The Effective Altruism (EA) community is highly decentralized, making it difficult for newcomers or relocating members to find local contacts or topic-specific experts. While valuable knowledge exists, it often remains siloed within small networks. A lightweight, curated directory of key coordinators could bridge this gap by connecting people to high-leverage individuals who can efficiently guide them to resources.

How the Directory Would Work

The directory would focus on ~200 globally distributed coordinators—people who are well-connected in their local EA communities or specialized fields. Each entry would include:

• Location and expertise (e.g., "Berlin, global health" or "San Francisco, AI safety")
• Preferred contact methods and availability (e.g., "open to emails" or "office hours every Thursday")
• Optional boundaries to prevent overload (e.g., "Max 2 meetings/month")

A small maintenance team (3–5 people) could ensure accuracy by sending annual verification emails and flagging outdated entries. Unlike open directories, this approach minimizes noise by highlighting only the most useful contacts.

Benefits and Stakeholder Incentives

The directory would serve:

• Newcomers: Quickly find mentors or local groups without sifting through forums.
• Relocating members: Identify housing, job opportunities, or events in their new city.
• Project organizers: Locate advisors for niche topics (e.g., "Who in Kenya knows about wildlife conservation grants?").

Coordinators would benefit from reduced cold outreach and greater visibility, while maintainers could be funded through EA-aligned grants or optional donations.

Execution and Comparisons

An MVP could start as a simple spreadsheet shared via EA Forum or Slack, tested with ~50 coordinators. If successful, it could evolve into a filtered web directory with features like Calendly integration. Unlike existing solutions—such as the EA Forum Directory (uncurated) or local Facebook groups (disorganized)—this approach would prioritize verified, actionable connections without requiring broad buy-in.

By focusing on coordinators as information hubs, this idea could solve the "last mile" problem of connecting people to the right resources efficiently.