Ajeya Cotra donations made

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.

Table of contents

Basic donor information

ItemValue
Country United States
Affiliated organizations (current or former; restricted to potential donees or others relevant to donation decisions)Open Philanthropy
Facebook username https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1638572396
LinkedIn username ajeya-cotra-90942b8b
Websitehttps://ajeyac.wordpress.com
Donations URLno single location; https://eahub.org/user/ajeya-cotra, https://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2016/, http://effective-altruism.com/ea/14d/donor_lotteries_a_stepbystep_guide_for_mall/
Effective Altruism Hub usernameajeya-cotra
Data entry method on Donations List WebsiteManual (no scripts used)
Org Watch pagehttps://orgwatch.issarice.com/?person=Ajeya+Cotra

Donor donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 6 2,200 4,850 0 0 0 0 2,200 2,200 2,700 7,737 7,737 16,463 16,463
Global health 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Charity evaluator 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 7,737 8,800 2,200 2,200 2,200 2,200 7,737 7,737 7,737 16,463 16,463 16,463 16,463
Politics 1 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700 2,700

Donation amounts by cause area and year

If you hover over a cell for a given cause area and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.

Note: Cause area classification used here may not match that used by donor for all cases.

Cause area Number of donations Number of donees Total 2018 2017 2016
(filter this donor) 3 1 26,400.00 7,737.00 16,463.00 2,200.00
Politics (filter this donor) 1 1 2,700.00 0.00 0.00 2,700.00
Charity evaluator (filter this donor) 1 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health (filter this donor) 1 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 6 4 29,100.00 7,737.00 16,463.00 4,900.00

Graph of spending by cause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)

Graph of spending should have loaded here

Graph of spending by cause area and year (cumulative)

Graph of spending should have loaded here

Donation amounts by subcause area and year

If you hover over a cell for a given subcause area and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.

For the meaning of “classified” and “unclassified”, see the page clarifying this.

Subcause area Number of donations Number of donees Total 2016
Politics 1 1 2,700.00 2,700.00
Charity evaluator 1 1 0.00 0.00
Global health/malaria 1 1 0.00 0.00
Classified total 3 3 2,700.00 2,700.00
Unclassified total 3 1 26,400.00 2,200.00
Total 6 4 29,100.00 4,900.00

Skipping spending graph as there is at most one year’s worth of donations.

Donation amounts by donee and year

Donee Cause area Metadata Total 2018 2017 2016
Donor lottery (filter this donor) 26,400.00 7,737.00 16,463.00 2,200.00
A political campaign (filter this donor) 2,700.00 0.00 0.00 2,700.00
Against Malaria Foundation (filter this donor) Global health/malaria FB Tw WP Site GW CN GS TW 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
GiveWell (filter this donor) Charity evaluation/global health/poverty FB Tw WP Site TW 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total -- -- 29,100.00 7,737.00 16,463.00 4,900.00

Graph of spending by donee and year (incremental, not cumulative)

Graph of spending should have loaded here

Graph of spending by donee and year (cumulative)

Graph of spending should have loaded here

Donation amounts by influencer and year

Sorry, we couldn't find any influencer information.

Donation amounts by disclosures and year

Sorry, we couldn't find any disclosures information.

Donation amounts by country and year

If you hover over a cell for a given country and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.

For the meaning of “classified” and “unclassified”, see the page clarifying this.

Country Number of donations Number of donees Total 2016
United States 1 1 2,700.00 2,700.00
Classified total 1 1 2,700.00 2,700.00
Unclassified total 5 3 26,400.00 2,200.00
Total 6 4 29,100.00 4,900.00

Skipping spending graph as there is at most one year’s worth of donations.

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (6 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
Hiring analytical thinkers to help give away billions2018-03-30Ajeya Cotra MediumOpen Philanthropy Job advertisementOpen Philanthropy Project research analyst Ajeya Cotra speaks highly of the work there, and highlights the new research analyst positions the organization is hiring for. The post would be shared on Facebook by Claire Zabel at https://www.facebook.com/claire.zabel/posts/10216805589078395 and 80,000 Hours at https://www.facebook.com/80000Hours/posts/1703309639750767
Staff Members’ Personal Donations for Giving Season 20172017-12-18Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyHolden Karnofsky Alexander Berger Nick Beckstead Helen Toner Claire Zabel Lewis Bollard Ajeya Cotra Morgan Davis Michael Levine GiveWell top charities GiveWell GiveDirectly EA Giving Group Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Effective Altruism Funds Sentience Institute Encompass The Humane League The Good Food Institute Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming USA Animal Equality Donor lottery Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly Periodic donation list documentationOpen Philanthropy Project staff members describe where they are donating this year, and the considerations that went into the donation decision. By policy, amounts are not disclosed. This is the first standalone blog post of this sort by the Open Philanthropy Project; in previous years, the corresponding donations were documented in the GiveWell staff members donation post.
How Will Hen Welfare Be Impacted by the Transition to Cage-Free Housing?2017-09-15Ajeya Cotra Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Reasoning supplementAnimal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaignA followup to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms which described the original cage-free campaign funding strategy. This report compares aviaries (cage-free living environments) with cages for hens. It tempers original enthusiasm for cage-free by noting higher mortality rates, but continues to support the position that cage-free is likely better on net for hens. Described in blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/new-report-welfare-differences-between-cage-and-cage-free-housing that expresses regret for not investigating this more thoroughly earlier, and thanks Direct Action Everywhere for highlighting the issue. See https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/cnK5yNlYHuc for the announcement.
AMF and Population Ethics2016-12-12Ajeya Cotra GiveWell Against Malaria Foundation GiveWell Reasoning supplementGlobal health/malariaAjeya Cotra of GiveWell responds to a blog post https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4WWXNKWHXQNFk3afc/are-you-sure-you-want-to-donate-to-the-against-malaria (GW, IR) by Michael Plant arguing that, under various possible population ethics stances, the Against Malaria Foundation is not the best use of donations. Cotra's post first summarizes Plant's argument, then explains why in GiveWell's views, its recommendation of AMF is compatible with most population ethics stances
Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 20162016-12-09Natalie Crispin GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Josh Rosenberg Rebecca Raible Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Lewis Bollard Chelsea Tabart Sarah Ward Chris Somerville Ajeya Cotra Chris Smith Isabel Arjmand A political campaign GiveWell top charities International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation UPMC Center for Health Security Donor lottery EA Giving Group GiveDirectly Center for Applied Rationality Malaria Consortium Animal Charity Evaluators Northwest Health Law Advocates StrongMinds Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative The Humane Society of the United States The Humane League Mercy For Animals Humane Society International Compassion in World Farming USA The Good Food Institute Citizens for Farm Animal Protection The END Fund Causa Justa Planned Parenthood International Refugee Assistance Project Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2016. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell
Donor lotteries: demonstration and FAQ (GW, IR)2016-12-07Carl Shulman Effective Altruism ForumTimothy Telleen-Lawton Gregory Lewis Ajeya Cotra Rohin Shah Helen Toner Nicole Ross Howie Lempel Rebecca Raible Pablo Stafforini Aaron Gertler Brayden McLean Benjamin Hoffman Catherine Olsson Eric Herboso Ian David Moss Glenn Willen Jacob Steinhardt Brandon Reinhart Donor lottery Donee donation caseCarl Shulman announces a donor lottery coordinated/sponsored by Paul Christiano, and provides a FAQ discussing questions people might have for participating in the lottery

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (6 donations)

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

Graph of donations and their timeframes
DoneeAmount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 6)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Donor lottery7,737.0022018-12-29--https://app.effectivealtruism.org/lotteries/63715163508812-- January 2019 $100k lottery, Block 1, [8,294,935,620–93,364,150,260]. See https://app.effectivealtruism.org/lotteries for general background; see https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nuzcbhk2JYMkALHke/donor-lottery-2018-is-live (GW, IR) for the blog post announcing this lottery.
Donor lottery16,463.0012017-12-16--https://app.effectivealtruism.org/lotteries/31553453298138-- Block 1, [135,374,500,302–316,387,099,581]. See https://app.effectivealtruism.org/lotteries for general background; see http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1ip/announcing_the_2017_donor_lottery/ for the blog post announcing this lottery. For an explanation by this donor of why she chose to participate in the donor lottery, see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2017#Ajeya. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 100.00%.
Donor lottery2,200.0042016-12-07--http://effective-altruism.com/ea/14d/donor_lotteries_a_stepbystep_guide_for_mall/-- Reasoning explained more in https://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2016/ (go to section for Ajeya Cotra). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 45.00%.
A political campaign2,700.0032016-10Politicshttps://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2016/-- Target of donation not specified, but this donation was in mid-October, in the runup to the November 2016 United States presidential and legislative elections. Also, amount not explicitly specified, but inferred from 55-45 split in donations and knowledge of donor lottery amount from http://effective-altruism.com/ea/14d/donor_lotteries_a_stepbystep_guide_for_mall/ Note also that political campaign donations are capped at 2700 USD in the United States. Affected countries: United States; Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 55.00%.
Against Malaria Foundation----2013Global health/malariahttps://eahub.org/user/ajeya-cotra-- Old entry in EA Hub profile. No amount or other details specified. The donor would later join the Open Philanthropy Project (then still a part of GiveWell) as an employee, but as of the time of this donation was a student.
GiveWell----2013Charity evaluatorhttps://eahub.org/user/ajeya-cotra-- Old entry in EA Hub profile. No amount or other details specified. The donor would later join the Open Philanthropy Project (then still a part of GiveWell) as an employee, but as of the time of this donation was a student.

Similarity to other donors

Sorry, we couldn't find any similar donors.