Project summary

Effective Altruism (EA) has a strong track record of getting things done, but we believe it could benefit from more wisdom¹. In contrast, the liminal movement (/metamodern/systems thinking/metacrisis) is on the cutting edge of the theory & practice of wisdom, but could benefit from more agency or rigor.

We believe that both effectiveness and wisdom are needed to solve the world’s most pressing problems under radical uncertainty. Neither is sufficient on its own. And there's currently almost no space where both are integrated.

Integral Altruism (int/a) is building that space.

Since Jan 2025, we've built an online community of ~300 people, run two residential retreats (80 applications for 32 spaces), established regular London meetups drawing ~150 attendees, and launched a speaker series.

We're seeking funding to free up Euan’s time (or 1FTE equivalent across core members) to run int/a for 1 year. This would let us continue running regular events, pilot new initiatives (a conference, an intro fellowship, a project incubator, a writing competition), and generate the EA/wisdom synthesis.

int/a has momentum but is currently severely constrained by personal capacity. This funding could be the difference between fizzle and takeoff.

See the full funding request here. If you have questions let’s have a call or you can come along to our AMA.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

The goal of integral altruism is to serve as a Schelling point for changemakers who want to integrate EA's effectiveness with the liminal movement’s wisdom.

We’re especially interested in engaging with leaders in EA and other high-leverage areas to support them in improving epistemics and decision-making.

We expect this to flow into positive impact via two mechanisms: bridging (helping EA become more wise, helping the liminal movement become more effective) and synthesis (generating a new subculture, new ideas, and novel interventions).

If granted funding, our main goals for the year would be: maintain current momentum (see track record below), test our theory of change, trial pilots of new programs and build the conceptual framework for integral altruism.

We will run many small experiments to see which kinds of programs most effectively and sustainably add energy to the movement and move us closer to our goals. Some examples are:

• Events / Community Building

  • Regular online connection calls

  • Regular London gatherings

  • Supporting volunteers to run local events in other cities

  • Residential retreats

  • A conference or festival (of ~50 people over 2 days, modelled on EA Global & Realization Festival)

• Program Pilots

  • int/a intro fellowship

  • int/a project incubator/hackathon

  • Request for proposals for microgrants (<$1,000) to execute int/a projects

• Content

  • Writing: Synthesis of EA and Liminal ideas, discussions of how EA can cognitively evolve

We will also seek to make int/a sustainable by setting up an non-profit organisation and seek further funding to continue after the pilot year.

How will this funding be used?

Up to $60k will go toward Euan's salary. Any amount raised below this will fund a proportionally shorter period of full-time work. If we raise >$60k, we will also spend on

• Event subsidies, travel support

• Microgrants for a project incubator &/or prize for writing competition

• Contractor support

• Operations (non-profit setup, rebranding, legal support)

See our full funding request for more details.

Who is on your team?

Euan McLean will work full time executing the above plan, and will be advised and supported by 5 committed volunteers, the “core stewards”. There is a further circle of ~10 more casual but highly engaged volunteers who are helping run projects.

About Euan

Euan has worked in academic research (theoretical physics, ML, philosophy), software engineering, communications, macrostrategy, research management, community building and events.

He has been embedded in EA for 7 years (working at CLR, FAR AI, PIBBSS, Pivotal) while simultaneously developing fluency in the liminal/metacrisis space (Limicon, Life Itself Sensemaking Summer School, Realisation Festival, Realization Fellowship).

About the Advisors

Euan will be advised and supported by the “core stewards”, a team of 5 volunteers who have been closely involved with the activities of int/a and are committed to supporting its continued evolution:

• Patrick Gruban: Acting CEO at Successif

• Christine Tan: Executive Director at Effective Thesis

• Tildy Stokes & Toby Jolly: Co-founders of Skylark

• Finn Clancy: Community Manager at Life Itself

What's your track record on similar projects?

Since int/a started in Jan ‘25, our main achievements have been (on part-time voluntary capacity):

• Two residential retreats (“summits”), in July ‘25 and Dec ‘25. The summits collectively received 80 applications (for 32 spots), demonstrating high demand for engagement that we do not yet have the capacity to meet

• An online speaker series with an approximate average attendance of 30 per event

• 14 in-person events in London, with an estimated ~150 unique attendees, including discussion groups (e.g.), workshops (e.g.), and deliberative technology experiments (e.g.)

• A WhatsApp Community of ~300 members

• A hackathon for building new altruistic decision-making frameworks

Also see the testimonials section below.

Outside of integral altruism, Euan has other experience building communities from scratch, having run the AI safety community in Cambridge, UK from 2019-2021, a meditation group (“the EA Sangha”) from 2023-2025, and the pilot semester of Mosaic University.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The two main areas we are concerned about are: 1) int/a collapsing and having no impact, and 2) int/a having a negative effect on the world.

The potential sources of collapse are

• Lack of person-hours: founders have too many other responsibilities or moving onto other projects due to lack of sustainable funding for int/a. The funding requested here will prevent this.

• Events drifting towards just being fun/vibing/inner-work-focussed, with no tangible action on complex & pressing problems spanning from it. We plan to avoid this by holding ourselves to impact metrics.

• Being too much of a broad church/too inclusive, preventing a coherent direction. We plan to avoid this by producing written content (e.g.) that clearly signals what int/a is and what it is not.

These risks are corroborated by our 2025 member survey, in which we asked what respondents thought would cause int/a to collapse.

We also see two main risks of int/a having a net negative effect on the world:

• Nerd-sniping the world by creating yet more theoretical curiosities that don’t translate to any meaningful impact.

• Making EAs relax too much, and giving EAs license to become less rigorous/opening the door to pre-rational epistemologies. 

We plan to avoid both of these by keeping one foot of our culture in impact-oriented EA (e.g. rigorously using theories of change, and keeping close relationships with EA leaders).

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

This is our first attempt at fundraising. All operations so far have been on a voluntary basis.

Testimonials

Honestly one of the best EA events I've ever been to. This really helped crystallise my thinking, examine my assumptions, and reevaluate my action/cause-prioritisations. Amazing job, more like this please!

- Nathaniel Cooke, Senior Policy Advisor at the UK Government Office for Science

As someone leading an AI governance programme, Integral Altruism influenced how I think about risk -  moving me beyond single-threat models toward concern for gradual disempowerment, systemic cascades, and long-term coordination failure.

This kind of space is badly needed. Effective Altruism can become epistemically narrow and doctrinal under pressure, and Integral Altruism offers a necessary corrective by integrating multiple paradigms while maintaining intellectual discipline.

- Ben R. Smith, AI Governance Taskforce Lead at Arcadia Impact

We need new approaches that embody different ways of being and knowing, not just new arguments. Integral altruism is attempting to create precisely such an attractor: a community that takes both urgency and wisdom seriously, integrating multiple epistemologies without flattening them. If they can build this (develop practices, frameworks, and culture others can learn from) that would be a significant contribution to the cultural evolution we desperately need.

- Rufus Pollock, Founder of Life Itself and Open Knowledge Foundation

There is a crucial gap in altruism-focused communities: how to navigate decision making under uncertainty and act with integrity in overwhelming complexity. Integral altruism is developing capacity to combine effective action with compassionate wisdom and systemic intelligence, bringing together skills that rarely come together.

I've participated in several int/a events and found them genuinely generative. They've given me more confidence in my own agency and in groups' capacity to explore, sensemake, and do good together with keener acumen. This has translated into me taking more initiative and being more ambitious in my own altruism-focused projects.

Euan has both the intellect and social skills required to nurture this community, and is, in my view, a trustworthy and integrous person. I'm keen to see integral altruism grow.

- Matilda da Rui, Deputy Director of PauseAI UK

See more testimonials here.

¹  By wisdom, we mean recognising the limits of our own knowledge, awareness of context, perspective-taking, and careful consideration of how to balance or integrate different viewpoints and interests (based on the work of Igor Grossman).