Effective Altruism Australia (EAA) champions the principles of effective altruism in Australia and connects Australians to practical actions through giving and community.
Our guiding motto for 2026 is “Strengthen the Soil, Test What Grows”. This reflects our aim to consolidate best practices and build a strong foundation for future growth. Our focus is on strengthening core programs, improving consistency and quality of fundraising and communications practices, and ensuring EAA is well-positioned to scale sustainably over time.
We’re sharing this summary of our 2026 strategy, to keep our community and donors in the loop. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at info@eaa.org.au.
What we learnt in 2024/2025
On the fundraising side, we learned that our donor base responds strongly to evidence-driven messaging and transparent impact updates, as evidenced by our EOFY and Christmas campaigns consistently outperforming their targets.
Within community building, EAGxAustralasia has proved to be a highly effective centrepiece, showing improvements in quality and participant experience over the last two years.
Conversely, we discovered that certain outreach efforts – specifically PR-agency-led media strategies, pitching to conferences, and Christmas card-based campaigns – did not convert effectively into meaningful results. This doesn’t mean that we won’t revisit these tactics, but they are not on our priority list.
Our Strategic Focus
Our 2026 approach is shaped by clear learnings from the past two years. We are categorising our work into two streams:
1. “Strengthening the Soil”
We are doubling down on what we know works. This means:
- Fundraising Fundamentals: Prioritising donor retention, consistent stewardship, and clear, evidence-driven messaging.
- Proven Programs: Concentrating on the high-quality delivery of our fellowships and the EAGxAustralasia conference.
- Operational Reliability: Investing in the systems and measurement loops that allow us to scale with integrity.
2. “Testing What Grows”
We are testing new outreach methods to reach high-potential, analytically minded professionals – particularly in the tech, finance, and consulting sectors.
- Long-form Content: We will prioritise depth over breadth, engaging with audiences through podcasts and in-depth articles that explain effective altruism clearly.
- Targeted Outreach: We are planning to test outreach with a targeted audience, focused on those who will be more likely to resonate with the rational, quantitative direction of effective altruism.
What Success Looks Like in 2026
We have set ambitious but realistic targets for this year, which reflect our targeted efforts:
- Community Growth: Tripling the number of fellowship completions and hosting at least 280 attendees at the EAGxAustralasia conference.
- Increasing Total Giving: Moving $8.5 million to highly effective charities, representing approximately 15% year-on-year growth.
- Donor Retention: Ensuring at least 75% of our repeat donors continue their support in 2026.
Disciplined Prioritisation
To maintain this focus, we are being explicit about what we will not do this year. We are avoiding broad advertising, complex new fundraising mechanisms, and opportunistic events that sit outside our core plan. This ensures our team’s capacity is directed where it can achieve the highest leverage for our donors and the causes we support.
By strengthening our foundations today, we are ensuring EAA remains a resilient, transparent, and high-impact gateway for Australian generosity for years to come.
Supporting our work
We recently published our impact evaluation for 2025, which found that for each $1 we spent on operations, we counterfactually generated $9 for effective charities.
We are currently constrained by our operational funding, and have clear items we would spend more funds on, growing our impact.
If you are interested in supporting the growth of effective giving, and effective altruism in Australia through our operations, please email Grace at grace.adams@eaa.org.au.
