This is an online portal with information on donations that were announced publicly (or have been shared with permission) that were of interest to Vipul Naik. The git repository with the code for this portal, as well as all the underlying data, is available on GitHub. All payment amounts are in current United States dollars (USD). The repository of donations is being seeded with an initial collation by Issa Rice as well as continued contributions from him (see his commits and the contract work page listing all financially compensated contributions to the site) but all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies belongs to Vipul Naik. Current data is preliminary and has not been completely vetted and normalized; if sharing a link to this site or any page on this site, please include the caveat that the data is preliminary (if you want to share without including caveats, please check with Vipul Naik). We expect to have completed the first round of development by the end of July 2024. See the about page for more details. Also of interest: pageview data on analytics.vipulnaik.com, tutorial in README, request for feedback to EA Forum.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Wikipedia page | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Popular_Democracy |
| Cause area | Count | Median | Mean | Minimum | 10th percentile | 20th percentile | 30th percentile | 40th percentile | 50th percentile | 60th percentile | 70th percentile | 80th percentile | 90th percentile | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 23 | 315,000 | 444,000 | 5,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 150,000 | 250,000 | 315,000 | 400,000 | 650,000 | 700,000 | 1,100,000 | 1,429,000 |
| 7 | 315,000 | 327,571 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 48,000 | 200,000 | 200,000 | 315,000 | 400,000 | 400,000 | 650,000 | 675,000 | 675,000 | |
| Macroeconomic stabilization policy | 7 | 750,000 | 806,286 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 465,000 | 600,000 | 600,000 | 750,000 | 1,100,000 | 1,100,000 | 1,200,000 | 1,429,000 | 1,429,000 |
| Worker rights | 9 | 175,000 | 252,778 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 175,000 | 250,000 | 300,000 | 350,000 | 700,000 | 700,000 |
| Donor | Total | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Philanthropy (filter this donee) | 5,644,000.00 | 465,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 1,200,000.00 | 1,100,000.00 | 0.00 | 2,179,000.00 | 100,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Public Welfare Foundation (filter this donee) | 2,275,000.00 | 0.00 | 700,000.00 | 400,000.00 | 500,000.00 | 150,000.00 | 175,000.00 | 250,000.00 | 100,000.00 |
| Surdna Foundation (filter this donee) | 1,238,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 675,000.00 | 200,000.00 | 0.00 | 48,000.00 | 315,000.00 | 0.00 |
| W. K. Kellogg Foundation (filter this donee) | 1,055,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 405,000.00 | 650,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 10,212,000.00 | 465,000.00 | 1,300,000.00 | 2,275,000.00 | 1,800,000.00 | 555,000.00 | 3,052,000.00 | 665,000.00 | 100,000.00 |
| Title (URL linked) | Publication date | Author | Publisher | Affected donors | Affected donees | Affected influencers | Document scope | Cause area | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suggestions for individual donors from Open Philanthropy Project staff | 2015-12-23 | Holden Karnofsky | Open Philanthropy | Chloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Alexander Berger Nick Beckstead Howie Lempel | Alliance for Safety and Justice Bronx Freedom Fund The Humane League The Humane Society of the United States Center for Global Development Center for Popular Democracy Ploughshares Fund | Donation suggestion list | Criminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Global health | Open Philanthropy Project staff describe suggestions for best donation opportunities for individual donors in their specific areas. The post was originally published to the GiveWell blog. |
Graph of top 10 donors (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations
| Donor | Amount (current USD) | Amount rank (out of 23) | Donation date | Cause area | URL | Influencer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Philanthropy | 465,000.00 | 9 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2020 | Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve. Fed Up plans to use this funding to build up grassroots support for policies that prioritize full employment during and following the current economic crisis." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not discuss reasons, but a reasonable inference based on the information on the page as well as the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 is that the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic motivated the grant. A goal of the Fed Up campaign is to make the Fed care more about unemployment, and the COVID-19-induced recession is a time when this concern becomes particularly salient. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is not a renewal grant; the time period for the preceding two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 (2019-11) is still ongoing. Based on the grant description, the timing of this grant seems to be due to the COVID-19-induced economic recession; the grant is made about three months after the COVID-19-induced decline in economic activity. Other notes: Affected countries: United States. |
|
| Open Philanthropy | 600,000.00 | 8 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 | Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but we continue to believe it to be worthwhile to support the campaign through the next recession, when its advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its impact." Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount, this time for two years, is significantly less than the amounts of previous one-year grants in 2016, 2017, and 2018 (over $1 million each). Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made after the end of the 2018 grant, but not immediately afterward; it is made in late 2019. The reasons for the gap in timing are unclear. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page notes that the next recession would be an occasion to better evaluate the impact of the Fed Up campaign. Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2020 (2020-06) is made in light of the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other notes: Unlike the two preceding grants to CPD, this grant is not accompanied by any (publicly announced) grant to CPD Action. Affected countries: United States. |
|
| Public Welfare Foundation | 700,000.00 | 5 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 24 months. Support for coordination of state coalitions and forced arbitration campaigns. Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Open Philanthropy | 1,200,000.00 | 2 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2018 | Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but we continue to believe it to be worthwhile to support the campaign through the next recession, when its advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its impact." Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reasons are given for the amount, but it roughly matches the amounts of the previous years: $1,100,000 for 2017 and $1,429,000 for 2016. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 was for the 2017 year, so with the end of the year, funds are needed for 2017's Fed Up campaign. Intended funding timeframe in months: 12 Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page notes that the next recession would be an occasion to better evaluate the impact of the Fed Up campaign. Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants include https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 (2019-11) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2020 (2020-06). The latter grant is made in light of the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other notes: An associated grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 is made to the CPD Action Fund by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-23. |
|
| Public Welfare Foundation | 100,000.00 | 19 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support for assistance to grantees on fundraising strategies. Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Public Welfare Foundation | 300,000.00 | 13 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support for State Advocacy Campaigns addressing forced arbitration. . Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Surdna Foundation | 675,000.00 | 6 | -- | https://surdna.org/grants-database/ | -- | To support Local Progress, the national network of progressive municipal elected officials staffed by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), to grow its organizational capacity in key areas: campaigns, communications, research, training, and fundraising. This grant will also support the Fed Up Campaign’s work to advocating for employment, rising wages and a more accountable Federal Reserve system. Duration: 36 months. | |
| Open Philanthropy | 1,100,000.00 | 3 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 | Alexander Berger | Donation process: This renewal grant for CPD's Fed Up campaign is based on a review of the campaign's performance so far as well as changes to the political and economic environment. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve, and specifically in the selection of regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents and leaders. [...] CPD expects to use this funding toward campaign expenses such as salaries, travel, sub-grants, and overhead." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We decided to renew our support based primarily on CPD’s continued success drawing attention for its agenda from the press, Congress, and the Fed; ongoing opportunities to potentially influence the appointment or priorities of new Federal Reserve governors and regional Fed presidents; and our intention to provide the campaign with enough sustainable funding to last through the next recession, when CPD’s advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its performance. [...] However, our primary reason for continuing to support the campaign is that we believe it may be able to potentially prevent extraordinary harm during the next recession, when we think it will be more likely to have a meaningful short-term influence (as compared to the current gradual tightening cycle)." Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reasons are given for the amount; it is less than the $1,429,000 given the previous year. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016 was for the 2016 year, so with the end of the year, funds are needed for 2017's Fed Up campaign. Intended funding timeframe in months: 12 Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2018 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though it notes: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy." There are further followup grants in 2019 and 2020. Other notes: The grant page says: "Since our last grant, one new area of uncertainty introduced for the campaign is the degree to which the Trump administration and a unified Republican Congress might support policies that reduce the need for expansionary monetary policy. Additionally, as unemployment rates have declined, we have become less confident in the appropriate short-term stance of monetary policy, and could imagine disagreeing with the Fed Up campaign about the appropriate direction for interest rates to move." An associated grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2017 is made to the CPD Action Fund by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-12-28. |
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| Public Welfare Foundation | 150,000.00 | 17 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support for the Forced Arbitration Initiative. . Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Public Welfare Foundation | 350,000.00 | 11 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 24 months. Support to provide technical assistance and serve as a campaign hub for state workers' rights coalitions. . Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Surdna Foundation | 200,000.00 | 15 | -- | https://surdna.org/grants-database/ | -- | To support Local Progress, the national network of progressive municipal elected officials build its organizational capacity in key areas: campaigns, communications, research, training, and fundraising. Duration: 12 months. | |
| W. K. Kellogg Foundation | 5,000.00 | 23 | -- | https://www.wkkf.org:443/grants/grant/2016/07/center-for-popular-democracy-annual-gala-p3035179 | -- | Purpose: Provide funds to support a charitable event, the 2016 annual gala; Grant period: 2016-05-01 to 2016-07-31. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Michigan|New York. | |
| W. K. Kellogg Foundation | 400,000.00 | 10 | -- | https://www.wkkf.org:443/grants/grant/2016/04/community-schools-organizing-fellowship-p3033198 | -- | Purpose: Build capacity for parent engagement and organizing in neighborhoods with concentrations of community schools, to ensure the success of those schools and to seed practices of transformative parent engagement system-wide; Grant period: 2016-04-01 to 2018-03-31. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York. | |
| Public Welfare Foundation | 150,000.00 | 17 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support to serve as a campaign hub for state workers' rights coalitions. Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Open Philanthropy | 1,429,000.00 | 1 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016 | Alexander Berger | Donation process: The grant page says: "We monitored the campaign throughout 2015 and had conversations with Ady Barkan of CPD about the campaign’s plans and progress. We followed the media surrounding Fed Up and its interactions with policymakers. Karl Smith, who worked with us in 2015 as a consultant, attended the Jackson Hole Symposium and reviewed some of the campaign’s 2015 activities with us." Elsewhere, it says: "The initial 2016 budget given to us by Fed Up was for $4 million, but we also requested budgets for $2 million and $3 million" Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant supports about half the cost of the Fed Up campaign for 2016. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Budget_and_proposed_activities says: "We expect Fed Up would spend a $3 million budget approximately as follows: $1.5 million regranted to local partners, $650,000 for national staff, $250,000 to national partners, $600,000 for other costs, including events, polling, lobbying, and overhead." Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Case_for_this_grant describes reasons for the grant, centered mostly around the Federal Reserve's heavy focus on reducing inflation in the inflation-unemployment tradeoff, and the desire to shift to having it care more about unemployment. It also talks about the benefits of increasing transparency and accountability in the regional Federal Reserve Banks, one of the other areas the Fed Up campaign focuses on. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is about half of the planned $3 million budget for the campaign in 2016. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Budget_and_proposed_activities says: "The initial 2016 budget given to us by Fed Up was for $4 million, but we also requested budgets for $2 million and $3 million. Each of these budgets would be a substantial increase from 2015. [...] After discussion with CPD, we don’t believe the support from these funders is likely to dramatically increase in the near future." Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015 was for the 2015 year, so with the end of the year, funds are needed for 2016's Fed Up campaign. Intended funding timeframe in months: 12 Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists follow-up questions, and says: "When the next recession occurs, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance. We may check the transcripts of 2016 FOMC meetings after they are released in 2022 to see whether any of the FOMC members discuss meetings with workers that inform their perspectives on policy." Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversations with Ady Barkan and Shawn Sebastian of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Fed_Up_07-14-16_and_08_31_16_and_09_02_16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-07-14, 2016-08-31, and 2016-09-02. A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 (2017) and further grants in later years suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee, though these followup grant writeups reflect more reservations as a result of further improvements in labor market conditions. Other notes: Conversation with Ady Barkman of grantee organization around the time of the grant allocation at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Ady_Barkan_12-8-15_%28public%29.pdf on 2015-12-08. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-04-06. |
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| W. K. Kellogg Foundation | 650,000.00 | 7 | -- | https://www.wkkf.org:443/grants/grant/0001/01/cpd-retail-workforce-development-rebuilding-careers-in-retail-p3032026 | -- | Purpose: Accelerate the retail sector career path of low-income workers by creating a workforce development program that promotes quality jobs, scaled job training and greater economic stability; Grant period: 2015-05-01 to 2018-04-30. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York. | |
| Surdna Foundation | 48,000.00 | 22 | -- | https://surdna.org/grants-database/ | -- | To support the Center for Popular Democracy to enable the Fed Up campaign by increasing the campaign’s visibility in local and national media. Duration: 12 months. | |
| Open Philanthropy | 750,000.00 | 4 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015 | Alexander Berger | Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Our_process refers to the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-popular-democracy-federal-reserve-campaign that helped the Fed Up campaign get started. It says: "Prior to deciding about this grant, we had a number of further conversations with Ady Barkan of CPD about the campaign’s plans, followed the initial progress of the campaign in drawing press attention, and looked more deeply into research on monetary policy." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Process_for_forming_and_vetting_views_on_monetary_policy includes some of the influences in Open Phil's formation of views on monetary policy. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant for the "campaign (“Fed Up”) that aims to prevent premature tightening of monetary policy and encourage greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve." It supports 75% of the campaign's 1-year $1 million budget. Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Case_for_this_grant gives three parts to the case for the grant: (1) "A slim probability of moving monetary policy in a marginally more dovish (i.e., lower unemployment, higher inflation) direction." (2) "A reasonable chance of achieving some of the campaign’s procedural goals, including raising the level of transparency around how regional Fed presidents and board member are selected." (3) "Enabling CPD to experiment with an advocacy campaign in this area, potentially laying the groundwork for future advocacy efforts in the area, and testing our hypothesis that advocacy around macroeconomic policy is a promising and relatively neglected philanthropic area." The first consideration dominates the decision to make the grant. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "We anticipate that this grant will make up roughly 75% of the campaign’s overall funding for the year." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Room_for_more_funding_and_fungibility says: "The initial budget we saw projected expenses of around $1.5 million, and we decided to contribute roughly half that amount. [...] We take the fact that the budget was revised downward [to $1 million] after our commitment to support the notion that CPD wouldn’t be able to find the amount of funding that we’ve contributed from other sources, and that accordingly our contribution is largely non-fungible. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems largely determined by the initial seed funding grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-popular-democracy-federal-reserve-campaign running out and the need to finance the continuation of the campaign. Intended funding timeframe in months: 12 Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists follow-up questions and says: "Towards the end of the duration of the grant, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance, aiming to answer the questions above. As mentioned above, we may check the transcripts of 2015 FOMC meetings after they are released in 2021 to see whether any of the FOMC members discuss meetings with workers that inform their perspectives on policy." Donor retrospective of the donation: Continued funding by Open Phil of the Fed Up campaign in the later years, starting with https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016 (2015-12) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: The grant page says: "Unlike much of our other output, the complexity of the debates in this area has made it impractical for other GiveWell staff to construct and check a complete trail of evidence and counterarguments for each claim in this review." It also lists https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Process_for_forming_and_vetting_views_on_monetary_policy lists the following economists whose blogs influenced Open Phil's initial impressions on the issue: Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, Tim Duy, Scott Sumner, and Tyler Cowen. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-02-27. |
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| Public Welfare Foundation | 175,000.00 | 16 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support for the Economic Justice Initiative. Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Open Philanthropy | 100,000.00 | 19 | Macroeconomic stabilization policy | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-federal-reserve-campaign | Alexander Berger | Donation process: Grantee submitted a proposal at https://files.givewell.org/files/labs/macroeconomic-policy/CPD%20Federal%20Reserve%20Campaign%20Paper%20v2.pdf for the Fed Up Campaign, and Open Philanthropy reviewed it and ultimately decided to provide funds to help kickstart the campaign. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to launch a campaign to educate the public about monetary policy and encourage the Federal Reserve to give more attention to the full employment portion of its mandate." The campaign would later become known as the Fed Up campaign. The stated rimary goals of the campaign are: (1) Ensure that monetary policy contributes to sustained growth and prosperity. (2) Engage Fed officials in a discussion of the meaning of its “dual mandate.” (3) Ensure that the American public is properly represented on the Boards of Directors of the regional Feds. Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page gives reasons for supporting a shift toward focus on unemployment, also called a "dovish" stance compared to the "hawkish" stance of caring primarily about inflation. It gives two reasons: (a) this stance is better suited to the state of the economy, and (b) current advocacy influencing the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is significantly hawkish since it comes mostly from corporations and the financial industry. The grant page also is more in favor of the third primary goal of more representation of the American public: "there seems to be a strong procedural presumption in favor of a more credible, transparent selection process for regional Federal Reserve Bank board members and, in turn, presidents." The grant is also viewed as a learning grant for Open Philanthropy's exploration of macroeconomic stabilization policy. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant amount seems to have been chosen on the low end ($100,000) and the grant page says "We’re unusually uncertain about this grant" suggesting that this uncertainty was a reason for not making a larger upfront commitment to the campaign. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems to have been determined by a mix of the grantee shopping the grant proposal around and Open Phil becoming interested in grantmaking in the macroeconomic stabilization policy space. Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "we’re planning to investigate the considerations above in more depth in the coming months (conditional on retaining macroeconomic policy as a high-priority cause) to reach a decision about whether to contribute a more significant portion of the campaign’s overall budget." Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup conversation https://files.givewell.org/files/conversations/Brian%20Kettenring%2010-16-14%20(public).pdf is published with Brian Kettenring of the grantee organization. Open Phil ultimately decides to fund the Fed Up Campaign at a much larger level starting 2015 with https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015 (2015-01, $750,000) and writes at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Campaign_progress_to_date about the campaign progress. Open Phil continues with this funding for several years. Other notes: The grant was made and the grant page published before the launch of the Open Philanthropy website, and was originally written on the GiveWell website. It includes extensive discussion of the grant and links to several sources that informed the thinking behind the grant. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2014-09-25. |
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| Surdna Foundation | 315,000.00 | 12 | -- | https://surdna.org/grants-database/ | -- | To support the Center for Popular Democracy’s efforts in the growing Local Progress—the national municipal policy network of local elected officials. Duration: 36 months. | |
| Public Welfare Foundation | 250,000.00 | 14 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support for the organization's Economic Justice Initiative, to provide technical assistance on organizational capacity building and strategic campaign developm…. Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. | |
| Public Welfare Foundation | 100,000.00 | 19 | Worker rights | https://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/ | -- | Term: 12 months. Support for a convening on worker justice. Affected regions: Brooklyn, NY; affected countries: United States. |