How are resources in EA allocated across issues?

Abstract

The Effective Altruism (EA) movement is characterized by its dedication to making the most impactful decisions when allocating resources to causes. This paper explores the allocation of funding and labor across different issue areas within the EA movement. It estimates that, in 2019, the EA movement allocated roughly 44% of funding to global health, 13% to farm animal welfare, 10% to biosecurity, 10% to potential risks from AI, and 8% to near-term US policy. However, these figures differ significantly from the allocation of labor, which prioritizes AI, meta/cause prioritization/rationality, and animal welfare. The paper also investigates the discrepancy between the current allocation of resources and the ideal allocation according to surveys of EA Leaders Forum respondents and EA Forum members. The analysis reveals a significant gap in funding for broad longtermism, with only 1% of resources allocated to this area, despite a median ideal allocation of 10% by Leaders Forum respondents. Conversely, global health receives a much larger proportion of funding than the ideal allocation. The paper concludes that, while a top-down approach to resource allocation is useful, a bottom-up approach focusing on specific opportunities and qualitative factors is also crucial. – AI-generated abstract.