Board Member (incl. Chair)
As a Board Member, you'll help steer EAN at the strategic level. The board recruits and oversees the management team, acts as a sounding board on strategy, and contributes expertise in areas like marketing, communications, and fundraising. Meetings are online, quarterly, usually on weekday evenings (Dutch time). Time investment: around 5 hours a month (2–4 hours more for the chair).
Effective Altruism Netherlands (EAN) is recruiting up to two new board members, one potentially as chair. These are unpaid, voluntary roles taking around five hours per month on average (an additional 2–4 hours for the chair). Depending on the applicant pool, we will appoint one or two people. If this excites you, please complete the application form here.
About EAN. EAN stewards the effective altruism community in the Netherlands, helping people do as much good as possible through their giving, careers, and projects. 2025 gave us real momentum: course completions grew 140% (from 36 to 87, contributing to a national total in the hundreds), EAGxAmsterdam drew 517 attendees and set an all-time EAGx record for Giving What We Can pledges (~$2.9M in expected lifetime giving), and we ran the first independent impact evaluation of a national EA organisation. Surveys suggest the Netherlands is now the fourth-largest national EA community in the world, and Amsterdam the largest EA hub in continental Europe. In 2026, our focus is to “build the room before we fill it” — deepening our in-person community as we keep growing. You can read our public 2025 review and plans for 2026 here.
The role. The board recruits and oversees the management team — currently James Herbert (co-director since 2022), with a second co-director to be announced shortly. It meets online quarterly and as needed, usually on a weekday evening (Dutch time), so you should be available then. Beyond formal oversight, board members act as a sounding board for the management team — the input we value most is honest and transparently reasoned challenges to our strategy and tactics, plus advice drawn from your own expertise, particularly in marketing, communications, and fundraising. We are recruiting a regular board member and a chair (who also leads the board and is the main point of contact with the management team). You need not apply for a specific seat — just indicate in the form whether you are open to taking on a role. You do not need to live in the Netherlands or speak Dutch.
Who we’re looking for. Board members who are fully signed up to the principles of effective altruism, who work collaboratively, reliably, and constructively, and whose skills or networks complement the current board. By EA’s principles we mean:
- Scope sensitivity — prioritising actions that benefit more lives over fewer.
- Impartiality — helping those who need it most, without extra weight to people close to us — often people in poverty, non-human animals, and future generations.
- Scout mindset — testing our beliefs and updating them based on evidence rather than defending existing views.
- Recognition of tradeoffs — weighing opportunity costs, since supporting one cause means not supporting another.
For this round, we are particularly keen on backgrounds in AI safety, global health and development, nonprofit leadership (e.g. AIM incubatees), and marketing and communications. Also valuable: monitoring & evaluation, finance/operations, fundraising, community building, willingness to serve as chair, treasurer, or secretary, deep knowledge of an EA cause area, and a track record of doing good in your own life. None of these are required — please apply if the above resonates.
Current board. Lisa Gotoh (outgoing chair), Senior Policy Officer AI / AI Global Governance Lead at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Gert van Vught, co-founder & CEO of Sustainer; Farshida Zafar (outgoing), Director of the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship; Nicoll Peracha, Executive Director of The Mission Motor; and Martijn Klop, Senior Programme Associate at the EA Animal Welfare Fund. Former board members include Sjir Hoeijmakers, now CEO of Giving What We Can, and Jan-Willem van Putten, co-founder & Executive Director of the School for Moral Ambition.
To apply. Complete this short form by midnight on Sunday the 30th of August. The process is 2–3 interviews with the board and management team, possibly some written questions, and a reference check. Questions? Contact our co-director James Herbert at james@effectiefaltruisme.nl.