You can donate through the Giving What We Can website by following [this link](https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/funds/effective-altruism-funds) and clicking the “Make Payment” button on the bottom right.

You can find all information about tax-deductibility in the Payment Details. While we advise donors to give tax-effectively when possible, we believe impact is more important than tax benefits.


How do I make a donation an EA Fund?

From time to time, EA Funds makes awards in recognition of past charitable, scientific, educational, or civic achievement in the following areas: 

1.  animal welfare, alleviating the suffering of millions or billions of animals; 

2.  improving the  long-term future, such as by reducing risks from artificial intelligence and engineered pandemics; and 

3.  growing or improving the effective altruism community.

We are looking for people who have made substantive contributions to the areas identified above. This includes notable publications, infrastructure, and other outcomes with significant marginal impact.

The recipients of these awards are selected from the general public. If you think you have an achievement that should be considered for an award, we encourage you to let us know by applying at [EA Funds](https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/apply-for-funding). The selection committee considers these applications, but is not restricted to consideration of actual submissions, and submission is not a condition to eligibility for the award.

These awards are granted in recognition of past achievement in our particular focus areas; it is not intended to finance any specific activities of the recipient and there are no conditions on the manner in which it may be expended by the recipient. The recipient is not required to render any substantial future services as a condition of receiving the award.

Can EA Funds make retroactive grants?

You can see reports on past grants made by each Fund on the Funds' respective pages (under the 'Payout Reports' heading):

- [Global Development](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/global-development)
- [Animal Welfare](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/animal-welfare)
- [Long-Term Future](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/far-future)
- [Effective Altruism Infrastructure](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/ea-community)

These reports provide a sense of the types of grants each Funds' managers might make in the future, though they may also expand into new areas.

How do I know which organizations the Fund managers are likely to support?

We offer Funds in four different cause areas: [Global Health and Development](/funds/global-development), [Animal Welfare](/funds/animal-welfare), [Long-Term Future](/funds/far-future), and [Effective Altruism Infrastructure](/funds/ea-community).

We started with these because they represent the cause areas where most people in the effective altruism community currently focus their donations, and because we believe these areas are [important, tractable, and neglected](https://80000hours.org/articles/problem-framework/). 

What are the available Funds, and how did you choose which Funds to set up?

We don't currently have plans to open EA Funds up to further cause areas. However, we encourage you to make donations in the areas you believe to be most promising, perhaps after seeking out advice from experts who specialize in your preferred causes.

What if I think a different area is more promising than these funds?

If you want to change your allocation for a non-recurring donation, please [email us](mailto:funds@effectivealtruism.org) with details on the new allocation you'd prefer. We can make this change as long as you made your donation within the last financial year.

If you want to make changes to a recurring donation, you'll have to [cancel that donation](/funds/faq#how-can-i-cancel-a-recurring-donation) and create a new one with your preferred allocation.

What if I want to change my allocation after I've donated?

The EA Infrastructure Fund makes donations to a range of different interventions. Some of these are likely to be higher-risk, but potentially higher-return opportunities. The nature of the space means that impact may be less certain, and some projects are new, and may not yet have a long track record. Overall, we classify the Fund as 'medium' risk.

[Read more about how we think about risk at EA Funds](/funds/about/risk).

What is the risk profile of the EA Infrastructure Fund?

Yes, you can select which day of the month your recurring payment will be charged on.

When creating a donation:
- Choose a payment method that supports recurring donations, Credit Card (US/UK), GoCardless (UK only)
- Set your donation frequency to 'Recurring, Monthly'
- By default, your payment will be taken as soon as possible.
  ![Recurring Payment day-of-month selector](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/582vrdHkqIKb5nuiAH7GbM/b783b3fac7d0f284dea5b5162c5d1f8c/recurring_payment.png)
- If you'd prefer to set the day of the month your payment will be taken, click 'change'
  ![Recurring Payment choose day](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/5wzHa08Ob9KNYHzy3BQ14V/89eebb0ca5a1c5566cc9104b9f9a4a94/choose_day.png)

Note that if you select a day of the month that is before the current day of the month (or, before the earliest day that payment can be taken for GoCardless payments), then your first payment will be taken in the following month.

Can I choose which day my recurring payment is taken?

If you have a project you think will improve the world, and it seems like a good fit for one of our Funds, we encourage you to apply for funding.

Please visit our [Apply for Funding](/funds/about/apply-for-funding) page for more information.

How do I apply for funding?

Please carefully read our publicly available information, then simply submit an application directly to our fund. Submitting an application is very quick and easy, and we will reach out to you if we are interested in discussing your application further at that point. 
We look forward to receiving your application!

May I speak with you before submitting a funding application?

From the communication of the decision to fund the grant to its payment, it usually takes 1–6 weeks, typically 3.5 weeks. The total grant processing time will largely depend on how long the grantee takes to complete our due diligence process and sign the grant agreement before the money disbursement. If the grant seeker indicates in the application form that they need the money urgently and they submit due diligence and sign the agreement promptly, the payout can be expedited and should take just a few days.

How quickly does EA Funds disburse the grant money to the grantee?

The Fund managers are independent of the EVF, and EVF will not seek to change or influence their donation decisions as a general rule.

EVF does create policies and procedures which might constrain the grants that the Fund managers are able to make, and our internal operations team reviews each recommended grant, in order to confirm that the money will be used for charitable activities. EVF remains ultimately responsible for approving all grants, and reserves the right to decline to approve grant recommendations made by the fund managers.

How independent are the Fund managers? Does the Effective Ventures Foundation (EVF) control or influence their actions? What if EVF and Fund managers disagree?

Neither EVF nor the Fund managers take any payment or fee from the Funds. Open Philanthropy currently provides all funding for the project, because they think it gives many people a relatively high-impact way to donate. 

At the end of 2020, Effective Altruism Funds began to [operate independently of CEA](https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/blog/giving-what-we-can-and-ea-funds-now-operate-independently-of-cea/).

Note that some Fund managers may decide that re-granting money to other organisations at EVF is the best use of their Fund’s money in specific situations (though they are not actively encouraged or obligated to do so). CEA (another EVF organisation) has received grants ([1](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/ea-community/payouts/6M8SQFdecEm0WuAYweO2UQ), [2](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/ea-community/payouts/2dyBJqJBSIq6sAGU6gMYQW)) from the EA Infrastructure and Long-Term Future Funds.

Does any money go to the Effective Ventures Foundation (EVF) and/or the fund managers?

EA Funds allow you to make tax-efficient donations, which are then pooled together with other donations for regranting to organizations and projects with high expected impact. 

You can select one of four Funds to support. Each Fund is focused on a particular cause area, and is managed by a team of managers who decide how much funding goes to each of their chosen opportunities.

The current Funds are [Global Health and Development](/funds/global-development), [Animal Welfare](/funds/animal-welfare), [Long-Term Future](/funds/far-future) and [Effective Altruism Infrastructure](/funds/ea-community). You can read more about each of these areas on their respective pages.

The money you donate to a Fund will be held by [EVF](https://ev.org/) until the team of Fund managers is ready to regrant it. Once the Fund managers have decided where to donate, they will write up their research and thoughts on our site for anyone who wants to read them.

How do the Funds work?

We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization in the United States and a registered charity in England and Wales. This means that we can provide all of the tax benefits of a donor-advised fund without the associated fees. We can also use our infrastructure to negotiate for lower fees in processing donations and to create a more seamless user experience.


Why do donations to EA Funds go to Effective Ventures and not a separate donor-advised fund (DAF)?

You get all the tax benefits you would with a DAF, but with lower fees. DAF fees can range between [0.35% and 2% of your donations](https://www.philanthropy.com/article/What-Donor-Advised-Funds/156495), whereas the EA Funds will not charge any management fees. To donate to a DAF, you also need to contribute a minimum of $5,000. There is no minimum donation to EA Funds, although we recommend a minimum of $20 (since credit card companies often deduct a fixed fee, which can dilute the impact of small donations).

Our Funds also benefit from the expertise of fund managers. who work to ensure that money goes toward high-impact opportunities. Using your own DAF, you would need to consult similar experts or conduct your own charity research.


How are Effective Altruism Funds different from donor-advised funds (DAF)?

Effective Altruism Funds help you give effectively and efficiently. They currently consist of four Funds which cover a set of problems that are [important, tractable, and neglected](https://concepts.effectivealtruism.org/concepts/importance-neglectedness-tractability/). They are managed by experts in the field who pool the community's donations and research high-value donation opportunities.

[You can make a donation here.](https://app.effectivealtruism.org/donations/new)



What is Effective Altruism Funds?

The Global Health and Development Fund makes grants across a number of risk profiles.

It is currently looking for higher-risk, but potentially higher-return opportunities to grant to. These will typically be opportunities that GiveWell researchers have identified as having the potential to be very effective, but that are not established enough to be recommended as GiveWell top charities.

If the Fund cannot find any higher-risk, higher-return projects to grant to, it will periodically publish updates, and may choose to either roll the money forward and put it towards future opportunities, or to grant it to GiveWell top charities.

You can read a recent update about the Fund's grantmaking approach [here](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/F42BX8su2ZEquaicL/a-change-to-the-grantmaking-schedule-of-the-effective). For more information on how we think about grantmaking risk, please read our [Risk Profiles page](/funds/about/risk).

What is the risk profile of the Global Health and Development Fund?

Effective Altruism Funds accepts
- credit cards (securely processed by Stripe)
- bank direct debit (securely processed by GoCardless, UK only)
- manual bank transfer
- check (US only)
- over 150 cryptocurrencies

The payment methods available to you will depend on where you're donating from, and how much you're donating (for example GoCardless direct debits have a maximum value of 5,000 GBP, and we don't offer check/manual bank transfers for amounts under 100 GBP/USD/EUR).


What payment types do you accept?

Donating cryptocurrency on EA Funds is simple:

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__Step 1.__ Head to our [donate page](/donate), and pick the funds or organizations you’d like your donation to go to. You can donate to several organizations at once, and split your donation between them however you’d like.

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__Step 2.__ On the payment page, under the donation amount field, click the ‘Donate with crypto’ button

![Crypto Donation Flow - Donate Crypto Button](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/23D7Is4M65PHxASDECteg0/eb59a41e512a6cc969e4ab4a69c855e6/image3.png)

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__Step 3.__ Select the cryptocurrency you’d like to donate in [1], and the amount [2]. You’ll see an estimate of how much your donation will be worth in fiat currency [3].

![Crypto Donation Flow - Crypto Donation Data Entry](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/nvFD7NK10NK6yZioHocjr/1ae1d4180a8a7cffc1701023c0849548/image4.png)

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__Step 4.__ Fill in the rest of the form (email address, data sharing consent etc.). When you’re ready, click ‘Confirm’ on the payment summary box.

![Crypto Donation Flow - Payment Summary Page](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/lPW7pyYHE4aqb3L1Eynvj/4cbd9d33d19dbb0313cc8a264e770339/image1.png)

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__Step 5.__ Transfer your cryptocurrency to the wallet address you see on the screen.

![Crypto Donation Flow - Bitcoin Wallet Address](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/1fMIDWgfFtN1rfZS44mKkm/ad1daec6e6884a02bb7f0429abb77a2d/image2.png)

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__Step 6.__ Copy your [transaction hash](/help/5rFHjLrx1YwpTHMqfXi6kX). This is a number that uniquely identifies your crypto transaction on the blockchain, and we need it to verify your donation. You should see it in your crypto wallet, attached to the transaction you’ve just made.

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__Step 7.__ Verify your transfer by pasting your transaction hash into the field provided [1], and submitting the form [2]. This is important: if you don’t tell us your transaction hash, we won’t be able to allocate your donation properly.

If your wallet is on another device (such as your mobile phone), you can click the ‘verify this transfer on another device’ link. This will let you open the verification page on the device where your wallet lives. We’ll also send you this link via email, so you can also just open it from there.

![Crypto Donation Flow - Verify Transaction Hash](//images.ctfassets.net/afdyh2iav3iy/45YMqNDjV4l1nwTGVXJa3Z/de12a81a99ddb9c54b0298506a1806a9/image5.png)

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That’s it! You should receive your email receipt in the next 10-20 minutes, depending on how long it takes the transfer to confirm on our end (though please allow up to two hours).

If you have any questions, please feel free to [contact us](/contact).


How do I donate crypto on EA Funds?

EA Funds is a platform supported by [Effective Ventures](https://ev.org/) (EV), a registered non-profit which aims to build a strong effective altruism community. As such, it is a potential recipient of funding from the EA Infrastructure Fund.

The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA), an EV organization, has previously been granted funding from the EA Infrastructure Fund, both as unrestricted funding for general operations, as well as restricted funding for specific projects, in particular its [EA Community Building Grants](https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/community-building-grants) program. CEA may be a recipient of grants in the future. In addition, the Fund has granted to independent projects that are legally part of EV, including [80,000 Hours](https://80000hours.org/) and the [Forethought Foundation](https://www.forethought.org/), and may do so in the future.

The EA Infrastructure Fund management team is independent of EV, and goes through the normal, public application procedure when applying for grants. Potential conflicts of interest are governed by the EA Funds Conflict of Interest policy, and Fund managers who are closely associated with potential grant recipients are required to recuse themselves from advocating for grants.