EAFI Achievements of 2023 and Plans for 2024
In this post I share some of Effective Altruism Finland’s (EAFI’s) successes in 2023, our plans for 2024, and what you can do if you want to help us in our mission to support more people in having a bigger positive impact.
Regardless of how familiar you are with our organization, this post will give you an overview of what the Finnish EA community is working on.
2023
The year 2023 was the second year with paid employees at EAFI, and a successful one in many ways. Roughly 50 people completed our Intro Program giving the program an average rating of 8.7. Our career advisors held over 50 career advising sessions with over 40 individuals. In 2023 our community donated more than 75 000 euros to highly effective charities. A new local group was kicked off in Jyväskylä. The EA Tampere group almost doubled its memberships thanks to greater effort put into outreach, intro program, and a consistently running reading group.
In April we attended the EAGxNordics conference in Stockholm with 38 effective altruists from Finland. During the summer TUTKE, the Finnish Center for Safe AI, was founded by members in the Finnish EA community, and in December Giving What We Can Finland was launched. We were also excited that the Finnish translation of Will MacAskill’s book What We Owe The Future, Ihmiskunnan tulevaisuuden historia was published in Autumn.
These are a few illustrative examples of what has been going on in the Finnish EA community in 2023. For more general data on EAFI, read the Visualized State of EAFI. To read about impressive work in the global EA ecosystem check out Shakeel Hashim’s EA Forum post “EA Wins 2023”!
2024
In 2024 we continue to work on the fundamentals of EA community building (a combination of outreach, education, community and individual support). EAFI has secured significantly less funding in the next grant period, which unfortunately means that two out of three of our employees will be moving on to other ventures, and that we will move out of our office.
The funding situation also means that EAFI will now be even more dependent on our volunteer base, their commitment, and their skills. With that said, I believe the lessons learned and the systems we have built provide us with a strong enough foundation to continue growing our impact in 2024.
In the multi-year strategy of the Finnish EA community we state:
Our mission is to have a growing community of people in Finland who are aware of Effective Altruism, implement it in their lives and help others do good while taking effectiveness into account. EA organizations in Finland bring people together to discuss ideas around Effective Altruism and have activities supporting direct impact and donations.
To enable growing impact, the Finnish community needs to ensure continuity of the community.
Finnish effective altruists take an active part in adding value and shaping Effective Altruism globally.
To work towards this goal in 2024 we will focus on four core activities of EAFI:
Introducing Effective Altruism, e.g by running introductory programs
Career advice
Public events
The Annual EA Finland Retreat for volunteers
The activities above will be managed in volunteer capacity as far as it is possible. I will also support local groups, handle operational tasks, and coordinate activities.
If we manage to get all core activities well covered, we might also be able to run some more experimental programs such as fundraising for effective charities or providing a bigger career planning program for upper secondary school graduates taking a gap year.
Find your niche in our ecosystem
As an ending to this post I don’t want to miss out on nudging you to think about your opportunities for greater impact.
If you are based in Finland and agree with the principles of Effective Altruism, we would be excited to see you in our community. Everyone’s impact journey is unique, so without knowing you personally it is hard to suggest the best path forward. Maybe one of the following options appeals to you?
Contribute with your knowledge and network to help us develop and spread EA ideas further. Email karla.still[a]altruismi.fi to discuss this further
Donate to effective charities. As said before, EAFI is limited, especially in employee funding. With approximately 20 000€ (+/- 4000€) EAFI could hire another employee working 15 hours a week, for the rest of 2024 to accompany me (Karla). However, smaller donations don’t have as high a return for us, so especially for smaller donors, we also recommend other evidence-based and highly cost-effective charities. Find more information on effective giving at https://www.altruismi.fi/lahjoita.
Volunteer with us if you already have engaged over 20 hours with Effective Altruism. With the reduced funding your counterfactual impact as a volunteer can be even bigger than before and volunteering is also a great way of learning by doing together with other effective altruists. If interested, email karla.still[a]altruismi.fi
Have a direct impact on some of the most pressing problems in the world through your own career. Start by booking a career 1-1 with one of our 13 career advisors to toss ideas around, receive tailored resources to your situation and receive feedback on your plans.
-Karla Still, Executive Director, Effective Altruism Finland ry
