EA for Christians Annual Survey results

by JD Bauman.

EACH for Christians conducted an annual survey in spring 2022. The goal was to assess whether EA for Christians increased the respondent’s career impact and donations, and the respondent’s overall experience with EACH. The survey also provided information about reasons to engage with EACH and the niche EACH fills in the wider EA ecosystem.

A total of 78 respondents completed the survey, with 50 respondents completing the full survey and 28 respondents completing a shorter survey.

Familiarity with EA

The overwhelming majority of the EACH community was familiar with EA before engaging with EACH. About half (49%, n=50) reported that their overall engagement with EA significantly or very significantly increased as a result of interacting with EA for Christians.

What needs EACH answers

EACH appears to have a niche in serving the need of curiosity about the intersection between EA and Christianity (86% of respondents) and building community with Christians interested in effective giving and socially impactful careers.

Career

Respondents were asked the following question: “Have your career or your career plans changed because of engagement with EA for Christians, in particular?” A little over 60% of the respondents indicated that EA for Christians did not influence their career (n = 47) and a bit over 30% of respondents (n = 25) indicated that EA for Christians positively influenced their plans and they now expect to do more good with their career. 

Respondents were also asked about which organizations had a larger direct effect on their career plans in 2021. 80,000 Hours was mentioned by most respondents (n = 30) as having had a larger effect on their career plans, although EA for Christians was the second most mentioned organization (n = 27). These two were the most important organizations that had an impact on the respondent’s career plans.

Giving

Respondents were asked about how the amount they gave (or committed) in 2021 was changed because of their engagement with EA for Christians. Over 70% of the respondents who answered this question (n = 42) indicated that they did not change their amount of giving, but a bit over 20% of the respondents (n = 14) said they gave moderately or significantly more because of EA for Christians. Only 2 respondents indicated that they gave moderately less.

The median amount that respondents gave more was $1500. The average amount was $6247.36, which is substantially higher than the median due to one respondent reporting they increased their giving by $50,000. The respondent did indicate this was a wild guess, so the median appears to be a more reliable estimate.

Several respondents also left comments about their increased giving and some of them mentioned they perhaps would have given more regardless of EA for Christians or were also influenced by other organizations (e.g., EA in general, Evangelical Union). This means that the current number of respondents who indicated giving more because of EA for Christians may be somewhat overestimated. 

Two respondents mentioned giving less. One respondent indicated that they favored giving to their local church/community and the other respondent said they did not actually give less and was surprised by the question.

Overall, most of the respondents continued to give the same amount but a small group ended up giving more due to EA for Christians.

Respondents were also asked to indicate whether there were any other organizations that impacted their donations more. The results are displayed in the figure below.

Almost a quarter of the respondents (n = 18) indicated that GiveWell had the largest influence on their giving. This was followed by their local church (n = 12) and an EA-related book (n = 9). Eight respondents indicated that EA for Christians had the largest impact (together with CEA).

Respondents were also asked whether they would have given to different things, assuming they had never heard of EACH. 

The majority of the respondents said they either very likely wouldn’t or probably wouldn’t have given to different things.

Overall experience

Respondents were asked how likely they are to recommend EA for Christians to a friend. Responses were very positive, with an average rating of 8.49. Only 5 respondents gave a rating of 4 or 5.

There were also several other questions that speak to the respondents’ experience with EA for Christians. One of the questions was about how their overall engagement with EA changed last year as a result of interacting with EA for Christians. Counting only respondents who answered this question and excluding those who said they were not active or in a role that would make sense for them to answer this question, about 60% (n = 29) indicated that they became more engaged with EA. The remaining 40% (n = 19) indicated their engagement stayed roughly the same. 

Finally, respondents were also asked whether EA for Christians has had any harmful effects. A large majority of respondents (n = 70) indicated there were none and a few (n = 7) mentioned there were some harmful effects. However, several of the respondents who indicated there were some harmful effects said the interaction with EA for Christians was still a net positive or that the harmful effect wasn’t due to EA for Christians themselves. The remaining comments did not indicate a pattern of harmful effects.

Conclusions

Based on the results it seems that many of the respondents indicated having good experiences with EA for Christians. 

As mentioned in some of the comments, however, the sample size is a bit small, which makes it difficult to determine actionable insights. 

Regardless, the results may suggest a question about the function of EA for Christians. For several outcomes it seems that other organizations have more impact than EA for Christians, such as 80,000 Hours for career impact and GiveWell for donation impact. Additionally, most respondents reported that EA for Christians did not affect their career or their giving (and also among those who gave more, several mentioned they were planning on doing so anyway). This suggests that the function (and overall positive evaluation) of EACH does not stem from introducing its members to EA principles, but rather from serving other functions (e.g., sense of community, exploring the intersection of EA and Christianity).