Hi there,
Welcome to the monthly EA Chicago newsletter 👋
Check this space for upcoming events and a debrief of the best EA Chicago content from across the web.
Be sure to stay in touch during the month via our Eventbrite page and Slack workspace.
EACHI September Event Schedule
September Social Event: Park Day at Wicker Park—dogs welcome!—on Saturday, September 16th from 2-5pm (event details can be found HERE)
September Speaker Event: Details coming soon!
Attend An Event
Applications are currently open for:
EA Global: Boston | (October 27–29) | Application deadline: October 13
You can learn more about who these events are for here and on the web pages for each conference.
News & Updates
Fellowships
· EA Operations Fellowship Applications Open! Applications are due on September 15th.
o High Impact Alliance (HIA) is having an information session about it on September 7th 12-1 PM EST, and this is the calendar link for it.
o HIA’s ideal audience are people who are in a management or operations position in their organization and don't have formal training or experience to support their role. This program aims to bridge that gap and make our leaders and organizations more impactful.
Community
· If you’re interested in funding “meta” organisations, i.e. charity evaluators, charity incubators, or those that promote the practice of effective giving or high-impact careers, then check out Meta Charity Funders, a new and growing network of donors each giving $100,000 or more per year to projects that support infrastructure in the impact-driven charity ecosystem. Their first funding round closes August 27. Interested donors may apply to join anytime.
· Effective Altruism Australia, which fundraises for highly-effective charities improving global wellbeing and addressing climate change, is hiring for the following paid and non-paid roles:
· GWWC volunteer Spencer Ericson wrote a post on Supporting grassroots effectively: You can give to the most effective charity in your community, even if none of them have "data"
Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators
· EA Funds donors may want to read this announcement about changes to EA Funds, in particular the Long Term Future Fund and the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund, including donation matching opportunities and updates on who is involved in running the funds.
· Asya Bergal shares reflections on their time on the Long-Term Future Fund while announcing stepping down as chair.
· GiveWell has published several new pages on grants it has recently recommended, including: $2.4 million to r.i.c.e. to support its program for low-birthweight infants focused on kangaroo mother care; $6 million to Nutrition International to renew support for its vitamin A supplementation program in Chad; and $12.6 million to New Incentives to extend and expand its conditional cash transfer program in Nigeria. If you'd like to sign up for email updates when new research materials from GiveWell are published, you can do so here.
· In July, GiveWell held two in-person events in San Francisco and New York, featuring members of its research team discussing recent grantmaking, as well as GiveWell's partnerships with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Evidence Action to find new programs to fund. If you weren't able to attend, you can listen to recordings of the events here.
· In honor of its fifth anniversary, Rethink Priorities (RP) published an overview of its work, impacts, and lessons learned since it launched, as well as its future plans and funding needs. See Co-CEO Peter Wildeford’s recent AMA.
· Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) has announced the charities it is evaluating in 2023. These include eight charities being re-evaluated and six that are being evaluated for the first time!
· In January, thanks to generous donor support of Animal Charity Evaluators' (ACE) Recommended Charity Fund, ACE was able to award $1,047,400 to its 2022 Top and Standout Charities. Read updates from these recommended charities!
Cause areas
Animal welfare
· On September 14th, Faunalytics will host Fauna Connections, a free, remote research symposium for animal advocates. Academics and scientists from the social and behavioral sciences and related disciplines will present original research that discusses the real-life implications and recommendations for animal advocacy. Register now for this FREE event
· As The Humane League UK continues to maintain pressure on the Co-op to commit to the Better Chicken Commitment in full, Open Cages released new investigation footage narrated by Peter Egan that reveals the horrendous conditions of chickens on farms that supply the Co-op, and which ironically, the Co-op used in a training video aimed at 'improving the welfare of millions of birds.'
· The Humane League UK is hiring a Public Affairs Coordinator; applications close September 17.
· New research from Rethink Priorities by Laura Duffy was published on “What do animal advocates view as the field’s priorities?”
Global health and development
· Several of our members found this short blog post by Michel Justen moving and reaffirming in their decisions to donate to organisations working to improve the lives of others internationally.
· New Incentives expanded to two additional states in northern Nigeria (Kaduna and Kebbi) in July and recently published a new blog post that details how the organisation builds demand for their cash incentives program and childhood vaccinations through awareness activities.
· New research from Rethink Priorities: How could the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List and the prequalification process be improved? (Jenny Kudymowa and Aisling Leow, respectively, and colleagues)
Long-term future
· We are now supporting Longview Philanthropy’s Nuclear Weapons Policy Fund on our donation platform.
· We published the August 2023 Grants Report for the Longtermism Fund, a fund that is managed by Longview Philanthropy. Longview have recommended:
o Two grants promoting beneficial AI
o Two biosecurity and pandemic prevention grants
o One grant improving nuclear security
· Hannah Ritchie talks about why it makes sense to be optimistic about the environment on the 80,000 Hours podcast.
· Carl Robichaud, who co-leads nuclear security grantmaking at Longview Philanthropy, appeared on two podcasts to discuss nuclear security: Making Sense with Sam Harris and The Most Interesting People I Know (where he discussed Oppenheimer at length).
· Top-rated charity Council on Strategic Risks was thrilled to release a major new report on the specific risks of tactical nuclear weapons. From CSR: “With the release timed for the NPT PrepCom in Vienna, our qualitative approach provided fertile grounds for discussions on risk reduction and new approaches to arms control. The team plans to follow up on this report with a deeper dive into our qualitative dataset which tracks all the different types of nuclear weapons that have been deployed over the years, rather than just looking at stockpile sizes.”
(Please contact EACHI’s organizer, Samantha Kassirer, if you have something you’d like featured here next month!)
We look forward to seeing you in person or online!