[Linkpost] 80,000 Hours review: 2023 to mid-2025
By 80000_Hours @ 2025-09-15T09:15 (+50)
This is a linkpost to https://80000hours.org/2025/09/80000-hours-review-2023-to-mid-2025/
We’ve released our review of our programmes for the years 2023 to mid-2025. The full review is available on our website, and we’re sharing the summary below.
You can find our previous reviews here.
Summary: Key updates since 2022
- Niel Bowerman is our new CEO: He was appointed in January 2024 after a prolonged period of interim arrangements following the FTX collapse.
- We’re focusing harder on AGI as our top cause area: We narrowed our primary focus to helping people work on safely navigating the transition to a world with AGI.
- We’ve set up several new programmes and initiatives: We restarted our headhunting programme (now called 'sourcing'), launched a new video programme, released the second version of our career guide, and started releasing video interviews on The 80,000 Hours Podcast.
- We’ve spun out from EV: On April 1, 2025, we spun out from EV into two new UK entities, each with their own board.
- The marketing team strategy has changed: Our marketing team reduced investment in paid digital ads and YouTube sponsorships after an internal impact analysis.
- We performed well in the EA survey: According to the 2024 EA survey, 80,000 Hours continued to be a highly influential factor in people getting involved in and having an impact within the EA community.
- Moderate growth: From 2022 to 2024, our headcount grew by 53%, and total engagement hours with our content grew by 30%. Engagement hours for 2025 so far are already more than double the 2024 total, predominantly due to our video content.
Vasco Grilo🔸 @ 2025-09-19T06:56 (+2)
Thanks for the update.
Your costs in 2022 and 2024 were 14.9 (= 6.66*10^6/(446*10^3)) and 18.0 $/engagement-hour (= 10.4*10^6/(579*10^3)).
- We’ve spun out from EV: On April 1, 2025, we spun out from EV into two new UK entities, each with their own board.
I know nothing about this besides what you say in the report, which is below, but why not a single entity? Should other organisations consider having 2 entities?
In December 2023, 80,000 Hours announced that we would be spinning out of the Effective Ventures Foundation, our former parent organisation. On April 1, 2025, we completed the spinout into two new UK entities:
- 80,000 Hours Limited, which houses our programmes and operations. Its board consists of:
- 80,000 Hours Foundation, which is the registered charity that will facilitate donations and own the 80,000 Hours intellectual property. Its board consists of:
- Katie Hearsum, board chair
- Susan Shi
- Anna Weldon, who is the overlapping member of both boards
We expect that becoming an independent entity will give 80,000 Hours more legal, financial, and reputational independence.
80000_Hours @ 2025-09-22T11:20 (+6)
Hi Vasco,
We decided on a dual-entity structure because some of 80k’s work — for example, giving career advice to someone who is considering work at a for-profit — falls outside the scope of what the UK Charity Commission considers clearly charitable, and having only a charitable entity would restrict our ability to engage in this work. At the same time, receiving donations through a non-charity entity is much less tax efficient. These two considerations mean we settled on a dual-entity structure — where the charity funds only our clearly charitable work — even though it’s more complex.
(Note that 80,000 Hours Limited is a non-profit — it’s just not a registered charity.)
- Inés
Vasco Grilo🔸 @ 2025-09-22T13:23 (+3)
Thanks for clarifying, Inés!