Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund donations received

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.

Table of contents

Basic donee information

We do not have any donee information for the donee Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund in our system.

This entity is also a donor.

Donee donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 14 7,500 157,347 0 0 0 500 2,504 7,500 11,225 14,000 44,000 675,000 1,417,000
Global catastrophic risks 8 7,500 12,388 0 0 0 2,504 7,500 7,500 11,100 14,000 20,000 44,000 44,000
2 0 250 0 0 0 0 0 0 500 500 500 500 500
Effective altruism 1 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25
Longtermism 3 675,000 701,075 11,225 11,225 11,225 11,225 675,000 675,000 675,000 1,417,000 1,417,000 1,417,000 1,417,000

Donation amounts by donor and year for donee Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund

Donor Total 2021 2019 2018 2017
Jaan Tallinn (filter this donee) 2,092,000.00 2,092,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Patrick Brinich-Langlois (filter this donee) 99,604.00 500.00 44,000.00 16,504.00 38,600.00
Jacob Steinhardt (filter this donee) 11,225.00 11,225.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Peter Hurford (filter this donee) 25.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25.00
Haseeb Qureshi (filter this donee) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Josh Rosenberg (filter this donee) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Morgan Davis (filter this donee) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 2,202,854.00 2,103,725.00 44,000.00 16,504.00 38,625.00

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (20 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
2021 AI Alignment Literature Review and Charity Comparison (GW, IR)2021-12-23Larks Effective Altruism ForumLarks Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Survival and Flourishing Fund FTX Future Fund Future of Humanity Institute Future of Humanity Institute Centre for the Governance of AI Center for Human-Compatible AI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Centre for the Study of Existential Risk OpenAI Google Deepmind Anthropic Alignment Research Center Redwood Research Ought AI Impacts Global Priorities Institute Center on Long-Term Risk Centre for Long-Term Resilience Rethink Priorities Convergence Analysis Stanford Existential Risk Initiative Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative 80,000 Hours Survival and Flourishing Fund Review of current state of cause areaAI safetyCross-posted to LessWrong at https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/C4tR3BEpuWviT7Sje/2021-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison (GW, IR) This is the sixth post in a tradition of annual blog posts on the state of AI safety and the work of various organizations in the space over the course of the year; the post is structured similarly to the previous year's post https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/K7Z87me338BQT3Mcv/2020-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison (GW, IR) but has a few new features. The author mentions that he has several conflicts of interest that he cannot individually disclose. He also starts collecting "second preferences" data this year for all the organizations he talks to, which is where the organization would like to see funds go, other than itself. The Long-Term Future Fund is the clear winner here. He also announces that he's looking for a research assistant to help with next year's post given the increasing time demands and his reduced time availability. His final rot13'ed donation decision is to donate to the Long-Term Future Fund so that sufficiently skilled AI safety researchers can make a career with LTFF funding; his second preference for donations is BERI. Many other organizations that he considers to be likely to be doing excellent work are either already well-funded or do not provide sufficient disclosure.
How To Get Into Independent Research On Alignment/Agency (GW, IR)2021-11-18John Wentworth LessWrongEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Miscellaneous commentaryAI safetyJohn Wentworth, an independent AI safety researcher who makes a full-time-equivalent of $90,000 a year and is funded partly by the Long-Term Future Fund (LTFF), explains more about how he does independent research and how he's able to get paid for it. Wentworth would be cited as a success story of the LTFF by Zvi Mowshowitz in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff#Access_to_Power_and_Money (GW, IR) and his post would be cited by the 2021 AI Alignment Review https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BNQMyWGCNWDdP2WyG/2021-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison#LTFF__Long_term_future_fund (GW, IR) "[the post] suggests that LTFF has been crucial to enabling the emergence of independent safety researcher as a viable occupation; this seems like a very major positive for the LTFF."
What would you do if you had half a million dollars? (GW, IR)2021-07-17Patrick Brinich-Langlois Effective Altruism ForumDonor lottery Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Longview Philanthropy Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Longview Philanthropy Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Request for proposalsPatrick Brinich-Langlois announces that he won the 2020/2021 $500,000 donor lottery, and is looking for where best to donate. The post suggests that he is inclined to donating the money to an existing grantmaking body, such as the Long-Term Future Fund, Longview Philanthropy, the EA Infrastructure Fund, or the Patient Philanthropy Fund.
You can now apply to EA Funds anytime! (LTFF & EAIF only) (GW, IR)2021-06-17Jonas Vollmer Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Request for proposalsAI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismTwo of the Effective Altruism Funds, the Long-Term Future Fund and Infrastructure Fund, announce that they are switching to rolling applications, and they "now aim to evaluate most grants within 21 days of submission (and all grants within 42 days), regardless of when they have been submitted." The post also says: "You can now suggest that we give money to other people, or let us know about ideas for how we could spend our money." And: "We fund student scholarships, career exploration, local groups, entrepreneurial projects, academic teaching buy-outs, top-up funding for poorly paid academics, and many other things. We can make anonymous grants without public reporting."
The Long-Term Future Fund has room for more funding, right now (GW, IR)2021-03-28Asya Bergal Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Donee donation caseAI safety|Global catastrophic risks|LongtermismIn the blog post, Asya Bergal, fund chair for the Long-Term Future Fund, says that LTFF has significant room for more funding right now. The post says: "The Long-Term Future Fund is on track to approve $1.5M - $2M of grants this round. This is 3 - 4x what we’ve spent in any of our last five grant rounds and most of our current fund balance. [...] I don’t know if my perceived increase in quality applications will persist, but I no longer think it’s implausible for the fund to spend $4M - $8M this year while maintaining our previous bar for funding. This is up from my previous guess of $2M."
Giving What We Can & EA Funds now operate independently of CEA (GW, IR)2020-12-21Max Dalton Jonas Vollmer Luke Freemaan Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Grants Giving What We Can Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Giving What We Can Status changeAnimal welfare|Global health and development|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruism|LongtermismThis cross-post of https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/blog/giving-what-we-can-and-ea-funds-now-operate-independently-of-cea/ announces that Giving What We Can (GWWC), operated by Luke Freeman, and the Effective Altruism Funds (EA Funds), operated by Jonas Vollmer, are now operated independent of the Centre for Effective Altruism. Also, Effective Altruism Grants (EA Grants) is now fully closed. The plan to close it had been announced in April 2020 at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SX6vKhRQsFj8AjYrM/brief-update-on-ea-grants (GW, IR) but some existing grant commitments needed to be honored before fully closing the program out. The post includes growth, retention, and content plans for GWWC, and donor satisfaction, donation, and grantmaking data for EA Funds.
Long-Term Future Fund and EA Meta Fund applications open until June 12th (GW, IR)2020-05-15Alex Foster Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Request for proposalsAI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismThe blog post links to the application forms for two of the EA Funds (Long-Term Future Fund and Meta Fund) and gives a deadline of June 12, 2020 for the next round for both. It also announces that the minimum allowed grant size is reduced from $10,000 to $5,000.
Long-Term Future Fund and EA Meta Fund applications open until January 31st (GW, IR)2020-01-06Alex Foster Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Request for proposalsAI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismThe blog post links to the application forms for two of the EA Funds (Long-Term Future Fund and Meta Fund) and gives a deadline of January 31, 2020 for the next round for both. It also provides information on the kinds of grants that each fund is interested in giving. The EA Meta Fund description clarifies that projects related to community building should instead seek funding from Effective Altruism Community Building Grants, but local groups doing other kinds of projects can still apply to the EA Meta Fund.
Effective Altruism Funds Project Updates (GW, IR)2019-12-20Sam Deere Effective Altruism FundsEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare|Global health and development|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismThe blog post is by Sam Deere of the Centre for Effective Altruism, who is the project lead for Effective Altruism Funds (EA Funds). The blog post goes over the purpose of EA Funds, structure of fund management teams, the use of the EA Funds platform to directly donate to charities, and the project status and relationship with CEA. Regarding the last point: "Currently EA Funds is a project wholly within the central part of the Centre for Effective Altruism (as opposed to a satellite project housed within the same legal organization, like 80,000 Hours or the Forethought Foundation). However, we’re currently investigating whether this should change. This is largely driven by a divergence in organizational priorities – specifically, that CEA is focusing on building communities and spaces for discussing EA ideas (e.g. local groups, EA Global and related events, and the EA Forum), whereas EA Funds is primarily fundraising-oriented." The post also announces recent updates to the EA Funds website and the launch of a publicly-accessible dashboard for fund statistics https://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/about/stats
Major Donation: Long Term Future Fund Application Extended 1 Week (GW, IR)2019-02-16Oliver Habryka Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Request for proposalsAI safety|Global catastrophic risksThe blog post announces that the EA Long-Term Future Fund has received a large donation, which doubles the amount of money available for granting to ~$1.2 million. It extends the deadline for applications at at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDTbCDbnIN11vcgHM3DKq6M0cZ3itAy5GIPK17uvTXcz8ZFA/viewform?usp=sf_link by 1 week, to 2019-02-24 midnight PST. The application form was previously announced at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/oFeGLaJ5bZBBRbjC9/ea-funds-long-term-future-fund-is-open-to-applications-until (GW, IR) and supposed to be open till 2019-02-07 for the February 2019 round of grants. Cross-posted to LessWrong at https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZKsSuxHWNGiXJBJ9Z/major-donation-long-term-future-fund-application-extended-1 (GW, IR)
Long-Term Future Fund AMA (GW, IR)2018-12-18Helen Toner Oliver Habryka Alex Zhu Matt Fallshaw Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Donee AMAAI safety|Global catastrophic risksThe post is an Ask Me Anything (AMA) for the Long-Term Future Find. The question and answers are in the post comments. Questions are asked by a number of people including Luke Muehlhauser, Josh You, Peter Hurford, Alex Foster, and Robert Jones. Fund managers Oliver Habryka, Matt Fallshaw, Helen Toner, and Alex Zhu respond in the comments. Fund manager Matt Wage does not appear to have participated. Questions cover the amount of time spent evaluating grants, the evaluation criteria, the methods of soliciting grants, and research that would help the team
Announcing new EA Funds management teams (GW, IR)2018-10-27Marek Duda Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismThe post announces the transition of the Effective Altruism Funds management to teams, with a chair, team members, and advisors. The EA Community Fund is renamed the EA Meta Fund, and has chair Luke Ding and team Denise Melchin, Matt Wage, Alex Foster, and Tara MacAulay, with advisor Nick Beckstead. The long-term future fund has chair Matt Fallshaw, and team Helen Toner, Oliver Habryka, Matt Wage, and Alex Zhu, with advisors Nick Beckstead and Jonas Vollmer. The animal welfare fund has chair Lewis Bollard (same as before) and team Jamie Spurgeon, Natalie Cargill, and Toni Adleberg. The global development fund continues to be solely managed by Elie Hassenfeld. The granting schedule will be thrice a year: November, February, and June for all funds except the Global Development Fund, which will be in December, March, and July.
EA Funds - An update from CEA (GW, IR)2018-08-07Marek Duda Centre for Effective AltruismEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismMarek Duda gives an update on work on the EA Funds donation platform, the departure of Nick Beckstead from managing the EA Community and Long-Term Future Funds, and the experimental creation of "Junior" Funds
The EA Community and Long-Term Future Funds Lack Transparency and Accountability (GW, IR)2018-07-23Evan Gaensbauer Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Evaluator review of doneeAnimal welfare|global health|AI safety|global catastrophic risks|effective altruismEvan Gaensbauer builds on past criticism of the EA Funds by Henry Stanley at http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1k9/ea_funds_hands_out_money_very_infrequently_should/ and http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1mr/how_to_improve_ea_funds/ Gaensbauer notes that the Global Health and Development Fund and the Animal Welfare Fund have done a better job of paying out and announcing payouts. However, the Long-Term Future Fund and EA Community Fund, both managed by Nick Beckstead, have announced only one payout, and have missed their self-imposed date for announcing the remaining payouts. Some comments by Marek Duda of the Centre for Effective Altruism (the parent of EA Funds) are also discussed
How to improve EA Funds (GW, IR)2018-04-04Henry Stanley Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Evaluator review of doneeAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismHenry Stanley echoes thoughts expressed in his previous post http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1k9/ea_funds_hands_out_money_very_infrequently_should/ and argues for regular disbursement, holding funds in interest-bearing assets, and more clarity about fund manager bandwidth. Comments also discuss Effective Altruism Grants
EA Funds hands out money very infrequently - should we be worried? (GW, IR)2018-01-31Henry Stanley Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Miscellaneous commentaryAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismHenry Stanley expresses concern that the Effective Altruism Funds hands out money very infrequently. Commenters include Peter Hurford (who suggests a percentage-based approach), Elie Hassenfeld, the manager of the global health and development fund, and Evan Gaensbauer, a person well-connected in effective altruist social circles
What is the status of EA funds? They seem pretty dormant2017-12-10Ben West Effective Altruism Facebook groupEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Miscellaneous commentaryAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismBen West, wondering whether to donate to the Effective Altruism Funds for his end-of-year donation, wonders whether the Funds are dormant, since no donations from the fund have been announced since April. In the comments, Marek Duda of the Centre for Effective Altruism reports that the Funds pages have been updated to include some recent donations, and West updates his post to note that
Update on Effective Altruism Funds (GW, IR)2017-04-20Kerry Vaughan Centre for Effective AltruismEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Periodic donation list documentationAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismKerry Vaughan provides a progress report on the beta launch of EA Funds, and says it will go on beyond beta. The post includes information on reception of EA Funds so far, money donated to the funds, and fund allocations for the money donated so far
EA Funds Beta Launch (GW, IR)2017-02-28Tara MacAulay Centre for Effective AltruismEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund LaunchAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismTara MacAulay of the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA), the parent of Effective Altruism Funds, describes the beta launch of the project. CEA will revisit within three months to decide whether to make the EA Funds permanent
Introducing the EA Funds (GW, IR)2017-02-09William MacAskill Centre for Effective AltruismEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund LaunchAnimal welfare|Global health|AI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismWilliam MacAskill of the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) proposes EA Funds, inspired by the Shulman/Christiano donor lottery from 2016-12, while also incorporating elements of the EA Giving Group run by Nick Beckstead

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (14 donations)

Graph of top 10 donors (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations

Graph of donations and their timeframes
DonorAmount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 14)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Jaan Tallinn1,417,000.0012021-10Longtermismhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Zvi Mowshowitz, one of the recommmenders in this grant round, writes in https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) "They have some clear wins on their book (e.g. John Wentworth) and my notes indicate I thought the bulk of their targets seemed reasonable, although on reflection that makes me worry about the extent to which ‘seem reasonable’ was an optimization target. It’s another case of ‘find individuals and other places to put small amounts in ways that seem plausibly good and do it’ and it seems like something like SFF should be able to do better but if the applicant pool is this shallow maybe we can’t. As an isolated thing, almost all small grants of these types that are issued without forcing people to apply first seem like they’re net good, but they also end up warping the space and culture around the seeking of such grants, whether or not formal applications have to be involved.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the second one with a grant to the grantee.

Other notes: Jaan Tallinn's philanthropy goals as described in https://jaan.online/philanthropy/ set targets in terms of the total amount of endpoint grants, i.e., grants spent on actual grantees and not for regranting. It is not clear how grants to the Long-Term Future Fund are counted, but since the LTFF tends to spend most of its balance in its grant rounds, Tallinn likely expects that the bulk of the money will become endpoint grants shortly. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 16.00%; announced: 2021-11-20.
Jacob Steinhardt11,225.0062021-06-23Longtermismhttps://bounded-regret.ghost.io/donations-19-20/-- Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The donation post says: "The Long-Term Future Fund funds technical or conceptual research oriented towards safeguarding the long-term future of humanity. They are actively managed and mostly give small grants to individual researchers or small organizations, an approach which I think has the potential for high impact. While some of the areas they focus on, such as safe AI, are not primarily cash-constrained, I think LTFF does a good job of identifying instances where cash can actually help. In some cases, they made grants that I was initially skeptical of but that in retrospect seemed like good ideas. I therefore trust their judgment to align reasonably well with what I would conclude after significant investigation."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The reason that only about half of the 51% allocation for the long-term future was to the Long-Term Future Fund was described in the donation post as follows: "On the other hand, they mostly do not fund policy-related work, and I think that good AI policy, especially surrounding international conflict and arms races, could be very important for humanity's long-term future. I therefore split my donations in this area in half between these two directions." It also includes context on the total amount ($45,000): "Each year I aim to donate around 10% of my income. [...] The impact of COVID-19 on poor countries made me better appreciate how much better I have it than most of the world, so I tried to donate closer to 20% of my 2020 income, and that will be my goal moving forward as well. Between 2019 and 2020, this came out to $45,000 in total."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 25.00%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The donation post says: "Each year I aim to donate around 10% of my income. In 2019, I fell behind on this, probably due to the chaos of COVID-19 (but really this was just an embarassing logistical failure on my part). I've recently, finally, finished processing donations for 2019 and 2020."

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The donation post says: "In retrospect, I think LTFF probably put significantly more effort than I did into evaluating all of the organizations I looked at, as well as several others, when deciding on their grant allocations. Therefore, in the future I would probably just allocate [all my long-term future donations] to LTFF and trust their decision-making. I feel somewhat worried about this, because if everyone pursues this strategy then it would concentrate grant-making in a small number of organizations, which could distort the overall funding ecosystem. That being said, I think the ultimate solution is to have other competitors to LTFF, rather than making low-information decisions as an individual. My hope is that funding them generously this year will help incentivize the creation of other strong grantmaking organizations."
Jaan Tallinn675,000.0022021-04Longtermismhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h1-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Ben Hoskin Katja Grace Oliver Habryka Adam Marblestone Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H1 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fifth grant round and the first with a grant to this grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: In the next grant round, Tallinn would make an even bigger grant of $1,417,000 to the grantee, suggesting continued satisfaction with the strategy of donating money to the Long-Term Future Fund for regranting.

Other notes: As explained at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nLxpFeEs6kAdgjRWz/the-long-term-future-fund-has-room-for-more-funding-right?commentId=9cBRWH9L6BDhd5TCF (GW, IR) the grantee is applying because the total volume of quality applications it would like to fund exceeds its own funds available. Although Jed McCaleb also participates as a funder in this grant round, he does not make any grants to this grantee (Center for Applied Rationality). Jaan Tallinn's philanthropy goals as described in https://jaan.online/philanthropy/ set targets in terms of the total amount of endpoint grants, i.e., grants spent on actual grantees and not for regranting. It is not clear how grants to the Long-Term Future Fund are counted, but since the LTFF tends to spend most of its balance in its grant rounds, Tallinn likely expects that the bulk of the money will become endpoint grants short. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 7.10%.
Patrick Brinich-Langlois500.00102021-03-06--https://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/-- Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "I got a credit card that gives you $200 if you spend $500 within the first three months." This explains the donation amount of 500 USD.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant page says: "I got a credit card that gives you $200 if you spend $500 within the first three months." Presumably the credit card had been received within the last three months.
Patrick Brinich-Langlois44,000.0032019-10-16Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--
Patrick Brinich-Langlois2,504.0092018-11-27Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--
Patrick Brinich-Langlois14,000.0052018-10-27Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--
Haseeb Qureshi----2018Global catastrophic risks/AI safetyhttps://haseebq.com/2018-donations/-- Donation process: The announcement post says that the donor is donating 33% of his pre-tax income, as usual, but has decided to not disclose exact amounts as he does not want his compensation to be known. The amount is allocated between multiple donees based on the donor's assessment

Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Intended use of funds: Money for the Long Term Future Fund to use for its grants

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The announcement post says: "Given the quality of the fund management team, I have no doubt they will be better informed and make higher-quality funding decisions than I could personally. But this donation also reflects a longer-term pattern in my giving that began last year when I gave the majority of my donations to a donor-advised fund. Going forward, I want to be making fewer direct funding decisions and instead donating to managed funds. Good fund managers will almost certainly be making more careful funding decisions than I could on my own. The reality is, I’m now sufficiently busy and have not been keeping up with developments within EA charities, and it doesn’t make sense for me to reduplicate the research that these guys are already doing more thoroughly than I could."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The total amount the donor is giving away is 33% of pre-tax income. The allocation of 80% to the Long-Term Future Fund is likely a reflection of the strong reasons articulated by the donor for donating to that fund
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 80.00%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): End-of-year round of donations of 33% of income in the year; this is part of the donor's earning-to-give strategy

Other notes: Announced: 2019-01-17.
Patrick Brinich-Langlois11,100.0072017-12-29Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--
Morgan Davis----2017-12-18--https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2017#Morgan-- Split between the different funds: 5% for animal welfare, 5% for global development, 15% for EA Community, and 75% for the long-term future fund. Donor also considered donating to Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (BERI), which she is impressed by, and sees a need for after encountering bureaucracy in academia while working as grant manager for the Open Philanthropy Project. However, she ultimately felt that the fund managers for Effective Altruism Funds would be able to make better decisions. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 75.00%.
Josh Rosenberg----2017-12-11Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://blog.givewell.org/2017/12/11/staff-members-personal-donations-for-giving-season-2017/#Josh-- Believes money in the fund will be put to good use, and believes in the importance of future generations. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.00%.
Patrick Brinich-Langlois20,000.0042017-08-28Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--
Peter Hurford25.00112017-04-04Effective altruism/movement growthhttp://peterhurford.com/other/donations.html-- A total of $100 donated across the four EA Funds: 25% to each fund, for informational purposes.
Patrick Brinich-Langlois7,500.0082017-03-25Global catastrophic risks/other long-term futurehttps://www.patbl.com/misc/other/donations/--