Social Network Analysis of EA?

By Aaron Graifman @ 2025-07-03T16:26 (+17)

Epistemic Status: Excited about a shiny new frame of reference, loosely informed on the details. I haven’t crunched any numbers yet, but my understanding is that SNA mathematically models social networks with weighted graphs. A quick search showed no EA-specific examples, so I’m about 60 % confident this question is novel to the Forum

TL;DR

Before committing time to a new project, I’d like to know if anyone has already built a social‑network map of EA‑aligned donors or community members—the kind that shows who funds whom, who collaborates, and where the bottlenecks are. If you’ve seen anything like this (public or private), please drop a link or pointer below so I don’t reinvent the wheel. [1]

CONTEXT

I've recently stumbled upon the concept of Social Network Analysis. For those unfamiliar, here is the first post I encountered on this topic: Social Network Analysis 101: Ultimate Guide - Visible Network Labs
I came upon the concept while reviewing POLITICO Analyses regarding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the Senate. I was trying to understand why each provision was in the bill, and who the major players were as well as their social ties and previous obligations.  I queried the ol' interweb, "Is there a tool to map out politics and social ties regarding policy?" The concept of SNA came up. According to the Visible Network Labs website.

"SNA is a research method used to visualize and analyze relationships and connections between entities or individuals within a network. Imagine mapping the relationships between different departments in a corporation. The outcome would be a vivid picture of how each department interacts with others, allowing us to see communication patterns, influential entities, and bottlenecks"

QUESTION

My question is, has anyone in EA done an SNA regarding the major people in Philanthropy and their ties to charity organizations in the manner explained here. 

I have seen Maps of AI Safety, and Maps of EA.  I have found those to be useful. I'm asking this question about performing a Social Network Analysis for two reasons

  1. This could be beneficial for gaining another frame of useful understanding regarding EA, or even regarding political issues tangential to EA
  2. Perhaps someone with the skill to perform an SNA that is useful and accurate might be able to do so having read this post
  3. Asking before I try so as to avoid a duplication of effort

Thank you, and if you know anything about this, please leave a comment below. 

Disclaimer

P.S. I don't assume that one can perfectly model a social network, or that it would be more useful than other frameworks. I do want to know if someone has done this or has experience or thoughts on the PROS/CONS of such an endeavor. As always this is asked in the spirit of truth and finding out more.

  1. ^

    This section created after LLM reviewed post and summarized it