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CommunityFunding request (open)Organization updatesCentre for Enabling EA Learning & ResearchGiving Season (2023)Announcements and updates
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Post intends to be an update on CEEALAR's funding situation and fundraising plans. 

The Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research (formerly the EA Hotel) is a space for promising EAs to rapidly upskill, perform research, and work on charitable and entrepreneurial projects. We provide assistance at low cost to those seeking to do the most good with their time & other resources through subsidising living arrangements, organising a productive atmosphere, and fostering a strong EA community.

The situation

Similarly to many promising EA projects, we were unable to secure funding from the recent Survival & Flourishing Fund (SFF) funding round. This is unfortunate because SFF constituted our single largest donor, and thus CEEALAR’s existence is now at risk.

With <4 months of runway remaining, we’re now looking at alternative pathways to safeguarding our work.

What this means

CEEALAR is looking for funders! Throughout this giving season, we will be promoting updated information about what we do, why we do it, and what we achieve. We’ll do this through a variety of efforts - including forum posts, so watch this space!

Specifically, our team will be working hard to achieve two distinct goals:

  1. Survive this funding squeeze by organising a winter fundraiser. We intend to raise £25,000, which will extend our runway until May*, enabling us to enter into the next round of grant applications.
  2. Become financially stable by diversifying our revenue streams, cutting costs and demonstrating our impact to funders.

Our inside view is that CEEALAR is the best it has ever been: we’ve improved our facilities, increased the number of guests we can support, and received great feedback about increased productivity. Our priority this year has been to reach out to past grantees/ funders and implement their extremely helpful feedback.

What you can do right now

If you’re a potential donor, large or small, interested in learning about what CEEALAR looks like in 2023 (we’ve changed a lot!), please do reach out at contact@ceealar.org. We will prioritise answering any questions you may have.

 

Alternatively:

  • Donate now! We support PayPal, Ko-Fi, PPF Fiscal Sponsorship, and bank transfer donations.
  • Sign up to our mailing list and keep abreast of future updates.
  • Check out our updated forum posts as they appear over this giving season.
  • Read through an outsider’s case for CEEALAR, for example here.

 

*Our founder and director, Greg Colbourn, has pledged to match-fund up to £25,000. £50,000 extends our runway until the end of May, giving us the chance to further build the case for CEEALAR and apply to another grant round.

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calebp18
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*Our founder and director, Greg Colbourn, has pledged to match-fund up to £25,000. £50,000 extends our runway until the end of May, giving us the chance to further build the case for CEEALAR and apply to another grant round.

Cool! Could I ask what will happen to the matching funds if they aren't maxed out?

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Greg_Colbourn ⏸️ 6
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So one of the main reasons for the donation matching is for social proof - I don’t want to be the only person who thinks that CEEALAR is worth funding! If the matching funds aren’t maxed out, I will probably (90%) still fund CEEALAR enough to get us to May to have another go at getting an SFF grant, but I would be more reluctant to (65%) without the evidence of enough other people thinking it’s worth significantly funding too. I get that this is somewhat subjective, so sorry if it's a bit of a cop out.

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David Varga10
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Greg is amazing. Hope you guys can sort this out!

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