Sam Dumitriu

Chair, Giving What We Can: Manchester

samdumitriu@gmail.com

EVENTS GUIDE

How to put on great Giving What We Can events

Contents

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• Planning
• Publicity
• Branding
• Talks and Discussions
• Giving Games
• Socials

Events Guide

Useful Tips

Useful tips for running events

Useful Tips

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• Turn up early and greet/chat with everyone who arrives.
• If the event is small, introduce guests to each other.
• If you’re doing a Q and A be prepared to wait for people to put their hand-up, it may also help if you ask a few questions to give people time to think.
• Make sure to get feedback after the event.

Events Guide

Useful Tips

• After the event…
• Encourage socialising with attendees, perhaps offer people a drink in the room of the event
• Book a space in a pub or bar to take the event to.
• Make sure to follow-up on people who give you their email in the feedback.
• Thank every speaker for contributing and plug any upcoming events.

Events Guide

Planning

How to effectively plan for your Chapter’s event

Planning

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• What are our goals?
• To have a well-attended event? It helps but no.
• For people to learn about effective charities? Yes
• To get more people to sign the pledge? Yes
• To get more people to join the committee? Yes
• What does this entail?
• We should be targeted with our promotion, and use the opportunity to speak to students to focus on those most likely to join.

Events Guide

Planning

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• Make sure one person is responsible for the event as ‘Project Leader’
• Pick the venue? Things to consider size/atmosphere
• Choose a time? Work out what works for any external speakers

Events Guide

Planning

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• Bring any necessary resources:
• Pens and Pencil
• Projector?
• Refreshments (this could boost attendance)
• Print out direction signs (print don’t write!)
• Are you recording the event? Bring a dictaphone or borrow a camera.
• Feedback forms
• Signup Sheets

Events Guide

Planning

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• Is there an external speaker? If so, you need …
• Their number (you may have to give directions)
• Fill out any external speaker forms with the SU (not sure if this is an issue outside of Manchester.)
• Make sure you reconfirm their attendance a week before the event.

Events Guide

Publicity

How to effectively promote your event

Publicity

• Email your contact list
• Tell your friends, ask them to tell their friends
• Make a Facebook event, get everyone on the committee to invite all of their friends at the same time and hopefully the event will go viral
• Make sure that you tell people about upcoming events during your current events.

Events Guide

Publicity

• Put up posters. Try to make sure your poster is straight to the point, when it comes to information sometimes less is more.
• Take advantage of any University or society email lists. For example try to use RAG’s email list.
• You could perhaps write a Press Release for the student paper.

Events Guide

Publicity

• Go to lectures (targeted to be EA relevant courses i.e. Econ or Philosophy) and give a shoutout.
• If your SU has a website, try to get it on there.

Events Guide

Branding

Representing Giving What We Can’s identity

The importance of Branding

• Our brand is our identity. It represents both our underlying values and our distinctive qualities.
• It makes us unique. It's a promise, a guarantee, and a mark of distinction and quality.
• People trust and seek confidence in our brand, making it one of our most valuable assets.

Events Guide

What is our Brand?

• Our Logo: It has universal appeal, creating a sense of familiarity for existing members as well as being attractive and inviting to new members.

Events Guide

What is our Brand?

• Our Tone Of Voice: It shapes people’s perceptions of who we are. Thus it should be informed by our values:
• Welcoming
• Caring
• Evidence-based
• Optimistic.

Events Guide

What is our Brand?

• Our Writing Style:
• Our research is informed by quantitative data and complex statistical analysis.
• To be engaging we must avoid relying on jargon and be as clear as possible.
• Our arguments must be made warmly, helpfully and if possible inspiringly.

Events Guide

Why is our brand relevant to events?

• Events are a great way to promote a brand. It is important that our brand is conveyed in a clear and concise way at every event we hold.
• If people take nothing else from the event itself, they should at least leave with a clear idea of who we are and what we do.
• Events themselves are important in actually shaping our brand. They attract new audiences, inspire new ideas and build upon our existing reputation.

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Events Guide

Talks and Discussions

Representing Giving What We Can’s identity

Ideas for talks

• There’s a wide-range of talks and discussions you can hold under the umbrella of Giving What We Can, some ideas to get you started include:
• Giving and Happiness (What’s the link between income, giving and happiness)
• Why Aid Works (On Average)
• The Philosophy of Effective Altruism
• Climate Change and Effective Giving
• Ethical Career Choice
• Taking Charity Seriously

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Events Guide

Contacting Speakers

• There’s wide array of interesting speakers attached in some way to Giving What We Can.
• The speaker guide contains a list of all of them and advice for contacting them.
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/15b9csPko4lJFFCPDl2h2e0EcAdY_VPbYk15yq0lnvEg/edit?usp=sharing

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Events Guide

Event structure

• Arrive early, welcome everyone and make sure the stage is set, projectors are turned on and that seats are laid out.
• Give a brief welcoming talk about Giving What We Can’s aims
• Introduce the speaker and the talk
• Speaker talks for around 30-45mins
• Explain that there will now be a Q and A session
• At the same time point out that Feedback Forms are being passed around
• Q and A (15-30mins)
• Thank the speaker, tell everyone about the next event and invite everyone to continue the discussion at the bar

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Events Guide

Pros

• Informative.

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• Effective means of transmitting lots of information.

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• Tend to be popular.

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• Relatively easy to organise.

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• Can use them to practise your own public speaking skills!

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Events Guide

Cons

1. Common type of event, which can make it difficult to get yours to stand out.
2. Publicity is important.
3. Not particularly inventive or ground-breaking as an idea (however, Giving Games could be a great way to get around this! See below)

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Events Guide

Giving Game

How to run a Giving Game

What is a Giving Game?

• Imagine you want to give to charity, how can you make the biggest possible impact with your donation?
• Pick the charity that will use your donation most effectively (i.e. don’t give to PlayPump International!)
• Get other people to think about giving to the most effective charity.
• Solution: Let a group of people decide which charity can use the money best.

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Events Guide

What is a Giving Game?

• Giving Game participants are introduced to a few pre-vetted charities, reflect on and discuss their relative benefits, and are provided funds to make a real donation to their favorite.�
• In-depth presentations will be given on two charities, Charity A and Charity B.�
• After the presentations have been given the audience will be able to ask questions and discuss which charity they think is the most effective.�
• Then comes time to vote. £10 will be donated for every person voting and the charity that gets the most votes.

Events Guide

Why are Giving Games useful?

• It gets people who otherwise wouldn’t consider cost-effectiveness to do so
• It’s engaging and interactive
• Potentially the £10 incentive to come will be enough to get a bigger audience

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Events Guide

Picking the Charities

• There are multiple different games you can play:
• Meta vs. Intervention (GiveWell vs. SCI)
• Highly Effective vs. Highly Effective (AMF vs. SCI)
• High confidence vs. Opportunity to leverage (SCI vs. Deworm the World Initative)
• Highly Effective vs. Less Effective (AMF vs. Cancer Research: UK

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Events Guide

Getting Funding

• Your best bet is to look through Giving What We Can to fund the event.
• If that fails, try contacting either APathThat’sClear or TheLifeYouCanSave

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Events Guide

Planning the presentation

• There is a template Giving Game in the chapter resources folder
• It might be worth discussing whether you want one person to give all the charity presentations or to have two others debate it.

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Events Guide

Intuition Games

• Intuition games can be run before a giving game
• They challenge participants to question their intuitions regarding charity.
• See the Giving Game template for some sample intution games

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Events Guide

Working with other societies

• This is potentially an event that can be run with RAG
• Manchester RAG teamed up with the Manchester Chapter for a Giving Game
• They were able to assist with room booking and publicity

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Events Guide

Socials

How to run effective regular socials

Why socials matter

• Socials are about community building
• Turning people from being interested in EA ideas to identifying with EA principles
• If people have friends in the EA community then they are more likely to engage with it on a regular basis
• One way of doing this is by holding regular socials

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Events Guide

Types of Social

• Big Night In
• Pub
• Film Night
• Reading Group
• Dinner Parties

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Events Guide

Big Night In

• Simple Premise:
• You don’t go out, you stay in.
• You donate the money you would have used going out to a lovely charity.
• You eat food, chat, watch a movie, etc.

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Events Guide

Pub

• You hold regular meetings in the pub to chat.
• Try not to only talk about EA because you’re trying to build a community as well get the message out
• Warwick do this informally and regularly once a week and considering moving to twice a week.

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Events Guide

Film Night

• Good way to relax
• Not too intense
• Can follow with a talk/ group discussion
• Provide popcorn, a projector, and a cozy room to do it in
• Some films to consider:
• Happy
• I Am
• The End of Poverty?

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Events Guide

Reading Group

• Over two weeks/one month
• Read the book over that time
• Get together to discuss it.
• What did it teach you?

Events Guide

Example Reading List

• Poor Economics (1 month)
• Change of heart (2 weeks)
• The Life You Can Save (2 weeks)
• Dead Aid (2 weeks)
• It ain’t what you give, it’s the way that you give it (2 weeks)
• The Elusive quest for Growth (2 weeks)
• (coming soon!) Will’s book

Events Guide

Dinner Parties

• Fun, cheap and sociable
• Best to do in people’s houses
• Can be made a monthly, or fortnightly affair

Events Guide

REFERENCES

Our

Icons Used:

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Digital Strategy by Garrett Knoll for The Noun Project

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Social Media by Milky - Digital Innovation from The Noun Project

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CV and Business Card by Matt Caisley from The Noun Project

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Bullhorn by Shane Miller from The Noun Project

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Money by Luis Prado from The Noun Project

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Vote by Jesse Windolf from The Noun Project

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Money Collection by Justin Maelzer from The Noun Project