UPDATE 5th Nov 2019: since this post went up, we have received ~£9,500 in donations and a further ~£4000 in backdated payments from residents. Following the latter, and adjusting costs for last 6 months downward to ~£5,100/month, our runway now extends ~3 months, to the beginning of Feb. Thanks for all the support, this is a great start to our latest fundraiser. We are working on more posts in the series listed below (will link to them in the list as they are completed).
This is a quick post to say that our financial situation is looking pretty dire right now. We were going to wait until “Giving Season” starts in December to start a fresh fundraiser, but now can’t afford to do that. We have several things in the pipeline to bolster our case (charity registration, compiling more outputs, more fundraising posts detailing the case for the hotel, hiring round for the Community & Projects Manager, refining internal systems), but they may not reach fruition in time unfortunately. If you are interested in donating, now is the perfect timing for you to have a large impact on the project! Happy to answer questions in the comments (have anticipated some below).
Relatively small amounts would allow us to keep things going long enough to gain the information needed to determine whether the experiment is/was worthwhile. As it is, if the project fails down to lack of funds now, we feel that we are leaving a lot of Value of Information on the table. Our costs are ~£5,700/month (based on the last 5 months’ spending). Even 1 month of funding will allow us some breathing space to get some of the work done.
To donate, and for more info (past posts making the case for the hotel), see: eahotel.org/fundraiser.
List of proposed posts for the continuation of this series (renewed runway permitting; provisional; linked when complete):
- EA Hotel Fundraiser 6: Concrete outputs after 17 months
- EA Hotel Fundraiser 7: Pitch focusing on case studies with counterfactuals
- EA Hotel Fundraiser 8: Life at the EA Hotel, and testimonials
- EA Hotel Fundraiser 9: Estimating the relative Expected Value of the EA Hotel (Part 2)
I find this thought experiment really weird because I don't think EAs living together should be centrally managed. It seems really obvious to me that EA as a movement faces less risks when a few friends who met through EA decide to move in together, rather than when people apply to an 'EA house' with social programmes where they don't know anyone.
Like, if a couple living in the EA Hotel break up, there's a good chance they'll both continue to living there and it'll be very awkward. If you're in a flatshare, I'd expect one of them to move out ASAP. The social norms are just so different.