Three levels of detail: 

1. Snapshot: 1 minute read (below)
2. Outline:10 minute read (below)
3. Detailed Write-up: 1 hour read (separate page, for reference)

I. SNAPSHOT

• A projects platform called EA Impact CoLabs has just been released as a 1.0 beta version.  We are looking for EAs with projects and EA volunteers to add to or join the growing database - visit our website to join now!
• A projects platform such as EA Impact CoLabs is a website where people with free time to devote to non-career-related projects can find interesting projects to volunteer for, or they can express a general interest in volunteering and be connected by our coordinators with projects that match their skills and interests.  A project's platform also allows people with existing projects or a project idea to post said projects on the platform to attract potential collaborators/volunteers. 
• We believe a successful EA-aligned (but maybe not EA-branded) projects platform could lead to significantly more good being done via direct and indirect means.  Many current project leaders cannot find volunteers or collaborators easily and even if only a small fraction of projects are highly impactful or evolve into non-profits, those few could justify the effort required to build and maintain a platform.
• An improved 2.0 website that builds off of an existing platform (HelpWithCovid) will be our next phase of development and we are looking for feedback on the concept in general and our plans in particular, as well as volunteers to join us and help build our current and future solutions - fill out this form or email us at info@impactcolabs.com to join our group!

II. OUTLINE

THE IMPORTANT PART

A group of volunteers has been working on developing a projects platform for EA, currently titled EA Impact CoLabs, and we would like to announce the release of our 1.0 beta version and request that the EA community begin to join as volunteers and/or post projects in need of assistance. Go to www.impactcolabs.com and join today! 

We would love feedback on this current version, including general thoughts or reporting of any bugs/issues.  We welcome feedback in the comments below and at our email: info@impactcolabs.com. 

We also have plans for a 2.0 version, which we intend to build off an existing open-source solution (HelpWithCovid, which apparently originated from a discussion “between Dustin Moskovitz & Sam Altman”) and need more volunteers ourselves.  We anticipate this new version will have significantly more functionality (see below under “Strategies..”), an improved user experience and, ultimately, a higher chance of long-term success.  Although we have some particular needs (e.g. Ruby developers) we welcome anyone that is willing to help.  If you are interested, please fill out this form or email us, ideally but not necessarily with a brief summary of your skillset, or other background info, at: info@impactcolabs.com.

Finally, if you have any questions not addressed in this post or if you disagree with the concept of a projects platform in principle, please see the Detailed Write-up. It contains a more nuanced and longform exploration of how a projects platform would fit within and benefit the EA community as a whole, an analysis of non-EA solutions that currently are trying to solve this problem in the market, and an in-depth review of each failure mode or challenge plus the potential mitigating strategies. 

Below you will find an outline that provides a summarized justification of the platform, an explanation on how we plan to achieve our objectives (including identified risks and challenges) and a final reiteration of our suggested next steps. As mentioned, if you have questions or concerns we suggest reviewing the more detailed write-up, but overall we certainly welcome any and all feedback in the comments below. 

JUSTIFICATION OF EA IMPACT COLABS (“Impact CoLabs”)

Significant Problems to be Addressed by Impact CoLabs

1. There are currently significant inefficiencies within the EA community with the following:
   1. How project leaders and existing organizations find and attract potential volunteers (see IV.2. and IV.10)
   2. How volunteers find volunteering opportunities (see IV.2. and IV.10)
   3. How project leaders find and collaborate with others working on the same problem, or find how similar projects have failed (the “coordination problem”) (see IV.2. and IV.10.)
   4. How project leaders provide updates on their project to the wider community (see IV.9.)
2. There are the following challenges:
   1. The EA community cannot easily oversee or stay up-to-speed on which projects are being founded and run and by who (see IV.9.)
   2. EA leadership cannot screen or vet projects that have significant potential downsides  (see IV.9.)
   3. Potential project founders cannot easily find a centralized list of tractable problems that need solving or a list of ideas for potential projects (see IV.9.)
   4. Project leaders are not being supported with guidance and resources to maximize their chance of success (see IV.11)
3. There is an existing demand for a project platform that has been expressed multiple times on the EA forum. (see IV.10.)
4. The current solutions within and outside the EA community are fantastic initiatives but they each have some drawbacks when considering the community as a whole:
   1. EA Work Club is not very active and focused on job opportunities
   2. Effective Altruism Volunteer Facebook group it not widely publicized/used and past opportunities are not easily visible
   3. EA Forum’s community projects tag is not filterable and is inconsistent
   4. Charity Entrepreneurship efforts are focused on their nonprofits
   5. Animal Advocacy Careers skilled volunteering section is focused on one cause area and on skilled volunteers.
   6. The 22+ non-EA project/volunteer matchmaking websites are not optimized for doing good (see Section V: Non-EA Solutions)

Potential Positive Impacts of Impact CoLabs

1. Impact CoLabs could increase the number of projects being founded (see Figure 1 below) and increase the success rate of those projects, which would in turn lead to:
   1. More successful projects, which do more direct good in the world (see IV.1.)
   2. More projects that become incorporated nonprofit startups that do direct good in the world (see IV.1. IV.4)  (see Figure 3 below)
   3. More skill-building by those involved, which can be applied to other projects or jobs that do direct good in the world. (see IV.5)
   4. More risk-taking and entrepreneurship in the EA community as a whole that can have an indirect impact on good being done in the world (see IV.6.)
   5. More EAs collaborating more, which increases engagement and retention within EA (see IV.6.)(see Figure 2 below)
   6. More successful projects, which demonstrate the value of the EA movement/philosophy to enact good in the world, thus increasing its reputation and potential impact (see IV.1.) (see Figure 2 below)
2. Impact CoLabs could allow more volunteers to find projects, which would:
   1. Increase the success rate of projects, which do more direct good in the world (see IV.I)
   2. Increase engagement in an EA-aligned activity by people that are primarily looking to do good by donating their non-work time, increasing top-of-the-funnel EA growth (see IV.7.)
3. Impact CoLabs could decrease the likelihood of potentially hazardous projects being founded, or good project being run by the wrong leaders, through vetting, which would in turn lead to:
   1. Fewer direct negative effects from EA Projects (see IV.9.)
   2. Reduced likelihood of reputational harm to EA due to harmful EA Projects (see IV.9.)
4. Impact CoLabs could eventually increase the quality of any non-EA projects posted on the platform due to better guidance and required sections or constraints within the platform (see IV.1.)
5. Impact CoLabs could eventually enable projects and funders to find each other and communicate more efficiently (see IV.8.)

HOW TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVES OF A PROJECTS PLATFORM

Primary, Quantitative, High Level Objectives

1. Increase the total number of successful matches between project leaders and volunteers
2. Increase the number of (EA) projects founded (see Figure 1 below)
3. Increase the quality of (EA and non-EA) projects founded
4. Increase the success rate of (EA) projects
5. Decrease the number of harmful (EA and non-EA) projects
6. Decrease the wasted effort of different people unknowingly working on the same problem/project
7. Increase the success rate and decrease the effort of project leaders or organizations finding volunteers.
8. Increase the success rate for and decrease the effort of volunteers finding projects or organizations that need volunteers.
9. Decrease the effort of EA leadership in tracking and vetoing harmful or reputationally-harmful projects
10. Increase the success rate of project volunteers getting hired by and contributing to EA organizations compared to comparable candidates/employees that did not work on projects found through Impact CoLabs.

Strategies for Achieving Objectives (in order of probable priority)

1. Provide project founders with:
   1. A project page as a place to explain/justify their project, specify what help is needed, recruit volunteers and provide updates
      1. Include questions helping to analyze the impact of the project such as impact analysis, tractability/neglectedness/importance, counterfactual analysis, etc.
   2. A page listing specific, tractable problems that need solving or a list of ideas by others who do not have the bandwidth, inclination or skill to execute on those ideas
   3. A resources page for project founders to learn how to lead projects, attract volunteers, find the right expertise/counseling and perhaps find funding or established partners willing to collaborate
   4. A searchable, filterable database of other ongoing and failed projects to ensure they are not duplicating or wasting effort and to learn from the failed projects.
2. Provide volunteers with:
   1. An easily searchable, filterable database to find projects that fit their cause area interest, their skillset, their desired time investment and/or seem like a good skill-building opportunity
   2. A profile that can be always active allowing project leaders to find and reach out to them if they have the in-demand skillset
3. Screen/Vet potentially harmful projects and highlight/promote potentially high-impact projects (see tentative Project Vetting Guidelines)
4. Either do not brand or associate Impact CoLabs with EA to mitigate reputational risks to EA and to potentially help attract non-EA volunteers in the future **OR** brand with EA so that EAs trust and invest their time in this platform and to help promote EA and its principles (currently assuming the latter but this might change when we launch our 2.0 version)
5. Build a community by:
   1. Hosting “matching events” or speed-dating type meetups at EAGs or online.
   2. Help organize volunteer rings around certain skill-sets, cause areas, geographies or timezones.
   3. Collecting, synthesizing and sharing lessons learned, project ideas, past failed projects, and tractable problems that need solving
   4. Hosting a slack/discord server for EA project leaders and volunteers
   5. Hosting regular hack-a-thons, competitions and/or challenges around specific problem areas
6. Partner with external organization to help with or provide:
   1. Vetting and screening of projects (e.g. EA organizations)
   2. Cost-benefit analyses on projects (e.g. charity evaluators)
   3. Guidance or training on how to successfully run projects (e.g. experienced non profit entrepreneurs or project leaders, foundries or incubators)
   4. Free services or resources for projects (e.g. legal firms, marketing firms, AWS, Google Ads)
   5. Funding sources or opportunities (foundations or funds)
   6. A steady stream of volunteers or project ideas (i.e. coding bootcamps, top universities, nonprofit foundries or incubators)

Risks and Challenges 

1. More projects might not lead to more good in the world (see VI.1.)
   1. Projects and volunteer effort result in a net-negative impact, either because most projects have a negative impact, or due to the creation of extremely harmful projects that sink an otherwise net-positive impact (see VI.1)
   2. EA projects and volunteer effort result in net positive impact but the increase and/or distraction of non-EA projects and volunteers drag the overall impact into the negative (see VI.1. and VI.12)
   3. Even though the effort expended might have resulted in a net positive outcome, the time spent might have been better spent on other activities (i.e. opportunity cost is too high) (see VI.1. and VI.7.)
   4. Projects might not lead to incorporated nonprofit startups, which is the scenario with the highest upside potential of Impact CoLabs (see VI.3. VI.4)
2. There won’t be enough projects or volunteers to sustain a platform on a continual basis (see VI.2.)
   1. Developing good project ideas is hard and becomes the bottleneck (see VI.3)
   2. Volunteering opportunities do not scale to meet the supply of volunteers (see VI.2. VI.6.)
3. Increasing the ease with which an individual can post and gain traction on a harmful idea or project outweighs any positive impacts (i.e. unilateralist’s curse). (see VI.1. VI.8)
   1. Might increase the risk of information hazards (see VI.9.)
4. Failure might cause reputation harm
   1. Failed projects (or a failed projects platform) might cause reputational harm to the project leaders, the volunteers, to Impact CoLabs, to the concept of a projects platform and/or to EA. (see VI.10.)
   2. Failed projects might turn off volunteers, project leaders and EAs on working on projects or in participating in EA initiatives (see VI.5.)
5. It might be impossible or too resource intensive to screen/vet projects (see VI.11.)
6. Impact CoLabs might cause value drift in the community, either by promoting risk-taking with small, low-stakes projects, or by attracting new EAs that bring different values (see VI.13. VI.14.)
7. Any of the above negative effects could become permanent or long-term, causing them to become locked-in negative effects. (see VI.15.)

NEXT STEPS (+ the ‘ask’)

1. Currently our Beta version is live for testing and we are asking people to join so we can begin collecting and matching projects and volunteers, and to test the current functionality
   1. Please visit EA IMPACT COLABS to volunteer or post a project! Send bugs/issues to info@impactcolabs.com.
2. We are asking the EA community to provide feedback and/or suggestions on the concept of a projects platform in principle (see detailed write-up) and our current approach in particular.
   1. Please comment below or email info@impactcolabs.com
3. We are planning a new, more capable 2.0 platform building off the open-source solution HelpWithCovid. Please visit our detailed Project Plan for more information.  If you are interested in volunteering to help build this platform:
   1. Please fill-out this form or email info@impactcolabs.com! We are looking for the following:
      1. Anyone that is interested in helping!
      2. Graphic designer(s)
      3. UX/UI designer(s)
      4. FE and BE developers (Ruby particularly)
      5. Marketing/outreach volunteers
      6. Community engagement/management volunteers
      7. Project vetting volunteers

Figure 1.

Figure 2. 

Figure 3. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

EA Impact CoLabs consists of a dedicated team who have developed the project to date (I mainly just wrote it up) and were instrumental in the development of this post, including (alphabetically) Edo Arad, Yonatan Cale, Tomer Eldor, Charles Escalante, Gidon Kadosh, Jatin Kansal, Naomi Nederlof, and Sam Nolan.  In addition, many others have provided critical input on the project and/or on this post including Catherine Low, Aaron Gertler, Vaidehi Agarwalla, Victor Yunenko, Aman Patel, Tinnei Pang, Radu Spineanu, and Harry K Ng.