Effective Altruism Summit 2026: Communications & Marketing Lead

About the Summit

On Sat, 31 Oct 2026, EA Summit: South Africa returns to Cape Town for its third and most ambitious year 250+ leaders, professionals and students from across Southern Africa, for a day of evidence, ideas and action on the world’s most pressing problems. The summit exists to introduce people to effective altruism properly, connect newcomers with experienced mentors, and help capable people take their next high-impact step. It’s hosted by Effective Altruism South Africa and run in partnership with the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA).

You fill the room with the right people.

The 2026 summit aims to roughly double in size without dropping the calibre of the room - that’s a marketing problem, and it’s yours. You own the campaign from save-the-date to attendee guide: the messaging, the channels, the timeline, and the targeting that brings accomplished, action-oriented people through the door alongside the merely curious.

Read this before you apply

This is real responsibility, not a side gig you can let drift. Expect roughly 2-10 hours a week, ramping up steadily towards October - and $40^{+}$hours during event week itself. Deadlines are real, the pay is fair but modest, and the work is sometimes unglamorous. The reason to do it is the impact: the single biggest determinant of the summit’s impact is who’s in the room - and you decide who hears about it, and how.

What You’ll Do

• Build and run the comms plan: a full campaign timeline from save-the-date through application deadlines to the attendee guide, executed on schedule.
• Own the channels: our socials, 2,000 -strong mailing list, community WhatsApp, the EA Forum, partner organisations, local groups and paid ads - each with fit-for-purpose messaging.
• Target professionals deliberately: sharpen messaging for leaders and mid-career professionals, and promote our pre-summit talks in cities across the country.
• Write the attendee-facing comms: acceptance emails, logistics emails, the attendee guide and event-app notifications - clear, warm and correct.
• Manage creative contractors: brief and coordinate graphic design, video and social media support.
• Measure and adjust: track applications by channel and steer spend and effort toward what’s actually bringing in strong, diverse applicants.

COMMITMENT 2-10 hrs/week, Jul-Nov ⋅ 40+ hrs event week

REPORTS TO Project Lead (EASA Executive Director)

COMPENSATION [RATE] per hour, paid contractor role

TEAM Core team of 3-4, plus contractors and volunteers

LOCATION Remote ⋅ on-site in Cape Town for event week WORKING WITH CEA’s events team and the Southern African EA community

ABOUT YOU

You Might Be a Great Fit If

• You’ve run campaigns or grown audiences before, and you can show the numbers.
• You write fast, clean copy and adapt voice to channel without losing the plot.
• You think in funnels: awareness, application, acceptance, attendance - and you spot where they leak.
• You’re organised enough to run a 4-month content calendar without being chased.
• You’re engaged with effective altruism’s ideas - or genuinely keen to engage deeply, fast.
• You care who shows up, not just how many - quality and diversity of the room are your metrics.

You don’t need to tick every box - capable people often rule themselves out too early. If you hit most of this and the mission resonates, apply.

THE HONEST PITCH

Why Do This?

Because the summit is EASA’s highest-leverage event of the year, and you’d be one of a handful of people who make it happen. You’ll take real ownership early, work closely with a small team that cares about doing things excellently, and learn how high-quality EA events are run - with guidance from CEA’s events team and a network of organisers across Africa.

It’s also how people grow here. Summit organisers are how we find the people we trust with bigger things strong team members are first in line when future roles, projects and community-building opportunities come up, and we actively refer good people onwards, whether or not those opportunities are ours.

THE PROCESS

How to Apply

Three short steps, designed to respect your time. We reply to every applicant.