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2022-03-31-accounts

Effective Altruism UK Trustees’ Annual Report

For the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022

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. UK Community Building (formerly 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), which has been subsequently rebranded as Effective Altruism UK since the end of the fiscal year. The Effective Altruism UK website can be viewed at: https://effectivealtruism.uk

  2. Effective Altruism for Christians. Effective Altruism UK employed one person from August 2020 to June 2021 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.

UK Community Building (formerly Effective Altruism London)

Beneficiaries

When considering the projects undertaken 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 2021-22 fiscal year was the second year severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This reduced the number of in-person events that Effective Altruism London hosted, but did not have a significant adverse effect on the charity’s ability to deliver against its objects. 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 do 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.		 10%
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		 15%
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.		 20%
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.		 30%
Strategy The Charity’s staff and volunteers invested time into developing a strategy to 15%

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development,
impact
measurement
and
administration		 maximise the Charity’s impact. The Charity then collected data during the
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, EACH did this through talks to Christian student groups in the UK, launching the Christian Campaign for Effective Charity (CCEC) and organising an annual conference.

Two major things occurred during the year. Firstly, our employee resigned. Secondly, two new non-profits were incorporated to run the EACH project: Christians for Impact, a charity registered in the UK, and Christians for Impact USA, a 501(c)3 registered in the USA. As a result, it was decided to wind down the EACH project hosted by Effective Altruism UK. The remaining restricted funds (£2,853.32) were regranted to Christians for Impact USA, which hired its first full-time employee in January 2022. Money was regranted on the condition that Christians for Impact USA will spend the money in line Effective Altruism UK’s objects and the Trustees are confident that this will be the case.

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 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. During the year, EA UK regranted to three organisations: Christians for Impact USA (see above), One For The World and SoGive. This accounted for less than 5% of staff time and volunteer time. All of the funds that Effective Altruism UK regranted had been donated to Effective Altruism 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.

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.

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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.

SoGive

SoGive performs research on topics relevant to effective altruism. SoGive also runs a successful volunteer programme which has not only helped SoGive to build a database of charities and their impact, but also to support them to transition to a career in which they make the world a better place.

The regranting relationship with SoGive 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 35 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

The Effective Altruism for Christians project was based on a robust Theory of Change developed by the employee and shared with the Trustees. Due to its short life, Effective Altruism UK has not conducted any kind of quantitative impact assessment.

Regranting

One For The World

During the 2021-22 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK regranted a total of £50,000.00 to One For The World. One For The World used the money to fund its operations. One For The World continues to expand its operations into the USA and UK.

SoGive

During the 2021-22 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK regranted a total of £27,708.75 to SoGive. SoGive used the money to fund work to build up SoGive’s database of charities, including data on how much impact they achieved and ratings on their impact. This work also involved providing support to a community of c20 volunteers, some of whom have gone on to take jobs working to make the world a better place.

Financial Review

Policy on reserves

Effective Altruism UK aims to hold enough reserves for:

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.

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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 2022, the Unrestricted cash balance was £47,416.44, equivalent to approximately 12.4 months of budgeted FY23 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.

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.

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

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

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Accounts CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Effectivt Altruin UK 1170614 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the peiiod from 0110412021 3110112022 Section A Receipts and ents Unrestricted funds tolhe ￿ar Restrictsd funds Endov•Tnent funds Total funds Last year lotre wire51£ tott% rwreste lotr reare51£ A1 Receipts IP4d donations lind tax r•daim•dl 43.799 51502 43.799 70.571 32.682 20.075 19ffi9 Sub total{Gr&￿ income for AR) 19ffi9 95JOI 114J70 52.757 A2 Pas8t and inv08tm8nt sales, see table . Sub toial TotsIr￿liS 19.1 95.301 11V70 52.757 Paym•nt$ 45255 3,461 45255 3.461 1.171 57.159 105 809 E¥*nts Communications min R4granting 472 80562 131.401 472 80.562 131A)I 603 10.695 69.371 Sub total A4 knet arKI inve¥lm8nt urcha808.1808 tabla) Sub tolal 131.401 131A)I 69,371 Net of receiws/(payments) AS Transfers betw￿en fund$ 6 Cash fund¥ lasl yeai end Cash funds Ihls year end 19.069 36.101 22851 16J48 17.031 16.614 .851 32.978 49,326 32.295 65,940 49,326 29,197 10

Section B Statement of assets and liabiltties at the end of the period Unre$trthd Restricted funds funds rEarest£ torearesi£ Endov4Thent fund8 toreare$t£ Categorio8 Detail& B1 Cash funds Bankaccount 29,197 3.098 Total cash funds 29.197 3.098 {•Jreo ￿r￿e5 w th Ye¢etyts C￿J￿{S)) Unr8Str￿tsd funds to r￿reSt£ Re8trict8d fu￿18 I0￿￿[e51£ Endov4Tnent furmjs tonearest£ Oetar &ft4d the B2 Other monetary assets 4.667 CwrerrtNTrlue Details none asset L1 B3 Inveslmenl assets Rmdtowtrich sset tr*lrry4 Detai none cost¢￿"r￿ rem￿lue I0￿"0r￿lI B4 Assets retained forthe Charty's own use towhkh rektes ryjrrt ¢kn w￿n0 Details none BS Lmbilrties Si￿ed by one or trustees on behalf of all the tW51ee5 Signature Priil ￿[ne Date of rovd Gra den Reec&Smrth 11

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