Running a fundraiser as a University group?

By Trym Braathen🔸 @ 2024-10-30T15:33 (+14)

What's good, EA'ers?

Lately, I have been trying to think about what we as an EA university group can do to have an immediate Positive Impact. One thing that really stands out to me is Fundraising (our movement is called Effective Altruism after all). This is not only because of the impact done through raising funds but also because a fundraiser can bring attention to the student group. It can also make more people reflect on the effectiveness of their giving. It is also scaleable, way outside of the University group, and can be made into a yearly thing. If anyone has any experience with fundraising or just wants to give their input, I have a few questions:

Do you have any advice on how to lead the most effective fundraising campaign possible? 

Should it be done through a physical event like a run, or are there other better ways to organize it? 

What effective NGOs are people attracted to raising money for?

Is it even a good idea to run a fundraiser as a University group?

Thank you in advance for your advice. 

calebp @ 2024-10-30T22:18 (+10)

I think focussing on pledges of future income (if you are targeting students) seems great, most students don't have much money and are also used to living on a much lower amount than they will in a few years after graduating (particularly people in engineering, CS, and math).

Luke Moore 🔸 @ 2024-10-31T00:22 (+3)

I completely agree that focusing on pledges for students over direct fundraising is a good idea! In our latest internal impact evaluation (2022) at GWWC we found that each new 10% Pledge results in roughly $100,000 USD donated to high impact funding opportunities over the lifetime of the pledge (and we conservatively estimate that ~1/5 of that is counterfactual). Because of this, in my view focusing on promoting pledges is the more impactful path as one single 10% Pledge would raise more in the longrun as the most successful student fundraising campaign imaginable. It also has the added benefit of making a clear case for effective and significant giving which I think helps to promote positive values in the world and demonstrates the kind of principles that we care about in the EA community.

OTOH I think that often people feel like students might not feel able to make such a big commitment. However, I think that this is a little overcautious. I took the 10% Pledge as a student and found giving incredibly manageable. The 10% Pledge encouraged students to aim for about 1% of their spending money, which for me amounted to roughly £100 a year—less than the cost of a couple of pints each month. It was easy and, honestly, it felt really rewarding. Getting into the habit of giving early on has been very helpful as well. It became a core part of my identity, something I felt really proud of. Once I started working full-time, giving 10% of my income was easy. I simply was able to set it aside each month and hardly noticed it was gone. Since I had never been accustomed to that extra 10%, I've never felt like I was sacrificing anything.

Luke Moore 🔸 @ 2024-10-30T23:59 (+3)

Hey! Glad you want to bring more effective giving into your uni group. I myself took the 10% Pledge as student and still think it was amongst the best decisions I've ever made :) 

I now work at Giving What We Can and we've developed a guide for how we can support / collaborate with EA groups to further our shared mission of spreading the ideas of effective giving, and effective altruism more broadly. I've DM'd you a link

anormative @ 2024-10-31T03:31 (+1)

Is this available publicly? I’d be interested in seeing it too.

GraceAdams🔸 @ 2024-10-31T02:24 (+2)

I think it's a great idea to do a fundraising campaign as part of your university groups! Fundraisers can be a great way to raise awareness as well as money!

At Giving What We Can (I work there in Marketing), we have a some resources on running successful fundraisers which could be useful:
https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/run-fundraisers

There have also been initiatives in the EA community like:

I think that fundraising for a cause tied to a run/walk or some type of other event that's happening near you could be a great way to gather momentum! 

I would generally favour charities that 1) you think are highly effective 2) have a clear story that you can explain to potential donors about how it works and why they're worth supporting. I think GiveWell's top charities are great examples. Climate change charities or animal welfare charities could also resonate with people at universities!