2024-03-31-accounts - Effective Altruism UK

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Effective Altruism UK Trustees’ Annual Report

For the period 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024

Reference and administration details

Effective Altruism UK

Registered charity number 1170614

Flat 19, Jarman House Jubilee Street E1 3BL

Charity Trustees

Samuel Hilton Amrit Sidhu-Brar Grayden Reece-Smith Gemma Paterson (from 12th January 2024) Tom Barnes (from 12th January 2024) Jessica Wen (from 12th January 2024)

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.

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:

UK Community Building. Effective Altruism UK has two employees based in London who have 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 UK, which was previously branded as Effective Altruism London. The Effective Altruism UK website can be viewed at: https://effectivealtruism.uk
Grantmaking. Effective Altruism UK has also made grants to other organisations around the world with similar charitable aims, making use of funds raised from UK donors for this purpose.

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

Beneficiaries

When considering the projects undertaken it is helpful to distinguish between the immediate community and the eventual beneficiaries:

The immediate community are the people, primarily in London, to whom we promote citizenship and civic responsibility. We support, encourage and inspire these people to give of their time, skills and money to charitable purposes, and to have concern for the efficiency and effectiveness of those contributions.
The eventual beneficiaries are the people who benefit from the contributions of time, skill and money. They represent as diverse a group as charitable causes cover, including but not limited to people living in poverty in developing countries, future generations who might be impacted by climate change or abused animals.

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.

Activities

Activities	Activities	Activities
Hereis anoverviewofour key activities:
Research	There are a number of existing charitable organisations that carry out research	10%

	to help people to do good more effectively, such as 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 UK 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.
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 UK website, including a directory of useful resources and a member directory ●Creating and maintaining a Slack for coordination	15%
Community events and programmes	The Charity helped organise small in person and online events and programmes to strengthen the community around effective giving and impactful careers, 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 UK. 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 development, impact measurement and administration	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 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.	15%

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

Grantmaking

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 making grants to support their activities, making use of donations collected from UK donors to support this purpose. During the year, EA UK made grants to one organisation (SoGive) and one individual. This accounted for less than 5% of staff time and volunteer time. All of the funds used for grantmaking had been donated to Effective Altruism UK on a restricted basis, specifically for that purpose. Where appropriate, granted funds were restricted to activities which are consistent with the objects of Effective Altruism UK.

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 grantmaking 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 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.

Achievements and performance

Effective Altruism UK

For April 2023 - March 2024, there were 426 1-1 conversations and 31 events organised or supported by EA London/UK, with 611 attendees.

Grantmaking

SoGive

During the 2023-24 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK made grants totalling £2,800.00 to SoGive. SoGive used the money to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of charities by researching their effectiveness and supporting donors to give more effectively.

Grants to individuals

During the 2023-24 fiscal year, Effective Altruism UK made grants to one individual conducting work furthering our charitable purposes. The total amount of these grants came to £27,000.00.

Financial Review

Policy on reserves

Effective Altruism UK aims to hold enough reserves for:

Between 2 and 6 months of expenditure - UK Community Building
Zero - Grantmaking

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 2024, the unrestricted cash balance was £45,726.96, equivalent to approximately 5.7 months of budgeted FY24 UK Community Building expenditure.

Funds materially in deficit

No funds are materially in deficit.

Further financial review details regarding fundraising

All of the funds raised for UK Community Building 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 Grantmaking were raised by those projects / other organisations putting donors in touch with Effective Altruism UK.

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 0110412023 3110112024 Section A Receipts and ents Unrestricted funds tolhe ar Restrictsd funds Endov•Tnent funds Total funds Last year totrr rwxesl£ lotre wire51£ tott% rwreste lotr reare51£ A1 Receipts IP4d donations lind tax r•daim•dl 225LM) 22.500 118484 142.167 110.381 r2M38 Sub total{Gr& income for AR) 22A)38 118.946 140984 252.548 A2 Pas8t and inv08tm8nt sales, see table . Sub toial TotsIrliS 22.038 118.946 140984 252.548 Paym•nt$ 1rMI.680 1026 3288 100NO 2.020 3.288 89.101 3.105 E¥nts Communications min R4granting 12B9 1,6g8 29LM) 137.492 2,9B 29.800 138.780 1,18fj 145.686 240A20 Sub total 1289 A4 knet arKI inve¥lm8nt urcha808.1808 tabla) Sub tolal 1,289 137.492 138.780 240,420 Net of receiws/(payments) AS Transfers betwen fund$ 6 Cash fund¥ lasl yeai end Cash funds Ihls year end 20.149 18.546 2.203 12.128 14.091 39.068 5.355 44,423 46.626 32,295 44,423 45,727

Section B Statement of assets and liabiltties at the end of the period Urrestrbcted furKIs to rest£ Restrbcted fund5 Categorles Detsll fund5 lorTest£ toneare5t£ B1 Cash funds accwnt 45.727 899 ToTal $h funds 45,727 899 w th paYntS c{s)) Urnestrlcted Restrlcted funds iowresr£ funds toraresi£ Details &tAd due B2 Othermonetsry assets Jio wiach a$setLl Currerrtvt4ue Detalls C(Oilryirrnr B3 Investment assets none RryllOTwllch IrreNve Detalls B4 Assets relained forthe charity's own use none FknJtO7which t4ty ree$ When (Je Detalls B5 Liabilrties none Signed by one orlwD tNstees behalf of all the IDJslees &grakn Prinlkne Dale of oval aydèn ReÈc&Smith 0811012024 10

CHARITY COMMISSION Independent Examinerfs Report on the Accounts Section A Indeperbdent Exaffliner's RePt 31103Q024 ClmPwtyl 117C 1&2 145(SMb)ofO Cl4¥knALK 0112025 N•me Ixxty[rfay) of Taxe5 18 Faney Ro1 ER M•rth 2014 11