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2021-03-31-accounts

Effective Altruism UK Trustees’ Annual Report

For the period 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021

Reference and administration details

Effective Altruism UK

Registered charity number 1170614

Flat 19, Jarman House Jubilee Street E1 3BL

Charity Trustees

Sanjay Joshi (until 16th August 2021) Samuel Hilton Lucia Coulter Amrit Sidhu-Brar Grayden Reece-Smith

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Structure, governance and management

Type of governing document:

Constitution

How the charity is constituted:

Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Trustee selection methods: The Trustee Board is responsible for appointing new trustees subject to requirements set out in the Charity’s governing documents. Potential new trustees are assessed on the basis of their experience, skills and motivation, as well as the Trustee Board’s own assessment of its gaps and the skills required to deliver the Charity’s strategy. This is primarily assessed through a candidate’s CV and meeting with one or more of the existing trustees.

Additional governance issues: Effective Altruism UK has a risk register which it uses to monitor and assess risks. This register is reviewed at least annually.

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Activities and objectives

Background to understanding the activities carried out by Effective Altruism UK

Effective Altruism UK’s activities can be split into three categories:

  1. Effective Altruism London. Effective Altruism UK has an employee based in London who has worked over the last year to deliver our charitable objectives – the promotion of civil responsibility and citizenship and concern for the effectiveness of charities – among Londoners. These staff work under the name Effective Altruism London (or EA London). The Effective Altruism London website can be viewed at: https://www.ealondon.com

  2. Effective Altruism for Christians. Effective Altruism UK has an employee based in Sheffield who has worked since August 2020 to deliver our charitable objectives – the promotion of civil responsibility and citizenship and concern for the effectiveness of charities – among Christians, the majority of which live in the UK. These staff work under the name Effective Altruism for Christians. The Effective Altruism for Christians website can be viewed at: https://www.eaforchristians.org

  3. Regranting. Where it is the wishes of donors, Effective Altruism UK has also regranted funds to other organisations around the world with similar charitable aims.

A commitment to creating a public benefit

All decisions taken by Trustees and by the staff were taken solely with concern to creating benefits for the eventual beneficiaries, and any benefit to the immediate community was incidental to achieving this aim.

Effective Altruism London

Beneficiaries

When considering the actions taken by the staff of Effective Altruism London it is helpful to distinguish between the immediate community and the eventual beneficiaries:

For example, in previous years Effective Altruism London has run events attended by philanthropic finance professionals. At this event the guests from the immediate community received hospitality (drinks and snacks) and talks from speakers with experience of making large donations. Yet the aim of the event was to encourage guests to increase the size and effectiveness of their donations for the benefit of the eventual beneficiaries.

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Activities

The 2020-21 fiscal year has coincided with a period when regulations to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have prevented Effective Altruism London from hosting in-person events. Most events were moved to online. While these events may have been less engaging for participants than in-person events, they meant that people were able to participate from outside London and in some cases outside the UK.

Here is an overview of our key activities:


Research
There are a number of existing charitable organisations that carry out research
to help people to good more effectively. For example the Centre for Effective
Altruism (a registered charity in England and Wales, Charity Number 1149828),
GiveWell (501(c)(3) organisation in the USA, EIN: 20-8625442) and Animal
Charity Evaluators (501(c)(3) public charity in the USA, EIN 36-4684978).
Effective Altruism London staff did not carry out significant amounts of original
research or independent charity vetting but did invest time into understanding
the existing research available in order to best be able to promote concern for
the efficiency and effectiveness of charities.		 5%
Communications The Charity promoted taking actions, offered support and encouraged acts of
citizenship by the use of a regular email newsletter and Facebook posts. These
channels were mostly used for:
●
Promoting events, both those organised by Effective Altruism London
and those organised by third parties;
●
Linking to articles promoting charitable giving, choosing effective
charities and ethical career choices; and
●
Publicising volunteer opportunities and job vacancies for organisations
supporting global health and development, animal welfare and clean
meat technology, and reducing global catastrophic risks.
●
Maintaining an Effective Altruism London website, including a directory
of useful resources and a member directory
●
Creating and maintaining a Slack for coordination		 20%
Community
events		 The Charity helped organise small in person and online events to strengthen
the community around effective giving, in order to help sustain members’
initial enthusiasm through peer-to-peer encouragement and to facilitate the
organic exchange of related information, tips and advice between community
members.		 10%
Sub-community
events		 There are a number of specialist effective altruism communities in London,
normally organised around a cause, career group or university. These
sub-communities are normally volunteer-led and organise discussion events,
talks/lectures, research projects and socials, which are fully in line with
Effective Altruism UK’s objects, but not fully controlled by Effective Altruism
London. The Charity provided support to these sub-communities through
marketing, planning and covering overheads.		 10%
One-to-one
coaching		 The Charity provided one-to-one coaching sessions with individuals interested
in increasing the effectiveness of their contributions of time, skills and money
for charitable purposes.		 45%
Strategy
development,		 The Charity’s staff and volunteers invested time into developing a strategy to
maximise the Charity’s impact. The Charity then collected data during the		 10%
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impact
measurement
and
administration		 course of its work to estimate its impact, and then adjust its strategy
accordingly. Details of our impact measurement can be found below in
‘Achievements and performance’. The charity also required basic
administration, including arranging insurance, paying staff salaries and financial
reporting.

Note: Split is based on a rough post-hoc estimate of staff and volunteer time.

Effective Altruism for Christians

Beneficiaries

Effective Altruism for Christians also thinks in terms of:

Activities

The majority Effective Altruism for Christians’s (EACH’s) activities involve promoting the principles of Effective Altruism to Christians. Over the last year, they did this through talks to Christian student groups in the UK, launching the Christian Campaign for Effective Charity (CCEC) and organising an annual conference (held in April 2021).

EACH gave around 10 online introductory talks to Christian student groups through Just Love, a charity that has clusters of students pursuing social justice activities at universities throughout the UK. The average audience size was around 10 people and some participants have engaged with EACH through the Facebook group and participation in further events.

In the first few months of CCEC, EACH has directed around $13,000 towards organisations rated highly by charity evaluator GiveWell, and gave a talk at Brown University to test out the format. EACH plans to run similar events over the next year to increase the Campaign’s revenue.

EACH’s conference (held after the end of EA UK’s fiscal year, but largely organised during the fiscal year) was attended by 70-80 people in a virtual setting. The event included talks from six subject matter experts and opportunities for networking among participants.

Through the year, EACH also held a number of one-off events such as an event with EA LSE as part of their student unions interfaith programming and has advised or supported a number of other community building organisations (e.g. EA/Buddhism group, EA/Judaism group, EA Cambridge).

Regranting

There are a number of organisations around the world with similar aims of promoting citizenship and concern for the effectiveness and efficiency of charities. The EA UK Trustees consider it good practice to be in touch with these organisations, so that we can support and learn from one another. One of the ways we have supported such organisations is by regranting funds from UK donors to these organisations. EA UK has regranted to four organisations: Rethink Charity, Effective Altruism Foundation, Animal Charity Evaluators and One For The World. This accounted for less than 5% of staff time and volunteer time. All of the funds that EA UK sent to Rethink Charity, Effective Altruism Foundation, Animal Charity Evaluators and One For

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The World had been donated to EA UK on a restricted basis, specifically for that purpose. Where appropriate, regranted funds were restricted to activities which are consistent with the objects of Effective Altruism UK.

Rethink Charity

Rethink Charity refers to Rethink Charity USA. The organisation has similar charitable aims to Effective Altruism UK. Its main projects are RC Forward, a cause-neutral donation routing fund for high-impact charities around the world, and EA Hub, a network for people looking to improve non-profit effectiveness.

Animal Charity Evaluators

Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE, https://animalcharityevaluators.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit located in the United States dedicated to finding and advocating for highly effective opportunities to improve animal welfare. Their main activities are charity evaluation research, fundraising for other charities and increasing awareness of animal welfare causes.

The regranting relationship with Animal Charity Evaluators was terminated during this fiscal year as it was no longer required.

Effective Altruism Foundation

The Effective Altruism Foundation (https://ea-foundation.org) is a Swiss foundation (operating in the UK and mainland Europe) that promotes effective giving, enabling donors from Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands to simply and safely support effective charities all over the world; it also undertakes academic research into the most effective ways to reduce suffering in the world.

The regranting relationship with Effective Altruism Foundation was terminated during this fiscal year as it was no longer required.

One for the World

One for the World asks people to give at least 1% of their income to highly effective charities. Founded at Wharton in 2014, it now has over 700 members across the US, Canada and Australia and over 20 chapters including Wharton MBA, Penn Law, Penn Undergrad, Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan MBA.

Effective Altruism UK is One For The World’s partner in the UK and regrants funds to One For The World that have been restricted for that purpose. Funds sent to One For The World are restricted to covering One For The World’s operating costs, in line with Effective Altruism UK’s charitable objects.

The regranting relationship with One For The World was initiated during this fiscal year.

Additional details of objectives and activities

Contribution made by volunteers

The Charity benefits from significant contributions of time by approximately 25 individuals, including but not limited to being a trustee or leading a sub-community. The Charity also encourages individuals to contribute time to other charities and projects if it is likely they will have more impact that way.

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Achievements and performance

Effective Altruism London

In February 2021, Effective Altruism UK conducted a detailed impact assessment of the impact of Effective Altruism London in the 2019 and 2020 calendar years. During this period, Effective Altruism London spent £72k. Using a bottom-up methodology looking at each major beneficiary on a case by case basis, Effective 1 Altruism UK believes benefits of approximately £135k were created, i.e. 1.9x the amount spent . There are always going to be significant uncertainties with an analysis. However, by taking a conservative approach in calculating the benefits, the Trustees have relative confidence that benefits outweigh costs and took the decision to continue the activities of Effective Altruism London.

Effective Altruism for Christians

Effective Altruism for Christians is a new project and Effective Altruism UK has not conducted any kind of impact assessment up to this point.

Regranting

Rethink Charity

During the 2019/20 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK did not regrant any money to the Rethink Charity nor provide staff or volunteer time.

Animal Charity Evaluators

Effective Altruism UK made a grant of £44.25 to Animal Charity Evaluators in March 2021, supporting the expansion of its activities and operations, which align closely to the charitable objectives of Effective Altruism UK. We expect this to be the last payment to Animal Charity Evaluators.

Effective Altruism Foundation

During the 2019/20 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK did not regrant any money to the Effective Altruism Foundation nor provide staff or volunteer time.

One For The World

During the 2019/20 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK regranted a total of £10,650.70 to One For The World. One For The World uses the money to fund its operations. During the year, One For The World has expanded its operations into the UK and also started to diversify into corporate advocacy.

1 Given the analysis involves significant use of personal data (in some cases sensitive), this analysis has not been published, even at an aggregate level, by Effective Altruism UK.

7

Financial Review

Policy on reserves

Effective Altruism UK aims to hold enough reserves for:

The trustees believe that this is an appropriate policy, having taken into account the lack of contingent liabilities, the quality of support from funders, lack of financial risks such as currency risk, the lack of other risk sources such as a defined benefit pension scheme, and the trustees’ risk appetite.

As at 31st March 2020, the Unrestricted cash balance was £32,978.35, equivalent to approximately 9.1 months of budgeted FY22 Effective Altruism London expenditure. This is higher than the target band in our policy due to unexpected income during the previous fiscal years. The Trustees have taken action to address this, primarily by reducing the level of grant applied for from the Centre for Effective Altruism.

As at 31st March 2020, the Effective Altruism for Christians cash balance was £10,213.86 with a further £1,750.00 owed to Effective Altruism UK by HMRC in Gift Aid. In total this is equivalent to 4.0 months of budgeted FY22 Effective Altruism for Christians expenditure. This is above the minimum level.

Funds materially in deficit

No funds are materially in deficit.

Further financial review details regarding fundraising

All of the funds raised for Effective Altruism London before 1st January 2019 came from the local London philanthropic community. Largely this was people who had attended our events or who had found the content useful and inspiring and helpful for them to become better philanthropists and who wanted to help give back so more people can be supported. Since the 1st of January 2019, Effective Altruism UK has received funding from the Centre for Effective Altruism to continue its work inspiring and helping people become better philanthropists. Between 1st January 2021 and 31st March 2021, Effective Altruism UK did not apply for a grant from the Centre for Effective Altruism and instead funded expenditure out of reserves, which were above the desired level.

All of the earmarked funds raised by Effective Altruism UK for Effective Altruism for Christians and Regranting were raised by those projects / other organisations putting donors in touch with Effective Altruism UK.

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Declaration Sip*d ￿ behalf d the dwritrfs trt￿tee$:

Accounts CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGIAND AND WAiES Effeaive Al￿1￿￿ UK 1170614 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the peri¢)d 0110412020 3110312021 To Section A Receipts and payments Unr•stri¢tèd funds R•striet•d funds Endo*Th•nt fvnds Total funds Last year tolhe neatest Ihe near8st£ the nea￿51£ tothe near8St£ tothe ioor8#t£ A1 R•c•ipts donabons Cind ts% re¢aimed) erincome 32,682 6284 32,682 20,015 12,053 72,705 13.792 Sub total(Gmss incrjme for AR) 11792 52,757 B1758 A2 Ass•t and Inv•sbm•nt sal•s, Is•• tabl• Sub totsl Totalrecelprs 13,792 38,965 52.757 84,758 A3 Paym•nts st3ff &¥ents Communications Admin Rèoraniino 57.159 105 5T,159 105 33?13 1,013 493 339 6,901 41.960 603 10,695 69,371 lo￿95 8gJ71 Sub toral M Asset and investment purchase5. Isee table} Sub total 69,311 69,371 41,960 Net of receiptsl(payments) A5 Transfer5 between funds A6 Cash funds last y•ar end Cash fvnds this year end 13,79 10,858 30.045 16.614 42,798 10W58 3￿95 65,940 49,316 23,142 65,940 32.978 16.348 10

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrnstricted funds Rèstrieted funds EndoThent funds Cat•gori•s D•tails to Trearest£ to Trearest £ to Trearest£ B1 Cash funds Bank account 32,978 16,348 Toralcash funds 32,918 16,348 (awee tnces wth recews a¢cwl(¥)I Unrestricted Restricted lunds funds toneuesi£ tonearesi £ 4,183 Endo￿Trent funds neares1£ Detsrls GfftNJd the B2 Other monetary assets Details none Ssdbek) CoSt{optK￿I Curren1¥a￿e B3 Investment assets curren1va￿e Detsils none asseti B4 Assets retsined forthe charfty's own use lowh￿h relates whe￿ due Iwiioml D•tails none B5 Liabilities Signed by one or two trustees L behawof all the twstee5 swJna[￿e Prirrt N Date of roval n Reece-SnNth 11

Report of the Independent Examiner

----- Start of picture text -----
Independent examiner's report on the
accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Charity Name
members of
Effective Altruism UK
On accounts for the year 31st March 2021 Charity no 1170614
ended (if any)
Set out on pages 1 - 12
(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity
(“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/01/2021
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in
Responsibilities and basis of
accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
report
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under
section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all
the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b)
of the Act.
----- End of picture text -----

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Independent examiner's I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come statement to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Date: 16/12/2021 Signed: Name: Maureen Day Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): 18 Ferney Road East Barnet Herts Address: EN4 8LF Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). N/A

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