Please reach out to me if you have any questions or feedback at daniel@eanigeria.org. On behalf of the EA Nigeria team, we want to thank you all for your support once again.
3
Effective Altruism Meetup, Abuja, Nigeria
CompleteGrant
$1,448raised
Project summary
This project aims to bring together existing and potential community members of EA in Abuja, Nigeria, to network, share ideas and engage in aligned discussions.
The participants would include students, professionals, mid-career individuals and recent graduates.
What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?
PROJECT GOALS:
To attract potential community members
To increase engagement and knowledge of Effective Altruism among community members
To encourage networking and collaboration in the community
I aim to achieve these through:
Hosting a one day meetup event in Abuja, Nigeria for 20 persons with Minimum funding and 40 persons with complete funding.
Tailor a program that would be centered around EA cause areas and how we can make impact; facilitating EA aligned discussions
Share relevant resources with participants including our introductory fellowship program for new members
How will this funding be used?
This funding would be used to:
Rent a space for our meet up in Abuja.
Pay for food (Vegetarian) and drinks
Print a few flyers
Handle other logistics involved in organizing the meet up
Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?
I will be hosting this with Christoper Isu who has been in our community for over 2 years and has experience in handling logistics for some of our events in the past and present.
TRACK RECORD:
I have been handling the operations of EA Nigeria for about 2 years, working with the director to host events and bring various initiatives to life.
In two years(2022-2024), we have organized 2 workshops, 1 retreat, EA community meet ups in Abuja, Kano, Ibadan and Lagos.
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?
Poor publicity could lead to a failure of the meet up; not reaching the right persons or prospects could be detrimental to this project but this is less likely to happen because we would target our publicity for this event to reach the right category of people
What other funding are you or your project getting?
None
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
3 months ago
Final report
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
8 months ago
Progress update
We had $970.7 remaining from our initial meetup in Abuja and we did the following:
Held an EA outreach in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi State which saw 48 students in attendance with strong interest to take action by participating in the EA intro fellowship program, taking on high-impact careers and being a part of the city group that is in the process of being formed. Here is the link to a post on this: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7315067667931906050
We had two other meetups in the cities of Lagos and Kano where both new and existing community members came together to have discussions and presentations around "Impactful Career Planning" aided with resources from 80,000 hours and the EA forum, the meetups also featured a networking session and Intro to Effective Altruism session, highlighting how attendees could take action to make an impact. Here is the link to a post on this: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7333457394942758912
Feedback from these events have shown strong commitment from new and existing members to take action by applying for EA virtual programs, changing their minds on taking high impact careers, starting an EA group in their university (we are currently guiding 3 students on this), and aligning their projects with the Effective Altruism practice.
We spent a total of $1,041.1 for the meetups and would like to use the remaining $406.9 to hold a retreat for the EA Nigeria team at the in the fourth quarter of 2025, happy to refund the remaining amount if anyone thinks otherwise.
We have decided to close this project at this time. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or feedback at daniel@eanigeria.org. Thank you.
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
11 months ago
Progress update
Our Meetup Made Impact!
We held our meetup on Saturday, 22nd March, 2025 in Abuja Nigeria which brought 28 attendees comprising of existing community members and mostly those who are new to Effective Altruism. The meetup featured group discussion sessions on Effective Altruism, presentations and networking session.
Feedback from participants showed
a) Attendees rated their overall experience highly, with an average of 9.07/10
b) They were very likely to recommend the event, with an average of 9.5/10.
c) The average value of the connections made during the meetup was 8.62/10.
d) 11 out of 13 attendees said that the meetup made them reconsider their career path towards a high-impact career.
We also shared shared opportunities to take action with attendees such as the Intro Fellowship program with new members, resources from the EA forum and aligned organisations such as 80,000 hours, and are currently in the process of onboarding 2 of them who have met the criteria for joining our community here in Nigeria.
A total expenses of $376.9 was used for the meetup, kindly find the breakdown below:
- Meeting hall for meetup - 129.3
- Snacks, drinks and water - 92.5
- Transportation/venue logistics - 11.8
- Food takeout packs - 4.1
- Transportation reimbursement to 20 attendees - 124.9
- Miscellaneous - 14.4
We now have a balance of $970.7
Our community members from other cities have shown interest in having a meetup as well and given the potential impact meetups like this have, we have decided to have meetups in 3 more cities ( Lagos, Kano and Bauchi) between the months of April and May, 2025 which would serve as a tool for outreach; introducing Effective Altruism to those who have the potential to make an impact, while providing an avenue for EA inclination and networking opportunities for existing community members.
Here is a LinkedIn post on the meetup: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/effective-altruism-nigeria_eanigeria-eacommunitymeetup-abuja-activity-7309865291306483712-nbCa?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAADTA_HkB5BnjBtsjBpan99GAyAEuXWYCsyY
Thank you once again for your support.
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
over 1 year ago
Progress update
Change in Project Date
I want to start by thanking everyone who donated towards this project
I am considering rescheduling our meetup to around March 2025 because EA Nigeria summit was held in the same location where we planned to organize the meetup this September. We believe that by moving the event to around March 2025, we can achieve the desired impact we are aiming for.
I intend to organize the event as an EA Nigeria event, as I am part of the team. Our original intention and purpose remain the same.
Thank you all once again for your consideration and donation.
donated $161
donated $366
donated $161
Jason
over 1 year ago
Pushing to minimum funding: this work seems established enough and to have generated enough results to get some funding in this round. I also considered the practical difficulty of a group in Nigeria self-funding or obtaining other third-party funding. In the end, it's important to have EA perspectives coming from LMICs.
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
over 1 year ago
@Jason Thank you very much for your donation, you are absolutely right about your consideration.
donated $40
Nina Friedrich
over 1 year ago
I believe it's crucial to diversify the EA community wherever possible. Best of luck with the meet-ups!
donated $366
donated $366
donated $49
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
over 1 year ago
@TonyGao No, it is not. The major problem of third world countries is effective management of resources, they approach it with short term thinking, this reflects in infrastructures, policies and other aspects of the economy, in other words they are not altruistic in their approach, while other developed economies have been observed to apply the principles of longtermism to positively impact the lives of people in their region/country.
Promoting effective altruism in Nigeria has helped to shape individual's thought process and approach to solving pressing problems. This has reflected in the work and projects they do.
donated $49
🥦
Tony Gao
over 1 year ago
@Elabi So let's say I buy your argument that the resource curse and short-term policies are the problem and that EA will promote long-term and cooperative ideas. However, it seems to me that fixing this requires being in a position of influence, and it seems to me that something like EA is outside of the traditional avenues of power in Nigeria. For example, potentially you could position yourself as a liberal-aligned movement and responsible recipient and distributor of external funding (although there's the SBF reputational damage), but that may be regarded as a usurpation by those who currently have that position so may not be tenable. So do you mean to say that you will focus on promoting EA ideas to those who are in power or in a position to inherit power?
Note that I don't know the local context so could be totally wrong.
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
over 1 year ago
@TonyGao We already have community members who work in government and have the potential to become leaders in the sector in the future; whose approach to solving problems has been shaped by their association with us. So I can say that EA is not completely out of the traditional avenues of power rather in touch with it.
We would focus on promoting EA to all with the aim of attracting those with the potential solve pressing issues. These persons could be in the government, non governmental organisation or an independent individual who is working on one project or the other.
I think there has also been a push within the EA community for members to take jobs in government and policy because altruistic individuals would apply same principles.
donated $161
Jason
over 1 year ago
How many people have come to past events? Do you have any stories of how involvement with your group has made its members more effective (e.g., changed giving patterns, taken new jobs, etc.)?
donated $366
Daniel Elabi
over 1 year ago
@Jason We have had about 5 - 10 persons for the meetup in Abuja, we have had over 50 in the last two years who attended from other parts of the country.
Our members through consistent involvement with us have been equipped to make informed decisions in their career, studies and projects, some of them have been actively involved in volunteering for EA aligned organizations.
donated $78
donated $366
donated $22
donated $366