Alexander Berger 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 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 donor information

ItemValue
Country United States
Affiliated organizations (current or former; restricted to potential donees or others relevant to donation decisions)GiveWell Open Philanthropy
Facebook username alexander.is
LinkedIn username alexander-berger-58906098
Websitehttp://marginalchange.blogspot.com/
Twitter usernamealbrgr
Data entry method on Donations List WebsiteManual (no scripts used)
Org Watch pagehttps://orgwatch.issarice.com/?person=Alexander+Berger

Donor donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cash transfers 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Charity evaluator 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Global health 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Global health and cash transfers 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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
Cash transfers (filter this donor) 5 1 0.00
Charity evaluator (filter this donor) 4 1 0.00
Global health (filter this donor) 3 2 0.00
Global health and cash transfers (filter this donor) 2 1 0.00
Total 14 5 0.00

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

Donation amounts by subcause area and year

Sorry, we couldn't find any subcause area information.

Donation amounts by donee and year

Donee Cause area Metadata Total
GiveDirectly (filter this donor) Cash transfers FB Tw WP Site GW 0.00
GiveWell (filter this donor) Charity evaluation/global health/poverty FB Tw WP Site TW 0.00
Against Malaria Foundation (filter this donor) Global health/malaria FB Tw WP Site GW CN GS TW 0.00
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (filter this donor) Global health/deworming Tw WP Site GW 0.00
GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund (filter this donor) Charity evaluation/global health/poverty FB Tw WP Site 0.00
Total -- -- 0.00

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

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

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Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (11 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
2021 Allocation to GiveWell Top Charities: Why We’re Giving More Going Forward2021-11-22Alexander Berger Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Alexander Berger GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund GiveWell Broad donor strategyGlobal health and developmentThe post from Open Philanthropy co-CEO Alexander Berger announces "our largest-to-date support for GiveWell’s recommendations: $300 million for 2021, up from $100 million last year, with tentative plans to donate an additional $500 million per year in 2022 and 2023." The post explains reasons for the allocation, linking to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/technical-updates-our-global-health-and-wellbeing-cause-prioritization-framework for technical background. Berger adds a parenthetical personal note in the post: "For what it’s worth, I still expect the bulk of my personal giving this year to go to the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund, so I don’t think Open Philanthropy’s plans should be answer-changing for other individual donors."
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Staff - 20192019-12-18Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyChloe Cockburn Jesse Rothman Michelle Crentsil Amanda Hungerfold Lewis Bollard Persis Eskander Alexander Berger Chris Somerville Heather Youngs Claire Zabel National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls Life Comes From It Worth Rises Wild Animal Initiative Sinergia Animal Center for Global Development International Refugee Assistance Project California YIMBY Engineers Without Borders 80,000 Hours Centre for Effective Altruism Future of Humanity Institute Global Priorities Institute Machine Intelligence Research Institute Ought Donation suggestion listCriminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Global health and development|Migration policy|Effective altruism|AI safetyContinuing an annual tradition started in 2015, Open Philanthropy Project staff share suggestions for places that people interested in specific cause areas may consider donating. The sections are roughly based on the focus areas used by Open Phil internally, with the contributors to each section being the Open Phil staff who work in that focus area. Each recommendation includes a "Why we recommend it" or "Why we suggest it" section, and with the exception of the criminal justice reform recommendations, each recommendation includes a "Why we haven't fully funded it" section. Section 5, Assorted recomendations by Claire Zabel, includes a list of "Organizations supported by our Committed for Effective Altruism Support" which includes a list of organizations that are wiithin the purview of the Committee for Effective Altruism Support. The section is approved by the committee and represents their views.
GiveWell’s Top Charities Are (Increasingly) Hard to Beat2019-07-09Alexander Berger Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy GiveDirectly Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Target Malaria JustLeadershipUSA GiveWell Broad donor strategyGlobal health and development|Criminal justice reform|Scientific researchIn the blog post, Alexander Berger discusses how, originally, Open Philanthropy Project donations for near-term human well-being (primarily in the areas of criminal justice reform and scientific research) are compared against a cost-effectiveness benchmark of direct cash transfers, which is set as 100x (every $1 donated should yield $100 in benefits). However, since GiveWell has recently made its cost-effectiveness calculations for top charities more thorough, and now estimates that top charities are 5-15x as cost-effective as cash (or 500-1500x, with 1000x as a median), Berger is now comparing all the existing near-term human well-being grants against the 1000x benchmarks. He finds that, using the back-of-the-envelope calculations (BOTECs) done at the time of justifying the grants, many of the criminal justice reform grants do not clear the bar; in total only $32 million of the grants clears the bar, and about half of it is a single grant to Target Malaria. Berger links to https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GsE2_TNWn0x6MWL1PTdkZT2vQNFW8VFBslC5qjk4sgo/edit?ts=5cc10604 for some sample BOTECs.
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20182018-12-20Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyChloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Alexander Berger Luke Muelhhauser National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls Texas Organizing Project Effective Altruism Funds The Humane League Center for Global Development International Refugee Assistance Project Donor lottery Donation suggestion listCriminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Global health and development|Migration policy|Effective altruismOpen Philanthropy Project staff give suggestions on places that might be good for individuals to donate to. Each suggestion includes a section "Why I suggest it", a section explaining why the Open Philanthropy Project has not funded (or not fully funded) the opportunity, and links to relevant writeups. The post continues a tradition of similar posts published once a year.
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.
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
Suggestions for individual donors from Open Philanthropy Project staff2015-12-23Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyChloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Alexander Berger Nick Beckstead Howie Lempel Alliance for Safety and Justice Bronx Freedom Fund The Humane League The Humane Society of the United States Center for Global Development Center for Popular Democracy Ploughshares Fund Donation suggestion listCriminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Global healthOpen Philanthropy Project staff describe suggestions for best donation opportunities for individual donors in their specific areas. The post was originally published to the GiveWell blog.
Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 20152015-12-09Elie Hassenfeld GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Sean Conley Josh Rosenberg Jake Marcus Rebecca Raible Milan Griffes Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Claire Zabel Nicole Ross Lewis Bollard GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation GiveWell GiveDirectly Wikimedia Foundation Center for Global Development Martha’s Table Country Dance and Song Society Northwest Health Law Advocates Mercy For Animals The Humane League Animal Charity Evaluators Raising for Effective Giving Humane Society of te United States Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2015. 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
Staff members’ personal donations – giving season 20142014-12-17Holden Karnofsky GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Eliza Scheffler Timothy Telleen-Lawton Josh Rosenberg Ben Rachbach Jake Marcus Rebecca Raible Milan Griffes Tyler Heishman GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Deworm the World Initiative GiveWell standout charities Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell staff describe their annual donation plans for 2014. 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
Potential Global Catastrophic Risk Focus Areas2014-06-26Alexander Berger Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Global catastrophic risksIn this blog post originally published at https://blog.givewell.org/2014/06/26/potential-global-catastrophic-risk-focus-areas/ Alexander Berger goes over a list of seven types of global catastrophic risks (GCRs) that the Open Philanthropy Project has considered. He details three promising areas that the Open Philanthropy Project is exploring more and may make grants in: (1) Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, (2) Geoengineering research and governance, (3) AI safety. For the AI safety section, there is a note from Executive Director Holden Karnofsky saying that he sees AI safety as a more promising area than Berger does.
Staff members’ personal donations2013-12-12Holden Karnofsky GiveWellHolden Karnofsky Elie Hassenfeld Alexander Berger Natalie Crispin Eliza Scheffler Timothy Telleen-Lawton Sean Conley Josh Rosenberg Ben Rachbach Howie Lempel Jake Marcus GiveDirectly Mercy For Animals Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Against Malaria Foundation Deworm the World Initiative The Humane Society of the United States Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell staff describe their annual donation plans for 2013. 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

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (14 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 14)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund----2017-12-18Global health and cash transfershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2017#AlexanderGiveWell Same allocation as in 2016, for same reasons. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 80.00%.
GiveWell----2017-12-18Charity evaluatorhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2017#AlexanderGiveWell Same allocation as in 2016, for same reasons. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.00%.
GiveDirectly----2017-12-18Cash transfershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2017#AlexanderGiveWell Same allocation as in 2016, for same reasons. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.00%.
GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund----2016-12-09Global health and cash transfershttps://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2016/GiveWell Less than the 90% last year. Partly because of less urgency around top charities, and optimism regarding better opportunities to be found by the Open Philanthropy Project. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 80.00%.
GiveWell----2016-12-09Charity evaluatorhttps://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2016/GiveWell Same reasons as in 2015: set a norm of donors giving to GiveWell to support their research. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.00%.
GiveDirectly----2016-12-09Cash transfershttps://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2016/GiveWell Same reasons as in 2015: outstanding organization and valuable for cash benchmark. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.00%.
Against Malaria Foundation----2015-12-09Global health/malariahttps://blog.givewell.org/2015/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-for-giving-season-2015/GiveWell More confidence in cost-effectiveness model and in GiveWell recommendation to donate almost all to AMF. 10% for other causes for other reasons. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 90.00%.
GiveWell----2015-12-09Charity evaluatorhttps://blog.givewell.org/2015/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-for-giving-season-2015/GiveWell Reduced from 10% to 5% from last year. Reasons for donating a bit to GiveWell same as last year: wants to set and follow a norm of donating a bit to GiveWell. Due to increase in money moved (relative to cost of running GiveWell), reducing percentage from 10% to 5%. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.00%.
GiveDirectly----2015-12-09Cash transfershttps://blog.givewell.org/2015/12/09/staff-members-personal-donations-for-giving-season-2015/GiveWell Outstanding organization and valuable for setting cash transfer benchmark. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.00%.
GiveWell----2014-12-17Charity evaluatorhttps://blog.givewell.org/2014/12/17/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2014/GiveWell Does not like dynamic of asking people familiar with GiveWel work to donate entirely to GiveWell instead of top charities, and thinks a 10% to GiveWell rule makes more sense. So, doing that himself. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.00%.
Against Malaria Foundation----2014-12-17Global health/malariahttps://blog.givewell.org/2014/12/17/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2014/GiveWell Giving a bit more to AMF than the recommended allocation that would work, because it seems more promising. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 70.00%.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative----2014-12-17Global health/deworminghttps://blog.givewell.org/2014/12/17/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2014/GiveWell Less than GiveWell allocation target because of increased funding to AMF and 10% for GiveWell operations. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.00%.
GiveDirectly----2014-12-17Cash transfershttps://blog.givewell.org/2014/12/17/staff-members-personal-donations-giving-season-2014/GiveWell Correct target after removing 10% for GiveWell and adjusting for non-donation to Deworm the World Initiative. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.00%.
GiveDirectly----2013-12-12Cash transfershttps://blog.givewell.org/2013/12/12/staff-members-personal-donations/GiveWell Actually, split evenly between giving now and waiting, but all the amount actually given went to GiveDirectly. Two main upside points: (1) May not remain a GiveWell top recommendation, so more need to grow enough to develop a non-GiveWell funding stream, (2) Helps to set cash as a baseline for recommendations. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 100.00%.

Similarity to other donors

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