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 2025. 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 |
| 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 | 2 | 50,000 | 300,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 |
| Migration policy | 2 | 50,000 | 300,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 | 550,000 |
| Donor | Total | 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Open Philanthropy (filter this donee) | 600,000.00 | 600,000.00 |
| Total | 600,000.00 | 600,000.00 |
| Title (URL linked) | Publication date | Author | Publisher | Affected donors | Affected donees | Affected influencers | Document scope | Cause area | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understanding Open Philanthropy’s work on migration policy | 2021-11-19 | Vipul Naik | Open Borders: The Case | Open Philanthropy | Labor Mobility Partnerships Center for Global Development Protect the People Niskanen Center Federation for American Scientists Mercy Corps International Refugee Assistance Project | Third-party coverage of donor strategy | Migration policy | In a similar vein as past blog posts https://openborders.info/blog/overview-of-the-open-philanthropy-projects-work-on-migration-liberalisation/ and https://openborders.info/blog/update-open-philanthropy-projects-work-migration-liberalisation/ on the site, the post reviews Open Philanthropy's grantmaking in the migration policy space. It discusses evidence and possible reasons for Open Philanthropy reducing its grantmaking in the area. See https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mhp8pofioZpoW6k34/understanding-open-philanthropy-s-evolution-on-migration (GW, IR) for a cross-post to the EA Forum. | |
| Update on the Open Philanthropy Project’s Work on Migration Liberalisation | 2016-04-08 | Sebastian Nickel | Open Borders: The Case | Open Philanthropy | Center for Global Development U.S. Association for International Migration Protect the People ImmigrationWorks Foundation No Lean Season Niskanen Center New York University | Third-party coverage of donor strategy | Migration policy | The blog post provides an update to https://openborders.info/blog/overview-of-the-open-philanthropy-projects-work-on-migration-liberalisation/ (a blog post from a year ago), providing updates on the grants discussed in the previous post, as well as descriptions of new grants. A section titled "Closing thoughts" gives the author's take on events; it stresses the difficulty of figuring out how best to effect political change, and the longer time horizon needed for efforts to bear fruit. |
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 2) | Donation date | Cause area | URL | Influencer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Philanthropy | 50,000.00 | 2 | Migration policy/labor mobility/seasonal migration | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-exit-grant | Alexander Berger | Donation process: This exit grant came out of the evaluation process for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti (2016-02) including a conversation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Sarah_Williamson_09-09-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-09-09). Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant is an exit grant to "to close out [Open Philanthropy's] support of its program helping workers from Haiti to access seasonal work in the U.S." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti more specifically says it was to "ensure a safe return to Haiti for the workers whose travel they had facilitated, and to continue pursuing funding from other sources." Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti gives more background on the reasons for the original grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti (2016-02) and the grant outcomes. The original grant write-up already indicated plans to not renew if fewer than 75 workers participated in 2016, and only 58 participated, explaining the "exit" part. The reason the grant was made at all despite the reduced participation was due to unexpected costs incurred by the grantee running the program, and Open Phil's desire to help the grantee smoothly continue the 2016 program. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The relatively small amount was likely chosen to be enough to support the intended uses of funds to close out the program and seek additional funding. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant timing is near the end of 2016, by which time the performance of the original grant is known, and the need for additional funds to facilitate the safe return of workers is also known. Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant so there are no plans for further donations. Donor retrospective of the donation: The October 2017 update https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Updates_since_deciding_not_to_renew mentions that two of the farms participating in the 2016 program ended up using 59 Haitian H-2As in 2017, suggesting a possibility that the work done in 2016 had already created a small sustainable flow, something that they had not expected when deciding to exit. Open Phil says: "We hope to monitor the flow of Haitian workers to U.S. farms in future years, and we acknowledge that we may turn out to have been mistaken in withdrawing funding at the point when we did." Other notes: The program funded by the grant would be covered by The Economist in https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2017/01/26/visas-as-aid (January 2017). Unfortunately for the long-term prospects in terms of creating sustainable flows, Haiti was removed from the Eligible Countries List for H-2A visas by the United States government on 2018-01-18. See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-01-18/pdf/2018-00812.pdf and https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/dhs-countries-eligible-h2-visas.aspx for more details. Affected countries: United States|Haiti; announced: 2017-10-20. |
|
| Open Philanthropy | 550,000.00 | 1 | Migration policy/labor mobility/seasonal migration | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti | Alexander Berger | Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Process refers to a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Case_for_this_grant (2014-07) to support seasonal migration from Haiti. The idea for the current grant arose from discussions with the current grantee, Protect the People, that had provideed support on the project funded by the previous grant. The grant page says: "We negotiated the grant structure described above to ensure that PTP would have adequate funds to attempt the project but to limit our downside in case PTP faces barriers and is unable to reach the desired number of participants." https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/ptp_gv_qa.pdf has a Q&A with Protect the People about the program. $50,000 of the grant was made personally by Cari Tuna due to urgency. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Grant_structure says the grant is "to continue to try to facilitate Haitian access to the H-2A program for another year. [...] The grant is structured conditionally, such that if the project enables more than 75 Haitian workers to use H-2A visas to work in the U.S., we will provide PTP with additional funding to cover costs for the additional workers. This support will scale up proportionally with the number of workers participating in the project, up to a maximum grant total of $1,000,000 for 2016. PTP currently projects that around 150 Haitian workers will be able to participate in the program in 2016, though our best guess is that the total is likely to be lower (because we anticipate that some of the problems previously encountered in the visa process may recur)." Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Case_for_the_grant says: "We estimate that each Haitian worker in the U.S. earns about $5,000 for about 3 months of work. Since agricultural workers in Haiti earn around $1,000 per year, this increase in income is substantial. Although the pilot project failed to enable many Haitians to work in the U.S., we think that this could have been due to bad luck more than fundamental problems in the program design." The section further details challenges with the earlier grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti (2014-07) and updates the potential upside estimate from $50 million to $25 million. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is about 1/3 the amount of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti (2014-07), with the reduction reflective of the desire to take a more cautious approach after the previous grant underperformed. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant happens after sufficient evaluation time has passed for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti (2014-07), and after discussions between Open Philanthropy and Protect the People on the grant structure. Intended funding timeframe in months: 12 Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up says that further funding is unlikely if the grant enables fewer than 75 workers to participate. Future funding is uncertain if the grant enables between 75 and 150 workers. Future funding is highy likely if more than 150 workers participate, with a goal of transition to sustainability without philanthropic support. Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Sarah Williamson at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Sarah_Williamson_09-09-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-09-09). 58 workers would participate in the program in 2016, leading Open Philanthropy to provide a $50,000 exit grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-exit-grant (2016-10). https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti has a detailed retrospective of the whole effort. Other notes: The program funded by the grant would be covered by The Economist in https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2017/01/26/visas-as-aid (January 2017). Unfortunately for the long-term prospects in terms of creating sustainable flows, Haiti was removed from the Eligible Countries List for H-2A visas by the United States government on 2018-01-18. See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-01-18/pdf/2018-00812.pdf and https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/dhs-countries-eligible-h2-visas.aspx for more details. Affected countries: United States|Haiti; announced: 2016-02-29. |