Sightline Institute 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

ItemValue
Country

Donee donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 16 100,000 146,250 30,000 30,000 50,000 50,000 75,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 150,000 400,000 600,000
Environmental Protection 3 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Environmental Equity, Racial Equity 8 100,000 87,500 50,000 50,000 75,000 75,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000
Land use reform 5 350,000 310,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 150,000 150,000 350,000 350,000 400,000 400,000 600,000 600,000

Donation amounts by donor and year for donee Sightline Institute

Donor Total 2019 2017 2015 2012 2009 2007 2006
Open Philanthropy (filter this donee) 1,550,000.00 800,000.00 350,000.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Quixote Foundation (filter this donee) 790,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 375,000.00 255,000.00 30,000.00 30,000.00
Total 2,340,000.00 800,000.00 450,000.00 400,000.00 375,000.00 255,000.00 30,000.00 30,000.00

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (0 documents)

There are no documents associated with this donee.

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (16 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 16)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Open Philanthropy600,000.0012019-12Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-december-2019Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work on housing and urban development." Grantee "plans to use these funds to build coalitions in support of allowing more housing in Washington and Oregon."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; affected states: Washington|Oregon.
Open Philanthropy50,000.00122019-06Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-YIMBYtown-2019Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a national “Yes In My Back Yard” conference, which will take place in Portland, Oregon."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We previously supported the first three national YIMBY conferences to bring those housing advocates together in 2016 in Boulder, Colorado, in 2017 in Oakland, California, and in 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts." The first grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/better-boulder-yimby-2016 (with grantee Better Boulder) has a more detailed explanation of the reasons.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of the grant is pretty similar to the amount of previous grants: $37,000 (2016), $40,000 (2017), and $40,000 (2018).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing of the grant is likely determined by the timing of the conference.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Open Philanthropy150,000.0042019-02Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-2019Alexander Berger Donation process: Discretionary grant. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the funds are to be used for lobbying

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on housing and land use." Grantee "plans to use these funds to support priority housing legislation in Washington and Oregon."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reasons given, but reasons likely similar to those for the October 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-2017 and the October 2015 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development (which has the most detailed write-up).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of this grant ($100,000) is less than the amount for previous two-year grants ($400,000 and $350,000) so it is more a supplement than a renewal.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: Washington|Oregon; announced: 2019-06-07.
Open Philanthropy350,000.0032017-10Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-2017-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Sightline Institute's work on housing and urban development." The grant page says: "The Sightline Institute intends to use this funding to continue promoting the Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory Committee’s (HALA) land use reform agenda in Seattle, and to promote similar reforms nationally by disseminating lessons learned from the Seattle initiative."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Likely the same reasons as for the original October 2015 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount ($350,000 over two years) is similar to the previous grant amount ($400,000 over two years). The reasons for the amount are also likely similar

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-2019 suggests that this grant would be considered a success

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Alexander Berger; affected states: United States; announced: 2017-11-14.
Quixote Foundation100,000.0052017-03-16Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- Project support for Sightline's racial equity, diversity, and inclusion work.
Open Philanthropy400,000.0022015-10Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-- Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development#Our_process "We approached Sightline to discuss its work on housing issues after learning about the Institute in the course of our research into land use reform in Seattle. We discussed potential uses for additional funding on this topic, and received a grant proposal from Sightline. We also spoke to a small number of people who work in this area and asked for their assessment of Sightline’s impact."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support Sightline Institute's work on housing and urban development. Two main goals: (1) Promoting HALA’s agenda in Seattle. (2) Making the national case for Seattle-style land use reform.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development#Case_for_the_grant there are two main outcomes Open Phil hopes to see with this grant: (1) Increasing the likelihood that the effort to implement the HALA agreement in Seattle succeeds, (2) Multiplying the benefits of any success achieved in Seattle by telling the story nationally, with the aim of leading other cities to adopt similar reforms. Also: "From those conversations it appears to us that Sightline is consistently regarded as credible, particularly with its main audience of people interested in sustainability issues in the Pacific Northwest."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development#Our_process "We considered several different levels of annual funding for this project before settling on $200,000/year." Footnote 11 includes details on how the Sightline Institute would have spent alternate levels of funding: $110,000/year, $160,000/year, $260,000/year

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Alan Durning of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Alan_Durning_07-05-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-07-05. The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-2017 suggests that the grant would be considered a success

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; affected states: Washington; affected cities: Seattle; announced: 2016-02-03.
Quixote Foundation100,000.0052012-07-21Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- General Operating Support inclusive of annual diversity and racial equity goals.
Quixote Foundation100,000.0052012-07-21Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- General Operating Support inclusive of annual diversity and racial equity goals.
Quixote Foundation100,000.0052012-07-21Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- General Operating Support inclusive of annual diversity and racial equity goals.
Quixote Foundation75,000.00102012-07-21Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- General Operating Support inclusive of annual diversity and racial equity goals.
Quixote Foundation50,000.00122009-11-13Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- Project Support for a Diversity Planning Project to increase diversity and equity within the board and staff make-up and with regards to the articles and stories coming out of Sightline.
Quixote Foundation75,000.00102009-11-13Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- Project Support for a Diversity Planning Project to increase diversity and equity within the board and staff make-up and with regards to the articles and stories coming out of Sightline.
Quixote Foundation100,000.0052009-11-13Environmental Equity, Racial Equityhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- Project Support for a Diversity Planning Project to increase diversity and equity within the board and staff make-up and with regards to the articles and stories coming out of Sightline.
Quixote Foundation30,000.00142009-02-06Environmental Protectionhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- General Operating Support.
Quixote Foundation30,000.00142007-05-11Environmental Protectionhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- General Operating Support.
Quixote Foundation30,000.00142006-07-28Environmental Protectionhttps://archives.iupui.edu//handle/2450/11391-- Project Support - Washington State Progress Alliance Challenge.