A post to explore the following and put a lot more detailed thought, based on my own professional experience of trying to do this for a few months or so, into how it could work...
I work in a large charity in the UK and although I think the work we do is important, it doesn't fit into the highly valuable cause areas commonly accepted by the EA community.
Still, there are lots of reasons that someone like me might continue to work in a less effective job. For example:
It's a good employer in your area and you need to stay living around there for caring/family reasons
You're building up your skills in an early or new career position
You've worked there for ages and only recently discovered EA principles
So skipping part the "go work on a more effective cause" answer, what can people who support EA ideas do in a non-EA charity?
I think there might be crossover with the kind of recommendations you might give to someone work in government, especially when you consider how bound up a lot of UK charities are with public work (Alzheimers Society, Citizens Advice, Church of England, Trussell Trust)
Apart from that I would have thought you could bring over EA principles and play a sort of activist role to make a positive impact when it comes to:
prioritising research and product development
raising awareness of good impact based decision making within the organisation
encouraging a more enlightened view of career development within the organisation
sharing and collaborating more generously with the wider social sector
in the case of large organisations, doing more to shape the market in terms of what funders aim for when they award grants or commission work
That's all I've got for now but I've actually been able to put some of this into effect, in a fairly modest way, where I work. I wondered if this seems like an interesting topic to explore in more detail?
In particular, assuming that there are people who will stay in a non-EA role but still have some capacity and interest in doing a bit more good by using EA principles, what are the methods/tools/guidelines they can use?
"EAs within non-EA charities"
A post to explore the following and put a lot more detailed thought, based on my own professional experience of trying to do this for a few months or so, into how it could work...
I work in a large charity in the UK and although I think the work we do is important, it doesn't fit into the highly valuable cause areas commonly accepted by the EA community.
Still, there are lots of reasons that someone like me might continue to work in a less effective job. For example:
So skipping part the "go work on a more effective cause" answer, what can people who support EA ideas do in a non-EA charity?
I think there might be crossover with the kind of recommendations you might give to someone work in government, especially when you consider how bound up a lot of UK charities are with public work (Alzheimers Society, Citizens Advice, Church of England, Trussell Trust)
Apart from that I would have thought you could bring over EA principles and play a sort of activist role to make a positive impact when it comes to:
That's all I've got for now but I've actually been able to put some of this into effect, in a fairly modest way, where I work. I wondered if this seems like an interesting topic to explore in more detail?
In particular, assuming that there are people who will stay in a non-EA role but still have some capacity and interest in doing a bit more good by using EA principles, what are the methods/tools/guidelines they can use?