If you're running an EA community project and aren’t sure how to budget for communications and marketing - or how to explain what you hope it will achieve, this guide aims to offer a practical starting point.
When you’re applying for funding in Effective Altruism (EA), your communication and marketing plan shouldn’t be an afterthought. Whether you’re building local groups, launching an outreach campaign, or growing an online platform, funders want to see not just a great idea, but also a viable path to visibility, traction, and ultimately, impact.
This post is a practical guide for community builders and grantees to include a clear, realistic, and credible communication plan in their funding applications — even if you have limited marketing experience. It includes a suggested framework, benchmark costs, and principles from marketing science, lessons from social movements, best practices from digital marketing.
Why Communication Planning Matters
A well-thought-out communication plan signals you:
- Know how your work reaches its intended audience of the project you’re wanting funding from.
- Understand the behaviour change or adoption curve you’re trying to influence
- Are planning to learn and iterate with data
It also gives funders confidence that your project won’t just be good in theory, but will scale its impact in practice.
Start with the Marketing Funnel
Use a simplified version of the marketing funnel to anchor your plan. Here’s how it looks:
Awareness → Interest → Consideration → Action → Retention
At each stage, ask: How will people hear about us? Why should they care? What action do we want them to take?
For example:
- Awareness: Targeted social media ads, partner shout-outs
- Interest: Clear landing page or explainer video
- Consideration: Testimonials, community calls
- Action: Sign-ups, event attendance
- Retention: Newsletter, online forum, WhatsApp group
Communication Plan Template for Your Application
Here’s a structure you can reuse in any application. It helps you explain what you’re doing, why, and what outcomes you’re aiming for:
1. Objective
What are you trying to achieve with communications?
Example: “We want to grow our newsletter to 1,000 engaged subscribers in the next 6 months to support long-term community growth in [region].”
2. Audience
Who are you trying to reach?
Example: “Our target audience is university students in STEM fields who are curious about high-impact careers but haven’t yet engaged with EA ideas.”
3. Key Messages
What do you want your audience to think or do?
Example: “EA isn’t a single cause area — it’s a framework for identifying the most effective ways to improve the world.”
4. Tactics
What communication activities will you use?
Here’s where you list formats (events, videos, emails), strategies (ads, SEO), and tools (e.g. Canva, Mailchimp).
Example: “We’ll run a series of paid Instagram ads promoting our intro fellowship, plus a termly print leaflet campaign in shared spaces on campus.”
5. Channels
Where will this happen?
Example: “Instagram, EA Forum cross-posts, group website, campus screens, posters.”
6. Timeline
What happens when?
Example: “Weeks 1–2: develop content; Weeks 3–4: run initial ads; Week 5: evaluate and adjust copy based on response rates.”
7. Metrics (KPIs)
How will you know it’s working?
Good KPIs include both:
- Short-term signals: event signups, ad clickthroughs, content shares
- Long-term outcomes: people joining a fellowship, attending retreats, changing career plans
Example: “We’ll track landing page visits and cost-per-click on Instagram; we aim to recruit 30 attendees to our next event, with at least 10 staying engaged.”
8. Budget
How much will it cost?
Include breakdowns — and justify them based on outcomes, not just activities.
Example: “We estimate £1,200 for social media ads over 3 months, based on prior testing where £400 yielded 300 clicks and 25 signups.”
Here’s a structure you can adapt for your funding proposal:
Field | Example | Cost (Est.) |
Project | EA outreach to underrepresented student groups | – |
Aims | Build brand recognition and grow the mailing list by 500 new students in 6 months | – |
Target Audiences | 1. University students in STEM 2. Career services to get referrals 3. Proto EAs | – |
Key Messages | EA offers high-impact paths for STEM students to solve global problems | – |
Tactics | – Canva ads on Instagram – Blog series on student EA journeys | £500-£1,000 |
Channels | Instagram (£500), Eventbrite, student newsletters, LinkedIn | £500 |
Timeline | Month 1: Launch ads & blog; Month 2: Host talk; Month 3: Follow-up survey | £200 admin |
Success Measures | – 30 event attendees – 500 new site visits – 20% email open rate | Analytics tools: £150 |
Sustainability | Embed materials on the resource centre, handover doc for student societies | £300 |
Budget Benchmarks for Common Tactics
Tier | Example Activities | Est. Cost |
Low (£500–£1,000) | Image and asset creation, automated emails when people sign up to courses, 2-3 promoted posts | £500–£1,000 |
Medium (£2,000–£5,000) | Explainer video, paid social ads, blog content, webinar | £2,000–£5,000 |
High (£10,000+) | CRM and email automation setup, advanced audience segmentation, professional PR support (e.g. contracting a PR freelancer or agency to secure media coverage, support reputation management, or place op-eds in relevant outlets) | £10,000+ |
Tip: Social media ads are often under-used in EA. Even a small budget (e.g. £300) can be effective when targeted strategically — for example, focusing on 18–30-year-olds studying STEM subjects or following pages related to ethics, global health, or AI. Platforms like Instagram and YouTube allow you to test different audiences quickly and refine based on performance.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
🔻 “We’ll promote it on social media.”
This is too vague. Specify which platforms, what content, and why it matters.
🔻 Budget with no outcomes.
Funders want to know: what does success look like? What might this unlock?
🔻 Overestimating reach.
It’s better to show modest, testable goals than inflated claims. Funders often prefer grounded assumptions and a mindset of iterative improvement.
What If It Doesn’t Work?
Funders don’t expect perfection. They expect learning.
Use continuous improvement ideas like Kaizen and simple retrospectives:
- What did we plan?
- What happened?
- What will we try next time?
Include a note like: “We’ll collect qualitative and quantitative feedback, review performance monthly, and adapt based on what’s working.”
Optional AI Use
Even if your plan isn’t fully built yet, funders want to see that you’re thinking through these pieces.
You can sketch your draft using a structure like this. You might even use AI tools to draft, edit, and summarise your plan — but make sure it sounds like you, not a grant-writing robot.
A good plan signals your ability to:
- Reflect on lessons from past outreach
- Set measurable goals
- Use resources efficiently
- Adjust if things don’t work
Final Notes
Your communication plan doesn’t need to be polished or final. Its main role is to show that you’ve thought through how people will hear about your work — and how that visibility could influence your project’s success.
Funders aren’t looking for a full campaign strategy. They’re looking for signs that you:
- Understand the role communication plays in scaling and sustaining impact,
- Have a plausible first step,
- And are open to testing and improving over time.
If you’re unsure where to start, try this:
- Download the framework as a Google Doc (linked in the blog version of this post).
- Fill in one audience, one goal, and one channel — that’s enough for a credible starting point.
- If you’d like feedback, share your draft with someone you trust or send it to me privately. I’m happy to offer a quick look.
You don’t have to get it right all at once. But starting with something concrete makes it far easier to improve, measure, and adapt as your project grows.
