fn-2)[^2] These have been summarized from different data points; some formal testing, some anecdotal, and some intuitive. #### Community Building Grants Program CBG focuses on supporting city groups, providing grants to support their activities and resources to help with expansion. These resources and support systems currently lack *data supporting EA community building.* (The [CBG Support Survey](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sFw3H6yddgQXeuiserrZZZSVemECDGZ9lBg5kjZ9yh4/edit) identified this as a major bottleneck; we hope to collaborate to help them improve this.) #### EA Group Organizers Survey The [EA Group Organizers Survey (2020)](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Q4aF9T5PuBM2akxp6/ea-groups-survey-2020) is a collaboration between CEA and Rethink Priorities. It analyzes the changes in EA groups yearly, with two main components: 1. The growth and composition of EA groups and their activities 2. The opinions of the group's status from the organizer's point of view The first component gives insight into priorities and progress. The second can help guide our research and provide insight into the tools required by group organizers to increase group interaction and outreach. See especially: ["Events and outreach"](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Q4aF9T5PuBM2akxp6/ea-groups-survey-2020#Events_and_outreach) ### Open Philanthropy [The University Organizer Fellowship](https://openphilanthropy.org/focus/other-areas/university-organizer-fellowship) provides funding for part-time and full-time organizers helping with student groups focused on effective altruism, longtermism, rationality, or other relevant topics at any university (not just focus universities). This has replaced CEA's Campus Specialist and Campus Specialist Internship programs. > [The Century Fellowship](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/other-areas/century-fellowship), a selective 2-year program that gives resources and support (including $100K+/year in funding) to particularly promising people early in their careers who want to work in areas that could improve the long-term future. (Intended partially for particularly strong Campus Specialist applicants.) ### 80,000 Hours 80,000 Hours is actively targeting university students and offering them guidance on high-impact career paths. *(see private Gitbook, if you have access)* ### **Further outreach** *There are some further initiatives in this area but most of the material cannot be shared at the moment (see private Gitbook).* ## Independent group testing and coordination In this section, we are putting together documents, trials, and knowledge currently being gathered by different EA groups. *As we increase our collaboration with these groups, these trials, ideas and documents will become integrated with the Gitbook and EAMT's work, forming a basis for future work and testing.* ### Funnel Map This is our basic understanding of the processes used to draw in new members to EA university groups and fellowships, and how members progress through different stages of engagement. Each stage gives us grounds for testing through the different variations of these approaches. This is not just about testing which methods work for attracting the highest number of new members (i.e., which 'call to action' to use at activity fairs, etc), but also increasing engagement and developing high-level EAs (i.e., fellowship program alternatives, discussion group topics, etc). ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ejzre_vWaSHu7kop6foPVTSnE6X9TQzy_101noWUjqgAxS4W1w43DIo4hL0uLDq5TgZDPCte943SMJSf-okYMpCT0nJHQ55lgzFKU1wESsPZ4HOtSRsbhEfrM0fmxZT-IS5bxuqowxy16yg_DjeMbUTbcZc3s-XlDWkZhEd3_MO_wF87PsDoSCrRGjM42g) (Above: a preview of funnel map; [see Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/19jyPub9GwbOiZ2IPgR74j5-uttrTgYgQNkBhCJCrYDY/edit?usp=sharing) for full description and work in progress) ### Stanford University *Awaiting response from Stanford EA.* ### University of Chicago *Currently limited to private Gitbook.* ## MIT, MIT Alignment org *Currently limited to private Gitbook.* ### EA Israel [EA Israel's Strategy Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UoAdSID0crufgE6S_vLWxu8huCj0L1snCnbYSZygPCk/edit?usp=sharing)\ This discusses their strategy in-depth. A lot of their findings are not specific to Israel or country-wide EA groups. Useful as a resource for EA groups. *Useful findings will be synthesised and integrated here in the future.* ### Independent University Group Outreach We have been independently contacting organizers that are known to be actively seeking to test outreach methods, and also publicly via a [callout post](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KphWqKCJEybZRBZuh/university-and-city-group-outreach-testing-a-callout-to) on the EA Forum. An important aspect of the work here is to bring together people who are active in this space but working independently.\ \ The airtable below presents our current (non-exhaustive) list of groups or organisations that have relevant knowledge (strategy documents, marketing guides, etc), or have done some form of independent testing. {% embed url="" %}
Writing credits for this page Kynan Behan helped create and write this page.
1. Thus, we hope our efforts will be valuable to these initiatives and groups, by providing and sharing evidence on successful approaches to increasing engagement. 2. Note that the survey does not collect data from the group's \*members\*, although they do ask about the overall numbers of people who engaged with each group. [^1]: See further links to extensive guides and reports from university and regional groups below. [^2]: However, they focus on groups \*within\* their program. We aim to conduct testing as broadly as possible, and can work with city groups as well --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://globalimpact.gitbook.io/untitled/partners-contexts-trials/university-groups-promotion.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.