From Georgie Mallett:
.impact have successfully supported and developed multiple projects: the EA Forum, the EA Hub, the EA Newsletter, LEAN and so on. Our collaborative values have allowed these projects to flourish.
Having observed the impressive progress of Students for High-Impact Charity (SHIC) since its beginnings in April, we have identified a number of synergies between SHIC and our own outreach efforts, LEAN in particular. We are pleased to now take on the organisation as an independent focus project. While the budget and management of the program will remain independent, we see a number of opportunities for productive collaboration.
In 6 months, they have created an extracurricular program with 12 levels, gained over 50 representatives bringing the curriculum into schools, gained over 60 volunteers and compiled a pre- and post-program survey, all with only one full-time staff member. While the impact of the program can only be assessed following more data collection, it is undoubtedly valuable for us to determine the effectiveness of a school curriculum in shaping the mindset and behaviour of school students. If we find this intervention to be successful, there is enormous potential for altering the landscape of doing good. I look forward to working with SHIC and seeing the results of the program.
Below, Baxter Bullock (Executive Director of SHIC) shares the rationale behind SHIC and its collaboration with .impact.
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From Baxter Bullock:
Before my introduction to effective altruism, I had spent several years in the education world as a high school math teacher, because it felt noble. Unfortunately, it seemed the goal of our academic institution was not to shape students’ moral compass. Rather, our implicitly mandated goal as teachers was to create greater prestige for the institution, and though these aims aren’t mutually exclusive, they also don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand.
I did learn, however, that a group of young people who have just grasped the fact that an entire world exists beyond their own bubble, possess a nontrivial amount of unfiltered enthusiasm for making that world a better place. And it was that enthusiasm I wanted to harness and guide in the right direction, but with what? Enter EA.
There was power and accessibility behind these ideas. I wished, like so many others Tee and I have spoken to, that I had gained this knowledge much earlier than I did, so that my desire to improve the world had a roadmap.
Coincidentally, there had yet to be a significant concerted effort to extend these ideas to a younger audience. Reaching out to pre-university students could have a plethora of benefits for EA, the students themselves, and most importantly, the sentient beings (current and future) whose utility and happiness we’re maximizing by supporting these charities and research institutions. With the right messaging and strategic outreach, we can shape future behaviour, help students find an impactful career, and create immediate and tangible impact through fundraising.
The ideas for SHIC were there (thanks in large part to Founding Advisor Ravi Patel), but it wasn’t until discovering a like mind in co-founder Tee Barnett that the SHIC Foundation became a reality. To date, we have over 50 active volunteers who have helped us assemble a curriculum of 12 levels. We have nearly a dozen running pilots, many more set to launch in the next several months, and around 50 students, teachers and volunteers committed to multiplying those numbers even further.
We see our new affiliation with .impact as a logical next step in the evolution of EA outreach. We are extremely excited about the potential synergy of our organizations. LEAN (the Local Effective Altruism Network) have a deep well of enthusiastic university and local leaders who can coordinate SHIC clubs within their local communities. High-school outreach and education offers LEAN groups a cohesive, tangible activity as an alternative to the more commonly held speaker events and discussions.
This collaboration is greater than the sum of its parts. With our overlapping values and approaches, SHIC and .impact complement each other in a way that will work to disseminate EA values quickly and expansively. Tom Ash (.impact co-founder) and Georgie Mallett (Executive Director) share our enthusiasm for the ideas we want to spread and for doing so in the most effective way possible.
With this collaboration and continued support from the EA community as a whole, Tee and I believe that we can have significant counterfactual impact, both short-term and long-term.
We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this partnership and the next generation of emerging altruists.
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To learn more about SHIC’s plans and progress, see here.
If you have any feedback, or have an interest in opportunities to donate or work with either .impact or SHIC, please do get in touch.
For Georgie and .impact operations: georgiedotimpact@gmail.com
For SHIC: tee@highimpactstudents.org