Summary: I really appreciate when charitable funds give a comprehensive set of updates on what the fund has been up to at the end of the year, and think doing so can both help keep current donors committed and also serve as a good resource for other potential donors, especially those that are time constrained.
As part of my 10% pledge, I currently divide my giving between Longview's ECF, LTFF, and EAIF. In 2022, I received a quick update from GWWC on the fund that is now ECF. At the time I didn't pay it much mind, but it was a nice quick way to get a sense of where my money had gone.[1]
Their 2023 version was a bit more in-depth, but also a bit messier. I liked seeing the dollar amounts next to things earlier, and though they highlighted important actions, I wished they would have listed out the grants again.
But the impetus of this post was learning just how good these updates could be when I opened LTFF's inaugural newsletter. I think what they did there can serve as a template for how other funds can do these updates really well, and though it will certainly take extra time to put together, I'll argue below why it may be worth it, after I showcase different parts of the newsletter.
They gave major updates:
Highlighted some select grants:
Gave a catalogue of their publications and quick summaries:
Highlighted what further funding would allow them to support:
And gave some updates on what people at LTFF were thinking[2]:
There were some other things that I didn't find quite as useful[3], but I really can't brag on Linch enough here. I feel like this newsletter really allowed me to see into LTFF, give me a sense of where it's been and where its going, and left me feeling more confident about continuing to fund them moving into 2024.
Why does all this matter? You'll note that I mentioned above I donate to three funds, but only highlight two fund updates. EAIF hasn't sent anything to me to date, and this is part of the reason why I was considering stopping donating there in 2025.
I love the stated goals of EAIF, but I was becoming frustrated with the lack of public information on their grants, leaving me little to scrutinize (they haven't published a highlighted grant since early 2023). Curious for this post, I began looking around for stuff on EAIF and found out that they've stopped doing the grant writeups and moved to just publishing more minimal account in the EA Grants Database now. Already that database seems outdated, as the most up to date information seems to be this EA Forum post now. I also missed their refocusing memo they put out awhile back, the matching donations coming from OpenPhil, and this cool AMA where funders answered questions.
All of this is important! I'm now less pessimistic about EAIF given a further look into recent grants and their commitment to principles first EA. I would have donated extra during the Open Phil matching period had I known (potentially loading my whole annual donations into those months). I would have posed some of my concerns in the AMA[4] which likely would have been addressed and helped assuage some worries.
Not all of this fits into an EOY fund update, and perhaps this is also a note of encouragement for funds to be proactive in reaching out to their funders in other times too, perhaps with an email announcing the AMA. But an EOY fund update would make this process of scrutiny easy and accessible for me and anyone else who happens to not have the time in a given year. Figuring out where is best to fund is quite complicated and given restricted time I'm apt to make suboptimal decisions (like stopping funding EAIF because I didn't realize further information is out there, just scattered). I've also picked on EAIF, but the ECF is also incredibly bare bones compared to LTFF and could improve, as well as many other funds, I imagine.
This isn't just helpful for current donors receiving updates, but also can serve as a quick way for other potential donors to assess the fund and where its at now. If I wanted to get a sense of LTFF right now as a potential donor, I'd skim the landing page and recent grants, and then would want to go straight to the 2023 newsletter.
I know that these funds are constrained, and that I'm asking for something more out of an already tight schedule. But I think the sort of work required to put these together is likely something that can be largely contracted out and done in 40 hours or less, something that seems worth the cost to me (and that I'd even be happy to do myself). It also seems important for the future of LTFF and EAIF as they distance themselves from OpenPhil and need to source further individual donors.
To close, I do want to give a big thank you to the funders. I'm really glad people like you exist who can share my core beliefs and take the time to scrutinize the potential ways we can improve the world with those in mind.
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I perhaps most appreciated the bit at the end at the time "your donations are funding work that protects future generations and creates a better future". It helped me feel more of an emotional connection with the giving, which was quite nice.
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Going through the funding process on the other end of things myself recently, I realized how important it is not just to know the funding objectives and historical outputs but also the people making the funding decisions. I really appreciated this section for that purpose, and really hope Linch is able to rope in more members of LTFF for the 2024 newsletter, because I feel that I've gotten a better sense of where his head is at which improves my confidence for continued funding.
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The world updates weren't bad, just something I'd skip in a rush as there wasn't much new there to me
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One question I still have that's somewhat pressing is why payout stats have been so low so far in 2024 and whether they are on a pathway to scale up in the remaining months?