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 | |
Facebook page | futureoflifeinstitute |
Website | https://futureoflife.org/ |
Transparency and financials page | https://futureoflife.org/tax-forms/ |
Donation case page | https://futureoflife.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FLI-2015-Annual-Report.pdf |
Twitter username | FLIxrisk |
Wikipedia page | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Life_Institute |
Open Philanthropy Project grant review | http://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/future-life-institute-artificial-intelligence-risk-reduction |
Org Watch page | https://orgwatch.issarice.com/?organization=Future+of+Life+Institute |
Key people | Jaan Tallinn|Max Tegmark|Meia Chita-Tegmark|Viktoriya Krakovna|Anthony Aguirre |
Launch date | 2014-03 |
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 | 17 | 100,000 | 169,176 | 0 | 0 | 23,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 250,000 | 347,000 | 1,186,000 |
Global catastrophic risks | 12 | 100,000 | 99,167 | 0 | 0 | 10,000 | 23,000 | 30,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 130,000 | 250,000 | 347,000 |
AI safety | 5 | 100,000 | 337,200 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 300,000 | 300,000 | 1,186,000 | 1,186,000 |
Donor | Total | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Open Philanthropy (filter this donee) | 1,736,000.00 | 0.00 | 100,000.00 | 250,000.00 | 100,000.00 | 100,000.00 | 1,186,000.00 |
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (filter this donee) | 500,000.00 | 0.00 | 50,000.00 | 300,000.00 | 150,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Jaan Tallinn (filter this donee) | 377,000.00 | 377,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Survival and Flourishing Fund (filter this donee) | 253,000.00 | 123,000.00 | 130,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Jed McCaleb (filter this donee) | 10,000.00 | 10,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
EA Giving Group (filter this donee) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Total | 2,876,000.00 | 510,000.00 | 280,000.00 | 550,000.00 | 250,000.00 | 100,000.00 | 1,186,000.00 |
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 17) | Donation date | Cause area | URL | Influencer | Notes |
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Jaan Tallinn | 347,000.00 | 2 | Global catastrophic risks | https://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html | Survival and Flourishing Fund Oliver Habryka Eric Rogstad | Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations 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): Organizational general support Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fourth grant round. Grants to the grantee had been made in the first and third grant round. Other notes: The grant round also includes a grant from the Survival and Flourishing Fund of $347,000 to the same grantee (FLI). Although Jed McCaleb also participates as a funder in the round, he does not make any grants to this grantee in this round. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 12.83%. |
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Survival and Flourishing Fund | 23,000.00 | 14 | Global catastrophic risks | https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations | Oliver Habryka Eric Rogstad | Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 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 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): Organizational general support Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fourth grant round. Grants to the grantee had been made in the first and third grant round. Other notes: The grant round also includes a grant from Jaan Tallinn of $347,000 to the same grantee (FLI). Although Jed McCaleb also participates as a funder in the round, he does not make any grants to this grantee in this round. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 3.54%. |
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Jaan Tallinn | 30,000.00 | 13 | Global catastrophic risks | https://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html | Survival and Flourishing Fund Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Jed McCaleb Oliver Habryka | Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process). A request for grants was made at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wQk3nrGTJZHfsPHb6/survival-and-flourishing-grant-applications-open-until-march (GW, IR) and open till 2020-03-07. The S-process "involves allowing the recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and SFF). 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): Organizational general support Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this 2020 H1 round of grants is SFF's third round; the grantee had also received a grant in the first round. Donor retrospective of the donation: Continued grants in future grant rounds such as https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations (2020 H2) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: The grant round also includes grants from the Survival and Flourishing Fund ($100,000) and Jed McCaleb ($10,000) to the same grantee (FLI). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 3.26%. |
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Survival and Flourishing Fund | 100,000.00 | 6 | Global catastrophic risks | https://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html | Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Jed McCaleb Oliver Habryka | Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process). A request for grants was made at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wQk3nrGTJZHfsPHb6/survival-and-flourishing-grant-applications-open-until-march (GW, IR) and open till 2020-03-07. The S-process "involves allowing the recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and SFF). 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): Organizational general support Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this 2020 H1 round of grants is SFF's third round; the grantee had also received a grant in the first round. Donor retrospective of the donation: Continued grants in future grant rounds such as https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations (2020 H2) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: The grant round also includes grants from Jaan Tallinn ($30,000) and Jed McCaleb ($10,000) to the same grantee (FLI). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 15.38%. |
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Jed McCaleb | 10,000.00 | 15 | Global catastrophic risks | https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations | Survival and Flourishing Fund Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Jed McCaleb Oliver Habryka | Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H1 grants based on the S-process (simulation process). A request for grants was made at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wQk3nrGTJZHfsPHb6/survival-and-flourishing-grant-applications-open-until-march (GW, IR) and open till 2020-03-07. The S-process "involves allowing the recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and SFF). 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): Organizational general support Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this 2020 H1 round of grants is SFF's third round; the grantee had also received a grant in the first round. Other notes: The grant round also includes grants from the Survival and Flourishing Fund ($100,000) and Jaan Tallinn ($30,000) to the same grantee (FLI). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 4.00%. |
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Open Philanthropy | 100,000.00 | 6 | Global catastrophic risks | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2019 | Daniel Dewey | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Other notes: Announced: 2019-11-18. |
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Survival and Flourishing Fund | 130,000.00 | 5 | Global catastrophic risks | https://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html | Alex Flint Andrew Critch Eric Rogstad | Donation process: Part of the founding batch of grants for the Survival and Flourishing Fund made in August 2019. The fund is partly a successor to part of the grants program of the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (BERI) that handled grantmaking by Jaan Tallinn; see http://existence.org/tallinn-grants-future/ As such, this grant to FLI may represent a followup to past grants by BERI to FLI Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Donor reason for selecting the donee: This grant may represent a followup to past grants by BERI to FLI Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; the Survival and Flourishing Fund is making its first round of grants in August 2019. Donor retrospective of the donation: Continued grants in future grant rounds, including https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations (2020 H1) and https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations (2020 H2) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 14.77%; announced: 2019-08-29. |
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Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative | 50,000.00 | 11 | AI safety | http://web.archive.org/web/20190623203105/http://existence.org/grants/ | -- | ||
Open Philanthropy | 250,000.00 | 4 | Global catastrophic risks | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2018 | Nick Beckstead | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grant for general support. It is a renewal of the May 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2017 whose primary purpose to administer a request for proposals in AI safety similar to a request for proposals in 2015 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/update-fli-grant Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant in 2019 suggests that Open Phil would continue to stand by its assessment of the grantee. Other notes: Announced: 2018-07-05. |
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Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative | 300,000.00 | 3 | AI safety | https://web.archive.org/web/20180905034853/http://existence.org/organization-grants/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180921215949/http://existence.org/organization-grants/ | -- | General support. | |
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative | 50,000.00 | 11 | AI safety | https://web.archive.org/web/20180731180958/http://existence.org:80/grants https://web.archive.org/web/20180921215949/http://existence.org/organization-grants/ | -- | For general support. See announcement at http://existence.org/2017/11/03/activity-update-october-2017.html. | |
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative | 100,000.00 | 6 | AI safety | https://web.archive.org/web/20180731180958/http://existence.org:80/grants https://web.archive.org/web/20180921215949/http://existence.org/organization-grants/ | -- | ||
Open Philanthropy | 100,000.00 | 6 | Global catastrophic risks/AI safety | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2017 | Nick Beckstead | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grant for general support. However, the primary use of the grant will be to administer a request for proposals in AI safety similar to a request for proposals in 2015 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/update-fli-grant Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants in 2018 and 2019, for similar or larger amounts, suggest that Open Phil would continue to stand by its assessment of the grantee. Other notes: Announced: 2017-09-27. |
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Open Philanthropy | 100,000.00 | 6 | Global catastrophic risks/general research | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support | -- | Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support#Our_process "Following our collaboration last year, we kept in touch with FLI regarding its funding situation and plans for future activities." Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Main planned activities for 2016 include: news operation, nuclear weapons campaign, AI safety conference, and AI conference travel. Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support#The_case_for_the_grant says: "In organizing its 2015 [Puerto Rico] AI safety conference (which we attended), FLI demonstrated a combination of network, ability to execute, and values that impressed us. We felt that the conference was well-organized, attracted the attention of high-profile individuals who had not previously demonstrated an interest in AI safety, and seemed to lead many of those individuals to take the issue more seriously." There is more detail in the grant page, as well as a list of reservations about the grant. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Open Phil needed enough time to evaluate the results of its first Future of Life Institute grant that was focused on AI safety, and to see the effects of the Puerto Rico 2015 AI safety conference. Timing also likely determined by FLI explicitly seeking more money to meet its budget. Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support#Key_questions_for_follow-up "We expect to have a conversation with FLI staff every 3-6 months for the next 12 months. After that, we plan to consider renewal." A list of questions is included. Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants in 2017, 2018, and 2019, for similar or larger amounts, suggest that Open Phil would continue to stand by its assessment of the grantee. Other notes: Announced: 2016-03-18. |
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EA Giving Group | -- | -- | Global catastrophic risks | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H2hF3SaO0_QViYq2j1E7mwoz3sDjdf9pdtuBcrq7pRU/edit | Nick Beckstead | Actual date range: December 2015 to February 2016. Exact date, amount, or fraction not known, but it is the donee with the fourth highest amount donated out of six donees in this period. | |
Open Philanthropy | 1,186,000.00 | 1 | AI safety | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/future-life-institute-artificial-intelligence-risk-reduction | -- | Grant accompanied a grant by Elon Musk to FLI for the same purpose. See also the March 2015 blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/open-philanthropy-project-update-global-catastrophic-risks that describes strategy and developments prior to the grant. An update on the grant was posted in 2017-04 at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/update-fli-grant discussing impressions of Howie Lempel and Daniel Dewey of the grant and of the effect on and role of Open Phil. Announced: 2015-08-26. | |
EA Giving Group | -- | -- | Global catastrophic risks | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H2hF3SaO0_QViYq2j1E7mwoz3sDjdf9pdtuBcrq7pRU/edit | Nick Beckstead | Actual date range: December 2014 to December 2015. Exact date, amount, or fraction not known, but it is the donee with the second highest amount donated out of eight donees in this period. |