Group Support Funding
Group support funding
Contents
Introduction
Effective Altruism university, city and national groups can apply for Group Support Funding to cover running expenses or a specific project.
Group Support Funding cannot cover anyone’s living expenses or time. It is also not suitable for groups focused on a specific cause area (e.g., AI Safety groups). However, it can be used for a cause-specific project within an EA group, such as an AI Safety fellowship. To find out about other sources of funding for EA groups, including funding for part-time or full-time salaries of group organizers, visit the “Funding for Groups” page of the EA Groups Resource Centre.
There is no specific limit on the amount of money groups can request. Our default amounts are USD $400–1,500 USD per year for smaller groups, USD $1,500–4,500 for medium groups and USD $4,500–9,000 per year for larger groups (all adjusted for cost of living).
Important points
- We only process grant applications from groups that have a Funding Approved Organizer.
- Our read our guidelines can be found here.
- It can take up to 7 weeks for us to process, evaluate and award a grant, so we suggest you apply 2 months before you would like the money.
- Before submitting your grant request, ensure that your EA group has submitted all past grant reports (where applicable). Many groups have their grants paused due to missing reports.
Grant timeline (first time grantee)
This is the standard grant process for a first time grantee coming from a group without a Funding Approved Organizer.
If you are a first time grantee, we recommend you apply 2 months in advance to ensure you have the funding when you need it.
Funding Approved Organizer process
- Submit your Funding Approved Organizer application.
- Await our response (within 1 week) with an interview invitation.
- Schedule your interview.
- Receive our decision (typically within 1 week of interview).
- Upon approval, submit your Group Support Grant application (if you haven’t already).
If you book a call promptly when asked, the approval process usually takes around 2 weeks.
Group Support Grant
- (if applicable) Ensure that all past reports for grants to your EA group have been submitted.
- Complete this template to create a budget within the guidelines, following instructions on the first tab.
- For first-time grantees, we suggest applying for a maximum of 6 months.
- Apply for a Group Support Grant on the Effective Ventures Grantee Portal, naming your Funding Approved Organizer.
- We will only process a Group Support Grant once we’ve approved the organizer mentioned; however, you can submit the grant application before this.
- (If budget over guidelines and/or unclear) Answer questions over email and revise your budget as asked. In some cases, we may invite you to a call.
- Receive your grant confirmation, conditional on due diligence.
- Receive your due diligence form (within 3 days), complete it (if you have not done so within the past 2 years) and return
- Receive the grant agreement (within 2 weeks) and sign.
- Receive the funds (within 1 week for UK/US, within 2 weeks for other countries).
- Fill out an interim grant report halfway through the grant period.
- Fill out a final grant report.
- Return any leftover funds or extend the grant period by applying for GSF in the 6 weeks following the end of your grant.
Note: There are some countries (e.g., India) for which this process will take longer.
About Funding Approved Organizers
In order to receive group support funding from CEA, your group needs to have a Funding Approved Organizer.
The Funding Approved Organizer must be:
- actively (co)running the group
- mentioned in your grant request.
The Funding Approved Organizer does not have to be:
- an experienced organiser (new organisers can also apply)
- the person submitting the request or the end-of-grant report. Another organizer (e.g., your treasurer) is welcome to submit these on the group’s behalf, with the Approved Organizer’s consent.
We have a Funding Approved Organizer process in order to:
- approve group grants quicker (e.g., if an organizer has already passed our grant review, we should be quicker to re-approve)
- reduce time spent filling in CEA forms
- provide a consistent (and hence fairer) standard for issuing grants across as many of our programs as possible
- make our assessment system more legible to our funders (if all of our programs ask similar questions, it is easier to convey our criteria to our funders).
Note that our Funding Approved Organizer process has no effect on grants from other organizations, such as the EA Infrastructure Fund.
Apply to be a Funding Approved Organizer
- Submit your Funding Approved Organizer application.
- Await our response (within 1 week) with an interview invitation.
- Schedule your interview.
- Receive our decision (typically within 1 week of interview).
- Upon approval, submit your Group Support Grant application (if you have not already).
If you book a call promptly when asked, the approval process usually takes around 2 weeks.
Note that some organizers on the Organiser Support Programme (OSP) or former Community Building Grantees (CBG) or may automatically skip the interview stage (step 3); however, this is not guaranteed. In all cases, organizers must fill out the Funding Approved Organizer application form.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Funding Approved Organizer interview cover?
In the interview, we ask questions that look at your EA knowledge and organising ability. It typically lasts 15–20 minutes.
How likely am I to be approved?
Historically, most current lead organizers who apply are approved.
If I’m not approved, can I reapply?
If the organizer doesn't receive approval, they are welcome to re-apply after 6 months. Since having at least one Funding Approved Organizer is required for a group to be eligible for group support funding, another main organizer should apply within 2 weeks; otherwise, the group support funding application will be automatically rejected.
My co-organizer is a Funding Approved Organizer – should I apply too?
By default, we won’t process applications from groups that already have a Funding Approved Organizer, except in cases where a sole Funding Approved Organizer will no longer be an organizer of the group within the next 3 months. In other situations, please contact us with details at groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
I’m not a Funding Approved Organizer, can I still run an EA group?
Of course! People can still organize an EA group without being a CEA Funding Approved Organizer.
Types of Group Support Funding
CEA currently offers two types of Group Support Funding.
- Group Support Grants (preferred option). A lump sum to pay for future group expenses for 4–12 months.
- Rapid Group Funding. For urgent requests or for costs that need to be paid, usually within 3–4 weeks from the application date. We prefer groups to apply for Group Support Grants, but Rapid Group Funding is available with certain conditions.
You can apply for a Group Support Funding grant as an individual or as a group. Groups do not need to be legally registered to be eligible, and university groups don’t need to be registered in their universities. In some cases, groups may have a group bank account, which can be used for grant disbursement, but this is not required. If a group does not have a bank account, one individual may be designated to receive the funds on behalf of the group.
Group support grants
This is our preferred method of funding groups. We think most applicant groups should apply for a Group Support Grant.
- Group Support Grants are intended to pay for future group expenses for a period of up to 12 months.
- We recommend you apply at least five weeks before your group needs the funding (or 6–7 weeks before if you do not have a certified organizer yet).
- You can apply for a Group Support Funding grant as an individual or as a group. Groups do not need to be legally registered to be eligible, and university groups don’t need to be registered in their universities. In some cases, groups may have a group bank account, which can be used for grant disbursement, but this is not required. If a group does not have a bank account, one individual may be designated to receive the funds on behalf of the group.
Application process
- Complete this template to create a budget within the guidelines, following instructions on the first tab.
- Apply for a Group Support Grant on the Effective Ventures Grantee Portal, naming your Funding Approved Organizer.
- We will only process a Group Support Grants once we’ve approved the organizer mentioned; however, you can submit the grant application before this.
- (If budget over guidelines and/or unclear) Answer questions over email and revise your budget as asked. In some cases, we may invite you to a call.
- Receive your grant confirmation (conditional on due diligence).
- Receive the due diligence form (within 3 days),complete (if you have not done so within the past two years) and return to us.
- Receive the grant agreement (within 2 weeks) and sign.
- Receive the funds (within 1 week for UK/US, within 2 weeks for other countries).
It currently takes us on average 1 month from when you submit your application to give you a decision. (This includes time spent requesting more information or having a call with the organizer. The process will be faster for groups with an existing Funding Approved Organizer.) However, we recommend you apply 2 months in advance, particularly if you’d like funding for the start of your semester. We would also encourage groups outside the UK, US or Europe to apply earlier (particularly India).
Note that we will ask for a grant report halfway through the grant period, and a final report at the end of the grant period.
If any part of the process is taking longer than mentioned above, please email both grants@ev.org and groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
Frequently asked questions
What are the application questions?
You can view the application questions here. You’re welcome to make a copy of the document and/or co-write your application with co-organizers.
(Note that you should apply by filling out the form in the Grantee Portal, not by duplicating this document with the questions list.)
Advice for using the Effective Ventures Grantee Portal
- If you haven't logged in before, click ”Self-register here” and create an account.
- Once you are signed in, you should land on the group support grant application form. (If not, you can find the application form by going to “Apply for a Grant” and then “Group Support”.) Please then fill in the application form.
- If you would like to save your progress, click “Save my progress and resume later” and then click the “Save” button.
- If you are experiencing an issue while trying to use the Grantee Portal, please email grants@ev.org for assistance.
I submitted a grant application, why haven’t I heard back from you?
If you don’t receive a response in 10 working days (or 5 working days for an urgent application), check your spam folder. If it's not there, email groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
Rapid Group Funding
We prefer groups to use Group Support Grants, but Rapid Group Funding is available if applicants meet these conditions:
- Groups and organizers that are known to CEA’s Groups team and have received CEA group support funding already before.
- The total amount is below USD $5000.
- All receipts can be submitted within 1 month of the original application date. (We may make exceptions from time to time that allow organizers to make purchases and submit receipts later than one month from the application date.)
- Although not mandatory, we strongly encourage you to complete a template budget if you want the screening time to be faster.
You can view the questions in advance here. We've migrated the Rapid Group Funding application form to the Effective Ventures Grantee Portal (previously it was a Google Form).
Rapid Group Funding applications will usually be responded to within 5 working days. If approved, you will need to fill out a due diligence form if you haven't done so within the past 2 years.
You'll also need to sign a grant agreement. After that, it will take up to 5 working days to receive the grant in your bank account, but transfers to a few countries can take up to 10 working days (most commonly India).
Making your budget
As part of your grant application, you need to complete this template to create a budget within the guidelines. Please make a copy of the budget and work from there. Note that we will not evaluate grants that do not use the template.
Instructions for how to use the template can be found on the first tab. Pay close attention to what types of expenses we can cover, and be careful not to exceed our guidelines. If you notice an item exceeding our guidelines (indicated by yellow, purple, or red cells in the spreadsheet), please adjust it accordingly or provide a justification for the exception.
Advice for first-time grantees
- For groups that had never received a CEA group support grant before, we suggest applying for a maximum of 6 months.
- We’re also less likely to approve additional expenses, like a retreat.
Expenses that can be covered
There are two categories of expenses that we’re willing to fund via group support funding: basic expenses and additional expenses.
Our benchmark location for our cost guidelines is for a group in San Francisco. Please adjust these cost guidelines based on the cost of living in your location. We have recommendations on how to do this in the budget template.
Please read our expenses guidelines for the full details of what we can and can’t cover. A quick overview:
We can cover:
- EA books
- snacks/drinks for events (up to USD $5/person/event)
- meals for events (up to USD $20/person/event) but only for 1–2 meals every semester or every six months by default
- advertising costs such as banners/posters for clubs fairs (~USD $300), and food for clubs fairs and tabling (up to ~USD $200 per event)
- venue hire (up to ~USD $200 per event)
- certain software and subscriptions.
We sometimes cover:
- retreats
- up to USD $15/person for a two-night retreat
- a max of one per semester or six-month period
- honorarium and travel expenses for speakers.
- We have a higher bar for deciding to give groups funding to organize a retreat – they are more expensive and often more difficult to organize.
We don’t cover:
- stipends or salaries (e.g., for organizers, or participants of an intro fellowship or program)
- co-working spaces
- housing / living expenses
- visa expenses
CEA’s Groups team used to provide grants to EA Groups to help their group members attend EA Global and EAGx conferences. Now, EA group members are encouraged to apply for travel support individually via the event application form. If you can’t attend an event without additional support, we encourage you to apply!
If you would like to find funding for anything from the list above, look at our resource on funding options for groups.
More detailed information on what you can spend on is in our group expenses guidelines, which we recommend you read before applying for funding. If there’s an expense you want funding for but it isn’t in our expense guidelines, you can still include it in your application though make sure you provide context and your rationale in the spreadsheet or an email.
At any point in the funding process, you can contact groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org with questions about the content of the application, or contact the Effective Ventures Grants Team at grants@ev.org about due diligence or payment.
Checklist on Groups Support Funding application
- I (or one of my co-organizers) am a Funding Approved Organizer (FAO). If not, I (or one of my co-organizers) am applying for FAO.
- I drafted my budget using the template budget
- I have filled out all the cells at the top of the budget
- I have correctly selected the dropdown list in column A to classify my expenses
- I have provided enough details in column B to help the evaluating team understand my budget request (minimum questions to answer are in column I)
- I have correctly calculated the units in column D (details are in column O)
- My budget is within guidelines (this is true when the total amount in cell F9 is green and displays “Your budget is within our guidelines” on the left)
- If my budget is not within guidelines (some prices exceed the guidelines or I budgeted for items under “other”), I have provided sufficient context in the corresponding cell B for the team to evaluate its relevance.
Office Hours for Group Support Funding
We run weekly Office Hours for Group Support Funding, to offer individualised support and guidance about our Group Support Funding process, group expense guidelines and specific aspects of funding requests.
Key benefits:
- Get quick feedback on funding request budgets.
- Gain a clear understanding of our funding process.
- Receive answers to specific guideline-related questions.
Please note: Office Hours are specifically for funding-related queries and do not cover general group organizing advice or strategy.
For more information and to book a session, visit our booking page.
Receiving, using and returning your grant
Receiving your grant
We are happy to send your grant to any of the following:
- University / students union bank account
- City / national group bank account
- University group bank account
- Grant applicant’s personal bank account
Grantees specify which bank account they would like the money sent to during due diligence. If you would like to change the person or account receiving the money, you will need to re-complete due diligence.
Using a personal bank account(s)
Most groups use a personal bank account to receive and store money from CEA. It can sometimes be harder to make a group account (e.g., complications adding or removing co-organisers, or university bureaucracy).
If you choose not to have a group bank account, you might want to consider opening a separate personal account exclusively for group-related transactions. This is to make it easier to track expenses and your remaining funds. However, keep in mind that the new bank account might charge additional fees – make sure to include these in your budget.
For individual grants, we cannot send the grant money to a personal bank account that does not belong to the grant applicant (unless the grantee is a minor).
Group bank account(s)
Once your group is bigger and more established, and if you find managing money via personal bank accounts to not be optimal, you can look into the process and pros and cons of getting a group or organization bank account.
University / students union bank account(s)
Note that some universities don’t allow groups to receive or store funds in personal bank accounts.
If you’ll be sending funds to a university or students union bank account, we’d recommend applying further in advance – the process can unfortunately take much longer.
Using your grant
Tracking your spending
- You should keep track of your spending in a spreadsheet (template here).
- Look at the report process so that you know what kind of information you will need to collect.
- If you wish to spend your funds in a different way from your initial application, please contact groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org for approval.
- For Group Support Grants:
- Keep all receipts over USD $500.
- For Rapid Group Funding:
- Keep all receipts.
Making changes to your grant
- Group Support Funding should be used as outlined in your original application, but we understand plans may change and funds may need to be reallocated. If you need to change how you use your Group Support Funding, please fill out this form first. Do not reallocate funds before submitting the form.
- We would recommend you reapply when your funds get low (e.g., down to ~20% of their original grant amount, or if the funds could run out within 2 months). You will have to submit a report for your last grant before you reapply.
- If it seems like you are going through the grant significantly faster than you expected (e.g., you’ll run out of funding earlier than halfway through your grant period), contact groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
- If groups have a change of organizer, grant money can be passed to the next organizer. Contact groups@centreforeffectivealtruism.org to update us.
- Groups can submit a report and receipts before the end of the grant period if they aren’t expecting to use the funds (e.g., if the group becomes dormant).
- At the end of the funding period, groups will receive a request via email to write a report, which is due one month after the completion of their funding period.
Grant reports
For most groups, the grantee will receive a request by email to complete a progress report halfway through the grant period, and a final report at the end date of the grant period (due 1 month later). You may also fill in the report already as soon as you have finished or are about to finish spending all the funding. The report questions are listed here.
Submit your final report before you apply for a new Group Support Grant or at the end of the grant period (whichever comes first).
Submitting a grant report is part of your grant agreement. We will not consider you or your group for a new grant until all applicable grants reports have been submitted.
To submit your report:
- Log in to the Effective Ventures Grantee Portal.
- Click the “More” tab at the top navigation bar, then click “Reports”.
- Find a row corresponding to the Group Support Grant that you want to submit a report for. It will say “Please submit your report” under the column “Grant Report Requirement”. Click that, and answer the questions. Then click submit.
Reports for Rapid Group Funding
If you've received rapid funding for a reimbursement, reports are not required. For non-reimbursements, you will receive a request to complete a short report within a month of us sending the grant. Report questions are listed here.
Returning your grant
Leftover Funds
- If you have leftover funding from your last group support grant or rapid funding but do not need additional group funding from CEA yet, we would still like you to submit a new Group Support Grant application on how you plan to use this leftover money. (You can place $0 in the application as the additional money you'll need.) Please provide a budget for how you'll use this funding so we can check if it fits with our group expenses guidelines.
- If you have leftover funding that you won't be able to use within the next 6 weeks, you can return it via the instructions given when you fill out the report for your grant, or you can contact grants@ev.org.