Effective Altruism Finland

Effective Altruism Finland ry (EAFI) is the national effective altruism community organization in Finland. The EA presence in Finland traces back to around 2013, when early groups were founded at the University of Helsinki, though activity faded and EA Helsinki was revived in 2018 by Onni Aarne. From 2018 to 2021, the community grew slowly through monthly meetups. A turning point came in January 2021 when EAFI ran its first Introduction Fellowship, receiving 49 applications and graduating 34 participants, sparking rapid community expansion.

By 2022, the organization had professionalized significantly. In May 2022, EAFI received its first dedicated funding from the EA Infrastructure Fund, supporting four part-time employees. The organization rented an office and community space in Helsinki in October 2022, and grew from one local group to eight within roughly 1.5 years, with chapters in Tampere, Turku, and several university campuses.

Core programs include a multi-week Intro Program (run each spring and fall), in-depth follow-on programming, career advising conducted by 13 volunteer advisors, and lahjoittaminen.fi, a platform to help Finns give to effective charities. By the end of 2023, the community had donated over 75,000 euros to highly effective charities, and over 200 people had completed Finnish EA intro programs through 2024.

In 2024, EAFI faced significant funding cuts that reduced staffing from 2.4 FTE to 0.6 FTE from mid-February onward. Despite this, community satisfaction improved from 7.1 to 8.0 and the annual retreat exceeded 30 participants for the first time. In early 2025, a new executive director, Xylix Pelttari, was named to take over from August 2025. In February 2026, EAFI hosted the first-ever EA Summit Helsinki, a one-day public conference at Arcada University on effective giving, impactful careers, AI risk, and animal welfare.