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 | United States |
| Affiliated organizations (current or former; restricted to potential donees or others relevant to donation decisions) | GiveWell Good Ventures |
| Best overview URL | https://causeprioritization.org/Open%20Philanthropy%20Project |
| Facebook username | openphilanthropy |
| Website | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/ |
| Donations URL | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants |
| Twitter username | open_phil |
| PredictionBook username | OpenPhilUnofficial |
| Page on philosophy informing donations | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/vision-and-values |
| Grant application process page | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/guide-for-grant-seekers |
| Regularity with which donor updates donations data | continuous updates |
| Regularity with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update) | continuous updates |
| Lag with which donor updates donations data | months |
| Lag with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update) | days |
| Data entry method on Donations List Website | Manual (no scripts used) |
| Org Watch page | https://orgwatch.issarice.com/?organization=Open+Philanthropy |
Brief history: Open Philanthropy (Open Phil for short) spun off from GiveWell, starting as GiveWell Labs in 2011, beginning to make strong progress in 2013, and formally separating from GiveWell as the "Open Philanthropy Project" in June 2017. In 2020, it started going by "Open Philanthropy" dropping the "Project" word.
Brief notes on broad donor philosophy and major focus areas: Open Philanthropy is focused on openness in two ways: open to ideas about cause selection, and open in explaining what they are doing. It has endorsed "hits-based giving" and is working on areas of AI risk, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, and other global catastrophic risks, criminal justice reform (United States), animal welfare, and some other areas.
Notes on grant decision logistics: See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-grantmaking-so-far-approach-and-process for the general grantmaking process and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/questions-we-ask-ourselves-making-grant for more questions that grant investigators are encouraged to consider. Every grant has a grant investigator that we call the influencer here on Donations List Website; for focus areas that have Program Officers, the grant investigator is usually the Program Officer. The grant investigator has been included in grants published since around July 2017. Grants usually need approval from an executive; however, some grant investigators have leeway to make "discretionary grants" where the approval process is short-circuited; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/discretionary-grants for more. Note that the term "discretionary grant" means something different for them compared to government agencies, see https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10213483361534364 for more.
Notes on grant publication logistics: Every publicly disclosed grant has a writeup published at the time of public disclosure, but the writeups vary significantly in length. Grant writeups are usually written by somebody other than the grant investigator, but approved by the grant investigator as well as the grantee. Grants have three dates associated with them: an internal grant decision date (that is not publicly revealed but is used in some statistics on total grant amounts decided by year), a grant date (which we call donation date; this is the date of the formal grant commitment, which is the published grant date), and a grant announcement date (which we call donation announcement date; the date the grant is announced to the mailing list and the grant page made publicly visible). Lags are a few months between decision and grant, and a few months between grant and announcement, due to time spent with grant writeup approval.
Notes on grant financing: See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/guide-for-grant-seekers or https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/who-we-are for more information. Grants generally come from the Open Philanthropy Fund, a donor-advised fund managed by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, with most of its money coming from Good Ventures. Some grants are made directly by Good Ventures, and political grants may be made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. At least one grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-york was made by Cari Tuna personally. The majority of grants are financed by the Open Philanthropy Project Fund; however, the source of financing of a grant is not always explicitly specified, so it cannot be confidently assumed that a grant with no explicit listed financing is financed through the Open Philanthropy Project Fund; see the comment https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/october-2017-open-thread?page=2#comment-462 for more information. Funding for multi-year grants is usually disbursed annually, and the amounts are often equal across years, but not always. The fact that a grant is multi-year, or the distribution of the grant amount across years, are not always explicitly stated on the grant page; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/october-2017-open-thread?page=2#comment-462 for more information. Some grants to universities are labeled "gifts" but this is a donee classification, based on different levels of bureaucratic overhead and funder control between grants and gifts; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/october-2017-open-thread?page=2#comment-462 for more information.
Miscellaneous notes: Most GiveWell-recommended grants made by Good Ventures and listed in the Open Philanthropy database are not listed on Donations List Website as being under Open Philanthropy. Specifically, GiveWell Incubation Grants are not included (these are listed at https://donations.vipulnaik.com/donor.php?donor=GiveWell+Incubation+Grants with donor GiveWell Incubation Grants), and grants made by Good Ventures to GiveWell top and standout charities are also not included (these are listed at https://donations.vipulnaik.com/donor.php?donor=Good+Ventures%2FGiveWell+top+and+standout+charities with donor Good Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities). Grants to support GiveWell operations are not included here; they can be found at https://donations.vipulnaik.com/donor.php?donor=Good+Ventures%2FGiveWell+support with donor "Good Ventures/GiveWell support".The investment https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/impossible-foods in Impossible Foods is not included because it does not fit our criteria for a donation, and also because no amount was included. All other grants publicly disclosed by open philanthropy that are not GiveWell Incubation Grants or GiveWell top and standout charity grants should be included. Grants disclosed by grantees but not yet disclosed by Open Philanthropy are not included; some of them may be listed at https://issarice.com/open-philanthropy-project-non-grant-funding
| 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 | 22 | 300,000 | 378,630 | 37,000 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 250,000 | 300,000 | 350,000 | 400,000 | 500,000 | 600,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Land use reform | 22 | 300,000 | 378,630 | 37,000 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 250,000 | 300,000 | 350,000 | 400,000 | 500,000 | 600,000 | 2,000,000 |
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 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land use reform (filter this donor) | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
| Total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
Graph of spending by cause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by cause area and year (cumulative)
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 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land use reform | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
| Classified total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
| Unclassified total | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
Graph of spending by subcause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by subcause area and year (cumulative)
| Donee | Cause area | Metadata | Total | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California YIMBY (filter this donor) | 2,850,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2,000,000.00 | 850,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Sightline Institute (filter this donor) | 1,550,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 800,000.00 | 0.00 | 350,000.00 | 0.00 | 400,000.00 | ||
| Open New York (filter this donor) | 1,000,000.00 | 1,000,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund (filter this donor) | 640,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 340,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 300,000.00 | 0.00 | ||
| YIMBY Law (filter this donor) | 600,000.00 | 0.00 | 600,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Abundant Housing Massachusetts (filter this donor) | 600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Greater Greater Washington (filter this donor) | 550,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 300,000.00 | 0.00 | 250,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Smart Growth America (filter this donor) | WP | 275,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 275,000.00 | |
| Urban Institute (filter this donor) | FB Tw WP Site | 97,865.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 97,865.00 | |
| Seattle for Everyone (filter this donor) | 50,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 50,000.00 | 0.00 | ||
| East Bay Forward (filter this donor) | 40,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 40,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Harborlight Community Partners (filter this donor) | 40,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 40,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Better Boulder (filter this donor) | 37,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 37,000.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Total | -- | -- | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
Graph of spending by donee and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by donee and year (cumulative)
If you hover over a cell for a given influencer 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.
| Influencer | Number of donations | Number of donees | Total | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Berger | 9 | 6 | 1,920,000.00 | 0.00 | 100,000.00 | 1,440,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 300,000.00 |
| Otis Reid | 1 | 1 | 1,000,000.00 | 1,000,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Zachary Robinson | 1 | 1 | 600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Zachary Robinson|Alexander Berger | 1 | 1 | 500,000.00 | 0.00 | 500,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Washington, D.C. | 1 | 1 | 250,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 250,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Classified total | 13 | 8 | 4,270,000.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 1,440,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 290,000.00 | 300,000.00 |
| Unclassified total | 9 | 6 | 4,059,865.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2,000,000.00 | 850,000.00 | 350,000.00 | 87,000.00 |
| Total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 |
Graph of spending by influencer and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by influencer and year (cumulative)
If you hover over a cell for a given disclosures 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.
| Disclosures | Number of donations | Number of donees | Total | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Berger | 1 | 1 | 300,000.00 | 300,000.00 |
| Classified total | 1 | 1 | 300,000.00 | 300,000.00 |
| Unclassified total | 21 | 13 | 8,029,865.00 | 87,000.00 |
| Total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 387,000.00 |
Skipping spending graph as there is at most one year’s worth of donations.
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 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 16 | 11 | 4,842,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 1,440,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 350,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
| Alexander Berger | 5 | 3 | 3,450,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2,000,000.00 | 850,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| United States|Canada | 1 | 1 | 37,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 37,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Classified total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
| Unclassified total | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 22 | 13 | 8,329,865.00 | 1,600,000.00 | 600,000.00 | 3,440,000.00 | 890,000.00 | 640,000.00 | 387,000.00 | 772,865.00 |
Graph of spending by country and year (incremental, not cumulative)
Graph of spending by country and year (cumulative)
There are no documents associated with this donor.
Graph of top 10 donees (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations
| Donee | Amount (current USD) | Amount rank (out of 22) | Donation date | Cause area | URL | Influencer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open New York | 1,000,000.00 | 2 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/open-new-york | Otis Reid | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding is intended to support Open New York’s work advocating for New York housing to be affordable and accessible to everyone." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As part of our focus on land use reform to promote housing affordability, we’ve supported a number of advocacy organizations in high-wage, high-cost regions (e.g. Seattle and Washington, D.C.) to push for more housing." Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City. |
|
| Abundant Housing Massachusetts | 600,000.00 | 3 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/abundant-housing-massachusetts | Zachary Robinson | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. Abundant Housing Massachusetts is a new statewide organization that advocates for more housing across Massachusetts and within the Greater Boston Area." Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant page calls the grantee a "new statewide organization" so this is likely an initial/founding grant and the timing is explained accordingly. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: Massachusetts; affected cities: Boston. |
|
| YIMBY Law | 500,000.00 | 5 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/yimby-law-general-support-october-2020 | Zachary Robinson Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. YIMBY Law is a new organization that advocates for more available and affordable housing in California and pursues litigation to ensure compliance with state housing laws." Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made about nine months after the first grant to the grantee, which was a founding grant. The timeframe of the original grant was not specified, but the amount ($100,000) suggests a timeframe of under a year, so the timing of this new grant is likely determined by the previous grant running out. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: California. |
|
| YIMBY Law | 100,000.00 | 16 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/yimby-law-general-support | Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. YIMBY Law is a new organization that advocates for more available and affordable housing in California and pursues litigation to ensure compliance with state housing laws." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "[grantee's] founder, Sonja Trauss, pursued a similar strategy as part of her previous work at the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund [CaRLA]." Open Philanthropy had previously made grants to CaRLA, the latest being https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support-2019 (2019-02), so this grant was likely for similar reasons and based on the outcomes of that grant. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant page calls the grantee a "new organization" and its founder appears to have recently left California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, another organization previously funded by Open Phil. The timing is likely explained by it being an initial/founding grant. Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup two-year $500,000 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/yimby-law-general-support-october-2020 (2020-10) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: California. |
|
| Sightline Institute | 600,000.00 | 3 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-december-2019 | Alexander 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. |
|
| Greater Greater Washington | 300,000.00 | 11 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/greater-greater-washington-housing-and-land-use-reform-2019 | Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work on housing affordability and land use reform. Greater Greater Washington is a news and advocacy organization that focuses on housing, transportation, and other local policy issues in the greater Washington, D.C. metro area." Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason is given for the amount, but it is similar to the previous amount of $250,000; the difference in the amount is approximately proportional to the difference in timeframe (2 years versus 2.5 years). Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the end of the timeframe of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/greater-greater-washington-housing-and-land-use-reform-2017 (2017-06). Intended funding timeframe in months: 30 Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected cities: Washington, D.C.. |
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| Sightline Institute | 50,000.00 | 18 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-YIMBYtown-2019 | Alexander 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. |
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| California YIMBY | 2,000,000.00 | 1 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support-2019 | -- | Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the funds are to be used for lobbying Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: According to the grant page, the grantee "reports that they will use our support to continue work on organizing, communications, digital outreach, data and analytics, and finance and operations." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page gives the following reasons for seeing California housing policy changes as promising philanthropy: (1) large share of US population and half of expensive metro population, (2) cost-effectiveness of state-level advocacy, as observed in criminal justice reform grantmaking, (3) wider scope of housing markets than the geographic range in which housing approvals are allocated (e.g., people search for houses outside city limits), (4) widespread consensus that California should be building more homes. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The implicit funding of $1 million/year is similar to the funding in 2018 of $850,000 ($500,000 initial grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support in April 2018 + $350,000 matching funds https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support in August 2018) with a slight increase possibly accounting for the organization's expansion, Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by it being one year since the last full general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support of $500,000 in April 2018 (though there was a coupled matching grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support-august-2018 in August 2018, it is likely that the expected total of the two grants was expected to last one year from April 2018). Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Other notes: Affected countries: Alexander Berger; affected states: United States; affected cities: California; announced: 2019-07-22. |
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| California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund | 340,000.00 | 10 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support-2019 | Alexander Berger | Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grantee intends to continue pursuing litigation, advocating against regulatory barriers to building housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and developing educational resources. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The original grant amount was $400,000, but the grantee returned $60,000 of unused funds. Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant timing is a little after the end of the timeframe of the previous two-grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support (2016-06). Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor retrospective of the donation: The later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/yimby-law-general-support to YIMBY Law, based on its founder's work at California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, can be thought of as a continued vote of confidence in the work funded by the grant. Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2019-05-18. |
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| Sightline Institute | 150,000.00 | 15 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/sightline-institute-housing-and-urban-development-2019 | Alexander 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. |
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| California YIMBY | 350,000.00 | 8 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support-august-2018 | -- | Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the funds are to be used for lobbying. This is a matching grant and the amount is therefore contingent on the amount raised by the grantee from other sources Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: The grantee works on strengthening the California Housing Accountability Act. The grant page for the previous general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support says that the grantee "reports that they will use our support to hire several additional staff members to focus on organizing, communications, digital outreach, data and analytics, and finance and operations." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page for the previous related grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support says gives the following reasons for seeing California housing policy changes as promising philanthropy: (1) large share of US population and half of expensive metro population, (2) cost-effectiveness of state-level advocacy, as observed in criminal justice reform grantmaking, (3) wider scope of housing markets than the geographic range in which housing approvals are allocated (e.g., people search for houses outside city limits), (4) widespread consensus that California should be building more homes Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Since this is a matching grant, the amount is likely determined by the amount of money raised by the grantee from other sources Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by the timing of completion of raising matching funds. The previous grant post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support had a deadline of September 1 for raising matching funds Donor retrospective of the donation: A further general support grant would be made in 2019; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support-2019 This renewed support, with essentially the same reasoning, suggests that the donor would remain satisfied with the outcome of the grant Other notes: Affected countries: Alexander Berger; affected states: United States; affected cities: California; announced: 2018-09-28. |
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| California YIMBY | 500,000.00 | 5 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support | -- | Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the funds are to be used for lobbying Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: The grantee works on strengthening the California Housing Accountability Act. The grant page says that the grantee "reports that they will use our support to hire several additional staff members to focus on organizing, communications, digital outreach, data and analytics, and finance and operations." Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page gives the following reasons for seeing California housing policy changes as promising philanthropy: (1) large share of US population and half of expensive metro population, (2) cost-effectiveness of state-level advocacy, as observed in criminal justice reform grantmaking, (3) wider scope of housing markets than the geographic range in which housing approvals are allocated (e.g., people search for houses outside city limits), (4) widespread consensus that California should be building more homes Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reason for amount given, but the grant page says: "We also recommended a smaller matching grant for funding California YIMBY raises from other sources before September 1, which we will write up separately when the match is complete and the amount is finalized." Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by the launch of the new organization Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "We also recommended a smaller matching grant for funding California YIMBY raises from other sources before September 1, which we will write up separately when the match is complete and the amount is finalized." Donor retrospective of the donation: The matching grant would be made in August 2018; see ttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support-august-2018 A further general support grant would be made in 2019; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-yimby-general-support-2019 This renewed support, with essentially the same reasoning, suggests that the donor would remain satisfied with the outcome of the grant Other notes: Grantee is a new organization founded by people that Open Phil previously funded at CaRLA (California Renters Legal Advocacy Fund): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform who successfully sponsored legislation in 2017 to strengthen California’s Housing Accountability Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Housing_Accountability_Act and who subsequently saw sufficient opportunity and need for statewide legislative advocacy to justify a new organization. Affected countries: Alexander Berger; affected states: United States; affected cities: California; announced: 2018-05-24. |
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| Harborlight Community Partners | 40,000.00 | 20 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/harborlight-community-partners-YIMBYtown-2018 | Alexander Berger | Discretionary grant to support the 2018 national "Yes In My Back Yard" conference, scheduled to take place in Boston, Masschusetts, in September. Open Phi has supported the conference for two previous years: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/better-boulder-yimby-2016 (2016, grant to Better Boulder, organizing the conference in Boulder, Colorado), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/east-bay-forward-yimbytown-2017-conference (2017, to East Bay Forward, organizing the conference in Oakland, California). Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-12. | |
| Sightline Institute | 350,000.00 | 8 | Land use reform | https://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. |
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| Greater Greater Washington | 250,000.00 | 14 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/greater-greater-washington-housing-and-land-use-reform-2017 | Washington, D.C. | Donation process: The grant is a result of the grant renewal request https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Greater_Greater_Washington/Greater_Greater_Washington_Grant_Renewal_Request_April_2017.pdf of a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/smart-growth-america-greater-greater-washington-education-project to Smart Growth America for the Greater Greater Washington Education Project. Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses Intended use of funds: Grant to support "work on housing affordability and land use reform." The grant renewal request https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Greater_Greater_Washington/Greater_Greater_Washington_Grant_Renewal_Request_April_2017.pdf has more details. Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "we see the coalition it has helped coordinate in support of including more housing in D.C.’s revised Comprehensive Plan as a promising initial step." It links to http://www.dchousingpriorities.org/ (for the coalition) and https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/24/16010720/dc-comprehensive-plan (as a refeerence for the promising nature). Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant renewal request https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Greater_Greater_Washington/Greater_Greater_Washington_Grant_Renewal_Request_April_2017.pdf includes budget projections. The "maintain scenario" has a total two-year budget of $275,000, compared to the actual amount of $250,000. Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Followup granting is not explicitly discussed, but the grant page says: "We think it is mostly too early to tell whether its work has had any impact on housing construction or affordability" suggesting that more evidence may be brought into play before deciding on a followup grant. Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/greater-greater-washington-housing-and-land-use-reform-2019 (2019-08) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Alexander Berger; affected states: United States; announced: 2017-08-11. |
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| East Bay Forward | 40,000.00 | 20 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/east-bay-forward-yimbytown-2017-conference | Alexander Berger | Money to support a YIMBYtown 2017 conference planned for July 2017. Grant via the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund (CaRLA). Follows up on grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/better-boulder-yimby-2016 to Better Boulder supporting the YIMBY 2016 conference. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-07-07. | |
| California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund | 300,000.00 | 11 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support | Alexander Berger | Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support#Our_process "Alexander Berger, who leads our work on land use reform, heard from Trauss that she was planning to start a new organization focused on land use reform in the Bay Area." Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support Intended use of funds: Grantee is a nascent advocacy organization that intends to litigate and advocate against regulatory barriers to building housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. More at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support#Proposed_activities Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support#Case_for_the_grant (1) The San Francisco Bay Area is a key region for land use reform, (2) The founder, Sonja Trauss, has been able to attract some public interest to the issue in San Francisco through the SF Bay Area Renters’ Federation (SFBARF), which she also founded. Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): There is background at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding saying the organization has received $100,000 from another donor, and may be able to raise more funding if it attempts Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is (sort of) a founding grant to a nascent advocacy organization Intended funding timeframe in months: 24 Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant ttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support-2019 (2019-02) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee. Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: San Francisco; announced: 2016-06-28. |
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| Better Boulder | 37,000.00 | 22 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/better-boulder-yimby-2016 | -- | Money to support a conference of land use reform advocates from around the United States and Canada, called YIMBY 2016, in Boulder, Colorado. YIMY = Yes, In My Backyard" is a play on the corresponding more famous opposite acronym NIMBY. Affected countries: United States|Canada; announced: 2016-05-09. | |
| Seattle for Everyone | 50,000.00 | 18 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/seattle-everyone-general-support | -- | Recipient is a coalition of various interest groups (including market rate developers, affordable housing developers, labor and social justice advocates, businesses, environmentalists, and urbanists) formed to promote the same set of proposed land use reforms in Seattle that Sightline Institute (another Open Phil grantee) also promotes. No detailed writeup. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Washington; affected cities: Seattle; announced: 2016-03-30. | |
| Sightline Institute | 400,000.00 | 7 | Land use reform | https://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. |
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| Urban Institute | 97,865.00 | 17 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/urban-institute-land-use-convening | -- | Funds research project and convening aimed at identifying policy changes that would allow more housing supply in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Affected countries: United States; affected cities: Washington, D.C.; announced: 2015-10-06. | |
| Smart Growth America | 275,000.00 | 13 | Land use reform | https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/smart-growth-america-greater-greater-washington-education-project | -- | To support Smart Growth America’s Greater Greater Washington Education Project. Greater Greater Washington (GGW) is a group blog that covers local policy issues, such as housing, education, and transportation, in the greater Washington, D.C. metro area. Followup conversation with David Alpert, Sarah Guidi, and Jonathan Neeley of grante organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/David_Alpert_Sarah_Guidi_and_Jonathan_Neeley_12-16-2015_%28public%29.pdf on 2015-12-16. Second followup conversation with David Alpert, Sarah Guidi, and David Whitehead of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/David_Alpert_Sarah_Guidi_David_Whitehead_06-07-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-06-07. Affected countries: United States; affected cities: Washington, D.C.; announced: 2015-07-28. |
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