Open Philanthropy 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 Good Ventures
Best overview URLhttps://causeprioritization.org/Open%20Philanthropy%20Project
Facebook username openphilanthropy
Websitehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/
Donations URLhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants
Twitter usernameopen_phil
PredictionBook usernameOpenPhilUnofficial
Page on philosophy informing donationshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/vision-and-values
Grant application process pagehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/guide-for-grant-seekers
Regularity with which donor updates donations datacontinuous updates
Regularity with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update)continuous updates
Lag with which donor updates donations datamonths
Lag with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update)days
Data entry method on Donations List WebsiteManual (no scripts used)
Org Watch pagehttps://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

Donor donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 921 300,000 1,233,536 370 42,000 75,000 116,744 200,000 300,000 450,000 600,000 1,134,975 2,537,600 55,000,000
AI safety 200 250,000 1,382,612 370 25,000 63,839 101,187 166,500 250,000 343,235 562,128 1,337,600 2,652,500 38,920,000
History of philanthropy 4 25,000 60,708 2,000 2,000 2,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 50,000 50,000 165,833 165,833 165,833
Animal welfare 247 315,500 644,584 5,000 48,324 100,000 134,000 215,000 315,500 453,841 533,036 900,000 1,364,000 10,000,000
Criminal justice reform 199 150,000 611,018 5,000 40,000 50,000 75,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 280,000 491,000 900,000 50,000,000
Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness 50 454,025 1,804,338 10,000 25,000 44,627 169,600 300,000 454,025 570,000 1,300,000 2,588,162 3,556,773 19,500,000
Effective altruism 15 1,755,921 1,976,960 10,000 153,750 500,000 1,000,000 1,032,947 1,755,921 2,500,000 2,756,250 3,222,653 4,146,795 4,795,803
Global catastrophic risks 12 260,000 1,498,474 15,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 250,000 260,000 437,800 493,425 776,095 2,982,206 12,066,809
Migration policy 23 550,000 617,272 24,000 50,000 150,000 285,000 400,000 550,000 700,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,184,720 1,800,000
Macroeconomic stabilization policy 33 400,000 580,786 31,500 73,368 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 700,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 4,000,000
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
Scientific research 46 1,214,437 2,504,044 40,000 150,000 225,000 495,000 1,021,318 1,214,437 1,738,500 2,368,300 2,970,000 5,000,000 17,500,000
Global poverty 1 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696 46,696
Global health 28 2,500,000 5,960,171 50,000 50,000 50,000 724,929 2,500,000 2,500,000 2,796,000 6,500,000 9,700,000 26,600,000 33,926,000
3 50,000 1,700,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000
Organ donation 3 100,000 116,667 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 200,000 200,000 200,000 200,000
Climate change 6 2,000,000 2,179,372 76,234 76,234 500,000 500,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000
Biomedical research 2 100,000 200,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 300,000 300,000 300,000 300,000 300,000
International relations 2 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000
Drug policy 4 150,000 468,658 103,000 103,000 103,000 150,000 150,000 150,000 250,000 250,000 1,371,630 1,371,630 1,371,630
Global health and development 3 3,000,000 2,100,000 300,000 300,000 300,000 300,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000
Epistemic institutions 8 500,000 708,000 304,000 304,000 340,000 375,000 500,000 500,000 560,000 1,000,000 1,035,000 1,550,000 1,550,000
Cash transfers 4 2,500,000 5,571,311 500,000 500,000 500,000 2,500,000 2,500,000 2,500,000 2,500,000 2,500,000 16,785,243 16,785,243 16,785,243
Public services improvement and transparency 1 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000 500,000
Politics 2 628,600 1,214,300 628,600 628,600 628,600 628,600 628,600 628,600 1,800,000 1,800,000 1,800,000 1,800,000 1,800,000
Global catastrophic risks|Global health|Animal welfare 1 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000
Cause prioritization 1 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284 2,674,284
Security 1 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000 55,000,000

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 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
AI safety (filter this donor) 200 105 276,522,475.00 57,959,108.00 57,955,777.00 81,661,316.00 15,571,349.00 8,243,500.00 4,160,392.00 43,221,048.00 6,563,985.00 1,186,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health (filter this donor) 28 16 166,884,786.00 0.00 0.00 5,975,000.00 92,984,857.00 17,200,000.00 48,500,000.00 0.00 724,929.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 1,000,000.00
Animal welfare (filter this donor) 247 121 159,212,237.00 0.00 0.00 23,649,646.00 25,206,744.00 39,855,395.00 27,977,489.00 28,086,693.00 14,436,270.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Criminal justice reform (filter this donor) 199 124 121,592,586.00 0.00 0.00 50,000,000.00 0.00 2,552,300.00 20,448,485.00 20,089,473.00 23,916,338.00 1,140,990.00 3,000,000.00 445,000.00 0.00
Scientific research (filter this donor) 46 38 115,186,029.00 0.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 0.00 34,431,825.00 23,390,766.00 47,549,544.00 8,313,894.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness (filter this donor) 50 33 90,216,891.00 0.00 0.00 9,330,000.00 14,970,000.00 21,565,525.00 9,887,753.00 28,840,546.00 5,323,067.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Security (filter this donor) 1 1 55,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Effective altruism (filter this donor) 15 7 29,654,403.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 7,604,079.00 10,307,974.00 6,574,403.00 3,625,000.00 1,032,947.00 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cash transfers (filter this donor) 4 2 22,285,243.00 0.00 0.00 17,285,243.00 0.00 2,500,000.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Macroeconomic stabilization policy (filter this donor) 33 13 19,165,947.00 0.00 0.00 5,073,368.00 2,567,079.00 3,150,000.00 2,450,000.00 1,405,000.00 1,906,500.00 2,179,000.00 435,000.00 0.00 0.00
Global catastrophic risks (filter this donor) 12 8 17,981,686.93 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 552,800.00 12,717,160.93 4,118,301.00 593,425.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Migration policy (filter this donor) 23 13 14,197,247.00 0.00 0.00 1,493,156.00 3,700,000.00 1,784,888.00 400,000.00 1,800,000.00 1,324,000.00 915,000.00 2,780,203.00 0.00 0.00
Climate change (filter this donor) 6 4 13,076,234.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 2,576,234.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Land use reform (filter this donor) 22 13 8,329,865.00 0.00 0.00 1,600,000.00 600,000.00 3,440,000.00 890,000.00 640,000.00 387,000.00 772,865.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health and development (filter this donor) 3 1 6,300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00
Epistemic institutions (filter this donor) 8 2 5,664,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 375,000.00 0.00 1,560,000.00 1,890,000.00 1,839,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
(filter this donor) 3 3 5,100,000.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 50,000.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cause prioritization (filter this donor) 1 1 2,674,284.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,674,284.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Politics (filter this donor) 2 1 2,428,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,800,000.00 0.00 628,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Drug policy (filter this donor) 4 4 1,874,630.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,371,630.00 0.00 250,000.00 253,000.00 0.00 0.00
Global catastrophic risks|Global health|Animal welfare (filter this donor) 1 1 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Public services improvement and transparency (filter this donor) 1 1 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00
Biomedical research (filter this donor) 2 2 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 100,000.00
Organ donation (filter this donor) 3 1 350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00
History of philanthropy (filter this donor) 4 4 242,833.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 165,833.00 0.00 2,000.00 25,000.00 50,000.00 0.00
International relations (filter this donor) 2 2 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global poverty (filter this donor) 1 1 46,696.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 46,696.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 921 488 1,136,086,672.93 57,959,108.00 57,955,777.00 203,117,729.00 163,629,108.00 206,384,207.00 169,277,428.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00 7,843,203.00 795,000.00 1,100,000.00

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

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Graph of spending by cause area and year (cumulative)

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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 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
AI safety/technical research 105 52 113,117,260.00 23,708,065.00 20,227,923.00 29,683,390.00 12,918,204.00 8,243,500.00 2,914,122.00 9,366,506.00 6,055,550.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness 43 27 88,826,891.00 0.00 0.00 9,330,000.00 14,080,000.00 21,565,525.00 9,387,753.00 28,840,546.00 5,323,067.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health/malaria/seasonal malaria chemoprevention 3 1 87,602,757.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 61,002,757.00 0.00 26,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Criminal justice reform 90 66 87,076,556.00 0.00 0.00 50,000,000.00 0.00 708,300.00 11,595,885.00 11,623,433.00 8,803,938.00 900,000.00 3,000,000.00 445,000.00 0.00
AI safety 24 22 85,470,118.00 600,959.00 723,796.00 47,882,116.00 0.00 0.00 746,270.00 33,854,542.00 476,435.00 1,186,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Security/Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/Global catastrophic risks/AI safety 1 1 55,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health/deworming 11 5 43,338,100.00 0.00 0.00 5,925,000.00 7,313,100.00 17,200,000.00 12,900,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Scientific research 18 16 36,965,878.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,410,766.00 16,717,500.00 2,837,612.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI safety/governance 26 11 33,999,836.00 18,412,276.00 10,255,800.00 3,425,686.00 1,506,074.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal welfare/factory farming 52 35 26,610,283.00 0.00 0.00 1,205,000.00 2,663,030.00 10,200,072.00 4,392,102.00 7,386,112.00 763,967.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI safety/strategy 20 13 24,422,918.00 7,399,026.00 16,278,241.00 78,000.00 535,651.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 32,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health/nutrition/Vitamin A supplementation 3 1 24,268,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,768,000.00 0.00 6,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaign 11 4 19,297,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 800,000.00 1,997,600.00 10,000,000.00 2,000,000.00 4,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Macroeconomic stabilization policy 30 12 18,915,947.00 0.00 0.00 5,073,368.00 2,517,079.00 3,150,000.00 2,250,000.00 1,405,000.00 1,906,500.00 2,179,000.00 435,000.00 0.00 0.00
Scientific research/Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness 1 1 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Scientific research/malaria/gene drive testing and governance 1 1 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cash transfers/conditional cash transfers 1 1 16,785,243.00 0.00 0.00 16,785,243.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-free/corporate campaign 4 3 14,911,430.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,501,000.00 6,638,000.00 2,772,430.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Effective altruism/movement growth 6 2 13,856,966.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4,146,795.00 4,512,171.00 2,688,000.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global catastrophic risks 7 5 13,529,960.93 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 552,800.00 12,717,160.93 260,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat 6 4 12,351,000.00 0.00 0.00 11,100,000.00 1,159,000.00 92,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reform 29 20 11,359,340.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,550,000.00 3,100,000.00 4,657,240.00 2,052,100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Scientific research/transformative R01 4 4 10,900,544.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10,900,544.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal welfare/factory farming/fish 16 12 10,762,673.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 815,924.00 2,595,429.00 1,053,813.00 5,261,808.00 535,699.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Climate change/geoengineering/solar radiation management 5 3 10,076,234.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 2,576,234.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Effective altruism/movement growth/career counseling 4 1 9,888,087.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,457,284.00 4,795,803.00 510,000.00 1,125,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI safety/technical research/movement growth 2 1 9,185,729.00 4,025,729.00 5,160,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global health/malaria/bednets 2 1 9,151,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6,651,000.00 0.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Classified total 918 485 1,130,986,672.93 57,959,108.00 57,955,777.00 203,067,729.00 163,579,108.00 206,384,207.00 164,277,428.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00 7,843,203.00 795,000.00 1,100,000.00
Unclassified total 3 3 5,100,000.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 50,000.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 921 488 1,136,086,672.93 57,959,108.00 57,955,777.00 203,117,729.00 163,629,108.00 206,384,207.00 169,277,428.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00 7,843,203.00 795,000.00 1,100,000.00

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

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Graph of spending by subcause area and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by donee and year

Donee Cause area Metadata Total 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Center for Security and Emerging Technology (filter this donor) 105,250,000.00 0.00 0.00 50,250,000.00 0.00 55,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Malaria Consortium (filter this donor) Global health/malaria FB Tw WP Site GW 87,602,757.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 61,002,757.00 0.00 26,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Just Impact (filter this donor) 50,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 50,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (filter this donor) Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness FB Tw WP Site 40,273,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,860,000.00 19,500,000.00 169,600.00 16,000,000.00 2,744,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
OpenAI (filter this donor) AI safety FB Tw WP Site TW 30,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 30,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Redwood Research (filter this donor) 25,420,000.00 5,300,000.00 10,700,000.00 9,420,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Helen Keller International (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 24,268,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,768,000.00 0.00 6,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Humane League (filter this donor) Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming FB Tw WP Site TW 20,937,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,600,000.00 2,315,000.00 10,022,000.00 2,000,000.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Nuclear Threat Initiative (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 17,938,574.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6,000,000.00 0.00 5,461,715.00 6,476,859.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Target Malaria (filter this donor) 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sherlock Biosciences (filter this donor) 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Human-Compatible AI (filter this donor) AI safety WP Site TW 17,110,796.00 0.00 0.00 11,355,246.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 5,555,550.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
New Incentives (filter this donor) 16,785,243.00 0.00 0.00 16,785,243.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Good Food Institute (filter this donor) Animal welfare/meat alternatives FB Tw WP Site 16,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 10,000,000.00 0.00 4,000,000.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
RAND Corporation (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 16,133,751.00 16,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 30,751.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 103,000.00 0.00 0.00
Sightsavers (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 15,206,100.00 0.00 0.00 2,796,000.00 2,710,100.00 9,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 14,982,692.00 0.00 13,277,348.00 1,430,000.00 275,344.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Machine Intelligence Research Institute (filter this donor) AI safety FB Tw WP Site CN GS TW 14,756,250.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7,703,750.00 2,652,500.00 150,000.00 3,750,000.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Deworm the World Initiative (filter this donor) Global health/deworming Tw WP Site GW 14,503,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4,103,000.00 0.00 10,400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Future of Humanity Institute (filter this donor) Global catastrophic risks/AI safety/Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness FB Tw WP Site TW 14,176,460.93 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 12,066,808.93 1,994,000.00 115,652.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Centre for Effective Altruism (filter this donor) Effective altruism/movement growth FB Site 14,096,966.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 4,146,795.00 4,512,171.00 2,688,000.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mercy For Animals (filter this donor) Animal welfare/Diet change/Veganism/Factory farming FB Tw WP Site TW 13,774,000.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 6,899,000.00 375,000.00 500,000.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alliance for Safety and Justice (filter this donor) 11,750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 4,000,000.00 4,750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Against Malaria Foundation (filter this donor) Global health/malaria FB Tw WP Site GW CN GS TW 11,651,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6,651,000.00 2,500,000.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Washington (Institute for Protein Design) (filter this donor) 11,367,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 11,367,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Global Development (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 10,968,212.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,250,000.00 3,333,550.00 49,942.00 1,800,000.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 1,184,720.00 350,000.00 0.00
Center for AI Safety (filter this donor) 10,618,729.00 5,458,729.00 5,160,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of California, Berkeley (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 10,485,424.00 0.00 0.00 747,829.00 0.00 1,942,579.00 1,345,000.00 6,450,016.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
80,000 Hours (filter this donor) Career coaching/life guidance FB Tw WP Site 9,888,087.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,457,284.00 4,795,803.00 510,000.00 1,125,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Epoch (filter this donor) 9,071,123.00 7,111,123.00 1,960,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Open Phil AI Fellowship (filter this donor) 8,900,000.00 0.00 1,840,000.00 1,300,000.00 2,300,000.00 2,325,000.00 1,135,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Compassion in World Farming (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 8,091,811.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,228,407.00 4,061,319.00 10,720.00 2,791,365.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Equality (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 7,790,890.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,901,000.00 215,000.00 2,772,430.00 2,402,460.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Degrees Initiative (filter this donor) 7,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security (filter this donor) 7,144,627.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,600,000.00 0.00 44,627.00 3,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (filter this donor) AI safety/other global catastrophic risks Site TW 6,750,495.00 175,000.00 4,661,605.00 405,000.00 150,000.00 955,000.00 0.00 403,890.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Arizona State University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 6,421,402.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6,421,402.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
OpenMined (filter this donor) 6,028,320.00 6,000,000.00 28,320.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
MIT Synthetic Neurobiology Group (filter this donor) 5,970,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 2,970,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for a New American Security (filter this donor) 5,719,343.00 0.00 4,816,710.00 101,187.00 141,094.00 0.00 400,352.00 260,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Popular Democracy (filter this donor) WP 5,644,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 465,000.00 600,000.00 1,200,000.00 1,100,000.00 0.00 2,179,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (filter this donor) Global health/deworming Tw WP Site GW 5,629,000.00 0.00 0.00 3,129,000.00 0.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The END Fund (filter this donor) 5,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 2,500,000.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
GiveDirectly (filter this donor) Cash transfers FB Tw WP Site GW 5,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 2,500,000.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Rethink Priorities (filter this donor) Cause prioritization Site 5,106,704.00 457,200.00 2,728,319.00 811,185.00 910,000.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Science Foundation (filter this donor) WP Site 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Californians Against Pandemics (filter this donor) 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Carl Shulman Discretionary Fund (filter this donor) 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
EicOsis Human Health, Inc. (filter this donor) 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw Site 4,944,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 944,000.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
VasoRx (filter this donor) 4,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense (filter this donor) Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness FB Tw WP Site 4,688,162.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,588,162.00 500,000.00 1,300,000.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
JustLeadershipUSA (filter this donor) 4,440,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 3,440,000.00 900,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Southern California (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 4,308,500.00 0.00 0.00 320,000.00 0.00 2,250,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,738,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dezernat Zukunft (filter this donor) 4,302,079.00 0.00 0.00 4,000,000.00 202,079.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Founders Pledge (filter this donor) Effective altruism/donor pledges FB Tw WP Site 4,255,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,222,653.00 0.00 1,032,947.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Centre for the Governance of AI (filter this donor) 4,057,332.00 1,000,000.00 69,732.00 2,537,600.00 450,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
World Animal Protection (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 4,001,159.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 2,538,964.00 0.00 517,588.00 544,607.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Prevent Cruelty California (filter this donor) Animal welfare/factory farming FB Tw Site 4,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Kyoto University (filter this donor) 4,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Stanford University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 3,869,275.00 0.00 153,820.00 2,239,584.00 6,500.00 0.00 106,771.00 1,362,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Applied Rationality (filter this donor) Rationality FB Tw WP Site TW 3,614,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 375,000.00 0.00 1,560,000.00 340,000.00 1,339,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Wilson Center (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 3,579,516.00 0.00 2,023,322.00 291,214.00 864,980.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Employ America (filter this donor) 3,550,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 1,250,000.00 1,300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Humane Slaughter Association (filter this donor) Animal welfare Tw WP Site 3,518,316.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 570,402.00 0.00 2,947,914.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Wild Animal Initiative (filter this donor) 3,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 3,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global Food Partners (filter this donor) 3,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Ought (filter this donor) AI safety Site 3,118,333.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,593,333.00 1,000,000.00 525,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Justice Collaborative (filter this donor) 3,101,280.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,800,000.00 1,301,280.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Albert Schweitzer Foundation (filter this donor) 3,029,046.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,600,000.00 0.00 1,429,046.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global Animal Partnership (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw WP Site 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 500,000.00 1,000,000.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
ClimateWorks Foundation (filter this donor) 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Pew Public Safety Performance Project (filter this donor) 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00
Fair and Just Prosecution (filter this donor) 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alliance for Safety and Justice Action Fund (filter this donor) 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
L214 (filter this donor) 2,989,788.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,642,046.00 0.00 0.00 1,347,742.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Rutgers University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,982,206.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,982,206.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Color of Change (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,937,872.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 1,030,000.00 907,872.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (filter this donor) WP 2,934,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,934,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
California YIMBY (filter this donor) 2,850,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 850,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Refugee Assistance Project (filter this donor) Migration policy/refugee assistance/legal help FB Tw Site 2,775,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 1,075,000.00 0.00 0.00 700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Compassion in World Farming USA (filter this donor) Animal welfare/corporate campaigns FB Tw Site 2,708,750.00 0.00 0.00 550,000.00 78,750.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 30,000.00 550,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mila (filter this donor) AI capabilities/AI safety Site 2,687,931.00 50,000.00 0.00 237,931.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global Priorities Institute (filter this donor) Cause prioritization Site 2,674,284.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,674,284.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Eleuther AI (filter this donor) 2,642,273.00 2,642,273.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Duke University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,631,671.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,550,171.00 81,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
FAR AI (filter this donor) 2,620,493.00 1,006,500.00 1,188,193.00 425,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense (filter this donor) 2,620,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,620,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Michigan (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,546,696.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,500,000.00 46,696.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Harvard University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,521,200.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 21,200.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Eurogroup for Animals (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw WP Site 2,511,060.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 635,000.00 700,000.00 0.00 640,361.00 535,699.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Humane Society International (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,437,145.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 60,000.00 13,145.00 0.00 1,364,000.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Center for Election Science (filter this donor) 2,428,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,800,000.00 0.00 628,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of California, Los Angeles (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,368,300.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,368,300.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (filter this donor) 2,350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of California, San Francisco (filter this donor) 2,346,318.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,521,318.00 825,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for International Security and Cooperation (filter this donor) WP 2,335,415.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 67,000.00 1,625,000.00 0.00 0.00 643,415.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
UCLA School of Law (filter this donor) Tw WP Site 2,312,317.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,312,317.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
CDC Foundation (filter this donor) Tw Site 2,258,938.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,044,501.00 0.00 1,214,437.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
theguardian.org (filter this donor) Site 2,236,600.00 0.00 0.00 450,000.00 900,000.00 0.00 0.00 886,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Pennsylvania (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,160,000.00 110,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,550,000.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Humane Society International India (filter this donor) 2,139,124.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,039,124.00 0.00 1,100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Notre Dame (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,054,142.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,054,142.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Impact Justice (filter this donor) 2,050,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,050,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Safety Support (filter this donor) 2,023,716.00 443,716.00 1,580,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,021,705.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 925,000.00 36,957.00 231,677.00 828,071.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
MIT Media Lab (filter this donor) 2,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
California Institute of Technology (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Life Sciences Research Foundation (filter this donor) 1,950,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,170,000.00 780,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
People's Action (filter this donor) 1,927,640.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,927,640.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Economic Policy Institute (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 550,000.00 0.00 700,000.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Future of Life Institute (filter this donor) AI safety/other global catastrophic risks FB Tw WP Site 1,736,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 250,000.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 1,186,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Anima International (filter this donor) 1,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
WildAid (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 500,000.00 0.00 700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Boston Children's Hospital (filter this donor) 1,695,376.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,695,376.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Purdue University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,670,000.00 0.00 170,000.00 1,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Rockefeller University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sightline Institute (filter this donor) 1,550,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 800,000.00 0.00 350,000.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Apollo Research (filter this donor) 1,535,480.00 1,535,480.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alignment Research Center (filter this donor) 1,515,000.00 0.00 1,515,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Humane Society of the United States (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Chinese Animal Welfare Institute (filter this donor) 1,489,201.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,489,201.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Tübingen (filter this donor) 1,465,000.00 575,000.00 0.00 890,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
PICO National Network (filter this donor) 1,444,250.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,444,250.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Hofvarpnir Studios (filter this donor) 1,443,540.00 0.00 1,443,540.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Drug Policy Alliance (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,371,630.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,371,630.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
FAI Farms (filter this donor) 1,370,600.00 0.00 0.00 600,000.00 105,000.00 665,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Texas Organizing Project (filter this donor) 1,319,900.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,195,500.00 124,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dao Foods (filter this donor) 1,315,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,100,000.00 215,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,311,097.00 0.00 597,717.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 613,380.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
U.S. Association for International Migration (filter this donor) 1,310,483.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,310,483.00 0.00 0.00
Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative (filter this donor) 1,291,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 491,000.00 800,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Real Justice PAC (filter this donor) 1,250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 1,200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sinergia Animal (filter this donor) 1,232,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 800,000.00 432,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,228,845.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,228,845.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Labor Mobility Partnerships (filter this donor) 1,209,888.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 709,888.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Just Liberty (filter this donor) 1,199,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 569,000.00 0.00 530,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Wakker Dier (filter this donor) 1,180,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,180,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Charity Evaluators (filter this donor) Animal welfare/factory farming/meta/charity evaluator FB Tw WP Site TW 1,150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 650,000.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University Health Network (filter this donor) WP 1,134,975.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,134,975.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,110,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 350,000.00 0.00 425,000.00 0.00 335,000.00 0.00 0.00
Plant Based Foods Association (filter this donor) 1,105,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 855,000.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (filter this donor) 1,099,020.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,099,020.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
fair-fish international association (filter this donor) Animal welfare/fish Site 1,084,211.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 630,370.00 0.00 0.00 453,841.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Anima (filter this donor) Animal welfare/factory farming FB Tw WP Site 1,050,222.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 367,222.00 0.00 683,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Ohio Safe and Healthy Communities Campaign (filter this donor) 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Open New York (filter this donor) 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mercy Corps (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Effective Altruism Foundation (filter this donor) Effective altruism/movement growth FB Tw Site 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Population Services International (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,000,000.00
Niskanen Center (filter this donor) WP 960,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 360,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund (filter this donor) 909,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 404,800.00 404,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Essie Justice Group (filter this donor) 900,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Group Nine Media (filter this donor) 895,448.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 680,448.00 215,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Rochester (filter this donor) Tw WP Site 893,156.00 0.00 0.00 893,156.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Faith in Texas (filter this donor) 887,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 637,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Brighter Green (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw Site 869,360.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 340,000.00 0.00 430,000.00 0.00 99,360.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
PICO Action Fund (filter this donor) 866,188.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 866,188.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Blackbird (filter this donor) WP 850,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 425,000.00 425,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls (filter this donor) 850,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 850,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Washington Center for Equitable Growth (filter this donor) 850,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 750,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Texas Organizing Project Education Fund (filter this donor) 821,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 56,000.00 765,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Faith in Action (filter this donor) 800,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 800,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Outlook (filter this donor) 794,200.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 44,200.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Crustacean Compassion (filter this donor) 786,830.00 0.00 0.00 786,830.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Welfare Metrics (filter this donor) 784,586.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 784,586.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Harvard University Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management (filter this donor) 783,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 783,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw WP Site 777,944.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 445,000.00 0.00 332,944.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Longview Philanthropy (filter this donor) 770,076.00 770,076.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
We Animals Media (filter this donor) 757,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 517,000.00 240,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Ordinary People Society (filter this donor) 755,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 280,000.00 475,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Guide Labs (filter this donor) 750,000.00 750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Greenfield Project (filter this donor) Animal welfare Site 750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Floridians for a Fair Democracy (filter this donor) 750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 750,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (filter this donor) 736,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 688,000.00 48,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Washington (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 730,000.00 0.00 0.00 730,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Project Peanut Butter (filter this donor) 724,929.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 724,929.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Conjecture (filter this donor) 702,380.00 245,000.00 457,380.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Impacts (filter this donor) AI safety Site 696,893.00 150,000.00 364,893.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 32,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Northeastern University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 678,200.00 116,072.00 562,128.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Carnegie Mellon University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 673,235.00 0.00 343,235.00 330,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Pollination Project (filter this donor) 670,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75,800.00 362,000.00 0.00 0.00 233,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Ayni Institute (filter this donor) Criminal justice reform FB Tw Site 664,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 264,000.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
ACTAsia (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw Site 650,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Peterson Institute for International Economics (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 650,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 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 0.00 0.00 340,000.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dignity and Power Now (filter this donor) 632,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 632,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Voters Organized to Educate (filter this donor) 627,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 305,000.00 222,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (filter this donor) 624,004.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 368,188.00 0.00 255,816.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Essere Animali (filter this donor) 612,974.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 462,974.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
American Conservative Union Foundation (filter this donor) 612,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 212,000.00 200,000.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Wageningen University & Research (filter this donor) 607,779.00 0.00 0.00 519,434.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 88,345.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Toronto (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 600,000.00 80,000.00 0.00 0.00 520,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
YIMBY Law (filter this donor) 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Abundant Housing Massachusetts (filter this donor) 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Protect the People (filter this donor) 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Federation of American Scientists (filter this donor) 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Study and Training Related to AI Policy Careers (filter this donor) 594,420.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 594,420.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Early-Career Funding for Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (filter this donor) 570,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 570,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Bern (filter this donor) Tw WP Site 560,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 410,000.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
LatinoJustice (filter this donor) 550,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Greater Greater Washington (filter this donor) 550,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Aquaculture Stewardship Council (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw WP Site 546,849.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13,813.00 533,036.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
WestExec (filter this donor) 540,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 540,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Humane Society Legislative Fund (filter this donor) 525,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 525,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Charity Entrepreneurship (filter this donor) 525,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 260,000.00 0.00 265,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Environmental & Animal Society of Taiwan (filter this donor) 521,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 521,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation (filter this donor) 520,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 520,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Soze Agency (filter this donor) 516,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 216,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mijente (filter this donor) 510,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 255,000.00 255,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Humane League UK (filter this donor) 507,900.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 507,900.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Changing Markets Foundation (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Youth First Initiative (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dream Corps (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Gamechanger Labs (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for American Progress (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alliance for Open Society International (filter this donor) WP 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00
International Development Association (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00
Engineers Without Borders USA (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (filter this donor) 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Rita Allen Foundation (filter this donor) 495,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 495,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Cape Town (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 493,425.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 493,425.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Georgetown University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 489,061.00 0.00 239,061.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (filter this donor) 488,467.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 488,467.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Otwarte Klatki (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw Site 483,214.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10,350.00 472,864.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Yale University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 479,320.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 180,000.00 0.00 299,320.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Genspace (filter this donor) WP 469,025.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 469,025.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Oxford (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 455,856.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 455,856.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine (filter this donor) 452,545.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 452,545.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Future of Research (filter this donor) 450,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (filter this donor) 444,000.00 0.00 444,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Altruistic Technology Labs (filter this donor) 440,525.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 440,525.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Ethan Alley (filter this donor) 437,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 437,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund (filter this donor) 436,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 305,000.00 31,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global Aquaculture Alliance (filter this donor) Animal welfare WP Site 435,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 435,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
ImmigrationWorks Foundation (filter this donor) 435,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 285,000.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Advocacy Careers (filter this donor) 432,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 432,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Farm Forward (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw WP Site GS 431,691.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 166,000.00 165,691.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Court Watch NOLA (filter this donor) 425,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 125,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Genetically Engineered Medicine Foundation (filter this donor) 420,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 420,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Modulo Research (filter this donor) 408,255.00 408,255.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Society for Applied Ethology (filter this donor) WP 405,242.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 229,830.00 0.00 135,412.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal (filter this donor) Animal welfare FB Tw Site 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Million Voters Project Action Fund (filter this donor) 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Southerners On New Ground (filter this donor) 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Justice Team Network (filter this donor) 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Soko Tierschutz (filter this donor) 397,291.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 297,291.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of California, Santa Cruz (filter this donor) 379,000.00 114,000.00 0.00 265,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dyrevernalliansen (filter this donor) FB Tw Site 378,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 378,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
MoveOn.org Civic Action (filter this donor) 375,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 375,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Vera Institute of Justice (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 358,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 308,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Daniel Dewey (filter this donor) 350,000.00 0.00 175,000.00 175,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Catalyst (filter this donor) 350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Accountable Justice Project (filter this donor) 350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 350,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cornell University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 342,645.00 342,645.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Asia Research & Engagement (filter this donor) 340,875.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 340,875.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (filter this donor) 336,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 136,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Working Families Party (filter this donor) 336,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 117,300.00 109,600.00 109,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Welfare Awareness, Research, and Education (filter this donor) 332,323.00 0.00 0.00 267,723.00 64,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
New York University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 330,840.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 95,000.00 125,840.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 110,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Voice of the Educated (filter this donor) 325,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 325,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sea-Long Global Respiratory Systems (filter this donor) 325,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 325,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Color of Change Education Fund (filter this donor) 321,228.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 321,228.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Griffith University (filter this donor) WP Site 320,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Urban Institute (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 313,698.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 165,833.00 0.00 97,865.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Maryland (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 312,959.00 312,959.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (filter this donor) 309,441.00 0.00 309,441.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Food Frontier (filter this donor) 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Smithsonian Institution (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Justice Strategies (filter this donor) 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Safety and Justice Action Fund (filter this donor) 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cochrane Collaboration (filter this donor) Tw WP Site 300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 300,000.00 0.00 0.00
Rescuing Biomedical Research (filter this donor) 299,112.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 299,112.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Safety Hub (filter this donor) 298,839.00 0.00 298,839.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Safety Communications Centre (filter this donor) 288,000.00 288,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
People's Action Institute (filter this donor) 279,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 279,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
George Mason University (filter this donor) FB WP Site 277,435.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 277,435.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Grassroots Leadership, Inc. (filter this donor) 275,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 275,000.00 0.00 0.00 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 0.00 0.00 275,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Rights Center Japan (filter this donor) 274,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 274,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Nepal (filter this donor) 271,700.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 271,700.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Princeton University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 270,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 270,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
New Virginia Majority Education Fund (filter this donor) 270,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 220,000.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Citizen Action of New York (filter this donor) 266,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 266,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
North Carolina State University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 252,725.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 252,725.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Cambridge (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Chicago (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 250,000.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Colorado (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (filter this donor) 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Workers Center for Racial Justice (filter this donor) 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 125,000.00 125,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Corrections Accountability Project (filter this donor) 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The People’s Lobby Education Institute (filter this donor) 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 125,000.00 125,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Vote Safe (filter this donor) 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Community Justice Exchange (filter this donor) 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Waitlist Zero (filter this donor) WP 250,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00
Georgetown Universty (filter this donor) 246,564.00 0.00 0.00 246,564.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Washington Office on Latin America (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 245,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 245,000.00 0.00
Animal Welfare Standards Project (filter this donor) 238,212.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 238,212.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Kingdom Foundation (filter this donor) 237,866.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 237,866.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (filter this donor) 237,043.00 0.00 0.00 237,043.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Leap Labs (filter this donor) 230,000.00 230,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Green Monday (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 226,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 226,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Civil Rights Corps (filter this donor) 225,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Forward Justice (filter this donor) 225,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 75,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Science Philanthropy Alliance (filter this donor) 225,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 225,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Prison Policy Initiative (filter this donor) WP 216,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 66,000.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Citizens for Juvenile Justice (filter this donor) 215,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75,000.00 75,000.00 65,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Reducetarian Foundation (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 214,190.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 14,190.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Université de Montréal (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 210,552.00 0.00 0.00 210,552.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Certified Humane (filter this donor) 210,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 210,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
People for Animals (filter this donor) WP 209,392.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 120,000.00 89,392.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Encompass (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Material Innovation Initiative (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
BetaGov (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00
LEAD National Support Bureau (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
We Got Us Now (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
ColorOfChange PAC (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Texas Inmate Families Association (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Accountable Justice Collaborative (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Yes on Prop. 57 (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Roosevelt Institute (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
protocols.io (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Electronic Frontier Foundation (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 199,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 199,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Cynthia Schuck & Wladimir Alonso (filter this donor) 196,130.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 96,130.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Missouri (filter this donor) WP Site 189,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 189,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Utah (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 171,773.00 171,773.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mount Kenya University (filter this donor) 167,766.00 0.00 0.00 167,766.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Crate-Free Illinois (filter this donor) 165,070.00 0.00 0.00 70,350.00 0.00 94,720.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Ahimsa Collective (filter this donor) 165,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Network for Safe Communities (filter this donor) WP 161,040.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 161,040.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Court Innovation (filter this donor) WP 160,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 160,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Scholarships (filter this donor) 159,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 159,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Krystal Caldwell & Sydney Heiss (filter this donor) 156,781.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 156,781.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Promise of Justice Initiative (filter this donor) 156,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75,000.00 0.00 81,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
One for the World (filter this donor) 153,750.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 153,750.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Family Farm Action (filter this donor) 153,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 153,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
BioBricks Foundation (filter this donor) 152,950.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 152,950.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of British Columbia (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 150,561.00 100,375.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,186.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Berryville Institute of Machine Learning (filter this donor) 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Forecasting Research Institute (filter this donor) 150,000.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dharma Voices for Animals (filter this donor) 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Equalia (filter this donor) 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (filter this donor) 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Ladies of Hope Ministries (filter this donor) 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Pepperdine University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (filter this donor) 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon (filter this donor) 145,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 145,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Media Mobilizing Project (filter this donor) 140,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 140,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
ReFrame Mentorship (filter this donor) 137,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 37,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
SPCA Selangor (filter this donor) 134,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 134,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Royal Veterinary College (filter this donor) 130,850.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 130,850.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
CAF America (filter this donor) 130,670.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 130,670.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alianima (filter this donor) 130,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 130,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Surge AI (filter this donor) 123,750.00 123,750.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Hypermind (filter this donor) 121,124.00 0.00 0.00 121,124.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Project NIA (filter this donor) 121,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 121,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Alliance Asia (filter this donor) 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Family Defense Project (filter this donor) 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mass Liberation Project (filter this donor) 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 120,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Strategic and International Studies (filter this donor) 118,307.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 118,307.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Justice Solutions (filter this donor) 112,613.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 112,613.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mordechai Rorvig (filter this donor) 110,000.00 0.00 110,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jérémy Scheurer (filter this donor) 110,000.00 0.00 110,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Glasgow (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 109,552.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 109,552.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Brian Christian (filter this donor) 103,903.00 37,903.00 0.00 66,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
VegeProject (filter this donor) 102,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 102,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Edinburgh (filter this donor) 102,041.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 102,041.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jacob Steinhardt (filter this donor) 100,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Responsible AI Collaborative (filter this donor) 100,000.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sentient Media (filter this donor) 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice (filter this donor) 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Alliance of Faith and Justice (filter this donor) 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Common Justice (filter this donor) 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
US Cochrane Center (filter this donor) 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00
Brookings Institution (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Plant-based meat startups (filter this donor) 92,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 92,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
GLOBALG.A.P. (filter this donor) 90,554.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 90,554.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Apart Research (filter this donor) 89,000.00 0.00 89,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
World Animal Net (filter this donor) 87,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 37,600.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
People for Animals Uttarakhand (filter this donor) 85,000.00 0.00 0.00 85,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Aubin Pictures (filter this donor) 85,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 60,000.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Institute for Advancement of Animal Welfare Science (filter this donor) 80,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 80,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Illinois (filter this donor) 80,000.00 80,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Chicago Community Bond Fund (filter this donor) 80,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 80,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Better Eating International (filter this donor) 79,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 79,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Welfare Action Lab (filter this donor) 79,100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 79,100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animal Friends Jogja (filter this donor) 78,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 78,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment (filter this donor) 76,234.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 76,234.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Legal Priorities Project (filter this donor) 75,000.00 75,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
VOCAL-NY (filter this donor) 75,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Positive Money Europe (filter this donor) 73,368.00 0.00 0.00 73,368.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Alignment Awards (filter this donor) 70,000.00 0.00 70,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Neel Nanda (filter this donor) 70,000.00 70,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (filter this donor) 70,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 70,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
David Manheim (filter this donor) 65,308.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 65,308.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice (filter this donor) 64,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 64,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Texas Fair Defense Project (filter this donor) 63,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 63,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Innovative Genomics Institute (filter this donor) 63,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 63,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Human Impact Partners (filter this donor) 60,990.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 60,990.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Farm Animal Welfare Fellowship (filter this donor) 58,050.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 58,050.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Claremont Graduate University (filter this donor) 57,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 57,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Johns Hopkins University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 55,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mission: Launch, Inc. (filter this donor) 55,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Michael Page (filter this donor) 52,500.00 0.00 52,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Asia for Animals (filter this donor) 52,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52,400.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Texas After Violence Project (filter this donor) 52,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Swiss AI Safety Summer Camp (filter this donor) 51,248.00 51,248.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
World Economic Forum (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Changing Tastes (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Institute of the Black World (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
National Association of Community and Restorative Justice (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Correctional Association of New York (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mothers Against Police Brutality (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
College and Community Fellowship (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Smart Justice CA (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Detroit Justice Center (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Columbia University (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Project South (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Prosecutor Impact (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Players Coalition Charitable Foundation (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Development Media International (filter this donor) WP 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Dispensers for Safe Water (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Food Fortification Initiative (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Iodine Global Network (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Living Goods (filter this donor) WP 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Project Healthy Children (filter this donor) WP 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Seattle for Everyone (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Center on Poverty and Inequality (filter this donor) 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Georgia Institute of Technology (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Animals Australia Federation (filter this donor) 48,324.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 48,324.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Commonwealth Veterinary Association (filter this donor) 46,355.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,000.00 0.00 31,355.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (filter this donor) 45,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 45,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
American Society for Microbiology (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 43,149.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 43,149.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
New Economy Organisers Network (filter this donor) 42,285.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 42,285.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
SPIN Academy (filter this donor) 42,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 42,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Oxford University (filter this donor) 41,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 41,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Impact Alliance (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Good Judgment Inc. (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Voice of the Ex-Offender (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
New York Working Families (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
VOCAL-NY Action Fund (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
East Bay Forward (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Harborlight Community Partners (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mamoreruinochi wo Mamorukai (filter this donor) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
California State University, San José (filter this donor) 39,000.00 39,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Better Boulder (filter this donor) 37,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 37,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
University of Sydney (filter this donor) 32,621.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 32,621.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Just Outcomes (filter this donor) 30,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 30,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC (filter this donor) 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Distill (filter this donor) AI capabilities/AI safety Tw Site 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Vegan Women Summit (filter this donor) 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Biosecure Ltd (filter this donor) 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Rockefeller Archive Center (filter this donor) FB Tw Site 25,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 25,000.00 0.00 0.00
Free Migration Project (filter this donor) 24,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 24,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sankalpa (filter this donor) 22,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 22,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Silicon Valley De-Bug (filter this donor) 20,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 20,600.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (filter this donor) 20,000.00 0.00 20,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The Prodigal Child Project (filter this donor) 20,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 20,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice (filter this donor) 20,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 20,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Adam Jermyn (filter this donor) 19,231.00 19,231.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alignment Research Engineer Accelerator (filter this donor) 18,800.00 18,800.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Press Shop (filter this donor) 17,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Andrew Lohn (filter this donor) 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Foundation Model Tracker (filter this donor) 15,000.00 0.00 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Brown Institute for Media Innovation (filter this donor) 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Momentum (filter this donor) 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Tampere University (filter this donor) 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
InterAcademy Partnership (filter this donor) 14,605.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 14,605.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
OxAI Safety Hub (filter this donor) 11,622.00 0.00 11,622.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
World of Good (filter this donor) 10,178.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10,178.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Against COVID-19 (filter this donor) 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Photo Patch Foundation (filter this donor) 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley (filter this donor) 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
GoalsRL (filter this donor) AI safety Site 7,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Simon McGregor (filter this donor) 7,000.00 0.00 7,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics (filter this donor) 6,683.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6,683.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Egor Krasheninnikov (filter this donor) 6,526.00 0.00 6,526.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Usman Anwar (filter this donor) 6,526.00 0.00 6,526.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Initiate Justice (filter this donor) 5,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
International Conference on Learning Representations (filter this donor) 3,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Daniel Kang|Jacob Steinhardt|Yi Sun|Alex Zhai (filter this donor) 2,351.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,351.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
ARNOVA (filter this donor) FB Tw WP Site 2,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Smitha Milli (filter this donor) 370.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 370.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total -- -- 1,136,086,672.93 57,959,108.00 57,955,777.00 203,117,729.00 163,629,108.00 206,384,207.00 169,277,428.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00 7,843,203.00 795,000.00 1,100,000.00

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

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Graph of spending by donee and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by influencer and year

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 2023 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
GiveWell 32 18 187,198,850.00 0.00 23,310,243.00 93,034,857.00 19,700,000.00 51,153,750.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Luke Muehlhauser 26 18 126,320,450.00 16,000,000.00 50,603,554.00 2,766,896.00 55,000,000.00 400,000.00 1,550,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Lewis Bollard 181 92 114,390,758.00 0.00 7,215,000.00 10,797,150.00 25,878,156.00 27,977,489.00 28,086,693.00 14,436,270.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Chloe Cockburn 188 117 67,323,586.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,258,300.00 20,098,485.00 20,089,473.00 23,916,338.00 960,990.00 0.00 0.00
Chris Somerville|Heather Youngs 24 22 65,471,566.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 30,213,300.00 23,890,766.00 11,367,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Zachary Robinson 3 3 55,600,000.00 0.00 55,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Nick Beckstead 20 15 52,951,081.93 0.00 21,016,246.00 0.00 0.00 22,331,515.93 8,264,320.00 1,339,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Andrew Snyder-Beattie 8 6 37,910,000.00 0.00 4,330,000.00 14,080,000.00 19,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jaime Yassif 17 13 33,451,483.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6,409,104.00 24,298,379.00 2,744,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alexander Berger 63 30 33,173,588.00 0.00 1,073,368.00 3,867,079.00 8,958,438.00 2,890,000.00 3,245,000.00 6,530,500.00 3,094,000.00 3,215,203.00 300,000.00
Committee for Effective Altruism Support 7 4 18,955,386.00 0.00 0.00 9,647,412.00 9,307,974.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Amanda Hungerford 37 33 18,795,803.00 0.00 120,000.00 5,737,688.00 12,938,115.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Lewis Bollard|Amanda Hungerford 10 10 17,073,469.00 0.00 15,231,423.00 1,842,046.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Heather Youngs 6 6 16,410,519.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,134,975.00 0.00 15,275,544.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Claire Zabel 21 20 15,197,634.00 0.00 710,000.00 525,000.00 3,518,325.00 3,529,001.00 4,415,308.00 2,500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Daniel Dewey 28 17 13,740,498.00 0.00 1,550,000.00 77,370.00 5,691,000.00 3,180,622.00 3,241,506.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Claire Zabel|Committee for Effective Altruism Support 2 1 10,356,250.00 0.00 0.00 7,703,750.00 2,652,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Amanda Hungerford|Lewis Bollard 14 13 6,985,981.00 0.00 767,723.00 6,218,258.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jacob Trefethen 5 5 5,600,000.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Holden Karnofsky 1 1 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Catherine Olsson|Daniel Dewey 5 4 4,540,000.00 0.00 2,240,000.00 2,300,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Peter Favaloro 1 1 4,000,000.00 0.00 4,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alexander Berger|Jacob Trefethen 1 1 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Heather Youngs|Chris Somerville 2 2 2,000,000.00 0.00 1,500,000.00 0.00 500,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Zachary Robinson|Alexander Berger 3 3 2,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Willam MacAskill 1 1 1,800,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,800,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Helen Toner 2 2 1,796,222.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,796,222.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Classified total 740 404 934,454,023.93 16,000,000.00 199,542,797.00 163,629,108.00 204,384,207.00 168,280,732.93 123,580,878.00 51,466,108.00 4,054,990.00 3,215,203.00 300,000.00
Unclassified total 181 128 201,632,649.00 41,959,108.00 3,574,932.00 0.00 2,000,000.00 996,696.00 64,850,790.00 20,471,481.00 3,600,865.00 4,628,000.00 495,000.00
Total 921 488 1,136,086,672.93 57,959,108.00 203,117,729.00 163,629,108.00 206,384,207.00 169,277,428.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00 7,843,203.00 795,000.00

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

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Graph of spending by influencer and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by disclosures and year

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 2017 2016 2015
Holden Karnofsky 3 3 33,274,000.00 30,000,000.00 3,274,000.00 0.00
Dario Amodei 2 2 32,970,000.00 30,000,000.00 2,970,000.00 0.00
Paul Christiano 3 3 30,804,000.00 30,000,000.00 804,000.00 0.00
Kevin Esvelt 2 2 18,020,000.00 17,500,000.00 520,000.00 0.00
Jaime Yassif 1 1 16,000,000.00 16,000,000.00 0.00 0.00
Nick Beckstead 7 7 8,356,435.00 3,119,000.00 4,051,435.00 1,186,000.00
Unknown, generic, or multiple 4 4 3,846,000.00 1,125,000.00 1,535,000.00 1,186,000.00
Carl Shulman 2 2 3,029,000.00 1,994,000.00 1,035,000.00 0.00
Luke Muehlhauser 4 3 3,025,000.00 0.00 1,839,000.00 1,186,000.00
Adam Marblestone 1 1 2,970,000.00 0.00 2,970,000.00 0.00
Daniel Dewey 3 3 2,771,435.00 1,994,000.00 777,435.00 0.00
Claire Zabel 1 1 2,500,000.00 0.00 2,500,000.00 0.00
Lewis Bollard 3 3 2,364,000.00 1,364,000.00 1,000,000.00 0.00
Helen Toner 3 3 1,990,000.00 0.00 804,000.00 1,186,000.00
Chloe Cockburn 6 5 1,828,000.00 395,000.00 1,433,000.00 0.00
Ben Hoffman 1 1 1,186,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,186,000.00
Jacob Steinhardt 2 2 804,000.00 0.00 804,000.00 0.00
Alexander Berger 2 2 500,000.00 0.00 300,000.00 200,000.00
Howie Lempel 1 1 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00
Classified total 24 22 80,603,435.00 68,378,000.00 10,839,435.00 1,386,000.00
Unclassified total 897 480 1,055,483,237.93 120,053,668.00 61,098,154.00 6,269,855.00
Total 921 488 1,136,086,672.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00

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

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Graph of spending by disclosures and year (cumulative)

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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 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
United States 293 176 177,684,057.00 58,820,350.00 3,165,000.00 8,623,020.00 39,966,691.00 24,305,303.00 33,172,838.00 5,062,855.00 4,023,000.00 445,000.00 100,000.00
Burkina Faso|Chad|Nigeria|Togo 2 1 61,002,757.00 0.00 61,002,757.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Nigeria|Burkina Faso|Chad 1 1 26,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 26,600,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Nigeria 2 2 17,785,243.00 16,785,243.00 1,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
China 30 19 13,076,538.00 600,000.00 1,300,670.00 5,160,698.00 2,419,387.00 1,893,604.00 1,702,179.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Guinea|Mali|Burkina Faso|Côte d'Ivoire|Niger|Democratic Republic of the Congo|Nigeria 1 1 9,709,000.00 0.00 9,709,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Democratic Republic of the Congo|Guinea 1 1 6,651,000.00 0.00 6,651,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
United States|Canada|Brazil|Mexico 1 1 6,638,000.00 0.00 0.00 6,638,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
United Kingdom 7 4 5,476,034.00 786,830.00 913,467.00 2,169,429.00 231,677.00 1,374,631.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Europe 3 2 4,173,368.00 4,073,368.00 0.00 100,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Kenya|Nigeria|Ghana|Indonesia 1 1 4,103,000.00 0.00 4,103,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
India 11 7 4,049,815.00 85,000.00 15,000.00 1,484,124.00 31,355.00 2,344,944.00 89,392.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Germany|Italy|Spain|United Kingdom 2 1 4,011,460.00 0.00 1,901,000.00 0.00 0.00 2,110,460.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
European Union 6 1 3,501,060.00 0.00 635,000.00 700,000.00 990,000.00 640,361.00 535,699.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
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 0.00 0.00 0.00
United States|Latin America 1 1 3,000,000.00 3,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
France 2 1 2,989,788.00 0.00 1,642,046.00 0.00 0.00 1,347,742.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Nigeria|Cameroon|Demoocratic Republic of the Congo 1 1 2,796,000.00 2,796,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
United States|Brazil|Italy|Mexico|Spain 1 1 2,772,430.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,772,430.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Nigeria|Cameroon|Democratic Republic of the Congo 1 1 2,710,100.00 0.00 2,710,100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
United States|Haiti 3 2 1,910,483.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 600,000.00 0.00 1,310,483.00 0.00 0.00
Ukraine|Norway|Denmark|Poland 1 1 1,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 1,700,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Germany 3 2 1,519,139.00 0.00 202,079.00 0.00 0.00 1,317,060.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Indonesia|Japan|South Korea 1 1 1,364,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1,364,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Asia 4 4 1,282,578.00 1,220,000.00 62,578.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Netherlands 1 1 1,180,000.00 1,180,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Kenya 2 2 1,060,922.00 1,060,922.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Classified total 439 259 388,750,148.00 91,412,479.00 98,550,662.00 31,770,834.00 74,725,825.00 38,973,955.00 40,270,055.00 5,667,855.00 5,833,483.00 445,000.00 1,100,000.00
Unclassified total 482 263 747,336,524.93 111,705,250.00 65,078,446.00 174,613,373.00 94,551,603.93 149,457,713.00 31,667,534.00 1,988,000.00 2,009,720.00 350,000.00 0.00
Total 921 488 1,136,086,672.93 203,117,729.00 163,629,108.00 206,384,207.00 169,277,428.93 188,431,668.00 71,937,589.00 7,655,855.00 7,843,203.00 795,000.00 1,100,000.00

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Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (133 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
A Critical Review of Open Philanthropy’s Bet On Criminal Justice Reform (GW, IR)2022-06-16Nuno Sempere Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy Just Impact Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly Third-party coverage of donor strategyCriminal justice reformThe blog post reviews Open Philanthropy's spending on, and eventual exit from, criminal justice reform. It is critical of the fact that Open Philanthropy took two years between its blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/givewells-top-charities-are-increasingly-hard-beat (that identified GiveWell's top charities as hard to beat in the context of near-term, human-centric work) and its late 2021 announcement https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-now-independent-organization-just-impact of spinning out the criminal justice reform grantmaking to Just Impact and giving it an exit grant of $50 million. The post is further critical of the fact the Open Philanthropy effectively gave a two-fold exit grant of $100 million after its mid-2019 blog post: $50 million in grants between mid-2019 and late 2021, and a $50 million exit grant to Just Impact. The post and comments include extensive discussion of cost-effectiveness, worldviews, and ways to make better decisions.
FTX Future Fund and Longtermism2022-03-17Rhys Lindmark Open Philanthropy FTX Future Fund Miscellaneous commentaryLongtermism|Global health and developmentThis blog post, cross-posted at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fDLmDe8HQq2ueCxk6/ftx-future-fund-and-longtermism (GW, IR) to the EA Forum is written in a fun format and including charts and memes. The post talks about the change to the EA funding landscape with the arrival of FTX Future Fund, including both an increase in the amount of funding and the shift toward longtermism.
Some thoughts on recent Effective Altruism funding announcements. It's been a big week in Effective Altruism2022-03-03James Ozden Open Philanthropy FTX Future Fund FTX Community Fund FTX Climate Fund Mercy For Animals Charity Entrepreneurship Miscellaneous commentaryLongtermism|Animal welfare|Global health and development|AI safety|Climate changeIn this blog post, cross-posted at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Wpr5ssnNW5JPDDPvd/some-thoughts-on-recent-effective-altruism-funding (GW, IR) to the EA Forum, James Ozden discusses recent increases in funding by donors aligned with effective altruism (EA) and makes forecasts for the amount of annual money moved by 2025. Highlights of the post: 1. The entry of the FTX Future Fund is expected to increase the proportion of funds allocated to longtermist causes to increase to become more in line with what EA leaders think it should be (based on the data that https://80000hours.org/2021/08/effective-altruism-allocation-resources-cause-areas/ compiles). 2. Grantmaking capacity needs to be scaled up to match the increase in available funds. 3. The EA movement may need to shift from marginal thinking to coordination dynamics, as their funding amounts are no longer as marginal. 4. Entrepreneurs, founders, and incubators are needed. 6. We need to be more ambitious.
EA Infrastructure Fund: May–August 2021 grant recommendations (GW, IR)2021-12-24Max Daniel Buck Shlegeris Chi Nguyen Michael Aird Effective Altruism ForumEffective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Jaan Tallinn Open Philanthropy Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund Periodic donation list documentationEffective altruismIn this cross-post of https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/payouts/may-august-2021-ea-infrastructure-fund-grants the EA Infrastructure Fund managers document grants made from May 2021 to August 2021, and also provide general updates about the fund's current state of operations, including estimates of grantmaking and funds received in 2021 as well as acceptance rate. It also mentions grants to the fund from Jaan Tallinn (based on the Survival and Flourishing Fund process) and Open Philanthropy. Ozzie Gooen offers a "quick take" in the comments.
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."
Technical Updates to Our Global Health and Wellbeing Cause Prioritization Framework2021-11-19Peter Favaloro Alexander Berger Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation GiveWell Broad donor strategyGlobal health and development|Scientific researchIn this lengthy blog post, Open Philanthropy describes its updated thinking on the value of improving life expectancy versus increasing income, the implication for its bar for grants (roughly 900-1,100x cash in their new units, corresponding to 7-8x GiveDirectly in GiveWell's units), the tradeoff between investing to grow the portfolio and spending it quickly, in order to meet the goal of Good Ventures to spend down the fortune during their lifetime, the possible role of scientific research to uncover new opportunities, the role of other donors, the scalability of known highly cost-effective interventions, and many related topics.
Understanding Open Philanthropy’s work on migration policy2021-11-19Vipul Naik Open Borders: The CaseOpen Philanthropy Labor Mobility Partnerships Center for Global Development Protect the People Niskanen Center Federation for American Scientists Mercy Corps International Refugee Assistance Project Third-party coverage of donor strategyMigration policyIn a similar vein as past blog posts https://openborders.info/blog/overview-of-the-open-philanthropy-projects-work-on-migration-liberalisation/ and https://openborders.info/blog/update-open-philanthropy-projects-work-migration-liberalisation/ on the site, the post reviews Open Philanthropy's grantmaking in the migration policy space. It discusses evidence and possible reasons for Open Philanthropy reducing its grantmaking in the area. See https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mhp8pofioZpoW6k34/understanding-open-philanthropy-s-evolution-on-migration (GW, IR) for a cross-post to the EA Forum.
Our Criminal Justice Reform Program Is Now an Independent Organization: Just Impact2021-11-16Zachary Robinson Alexander Berger Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Just Impact LaunchCriminal justice reformIn the blog post, Open Philanthropy announces that its criminal justice reform grantmaking is being split out into its own organization called Just Impact, led by Chloe Cockburn and Jesse Rothman, who have been leading Open Philanthropy's criminal justice reform program. Open Philanthropy is providing seed funding of $50 million spread over 3.5 years. Open Philanthropy connects this change with its previous post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/givewells-top-charities-are-increasingly-hard-beat that suggested that it was finding that a lot of its near-termist, human-centric grantmaking was failing to beat GiveWell top charities in cost-effectiveness analyses. Open Philanthropy is now making changes to reduce such grantmaking, and spinning off criminal justice reform grantmaking to its own organization is a step toward that. Other advantages of the spinout are: ability to attract other donors focused on criminal justice reform, independence better positioning the team to implements its vision and strategy, and benefits as an experiment in spinning out programs, possibly toward a long-term vision of Open Philanthropy as focused on cause selection and incubation.
With More Donors on Board, Open Philanthropy Is Spinning Its Criminal Justice Work into a New Fund2021-11-16Katherine Don Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Just Impact Sarah Barton Nicole Shanahan Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Voice of the Experienced Third-party coverage of donor strategyCriminal justice reformThe article is about the spinout of Open Philanthropy's criminal justice reform grantmaking as Just Impact, a separate organization. In addition to the $50 million committed by Open Philanthropy that https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-now-independent-organization-just-impact documents, the article mentions $39 million from five other donors including Sarah Barton and Nicole Shanahan. Chloe Cockburn, who will head Just Impact is quoted, and two grantees, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and Voice of the Experienced, are highlighted. Cockburn says that there are several criminal justice reform organizations whose budgets are orders of magnitude lower than what they are capable of spending, and by funding them, Open Philanthropy was able to unleash their potential (and Just Impact will hopefully continue doing so).
Open Philanthropy’s New Co-CEO2021-06-16Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Status changeOpen Philanthropy announces that its near-termist grantmaking, including both human-centric and animal-centric grantmaking, will be called "Global Health and Wellbeing" and Alexander Berger will lead it. Berger is also promoted to co-CEO in recognition of these responsibilities. Karnofsky, previously CEO and now co-CEO, will focus on the longtermist side of grantmaking.
Our Progress in 2020 and Plans for 20212021-04-29Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Criminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Scientific research|Effective altruism|COVID-19The post compares progress made by Open Philanthropy in 2020 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-progress-2019-and-plans-2020 and then lays out plans for 2021. The post notes that grantmaking, including grants to GiveWell top charities, was over $200 million. The post reviews the following from 2020: continued grantmaking, worldview investigations, other cause prioritization work, hiring and other capacity building, impact evaluation, outreach to external donors, and plans for 2021.
2020 AI Alignment Literature Review and Charity Comparison (GW, IR)2020-12-21Larks Effective Altruism ForumLarks Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Open Philanthropy Survival and Flourishing Fund Future of Humanity Institute Center for Human-Compatible AI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Centre for the Study of Existential Risk OpenAI Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Ought Global Priorities Institute Center on Long-Term Risk Center for Security and Emerging Technology AI Impacts Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence AI Safety Camp Future of Life Institute Convergence Analysis Median Group AI Pulse 80,000 Hours Survival and Flourishing Fund Review of current state of cause areaAI safetyCross-posted to LessWrong at https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pTYDdcag9pTzFQ7vw/2020-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison (GW, IR) This is the fifth post in a tradition of annual blog posts on the state of AI safety and the work of various organizations in the space over the course of the year; the previous year's post is at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dpBB24QsnsRnkq5JT/2019-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison (GW, IR) The post is structured very similar to the previous year's post. It has sections on "Research" and "Finance" for a number of organizations working in the AI safety space, many of whom accept donations. A "Capital Allocators" section discusses major players who allocate funds in the space. A lengthy "Methodological Thoughts" section explains how the author approaches some underlying questions that influence his thoughts on all the organizations. To make selective reading of the document easier, the author ends each paragraph with a hashtag, and lists the hashtags at the beginning of the document. See https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uEo4Xhp7ziTKhR6jq/reflections-on-larks-2020-ai-alignment-literature-review (GW, IR) for discussion of some aspects of the post by Alex Flint.
Our Progress in 2019 and Plans for 20202020-05-08Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCriminal justice reform|Animal welfare|AI safety|Effective altruismThe post compares progress made by the Open Philanthropy Project in 2019 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-progress-2018-and-plans-2019 and then lays out plans for 2020. The post notes that grantmaking, including grants to GiveWell top charities, was over $200 million. The post reviews the following from 2019: continued grantmaking, growth of the operations team, impact evaluation (with good progress in evaluation of giving in criminal justice reform and animal welfare), worldview investigations (that was harder than anticipated, resulting in slower progress), other cause prioritization work, hiring and other capacity building, and outreach to external donors.
How Philanthropists are Tackling COVID-192020-03-18Abby Schultz Barron'sOpen Philanthropy Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Wellcome Trust Mastercard Impact Fund Schmidt Futures COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator Sherlock Biosciences Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security University of Washington (Institute for Protein Design) Review of current state of cause areaBiosecurity and pandemic preparednessThe article describes how private philanthropy is helping in the fight against COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic caused by it. The role of Open Philanthropy Project in funding Sherlock Biosciences as well as the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in prior years is described. The article also describes the joint financing of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator by the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Mastercard Impact Fund.
Update on the Global Priorities Institute's (GPI) activities (GW, IR)2019-12-24Hilary Greaves Global Priorities InstituteOpen Philanthropy Global Priorities Institute Donee periodic updateCause prioritizationThe Global Priorities Institute shares a short annual report, also available at https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/global-priorities-institute-annual-report-2018-19/ on its website. In addition, the post contains links for following GPI's research and current opportunities. The annual report has three sections: (1) Research (agenda focused on "longtermism") (2) Academic outreach (various two-day workshops and the Early Career Conference Programme (ECCP)) (3) Current team and growth ambitions (plans to expand, helped by £2.5m from the Open Philanthropy Project and £3m from other private donors; fundraising is ongoing).
Effective Altruism Foundation: Plans for 2020 (GW, IR)2019-12-23Jonas Vollmer Effective Altruism FoundationOpen Philanthropy Effective Altruism Foundation Raising for Effective Giving Wild-Animal Suffering Research Utility Farm Wild Animal Initiative Sentience politics Donee periodic updateEffective altruism/movement growth/s-risk reductionThe document includes the 2019 review and plans for 2020 of the Effective Altruism Foundation (EAD). Key highlights: EAD plans to change its name in 2020 as a rebranding effort to highlight its focus on s-risk reduction, rather than the effective altruism; as part of this, the Foundational Research Institute brand will also be deprecated. Wild-Animal Suffering Research and Utility Farm merged to form Wild Animal Initiative, which is now completely separate from EAF. Raising for Effective Giving and Sentience Politics continue to be housed under EAF. The post also describes communication guidelines developed along with Nick Beckstead of the Open Philanthropy Project (that also made a $1 million grant to EAF). The guidelines "recommend highlighting beliefs and priorities that are important to the s-risk-oriented community" and "recommend communicating in a more nuanced manner about pessimistic views of the long-term future by considering highlighting moral cooperation and uncertainty, focusing more on practical questions if possible, and anticipating potential misunderstandings and misrepresentations." The post also says the guidelines will soon be made public, and that it was a mistake to not announce the guidelines earlier; doing so might have addressed https://www.simonknutsson.com/problems-in-effective-altruism-and-existential-risk-and-what-to-do-about-them/ and related concerns
2019 AI Alignment Literature Review and Charity Comparison (GW, IR)2019-12-19Larks Effective Altruism ForumLarks Effective Altruism Funds: Long-Term Future Fund Open Philanthropy Survival and Flourishing Fund Future of Humanity Institute Center for Human-Compatible AI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Ought OpenAI AI Safety Camp Future of Life Institute AI Impacts Global Priorities Institute Foundational Research Institute Median Group Center for Security and Emerging Technology Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative AI Pulse Survival and Flourishing Fund Review of current state of cause areaAI safetyCross-posted to LessWrong at https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SmDziGM9hBjW9DKmf/2019-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison (GW, IR) This is the fourth post in a tradition of annual blog posts on the state of AI safety and the work of various organizations in the space over the course of the year; the previous year's post is at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BznrRBgiDdcTwWWsB/2018-ai-alignment-literature-review-and-charity-comparison (GW, IR) The post has sections on "Research" and "Finance" for a number of organizations working in the AI safety space, many of whom accept donations. A "Capital Allocators" section discusses major players who allocate funds in the space. A lengthy "Methodological Thoughts" section explains how the author approaches some underlying questions that influence his thoughts on all the organizations. To make selective reading of the document easier, the author ends each paragraph with a hashtag, and lists the hashtags at the beginning of the document.
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.
How frequently do ACE and Open Phil agree about animal charities? (GW, IR)2019-12-17Ben West Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund Animal Charity Evaluators Compassion in World Farming International Animal Ethics Faunalytics Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira Miscellaneous commentaryAnimal welfareBen West compares the grantees of the Open Philanthropy Project (Open Phil) in its focus area of farm animal welfare against the charities recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE). He finds a substantial overlap: Open Phil has made grants to all charities that ACE has ever given top charity status, about half of the charities ACE has ever given standout charity status, and only one charity that ACE reviewed but did not recommend. Also, "5% of the charities ACE did an "exploratory" review of received a grant, as did 3% of the ones they "considered" but did not review." A spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NRSVnSgg33vtOByfYwCFhB6VrytZGYeJ/edit with the data is linked. The post also notes: "Three charities which were named “Standout Charities” by ACE but did not receive Open Phil grants did receive grants from the Centre for Effective Altruism’s Animal Welfare Fund (Animal Ethics, Faunalytics, and Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira)."
The Center for Election Science Year End EA Appeal (GW, IR)2019-12-17Aaron Hamlin Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy The Center for Election Science Donee donation casePoliticsAaron Hamlin of the Center for Election Science (CES), an organization that promotes approval voting in the United States, posts an end-of-year fundraising appeal post for CES to the Effective Altruism Forum. The post talks about the finances of CES, and compares the funding of CES to the much larger total funding going to ranked choice voting (RCV), a competing effort that he considers inferior. He argues that with slightly more funds, CES could show much more than RCV in terms of victories in adoption of approval voting, per dollar spent
Recommendation to Open Philanthropy for Grants to Top Charities2019-11-26GiveWellOpen Philanthropy Malaria Consortium Helen Keller International Sightsavers Against Malaria Foundation The END Fund GiveDirectly Development Media International Dispenses for Safe Water Food Fortification Initiative Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation Iodine Global Network Living Goods Project Healthy Children GiveWell Periodic donation list documentationGlobal health and developmentThe document details GiveWell's recommendation in 2019 for grants by Good Ventures (via the Open Philanthropy Project) to GiveWell top and standout charities. The overall amount of money recommended for allocation is $54.6 million, and the document explains that Open Phil's calculation that it may make sense to spend down more slowly was the reason for reducing the allocation from last year. It discusses the principles used for allocation: (1) Put significant weight on cost-effectiveness estimates, (2) Consider additional information not explicitly modeled about the organization, (3) Consider additional information not explicitly modeled about the funding gap, (4) Assess funding gaps at the margin, (5) Default to not imposing restrictions on charity spending, (6) Default to funding on a 3-year horizon, and (7) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with the process. The three charities that get significant grants are Malaria Consortium for its SMC program ($33.9 million), Helen Keller International ($9.7 million), and Sightsavers ($2.7 million). Against Malaria Foundation, The END Fund, and GiveDirectly receive the minimum "incentive grant" amount of $2.5 million that all top charities should receive. The top charity Deworm the World Initiative is not given an incentive grant because it received a previous grant through GiveWell discretionary grant that more than covers the incentive grant amount. 8 standout charities get $100,000 each
ALLFED 2019 Annual Report and Fundraising Appeal (GW, IR)2019-11-23Aron Mill Alliance to Feed the Earth in DisastersBerkeley Existential Risk Initiative Donor lottery Effective Altruism Grants Open Philanthropy Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Future of Humanity Institute Donee donation caseAlternative foodsAron Mill provides a summary of the work of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) in 2019. He lists key supporters as well as partners that ALLFED worked with during the year. The blog post proceeds to make an appeal and a case for fundraising ALLFED. Sections of the blog post include: (1) research output, (2) preparedness and alliance-building, (3) ALLFED team, (4) current projects, and (5) projects in need of funding.
Message exchange with EAF2019-11-12Simon Knutsson Open Philanthropy Effective Altruism Foundation Reasoning supplementEffective altruism|Global catastrophic risksThis is a supplement to https://www.simonknutsson.com/problems-in-effective-altruism-and-existential-risk-and-what-to-do-about-them/ The supplement documents an email exchange between Knutsson and Stefan Torges of the Effective Altruism Foundation where Knutsson asks Torges for comment on some of the points in the article. Torges's reply is not quoted as he did not give permission to quote the replies, but Knutsson summarizes the replies as saying that EAF can't share further information, and does not wish to engage Knutsson on the issue.
Co-funding Partnership with Ben Delo2019-11-11Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Ben Delo PartnershipAI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Global catastrophic risks|Effective altruismBen Delo, co-founder of the cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, recently signed the Giving Pledge. He is entering into a partnership with the Open Philanthropy Project, providing funds, initially in the $5 million per year range, to support Open Phil's longtermist grantmaking, in areas including AI safety, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, global catastrophic risks, and effective altruism. Later, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) would reveal at https://intelligence.org/2020/04/27/miris-largest-grant-to-date/ that, of a $7.7 million grant from Open Phil, $1.46 million is coming from Ben Delo.
E-mail exchange with the Open Philanthropy Project2019-11-10Simon Knutsson Open Philanthropy Effective Altruism Foundation Reasoning supplementEffective altruism|Global catastrophic risksThis is a supplement to https://www.simonknutsson.com/problems-in-effective-altruism-and-existential-risk-and-what-to-do-about-them/ The supplement documents an email exchange between Knutsson and Michael Levine of the Open Philanthropy Project where Knutsson asks Levine for comment on some of the points in the article. Levine's reply is not quoted as he did not give permission to quote the replies, but Knutsson summarizes the replies as saying that "[Open Phil] do not have anything to add beyond the grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/effective-altruism-foundation-research-operations
Problems in effective altruism and existential risk and what to do about them2019-10-16Simon Knutsson Open Philanthropy Effective Altruism Foundation Centre for Effective Altruism Effective Altruism Foundation Future of Humanity Institute Miscellaneous commentaryEffective altruism|Global catastrophic risksSimon Knutsson, a Ph.D. student who previously worked at GiveWell and has, since then, worked on animal welfare and on s-risks, writes about what he sees as problematic dynamics in the effective altruism and x-risk communities. Specifically, he is critical of what he sees as behind-the-scenes coordination work on messaging, between many organizations in the space, notably the Open Philanthropy Project and the Effective Altruism Foundation, and the possible use of grant money to pressure EAF into pushing for guidelines for writers to not talk about s-risks in specific ways. He is also critical of what he sees as the one-sided nature of the syllabi and texts produced by the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA). The author notes that people have had different reactions to his text, with some considering the behavior described as unproblematic, while others agreeing with him that it is problematic and deserves the spotlight. The post is also shared to the Effective Altruism Forum at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EescnoaBJsQWz4rii/problems-in-effective-altruism-and-what-to-do-about-them (GW, IR) where it gets a lot of criticism in the comments from people including Peter Hurford and Holly Elmore.
Thanks for putting up with my follow-up questions. Out of the areas you mention, I'd be very interested in ... (GW, IR)2019-09-10Ryan Carey Effective Altruism ForumFounders Pledge Open Philanthropy OpenAI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Broad donor strategyAI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Scientific research|PoliticsRyan Carey replies to John Halstead's question on what Founders Pledge shoud research. He first gives the areas within Halstead's list that he is most excited about. He also discusses three areas not explicitly listed by Halstead: (a) promotion of effective altruism, (b) scholarships for people working on high-impact research, (c) more on AI safety -- specifically, funding low-mid prestige figures with strong AI safety interest (what he calls "highly-aligned figures"), a segment that he claims the Open Philanthropy Project is neglecting, with the exception of MIRI and a couple of individuals.
How Life Sciences Actually Work: Findings of a Year-Long Investigation (GW, IR)2019-08-16Alexey Guzey Effective Altruism ForumNational Institutes of Health Howard Hughes Medical Institute Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Open Philanthropy Amgen Life Sciences Research Foundation Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stanford University Review of current state of cause areaBiomedical researchGuzey surveys the current state of biomedical research, primarily in academia in the United States. His work is the result of interviewing about 60 people. Emergent Ventures provided financial support. His takeaways: (1) Life science is not slowing down (2) Nothing works the way you would naively think it does (for better or for worse) (3) If you're smart and driven, you'll find a way in (4) Nobody cares if you're a genius (5) Almost all biologists are solo founders. This is probably suboptimal (6) There's insufficient space for people who just want to be researchers and not managers (7) Peer review is a disaster (8) Nobody agrees on whether big labs are good or bad (9) Senior scientists are bound by their students' incentives (10) Universities seem to maximize their profits, with good research being a side-effect (11) Large parts of modern scientific literature are wrong (12) Raising money is very difficult even for famous scientists. Final conclusion: "academia has a lot of problems but it's less broken than it seems from the outside."
Questions We Ask Ourselves Before Making a Grant2019-08-06Michael Levine Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Sandler Foundation Center for Security and Emerging Technology University of Washington (Institute for Protein Design) Broad donor strategyMichael Levine describes some guidance that the Open Philanthropy Project has put together for program officers on questions to consider before making a grant. This complements guidance published three years ago about internal grant writeups: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-grantmaking-so-far-approach-and-process
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.
Explaining Our Bet on Sherlock Biosciences’ Innovations in Viral Diagnostics2019-06-10Heather Youngs Chris Somerville Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Sherlock Biosciences Single donation documentationScientific researchIn this new-style blog post, the reasons for the Open Philanthropy Project grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/sherlock-biosciences-research-viral-diagnostics to Sherlock Biosciences are explained in a conversational style. The conversation participants include Michael Levine (Communications Officer) and the grant investigators Chris Somerville and Heather Youngs.
Has the Giving Pledge Changed Giving? A proposal unveiled nearly a decade ago was intended to turbocharge philanthropy. There’s little evidence so far it’s doing that.2019-06-04Marc Gunther Chronicle of PhilanthropyWarren Buffett Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Dalio Philanthropies George Lucas and Mellody Hobson Good Ventures Open Philanthropy Simons Foundation Miscellaneous commentaryIn a long-form article for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Marc Gunther describes the history of the Giving Pledge, created ten years ago at a meeting including Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, Michael Bloomberg, Charles Feeney, George Soros, Eli Broad, and Oprah Winfrey. Gunther writes that the Giving Pledge has failed to increase the overall level of charitable giving in general, and has not inspired much more charitable giving even among the superrich, to whom it was targeted. The article says that fewer than one in six billionaires in the United States have taken the pledge, and moreover, many of those who took the pledge had either already given or already been planning to give large amounts to charity, so the counterfactual impact of the pledge was low. The article includes a table of the current net worth and total donations so far by the wealthiest signatories of the Giving Pledge, as well as profiles of several Giving Pledge signatories.
80,000 Hours Annual Review – December 20182019-05-07Benjamin Todd 80,000 HoursOpen Philanthropy Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Effective Altruism Funds 80,0000 Hours Donee periodic updateEffective altruism/movement growth/career counselingThis blog post is the annual self-review by 80,000 Hours, originally written in December 2018. Publication was deferred because 80,000 Hours was waiting to hear back on the status of some large grants (in particular, one from the Open Philanthropy Project), but most of the content is still from the December 2018 draft. The post goes into detail about 80,000 Hours' progress in 2018, impact and plan changes, and future expansion plans. Funding gaps are discussed (the funding gap for 2019 is $400,000, and further money will be saved for 2020 and 2021). Grants from the Open Philanthropy Project, BERI, and the Effective Altruism Funds (EA Meta Fund) are mentioned
Will splashy philanthropy cause the biosecurity field to focus on the wrong risks?2019-04-25Filippa Lentzos Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsOpen Philanthropy Third-party coverage of donor strategyBiosecurity and pandemic preparednessFilippa Lentzos examines the Open Philanthropy Project's funding in the biosecurity field. She argues that the scale and speed of Open Phil's grantmaking may hurt the field by shaping the agenda of the field to be too focused on global catastrophic risks, and to be less diverse on the whole. The post is linked and discussed on the Effective Altruism Forum at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Kkw8uDwGuNnBhiYHi/will-splashy-philanthropy-cause-the-biosecurity-field-to (GW, IR) by Tessa Alexanian. Howie Lempel, in the comments, describes more of the post author's views based on her past article https://thebulletin.org/2017/07/ignore-bill-gates-where-bioweapons-focus-really-belongs/ Others who share thoughts in the comments include Alex Foster, Denise Melchin, and Rob Bensinger.
Our Progress in 2018 and Plans for 20192019-04-15Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCriminal justice reform|Animal welfareThe post compares progress made by the Open Philanthropy Project in 2018 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-progress-2017-and-plans-2018 and then lays out plans for 2019. The post notes that grantmaking was sustained at over $100 million. Hints of impact in the areas of criminal justice reform and animal welfare continue to be seen. Hiring to grow research analyst capacity was a top focus, led by Luke Muehlhauser, with the results detailed in the blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/reflections-our-2018-generalist-research-analyst-recruiting by Muehlhauser. Operations capacity grew significantly under Beth Jones, who joined in May as Director of Operations.
New grants from the Open Philanthropy Project and BERI2019-04-01Rob Bensinger Machine Intelligence Research InstituteOpen Philanthropy Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Machine Intelligence Research Institute Donee periodic updateAI safetyMIRI announces two grants to it: a two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2019 totaling $2,112,500 from the Open Philanthropy Project, with half of it disbursed in 2019 and the other half disbursed in 2020. The amount disbursed in 2019 (of a little over $1.06 million) is on top of the $1.25 million already committed by the Open Philanthropy Project as part of the 3-year $3.75 million grant https://intelligence.org/2017/11/08/major-grant-open-phil/ The $1.06 million in 2020 may be supplemented by further grants from the Open Philanthropy Project. The grant size from the Open Philanthropy Project was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support. The post also notes that the Open Philanthropy Project plans to determine future grant sizes using the Committee. MIRI expects the grant money to play an important role in decision-making as it executes on growing its research team as described in its 2018 strategy update post https://intelligence.org/2018/11/22/2018-update-our-new-research-directions/ and fundraiser post https://intelligence.org/2018/11/26/miris-2018-fundraiser/
With Launch Of New CRISPR Company, Competition Extends To Diagnostics2019-03-21Ellie Kincaid ForbesOpen Philanthropy Sherlock Biosciences LaunchScientific researchThe article describes the launch of Sherlock Biosciences, a company that aims to use CRISPR technology for diagnostics. It mentions the $17.5 million donation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/sherlock-biosciences-research-viral-diagnostics plus undisclosed investment from the Open Philanthropy Project, as well as separate investment. Together, Sherlock Biosciences has raised $35 million.
Important But Neglected: Why an Effective Altruist Funder Is Giving Millions to AI Security2019-03-20Tate Williams Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Center for Security and Emerging Technology Third-party coverage of donor strategyAI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Global catastrophic risks|SecurityThe article focuses on grantmaking by the Open Philanthropy Project in the areas of global catastrophic risks and security, particularly in AI safety and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. It includes quotes from Luke Muehlhauser, Senior Research Analyst at the Open Philanthropy Project and the investigator for the $55 million grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/georgetown-university-center-security-and-emerging-technology to the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Muehlhauser was previously Executive Director at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. It also includes a quote from Holden Karnofsky, who sees the early interest of effective altruists in AI safety as prescient. The CSET grant is discussed in the context of the Open Philanthropy Project's hits-based giving approach, as well as the interest in the policy space in better understanding of safety and governance issues related to technology and AI.
Committee for Effective Altruism Support2019-02-27Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Centre for Effective Altruism Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Center for Applied Rationality Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute Broad donor strategyEffective altruism|AI safetyThe document announces a new approach to setting grant sizes for the largest grantees who are "in the effective altruism community" including both organizations explicitly focused on effective altruism and other organizations that are favorites of and deeply embedded in the community, including organizations working in AI safety. The committee comprises Open Philanthropy staff and trusted outside advisors who are knowledgeable about the relevant organizations. Committee members review materials submitted by the organizations; gather to discuss considerations, including room for more funding; and submit “votes” on how they would allocate a set budget between a number of grantees (they can also vote to save part of the budget for later giving). Votes of committee members are averaged to arrive at the final grant amounts. Example grants whose size was determined by the community is the two-year support to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2019 and one-year support to the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2019
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.
Response to concerns about GiveWell’s spillovers analysis2018-12-06Josh Rosenberg GiveWellGiveWell Maximum Impact Fund Open Philanthropy GiveDirectly GiveWell Reasoning supplementCash transfersThe blog post explains in more detail how GiveWell came to its conclusions in its recent analysis of spillover effects from GiveDirectly's cash transfer program. In particular, it responds to a series of tweets from economist Berk Özler expressing concern over GiveWell for (1) using an unpublished paper as a key study, (2) placing little weight on some papers in its analysis of spillover effects, (3) focusing solely on consumption. While replying to the concerns, the GiveWell blog post also explains some of the broader principles used by GiveWell to determine when to use private information, and what evidence to review and what outcomes to consider
Our updated top charities for giving season 20182018-11-26Catherine Hollander GiveWellGiveWell Maximum Impact Fund Open Philanthropy GiveWell top charities Malaria Consortium Helen Keller International Against Malaria Foundation Deworm the World Initiative Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Sightsavers The END Fund GiveDirectly GiveWell Evaluator consolidated recommendation listGlobal health and developmentGiveWell annual top charities list. GiveWell recommends that donors donate to GiveWell to regrant to top charities at its discretion, but also provides details on the individual top charities so that people can make an informed decision. In addition, the amounts determined for GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund and for donation by Good Ventures are also included, though details of the amount recommended to Good Ventures are in a separate blog post https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/
Scaling OFTW: Our First Hire And Funding From The Open Philanthropy Project2018-08-01Rossa O'Keeffe-O'Donovan One for the WorldOpen Philanthropy Luke Ding One for the World Donee periodic updateEffective altruism/fundraisingOne for the World announces grants to it recommended by GiveWell, of $153,750 from the Open Philanthropy Project and $51,250 from Luke Ding. The funding is to cover two years of expenses, including hiring a COO for the first year, and a CEO in the second year. The post also announces the hiring of Evan McVail as COO, fulfilling part of the plan for the grant
Occasional update July 5 20182018-07-05Katja Grace AI ImpactsOpen Philanthropy Anonymous AI Impacts Donee periodic updateAI safetyKatja Grace gives an update on the situation with AI Impacts, including recent funding received, personnel changes, and recent publicity.In particular, a $100,000 donation from the Open Philanthropy Project and a $39,000 anonymous donation are mentioned, and team members Tegan McCaslin, Justis Mills, consultant Carl Shulman, and departing member Michael Wulfsohn are mentioned
The Most Unorthodox Big Foundation in America2018-05-18Marc Gunther Nonprofit ChroniclesOpen Philanthropy Third-party coverage of donor strategyThe article primarily links to and explains https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason which is a much longer article about the Open Philanthropy Project and its grantmaking. Unlike the linked article, the author goes more into his personal take on the subject, including how his recent visit to Rwanda, and how that has shifted him in the direction of donating to meet present-day needs.
Giving in the Light of Reason2018-05-17Marc Gunther Stanford Social Innovation ReviewOpen Philanthropy Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Future Justice Fund Good Ventures The Humane League Direct Action Everywhere Target Malaria University of Washington (Institute for Protein Design) Alliance for Safety and Justice The Marshall Project Third-party coverage of donor strategyCriminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Scientific researchAn in-depth profile of the Open Philanthropy Project and its grantmaking, with a particular focus on discussion of the top grants in animal welfare and scientific research. The organizational history, grantmaking process, and internal culture are also discussed. Referenced in https://nonprofitchronicles.com/2018/05/18/the-most-unorthodox-big-foundation-in-america/ by the same author.
Update on Partnerships with External Donors2018-05-16Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Future Justice Fund Accountable Justice Action Fund Effective Altruism Funds Accountable Justice Action Fund Effective Altruism Funds Miscellaneous commentaryCriminal justice reform,Animal welfareThe Open Philanthropy Project describes how it works with donors other than Good Ventures (the foundation under Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna that accounts for almost all Open Phil grantmaking). The blog post reiterates that the long-term goal is to inform many different funders, but that is not a short-term priority because the Open Philanthropy Project is not moving enough money to even achieve the total spend that Good Ventures is willing to go up to. The post mentions that Chloe Cockburn, the program officer for criminal justice reform, is working with other funders in criminal justice reform, and they have created a separate vehicle, the Accountable Justice Action Fund, to pool resources. Also, Mike and Kaitlyn Krieger, who previously worked with the Open Philanthropy Project, now have their own criminal justice-focused Future Justice Fund, and are getting help from Cockburn to allocate money from the fund. For causes outside of criminal justice reform, the role of Effective Altruism Funds (whose grantmaking is managed by Open Philanthropy Project staff members) is mentioned. Also, Lewis Bollard is said to have moved ~10% as much money through advice to other donors as he has moved through the Open Philanthropy Project.
With the Backing of Top Funders, This Group is Taking the Criminal Justice System to Court2018-04-24Philip Rojc Inside PhilanthropyMacArthur Foundation Laura and John Arnold Foundation Open Philanthropy Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Civil Rights Corps Evaluator review of doneeCriminal justice reform/litigationThe article describes the efforts of Civil Rights Corps, an organization dedicated to challenging criminal justice abuses in court. It includes the Open Philanthropy Project and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative among its funders
This Powerhouse Funder is Still New to Scientific Research. Where Are Grants Going?2018-04-17Paul Karon Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy MIT Synthetic Neurobiology Group Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center University of Washington (Institute for Protein Design) Third-party coverage of donor strategyScientific researchThe article discusses grantmaking by the Open Philanthropy Project in the domain of scientific research, noting that the grants were often made in areas overlapping with other interests (such as global health). The large donation to the Institute for Protein Design in connection with influenza research is highlighted.
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
Managing Funder-Grantee Dynamics Responsibly2018-03-30Michael Levine Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Miscellaneous commentaryMichael Levine of the Open Philanthropy Project discusses how big donors (like the Open Philanthropy Project) can unduly influence the plans of existing and potential grantees, and what the organization is doing to mitigate that impact.
Our Progress in 2017 and Plans for 20182018-03-20Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCriminal justice reform|Animal welfare|Scientific research|Cause prioritizationThe post compares progress made by the Open Philanthropy Project in 2017 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-progress-2016-and-plans-2017 and then lays out plans for 2018. The post notes that grantmaking was sustained at the expected level of over $100 million, and that hints of impact are being seen in the areas where they would be expected, namely criminal justice reform and animal welfare. Deep independent investigations, such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Focus_Areas/Criminal_Justice_Reform/The_impacts_of_incarceration_on_crime_10.pdf by David Roodman for criminal justice reform and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/how-will-hen-welfare-be-impacted-transition-cage-free-housing by Ajeya Cotra for animal welfare, are highlighted. Scientific research is identified as an area of strong progress, with the transformative R01 second chance program https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-second-chance-program-nih-transformative-research-applicants highlighted. The separation from GiveWell was completed in 2017. For 2018, hiring is a top priority, while the level of giving is expected to be maintained at the current level of over $100 million.
An Update to How We’re Thinking About Grant Check-Ins2018-03-09Morgan Davis Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Miscellaneous commentaryMorgan Davis of the Open Philanthropy Project describes the process that the organization uses to check in on and learn from past grants. A check-in has three goals: updates (most frequent, and quite minor), lessons (less frequent, more important, and more wide-ranging), and impact (most rare, but really important when it occurs).
The world’s most intellectual foundation is hiring. Holden Karnofsky, founder of GiveWell, on how philanthropy can have maximum impact by taking big risks.2018-02-27Robert Wiblin Kieran Harris Holden Karnofsky 80,000 HoursOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAI safety|Global catastrophic risks|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Global health and development|Animal welfare|Scientific researchThis interview, with full transcript, is an episode of the 80,000 Hours podcast. In the interview, Karnofsky provides an overview of the cause prioritization and grantmaking strategy of the Open Philanthropy Project, and also notes that the Open Philanthropy Project is hiring for a number of positions.
New Job Opportunities2018-02-14Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Job advertisementHolden Karnofsky links to job opening pages for generalist Research Analyst and Senior Research Analyst roles, specialized roles related to AI risk, roles such as Grants Associate, Operations Associate, and General Counsel, and the Director of Operations.
Where, why and how I donated in 20172018-02-01Ben Kuhn Ben Kuhn Open Philanthropy Effective Altruism Funds Effective Altruism Grants GiveWell GiveWell top charities EA Giving Group Effective Altruism Funds Periodic donation list documentationGlobal health and developmentKuhn describes his decision to allocate his donation amount ($60,000, calculated as 50% of his income for the year) between GiveWell, GiveWell top charities, and his own donor-advised fund managed by Fidelity. Kuhn also discusses the Open Philanthropy Project, EA Funds, and EA Grants, and the EA Giving Group he donated to the previous year
Update on Cause Prioritization at Open Philanthropy2018-01-26Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCause prioritizationThis very long blog post describes how the Open Philanthropy Project currently views its trade-off between near-termist human welfare, near-termist animal welfare, and long-termism. It also discusses allocation to different causes within these broad cause types. It builds upon ideas discussed at http://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/worldview-diversification and http://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/good-ventures-and-giving-now-vs-later-2016-update
Fish: The Forgotten Farm Animal2018-01-18Lewis Bollard Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farming/fishThe blog post, cross-posted from a newsletter published by the author, makes the case that fish welfare is neglected within the domain of factory farming, and provides suggestions for how to address that problem, including suggestions that the Open Philanthropy Project (where Bollard is the Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare) is acting upon.
A Research Funder Knocks on the NIH's Door Looking for Ideas—And Big Grants Flow2018-01-11Tate Williams Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Arizona State University University of Notre Dame Rockefeller University University of California, San Francisco Third-party coverage of donor strategyScientific researchThe article discusses the Open Philanthropy Project second chance funding program for rejected applicants of the National Institutes of Health transformative R01 program.
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20172017-12-21Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyJaime Yassif Chloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Nick Beckstead Daniel Dewey Center for International Security and Cooperation Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Good Call Court Watch NOLA Compassion in World Farming USA Wild-Animal Suffering Research Effective Altruism Funds Donor lottery Future of Humanity Institute Center for Human-Compatible AI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Centre for Effective Altruism 80,000 Hours Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Donation suggestion listAnimal welfare|AI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Effective altruism|Criminal justice reformOpen 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.
Our ‘Second Chance’ Program for NIH Transformative Research Applicants2017-12-20Heather Youngs Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Arizona State University University of Notre Dame Rockefeller University Univesity of California San Francisco Broad donor strategyScientific research/transformative R01The blog post describes a "second chance" program that the Open Philanthropy Project ran for rejected applications to the National Institutes of Health transformative R01 program https://commonfund.nih.gov/tra Four grants were made based on this, totaling $10.8 million. The grants were also covered in Nature at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08795-0
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.
Reasoning Transparency2017-12-12Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Reasoning supplementThe document describes what sort of document structure for discourse and research exposition is most helpful to the Open Philanthropy Project as a consumer of the work. Announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/i2F6YxE14O8
Update on Investigating Neglected Goals in Biological Research2017-11-30Nick Beckstead Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Good Ventures/not recommended by GiveWell or Open Philanthropy Project Target Malaria Broad donor strategyScientific research,Global health,Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness,AgricultureThe blog post describes the way the Open Philanthropy Project is identifying neglected goals in biological research. Previously the hope was to investigate sub-areas deeply and produce write-ups. Now, the approach is more "opportunistic": rather than do public write-ups, staff look out for good opportunities for shovel-ready or highly promising grants in the specific topics identified as having strong potential.
Approaches to Moral Weights: How GiveWell Compares to Other Actors2017-11-07GiveWellGiveWell Maximum Impact Fund Open Philanthropy GiveWell top charities Deworm the World Initiative Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Against Malaria Foundation Malaria Consortium GiveDirectly GiveWell Evaluator quantification approachIn-depth look at how the way GiveWell uses moral weights in cost-effectiveness analyses (such as the value of saving lives) compares with the way governments and others in public policy use it. One difference is that the target population GiveWell deals with is often in low and middle income countries (LMIC) for which estimates of the value of a life saved are more murky. The document also talks of the different moral weights associated with saving people at different ages. See https://blog.givewell.org/2017/11/07/how-givewell-and-mainstream-policymakers-compare-the-good-achieved-by-different-programs/ for a blog post by Josh Rosenberg announcing and summarizing the report. The earlier blog post https://blog.givewell.org/2017/06/01/how-givewell-uses-cost-effectiveness-analyses/ is also referenced. Also see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/newly-published-givewell-materials/xeSpZ512VFw (2017-11-07) for the mailing list announcement
How to end animal agriculture as soon as possible2017-09-27Robert Wiblin Lewis Bollard 80,000 HoursOpen Philanthropy Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming The Humane League The Humane Society of the United States Humane Society International The Good Food Institute Animal Equality Animal Charity Evaluators Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farmingPodcast with interview of Lewis Bollard (Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer at the Open Philanthropy Project) by Robert Wiblin of 80000 Hours, along with transcript. The podcast covers the strategy of the Open Philanthropy Project. 80000 Hours is an Open Philanthropy Project grant recipient and Wiblin was also on the board of Animal Charity Evaluators, an animal welfare-focused grant recipient that is discussed in the podcast.
The impacts of inacercation on crime2017-09-25David Roodman Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Reasoning supplementCriminal justice reformThe document reviews three mechanisms through which incarceration might reduce crime: deterrence, incapacitation, and aftereffects. It is also published in the form of four blog posts https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/reasonable-doubt-new-look-whether-prison-growth-cuts-crime https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/deterrence-de-minimis https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/incapacitation-how-much-does-putting-people-inside-prison-cut-crime-outside https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/aftereffects-us-evidence-says-doing-more-time-typically-leads-more-crime-after and is also available as http://files.openphilanthropy.org/files/Focus_Areas/Criminal_Justice_Reform/impacts_of_incarceration_v4.mobi (Kindle) and http://files.openphilanthropy.org/files/Focus_Areas/Criminal_Justice_Reform/impacts_of_incarceration_v4.epub (Mobi).
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.
The Open Philanthropy Project AI Fellows Program2017-09-12Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAI safetyThis annouces an AI Fellows Program to support students doing Ph.D. work in AI-related fields who have interest in AI safety. See https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10213116327718748 and https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/long-term-world-improvement/FeZ_h2HXJr0 for critical discussions.
A major grant from the Open Philanthropy Project2017-09-08Malo Bourgon Machine Intelligence Research InstituteOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Donee periodic updateAI safetyMIRI announces that it has received a three-year grant at $1.25 million per year from the Open Philanthropy Project, and links to the announcement from Open Phil at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2017 and notes "The Open Philanthropy Project has expressed openness to potentially increasing their support if MIRI is in a position to usefully spend more than our conservative estimate, if they believe that this increase in spending is sufficiently high-value, and if we are able to secure additional outside support to ensure that the Open Philanthropy Project isn’t providing more than half of our total funding."
Should EAs think twice before donating to GFI? (GW, IR)2017-08-31Kevin Watkinson Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy The Good Food Institute Third-party case against donationAnimal welfareThe post argues against donations to The Good Food Institute, noting its limited track record as well as the huge amount of funding it is already receiving from the Open Philanthropy Project. This post is made shortly after an exchange between the post author (Kevin Watkinson) and Holden Karnofsky of the Open Philanthropy Project in http://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/march-2017-open-thread?page=1#comment-305 (the open thread of the Open Philanthropy Project). The post also critiques Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) for a positive assessment of GFI, and comments include a response from an ACE employee and an ACE board member (neither in an official capacity)
Relationship Disclosure Policy2017-08-30Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Miscellaneous commentaryThe document, announced on a mailing list at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/4-0KIw2aVmQ (2017-08-30) describes a change in relationship disclosure policy on grant pages published by the Open Philanthropy Project. Relationship disclosures would now no longer be included on grant pages. See https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10212973153219475 (cross-posted at https://github.com/vipulnaik/working-drafts/blob/master/open-phil/relationship-disclosure-policy.txt to GitHub) for a critique
Fear and Loathing at Effective Altruism Global 20172017-08-16Scott Alexander Slate Star CodexOpen Philanthropy GiveWell Centre for Effective Altruism Center for Effective Global Action Raising for Effective Giving 80,000 Hours Wild-Animal Suffering Research Qualia Research Institute Foundational Research Institute Miscellaneous commentaryScott Alexander describes his experience at Effective ALtruism Global 2017. He describes how the effective altruism movement has both the formal-looking, "suits" people who are in charge of large amounts of money, and the "weirdos" who are toying around with ideas that seem strange and are not mainstream even within effective altruism. However, he feels that rather than being two separate groups, the two groups blend into and overlap with each other. He sees this as a sign that the effective altruism movement is composed of genuinely good people who are looking to make a difference, and explains why he thinks they are succeeding
Grants to Support Farm Animal Welfare Work in China2017-08-09Lewis Bollard Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Compassion in World Farming WildAid World Animal Protection Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Humane Slaughter Association Jeanne Marchig Centre Animal Welfare Standards Project Green Monday Griffith University Brighter Green Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farming/ChinaThe document describes the strategy of the Open Philanthropy Project to focus on farm animal welfare advocacy in China, and lists ten grants that are part of this strategy. It is announced 2017-08-09 at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg on the mailing list; this comes 9.5 months after the strategy was unofficially announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) on Facebook.
My current thoughts on MIRI’s highly reliable agent design work (GW, IR)2017-07-07Daniel Dewey Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Evaluator review of doneeAI safetyPost discusses thoughts on the MIRI work on highly reliable agent design. Dewey is looking into the subject to inform Open Philanthropy Project grantmaking to MIRI specifically and for AI risk in general; the post reflects his own opinions that could affect Open Phil decisions. See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/long-term-world-improvement/FeZ_h2HXJr0 for critical discussion, in particular the comments by Sarah Constantin.
Hi, I’m Luke Muehlhauser. AMA about Open Philanthropy’s new report on consciousness and moral patienthood2017-06-28Luke Muehlhauser Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy Dyrevernalliansen Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Eurogroup for Animals Reasoning supplementMoral patienthood/animal welfareLuke Muehlhauser hosts an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on the Effective Altruism Forum about his recently published report https://www.openphilanthropy.org/2017-report-consciousness-and-moral-patienthood (2017-06-06). The post gets 61 comments.
The Open Philanthropy Project Is Now an Independent Organization2017-06-12Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Good Ventures Status changeThe Open Philanthropy Project announces that it is now a separate entity from GiveWell, and that it has incorporated as a LLC. The change was effective 2017-06-01. See https://blog.givewell.org/2017/06/12/separating-givewell-open-philanthropy-project/ for the complementary post on the GiveWell blog.
2017 Report on Consciousness and Moral Patienthood2017-06-06Luke Muehlhauser Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Dyrevernalliansen Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Eurogroup for Animals Reasoning supplementMoral patienthood/animal welfareThe writeup announced at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/new-report-consciousness-and-moral-patienthood provides an overview of the findings of Luke Muehlhauser on moral patienthood -- a broad subject covering what creatures are the subject of moral concern. As described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/radical-empathy Open Phil identifies with radical empathy, extending concern to beings considered of moral concern, even if they are not traditionally subjects of empathy and concern. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/effective.altruists/permalink/1426329927423360/ for a discussion of the post on the Effective Altruism Facebook group, and see http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1c3/hi_im_luke_muehlhauser_ama_about_open/ for a related AMA. The writeup influenced the Open Philanthropy Project Farm Animal Welfare Officer Lewis Bollard to investigate and donate in the domain of fish welfare; see http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1c3/hi_im_luke_muehlhauser_ama_about_open/b8o for a comment clarifying this effect.
How GiveWell uses cost-effectiveness analyses2017-06-01Catherine Hollander GiveWellGiveWell Maximum Impact Fund Open Philanthropy Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly GiveWell top charities GiveWell Evaluator quantification approachProvides an in-depth lok at how GiveWell does cost-effectiveness analyses, including a list of the kinds of subjective inputs that go into the modeling. The later blog post https://blog.givewell.org/2017/11/07/how-givewell-and-mainstream-policymakers-compare-the-good-achieved-by-different-programs/ summarizing the report https://www.givewell.org/how-we-work/our-criteria/cost-effectiveness/comparing-moral-weights references this
An Open Letter to SOZE and the Open Philanthropy Project: The Right of Return Fellowship and Ethics in Funding2017-04-27Taylar Nuevelle MediumOpen Philanthropy The Soze Agency Third-party case against donationCriminal justice reformThe writer, a contestant for the Right of Return Fellowship, feels that the contest was rigged, and is writing to bring that to the attention of the Open Philanthropy Project, that funded the Soze Agency for this work.
Soros Connected Groups Dominate Ayala’s Personal & Professional Life2017-04-19Jacob Engels Central Florida PostOpen Philanthropy Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Fair and Just Prosecution Third-party case against donationCriminal justice reformThe writer notes how the Open Philanthropy Project (that he mistakenly believes to be a Soros-funded group) has been attempting to influence Orange and Osceola County State Attorney Aramis Ayala, and argues for more openness. See https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10212752692588097 for a discussion.
Why Are the US Corporate Cage-Free Campaigns Succeeding?2017-04-11Lewis Bollard Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy The Humane League Mercy For Animals The Humane Society of the United States Compassion in World Farming USA Review of current state of cause areaAnimal welfare/factory farming/cage-free campaignLewis Bollard, Open Philanthropy Project Program Officer for Animal Welfare, who brought passion about cage-free campaigns to the organization when he joined, provides a timeline of cage-free campaigns and an assessment of the success of these campaigns, and the role of the Open Philanthropy Project as a funder.
Open Philanthropy Project non-grant funding2017-04-02Issa Rice Open Philanthropy Miscellaneous commentaryThe document lists some funding by the Open Philanthropy Project that is publicly disclosed (either by Open Philanthropy Project or by the donee or another reliable source) but is not part of the Open Philanthropy Project grants database, and is not included in employee salaries and benefits.
Criminal Justice Reform Strategy2017-03-27Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCriminal justice reformExplanation of the criminal justice reform strategy of the Open Philanthropy Project in the United States, under the leadership of Chloe Cockburn. Discusses broad goals, types of organizations funded, other funders in the space, and expected impact. Announced in email https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/_aKeLKRqtQY by Devin Jacob on 2017-03-27.
Our Progress in 2016 and Plans for 20172017-03-14Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyScientific research|AI safetyThe blog post compares progress made by the Open Philanthropy Project in 2016 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-progress-2015-and-plans-2016 and then lays out plans for 2017. The post notes success in scaling up grantmaking, as hoped for in last year's plan. The spinoff from GiveWell is still not completed because it turned out to be more complex than expected, but it is expected to be finished in mid-2017. Open Phil highlights the hiring of three Scientific Advisors (Chris Somerville, Heather Youngs, and Daniel Martin-Alarcon) in mid-2016, as part of its scientific research work. The organization also plans to focus more on figuring out how to decide how much money to allocate between different cause areas, with Karnofsky's worldview diversification post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/worldview-diversification also highlighted. There is no plan to scale up staff or grantmmaking (unlike 2016, when the focus was to scale up hiring, and 2015, when the focus was to scale up staff).
A conversation with Lewis Bollard, February 23, 20172017-02-23Lewis Bollard Luke Muehlhauser Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaAnimal welfareFarm animal welfare program officer Lewis Bollard speaks with Luke Muehlhauser, investigator into moral patienthood, on the history of the animal rights and welfare movements as well as recent developments.
Daniel May: "Open Science: little room for more funding."2017-02-15Daniel May Oxford Prioritisation ProjectOxford Prioritisation Project Laura and John Arnold Foundation Open Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaScientific researchThe summary states: "I consider open science as a cause area, by reviewing Open Phil’s published work, as well as some popular articles and research, and assessing the field for scale, neglectedness, and tractability. I conclude that the best giving opportunities will likely be filled by foundations such as LJAF and Open Phil, and recommend that the Oxford Prioritisation Project focusses elsewhere." Also available as a Google Doc at https://docs.google.com/document/d/13wsMAugRacu52EPZo6-7NJh4QuYayKyIbjChwU0KsVU/edit?usp=sharing and at the Effective Altruism Forum at http://effective-altruism.com/ea/17g/daniel_may_open_science_little_room_for_more/ (10 comments)
Forget Washington. Criminal Justice Funders Have Big Plans at the Local Level2017-02-08Philip Rojc Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Laura and John Arnold Foundation MacArthur Foundation Third-party coverage of donor strategyCriminal justice reformThe post compares the criminal justice reform strategies followed by, on the one hand, the Arnold and MacArthur Foundation (working on the inside with government agencies and power players), on the other hand, the Open Philanthropy Project (keeping the pressure for reform from the outside). It says that the two strategies are complementary, and taken together, improve the expected amount of reform.
Good Ventures and Giving Now vs. Later (2016 Update)2016-12-28Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyGood Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Deworm the World Initiative GiveDirectly Malaria Consortium Sightsavers The END Fund Development Media International Food Fortification Initiative Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Iodine Global Network Living Goods Project Healthy Children GiveWell Reasoning supplementGlobal health and developmentExplanation of reasoning that led to $50 million allocation to GiveWell top charities
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20162016-12-14Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyJaime Yassif Chloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Daniel Dewey Nick Beckstead Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense Alliance for Safety and Justice Cosecha Animal Charity Evaluators Compassion in World Farming USA Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute 80,000 Hours Ploughshares Fund Donation suggestion listAnimal welfare|AI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Effective altruism|Migration policyOpen Philanthropy Project staff describe suggestions for best donation opportunities for individual donors in their specific areas.
Worldview Diversification2016-12-13Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCause prioritizationThe blog post discusses the challenge of comparing donation opportunities in very different cause areas, and the importance of relying on a diversity of worldviews to inform grantmaking strategy.
Catastrophic Global Risks: A Silicon Valley Funder Thinks the Unthinkable2016-11-30Sue Lynn-Moses Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Center for International Security and Cooperation Third-party coverage of donor strategyBiosecurity and pandemic preparednessA discussion of the overall work done by the Open Philanthropy Project on global catastrophic risks, with a particular focus on biosecurity. Comparisons are made with the Skoll Global Threats Fund, and the historical work of the Rockefeller Foundation in disease surveillance (that it recently pulled out of) is referenced.
Vast Suffering, Clear Solutions: The Logic Behind a Global Push to Help Farm Animals2016-11-17Tate Williams Inside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farmingThe article reviews Open Philanthropy Project grants for animal welfare, primarily grants focused on cage-free campaigns, decided by program officer Lewis Bollard. The connection with the effective altruist movement is also highlighted.
The Open Philanthropy Project just announced our latest grant to WildAid in China2016-10-25Lewis Bollard Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Green Monday World Animal Protection Brighter Green WildAid Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farming/ChinaAnnouncement of strategy on Facebook; official document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).
Grisly Undercover Video Shows Chickens Being Starved To Produce More Eggs2016-10-11Nico Pitney Huffington PostOpen Philanthropy Humane Society International Mercy For Animals Animal Equality People for Animals The Humane League Third-party coverage of donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaign/internationalProvides some context for the move by the Open Philanthropy Project in mid-2016 to expand its cage-free campaign funding internationally.
Brian Tomasik, Research Lead, Foundational Research Institute on October 6, 20162016-10-06Brian Tomasik Luke Muehlhauser Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Reasoning supplementMoral patienthood/animal welfareConversation as part of research by Muehlhauser into moral patienthood, that would culminate in the writeup https://www.openphilanthropy.org/2017-report-consciousness-and-moral-patienthood published in 2017.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute — General Support2016-09-06Open Philanthropy Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Evaluator review of doneeAI safetyOpen Phil writes about the grant at considerable length, more than it usually does. This is because it says that it has found the investigation difficult and believes that others may benefit from its process. The writeup also links to reviews of MIRI research by AI researchers, commissioned by Open Phil: http://files.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/MIRI/consolidated_public_reviews.pdf (the reviews are anonymized). The date is based on the announcement date of the grant, see https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/XkSl27jBDZ8 for the email.
Anonymized Reviews of Three Recent Papers from MIRI’s Agent Foundations Research Agenda (PDF)2016-09-06Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Evaluator review of doneeAI safetyReviews of the technical work done by MIRI, solicited and compiled by the Open Philanthropy Project as part of its decision process behind a grant for general support to MIRI documented at http://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support (grant made 2016-08, announced 2016-09-06).
Some Key Ways in Which I've Changed My Mind Over the Last Several Years2016-09-06Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute Reasoning supplementAI safetyIn this 16-page Google Doc, Holden Karnofsky, Executive Director of the Open Philanthropy Project, lists three issues he has changed his mind about: (1) AI safety (he considers it more important now), (2) effective altruism community (he takes it more seriously now), and (3) general properties of promising ideas and interventions (he considers feedback loops less necessary than he used to, and finding promising ideas through abstract reasoning more promising). The document is linked to and summarized in the blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/three-key-issues-ive-changed-my-mind-about
Why the Open Philanthropy Project Should Prioritize Wild Animal Suffering2016-08-26Michael Dickens Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy Unsolicited third-party suggestions for donorAnimal welfare/wild animalsMichael Dickens offers reasons that the Open Philanthropy Project should prioritize Wild Animal Suffering. He writes: "What we need is a large, committed source of funding to jump-start the cause. If the Open Philanthropy Project began funding work on wild animal suffering, it could stimulate new research efforts or small-scale interventions by offering grants. Specifically, Open Phil should probably create a new focus area for wild animal suffering and possibly hire dedicated staff. This problem has such large scale, and so many possible interventions, that it absolutely deserves to be a dedicated focus area. Open Phil might consider lumping WAS under its farm animal welfare program, but this would excessively constrain its budget and limit the amount of staff time that it could receive. Wild animal suffering is a massive problem, and easily deserves as much attention as most of Open Phil’s other focus areas."
Housing and Incarceration Memorandum2016-08-22Chelsea Tabart Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Reasoning supplementCriminal justice reformAn internal memorandum on the intersection between housing and incarceration written by Chelsea Tabart for Chloe Cockburn (the criminal justice program officer). The memorandum would be publicly announced and linked to from https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/jQyJCLBgenc (2017-10-25).
Here are the biggest things I got wrong in my attempts at effective altruism over the last ~3 years.2016-05-24Buck Shlegeris Buck Shlegeris Open Philanthropy Vegan Outreach Machine Intelligence Research Institute Broad donor strategyGlobal health|Animal welfare|AI safetyBuck Shlegeris, reflecting on his past three years as an effective altruist, identifies two mistakes he made in his past 3 years as an effective altruist: (1) "I thought leafleting about factory farming was more effective than GiveWell top charities. [...] I probably made this mistake because of emotional bias. I was frustrated by people who advocated for global poverty charities for dumb reasons. [...] I thought that if they really had that belief, they should either save their money just in case we found a great intervention for animals in the future, or donate it to the people who were trying to find effective animal right interventions. I think that this latter argument was correct, but I didn't make it exclusively." (2) "In 2014 and early 2015, I didn't pay as much attention to OpenPhil as I should have. [...] Being wrong about OpenPhil's values is forgivable, but what was really dumb is that I didn't realize how incredibly important it was to my life plan that I understand OpenPhil's values." (3) "I wish I'd thought seriously about donating to MIRI sooner. [...] Like my error #2, this is an example of failing to realize that when there's an unknown which is extremely important to my plans but I'm very unsure about it and haven't really seriously thought about it, I should probably try to learn more about it."
Potential Risks from Advanced Artificial Intelligence: The Philanthropic Opportunity2016-05-06Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute Review of current state of cause areaAI safetyIn this blog post that that the author says took him over over 70 hours to write (See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/update-how-were-thinking-about-openness-and-information-sharing for the statistic), Holden Karnofsky explains the position of the Open Philanthropy Project on the potential risks and opportunities from AI, and why they are making funding in the area a priority.
Our Progress in 2015 and Plans for 20162016-04-29Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyScientific research|AI safetyThe blog post compares progress made by the Open Philanthropy Project in 2015 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/open-philanthropy-project-progress-2014-and-plans-2015 and then lays out plans for 2016. The post notes the following in relation to its 2015 plans: it succeeded in hiring and expanding the team, but had to scale back on its scientific research ambitions in mid-2015. For 2016, Open Phil plans to focus on scaling up its grantmaking and reducing its focus on hiring. AI safety is declared as an intended priority for 2016, with Daniel Dewey working on it full-time, and Nick Beckstead and Holden Karnofsky also devoting significant time to it. The post also notes plans to continue work on separating the Open Philanthropy Project from GiveWell.
Update on the Open Philanthropy Project’s Work on Migration Liberalisation2016-04-08Sebastian Nickel Open Borders: The CaseOpen Philanthropy Center for Global Development U.S. Association for International Migration Protect the People ImmigrationWorks Foundation No Lean Season Niskanen Center New York University Third-party coverage of donor strategyMigration policyThe blog post provides an update to https://openborders.info/blog/overview-of-the-open-philanthropy-projects-work-on-migration-liberalisation/ (a blog post from a year ago), providing updates on the grants discussed in the previous post, as well as descriptions of new grants. A section titled "Closing thoughts" gives the author's take on events; it stresses the difficulty of figuring out how best to effect political change, and the longer time horizon needed for efforts to bear fruit.
Initial Grants to Support Corporate Cage-free Reforms2016-03-31Lewis Bollard Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy The Humane League Mercy For Animals The Humane Society of the United States Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaign/internationalWritten to explain a bunch of grants already made in 2016-02 to support cage-free reforms in the United States for egg-laying chicken. The blog post had a heated comment section, potentially influencing future Open Phil communication on the subject.
EPISODE 324: LEWIS BOLLARD FROM THE OPEN PHILANTHROPY PROJECT2016-03-26Lewis Bollard Jasmin Singer Mariann Sullivan Our Hen HouseOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farmingLewis Bollard, who recently joined the Open Philanthropy Project and has recently recommended a bunch of grants related to corporate campaigns, describes what he is working on.
Our Grantmaking So Far: Approach and Process2016-02-09Helen Toner Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyThe post provides a detailed description of Open Philanthropy's grantmaking process, both in terms of the overall approach and the decision process for individual grants. A March 2017 update adds a 50/40/10 rule. A section on differences with other foundations highlights three differences: (1) more time and thought in focus area selection and program officer selection, (2) closer collaboration between grant investigators and primary decision-makers, (3) greater prioritization of information-sharing including with the general public where feasible, and (4) taking on more of the write-up work associated with a grant, so that grantees can focus on their work and less on tailoring grant applications. The next major update from Open Philanthropy on their general grantmaking process would be https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/questions-we-ask-ourselves-making-grant by Michael Levine (2019-08-06).
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.
ALLEVIATING ANIMAL SUFFERING: A CONVERSATION WITH LEWIS BOLLARD2015-11-29Marc Gunther Nonprofit ChroniclesOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAnimal welfare/factory farmingThe author discusses takeaway from a recent lunch with Lewis Bollard, who has recently joined the Open Philanthropy Project as the Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare.
Should the Open Philanthropy Project be Recommending More/Larger Grants?2015-11-17Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyIn this blog post, originally published at https://blog.givewell.org/2015/11/17/should-the-open-philanthropy-project-be-recommending-morelarger-grants/ on the GiveWell blog where it has some comments, Holden Karnofsky discusses why Open Philanthropy is not doing more grantmaking than it currently is. The post first begins with arguments for donating more early: the "interest rate" on accomplishing good, laying the groundwork for future grantmaking, the fact that giving opportunities may worsen over time, and challenges of peak giving. He then lists various considerations in favor of capacity-building right now so as to be able to grant more money later. He concludes: "I have an easy time imagining future recommendations in excess of $1 billion per year, while still feeling that we have a reasonably sized staff, that we are working only on outstanding causes, and that every program staffer has a reasonably strong understanding of every grant they’re recommending and is making hard choices between outstanding options. This is far beyond what we’re able to do today, though, which is why capacity building is the top priority."
Incoming Program Officer: Lewis Bollard2015-09-11Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyAnimal welfareOpen Philanthropy Project announces that it is hiring Lewis Bollard, poaching him from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) via a referral from Howie Lempel. Bollard would direct tens of millions of dollars in funding in the area over the next few years, including massive spend on corporate cage-free campaigns in the United States and internationally. The post was originally published on the GiveWell blog at https://blog.givewell.org/2015/09/11/incoming-program-officer-lewis-bollard/ and has 6 comments there.
Open Philanthropy2015-09-05Sydney Martin Open Philanthropy Third-party coverage of donor strategyCriminal justice reformThe blog post describes the Open Philanthropy Project and its broad strategy of selecting a few areas through cause prioritization, studying them in depth, and granting a lot in those areas. She particularly focuses on criminal justice reform and the hiring of Chloe Cockburn.
Incoming Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform: Chloe Cockburn2015-06-16Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCriminal justice reformThe post notes that the Open Philanthropy Project is hiring Chloe Cockburn as the Program Officer in criminal justice reform, poaching her from the American Civil Liberties Union. Cockburn would direct tens of millions of dollars in funding in criminal justice reform over the next few years. The post was originally published on the GiveWell blog at https://blog.givewell.org/2015/06/16/incoming-program-officer-for-criminal-justice-reform-chloe-cockburn/ and has 5 comemnts there.
Co-funding Partnership with Kaitlyn Trigger and Mike Krieger2015-04-21Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Mike and Kaitlyn Krieger PartnershipThe blog post announces that Mike Krieger and Kaitlyn Krieger (then Kaitlyn Trigger) "have made a financial commitment of $750,000 over the next two years. 10% will go to GiveWell to support operations related to the Open Philanthropy Project. 90% will be allocated to grants identified and recommended through the Open Philanthropy Project process. We expect that the funds will be allocated evenly to all grants, rather than selectively allocated on the basis of individual grants." Later, Mike and Kaitlyn Krieger would create their own Future Justice Fund, focused on giving in the criminal justice reform space.
Overview of the Open Philanthropy Project’s work on migration liberalisation2015-03-18Sebastian Nickel Open Borders: The CaseOpen Philanthropy Center for Global Development ImmigrationWorks Foundation U.S. Association for International Migration Evidence Action Third-party coverage of donor strategyMigration policyThe blog post reviews Open Philanthropy's philanthropy strategy related to promoting freer migration in the context of their broader thinking, and discusses grants made so far to the Center for Global Development, ImmigrationWorks Foundation, and U.S. Association for International Migration. It also has a section on work related to migration within national borders that Open Philanthropy is funding. A conclusion section discusses the author's overall takeaways, and includes the sentence: "I am very impressed with the Open Philanthropy Project’s work on labour mobility."
Open Philanthropy Project: Progress in 2014 and Plans for 20152015-03-12Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyGlobal catastrophic risks|Scientific research|Global health and developmentThe blog post compares progress made by the Open Philanthropy Project in 2015 against plans laid out in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/givewell-labs-progress-2013-and-plans-2014 and lays out further plans for 2015. The post says that progress in the areas of U.S. policy and global catastrophic risks was substantial and matched expectations, but progress in scientific research and global health and development was less than hoped for. The plan for 2015 is to focus on growing more in the domain of scientific research and postpone work on global health and development (thus freeing up staff capacity). There is much more detail in the post.
Open Philanthropy Project Update: U.S. Policy2015-03-10Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCause prioritization,Criminal justice reform,Animal welfare,Macroeconomic stabilization policy,Migration policy,Drug policyOriginally published on the GiveWell blog at https://blog.givewell.org/2015/03/10/open-philanthropy-project-update-u-s-policy/ where comments can still be found. This is an annual update on where the Open Philanthropy Project stands on its investigation of United States policy issues. Some of the cause areas covered under what they call United States policy would later include grants to outside the United States (in particular, animal welfare), while others, such as criminal justice reform and macroeconomic stabilization policy, would remain within the United States.
Thoughts on the Sandler Foundation2015-02-24Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropySandler Foundation Open Philanthropy Center for American Progress ProPublica Center for Responsible Lending Washington Center for Equitable Growth Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Third-party coverage of donor strategyThis blog post originally appeared on the GiveWell blog at https://blog.givewell.org/2015/02/24/thoughts-on-the-sandler-foundation/ prior to the Open Phil blog launch. The post is part of Open Phil research into how different foundations structure their operations and giving. The post covers the Sandler Foundation, which has an unusual giving model, sacrificing cause-specific, domain-expert "program officers" and instead having a small staff that would opportunistically shift between researching different giving opportunities. Successes of the Sandler Foundation were noted, including forming the Center for American Progress, ProPublica, Center for Responsible Lending, and Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and providing support to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Sandler Foundation approach was described as follows: (1) The priority placed on funding strong leadership, (2) A high level of “opportunism”: being ready to put major funding or no funding behind an idea, depending on the quality of the specific opportunity. Ultimately, the post concluded that Open Phil would probably stick with the more standard program officer model and including a mix of larger and smaller grants. Reasons given were: (a) Open Phil's policy priorities mapped less clearly to existing political platforms than the Sandler Foundation's, so it would be harder to find fully aligned leaders, (b) Open Phil sees a good deal of value in relatively small, low-confidence, low-due-diligence grants that give a person/team a chance to “get an idea off the ground.” We’ve made multiple such grants to date and we plan on continuing to do so, (c) confidence in the Sandler Foundation's track record was not very high. However, Open Phil might experiment with using generalist staff in addition to program officers; the generalists would scan across issues to find and vet opportunities
Criminal justice reform2014-11-01Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaCriminal justice reformThe document gives the state of understanding of the Open Philanthropy Project as of November 2014, of the landscrape for criminal justice reform in the United States. It was originally prepared for a November 2014 convening. It is superseded by later documents, in particular https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/criminal-justice-reform-strategy (2017-03-27).
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.
Potential U.S. Policy Focus Areas2014-05-29Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCause prioritization|Criminal justice reform|Drug policy|Migration policy|Macroeconomic stabilization policy|Global health and development|Climate change|Tax policyThe blog post reviews the current understanding of the Open Philanthropy Project of various cause areas that they are considering for their grantmaking. They break up the cause areas discussed as: Windows of opportunity: outstanding tractability (i.e., "the time is right"), Ambitious longshots: outstanding importance, and Green fields: outstanding "room for more philanthropy". Other causes of interest (that do not neatly fit into one of these boxes) are also discussed.
Criminal Justice Reform2014-05-01Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaCriminal justice reformThe document summarizes the state of investigation of the Open Philanthropy Project into criminal justice reform in a United States context, as of May 2014. The nutshell headers are: What is the state of our investigation into U.S. criminal justice reform? Why are we making criminal justice reform grants? What is the problem? What are possible interventions?
Macroeconomic policy2014-05-01Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaMacroeconomic stabilization policyInitial findings from a medium-depth investigation into the current state of macroeconomic stabilization policy.
GiveWell Labs - Progress in 2013 and Plans for 20142014-03-05Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyCause prioritizationOriginally published on the GiveWell blog at https://blog.givewell.org/2014/03/05/givewell-labs-progress-in-2013-and-plans-for-2014/ where comments can still be found. This is an annual update on the state of the Open Philanthropy Project, which, at the time, was called GiveWell Labs. It describes the areas that the Open Philanthropy Project plans to focus on, and the level of depth it plans to go into.
Biosecurity2014-01-01Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaBiosecurity and pandemic preparednessInitial findings from a shallow investigation into the current state of biosecurity and its funding.
GiveWell Labs Update2013-09-26Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Broad donor strategyMigration policy/labor mobility|Geoengineering research|Criminal justice reform|Animal welfare/factory farming|Open science|Global health/malaria|History of philanthropyThe blog post provides a general update on GiveWell Labs (that would later become Open Philanthropy). It lists seven causes that it considers promising and plans to investigate further.
Treatment of Animals in Industrial Agriculture2013-09-01Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaAnimal welfare/factory farming/United StatesInitial findings from a shallow investigation into the impact of industrial agriculture on animal welfare in the United States.
Labor Mobility2013-05-01Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaMigration policy/labor mobilityInitial findings from a shallow investigation into the current state of labor mobility, with more focus on the United States.
Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI) (GW, IR)2012-05-11Holden Karnofsky LessWrongOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Evaluator review of doneeAI safetyPost discussing reasons Holden Karnofsky, co-executive director of GiveWell, does not recommend the Singularity Institute (SI), the historical name for the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. This evaluation would be the starting point for the initial position of the Open Philanthropy Project (a GiveWell spin-off grantmaker) toward MIRI, but Karnofsky and the Open Philanthropy Project would later update in favor of AI safety in general and MIRI in particular; this evolution is described in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hKZNRSLm7zubKZmfA7vsXvkIofprQLGUoW43CYXPRrk/edit
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence2011-04-30Holden Karnofsky GiveWellOpen Philanthropy Machine Intelligence Research Institute Evaluator review of doneeAI safetyIn this email thread on the GiveWell mailing list, Holden Karnofsky gives his views on the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI), the former name for the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). The reply emails include a discussion of how much weight to give to, and what to learn from, the support for MIRI by Peter Thiel, a wealthy early MIRI backer. In the final email in the thread, Holden Karnofsky includes an audio recording with Jaan Tallinn, another wealthy early MIRI backer. This analysis likely influences the review https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6SGqkCgHuNr7d4yJm/thoughts-on-the-singularity-institute-si (GW, IR) published by Karnofsky next year, as well as the initial position of the Open Philanthropy Project (a GveWell spin-off grantmaker) toward MIRI.
Open Philanthropy Project: Grants for Global SecurityInside PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Center for International Security and Cooperation Third-party coverage of donor strategyBiosecurity and pandemic preparednessAn overview by Inside Philanthropy of the Open Philanthropy Project and its work on biosecurity grants.
Advocacy for Improved or Increased U.S. Foreign AidOpen PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy Review of current state of cause areaGlobal health and developmentThe Open Philanthropy Project reviews the current state of policy advocacy for increasing development assistance from the United States government, in order to identify what a new funder (potentially, the Open Philanthropy Project) could do in the space.

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (921 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 921)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Eleuther AI (Earmark: Nora Belrose)2,642,273.00892023-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/eleuther-ai-interpretability-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the work of Nora Belrose. Nora will conduct research on AI interpretability and hire other researchers to assist her in this work."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 48.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative70,000.007462023-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-university-collaboration-program/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [BERI's] university collaboration program. Selected applicants become eligible for support and services from BERI that would be difficult or impossible to obtain through normal university channels. BERI will use these funds to increase the size of its 2024 cohort." The page https://existence.org/2023/07/27/trial-collaborations-2023.html is linked.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 12.
RAND Corporation (Earmark: Jason Matheny)10,500,000.00182023-10AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-initiatives/Luke Muehlhauser Donation process: This is a followup grant to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-fellowships-and-research/ to the same grantee for similar purposes.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page lists the following initiatives to be funded by the grant: "(1) A technology policy training program. (2) Support for the Pardee RAND Graduate School. (3) A new research center focused on China studies. (4) A research fund that will help to produce information for policymakers about emerging technology and security priorities."
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative70,000.007462023-09AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-scalable-oversight-dataset/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant " to support the creation of a scalable oversight dataset. The purpose of the dataset is to collect questions that non-experts can’t answer even with the internet at their disposal; these kinds of questions can be used to test how well AI systems can lead humans to the right answers without misleading them."
FAR AI166,500.005832023-09AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-alignment-workshop/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a two-day alignment workshop in advance of NeurIPS 2023, a major machine learning and computational neuroscience conference."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
Northeastern University (Earmark: David Bau|Sam Marks)116,072.006462023-09AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/northeastern-university-mechanistic-interpretability-research/-- Donation process: This is a followup grant to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/northeastern-university-large-language-model-interpretability-research/ to David Bau's lab.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a postdoctoral position for Sam Marks in Professor David Bau’s lab, where Sam will conduct research on mechanistic interpretability." The webpages https://baulab.info/ and https://www.neelnanda.io/mechanistic-interpretability/quickstart are linked.
OpenMined6,000,000.00332023-09AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openmined-software-for-ai-audits/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on developing software that facilitates access to advanced AI systems for external researchers and auditors while preserving privacy, security, and intellectual property."
University of Pennsylvania (Earmark: Peter Conti-Brown)110,000.006512023-09AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-pennsylvania-ai-governance-roundtables/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a series of roundtables led by Professor Peter Conti-Brown. At these events, experts will discuss how insights from financial regulation might inform emerging discussions on AI governance." The webpage https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/petercb/ is linked.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Surge AI (Earmark: Gabriel Recchia)123,750.006352023-09AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/surge-ai-data-production-for-ai-safety-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Gabriel Recchia in producing data points for a research project on sandwiching experiments and capability evaluations of large language models." The webpage https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-recchia-38575b10 and the LessWrong post section https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PZtsoaoSLpKjjbMqM/the-case-for-aligning-narrowly-superhuman-models#Potential_near_future_projects___sandwiching_ (GW, IR) are linked.

Other notes: The grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/modulo-research-ai-safety-research/ to Modulo Research made around the same time also supports work by the same person (Gabriel Recchia) on a "research project on sandwiching experiments and capability evaluations of large language models.". Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
AI Impacts150,000.005962023-08AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-expert-survey-on-progress-in-ai/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support an expert survey on progress in artificial intelligence. AI Impacts works to answer questions about the future of artificial intelligence."

Other notes: AI Impacts previously did expert surveys on the state of AI, including https://aiimpacts.org/2016-expert-survey-on-progress-in-ai/ in 2016 and (a rerun) https://aiimpacts.org/2022-expert-survey-on-progress-in-ai/ in 2022. This survey is likely a followup/rerun of those surveys.
University of Utah (Earmark: Daniel Brown)31,773.008512023-08AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-utah-course-on-human-ai-alignment/-- Donation process: The grant is part of Open Philanthropy Course Development Grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/open-philanthropy-course-development-grants/ for which applications can be submitted online. The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-utah-course-on-human-ai-alignment/ says: "We sought applications for this funding to support the development of courses on a range of topics that are relevant to certain areas of Open Philanthropy’s grantmaking."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Daniel Brown in developing a course on human-AI alignment."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The online application form linked from https://www.openphilanthropy.org/open-philanthropy-course-development-grants/ requires applicants to include an estimated budget. The amount granted was likely based on the budget submitted by the applicant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing was likely determined by the timing of the grant application, as well as the academic year cycle. Details are not publicly available.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The "Grantee expectations" section at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/open-philanthropy-course-development-grants/ does not specifically talk about followup grants. It says: "We would like grantees to continue teaching the developed course in the future (at least three times), but this is not a requirement of a grant. Grantees are required to provide us, after completion of the course, with a copy of the course syllabus, a copy of the final exam/final paper (if permitted of by the relevant university’s policies), enrollment statistics, student evaluations, and a brief summary (roughly half a page in length) describing their own experience teaching the course. We will strongly encourage grantees to make their syllabi available online, but we won’t require this." This suggests that the grantee is not expected to receive followup grants for teaching the same course, since the grant is for course *development*; further grants for different courses may be possible.

Other notes: On the Open Philanthropy website, the cause area is listed as global catastrophic risks rather than AI safety. We're using AI safety on the donations list website, so this may result in inconsistencies in some totals between the Open Philanthropy website and the donations list website.
Legal Priorities Project75,000.007362023-08AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/legal-priorities-project-law-ai-summer-research-fellowship/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] Summer Research Fellowship in Law & AI. Participants will work with researchers at LPP on projects at the intersection of law and risks from advanced AI."
Modulo Research (Earmark: Gabriel Recchia)408,255.003892023-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/modulo-research-ai-safety-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research — led by Gabriel Recchia — into large language model sandwiching experiments, dataset development, and capability evaluations." The webpage https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-recchia-38575b10 and the LessWrong blog post section https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PZtsoaoSLpKjjbMqM/the-case-for-aligning-narrowly-superhuman-models#Potential_near_future_projects___sandwiching_ (GW, IR) are linked.

Other notes: The grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/surge-ai-data-production-for-ai-safety-research/ to Surge AI made around the same time also supports work by the same person (Gabriel Recchia) on a "research project on sandwiching experiments and capability evaluations of large language models.". Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
AI Safety Communications Centre288,000.004672023-08AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/effective-ventures-foundation-ai-safety-communications-centre/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This project provides the AI safety community with communications support, and connects journalists to AI safety experts and resources." https://aiscc.org/ is the linked grantee website.

Other notes: Grant via the Effective Ventures Foundation.
Guide Labs750,000.002502023-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/guide-labs-open-access-interpretability-project/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a project developing and testing AI error diagnostics and model guiding tools. To support AI safety and alignment, these tools will be made freely available to the general public."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 18.
Swiss AI Safety Summer Camp51,248.007742023-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/swiss-ai-safety-summer-camp-ai-safety-bootcamp/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Swiss AI Safety Summer Camp to support its 2023 bootcamp. The program offers a multidisciplinary learning experience through activities such as deep learning courses, paper readings, discussions, presentations, and lectures." Although not linked from the grant page, the summer camp webpage is at https://www.aisafetycamp.ch/ and gives a timeframe of 4th to 16th September 2023 for the camp.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 45,165.00 CHF (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Anca Dragan)35,000.008482023-07AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-lab-retreat/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a retreat for Anca Dragan’s BAIR lab group, where members will discuss potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
FAR AI460,000.003622023-07AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-general-support-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support
Redwood Research5,300,000.00382023-06AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. Redwood Research is a nonprofit research institution focused on aligning advanced AI with human interests."
Apollo Research1,535,480.001482023-06AI safety/technical research/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/apollo-research-startup-funding/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for startup costs. Apollo Research is a new organization that will conduct research on how to evaluate whether AI models are aligned and safe, with a focus on interpretability and detecting whether models are deceptive. Apollo also plans to do research on AI governance."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the timing of the start of the funded organization (Apollo Research).
Centre for the Governance of AI1,000,000.002002023-05AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-the-governance-of-ai-general-support-2/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Centre for the Governance of AI (GovAI) for general support. GovAI conducts research on AI governance and works to develop a talent pipeline for those interested in entering the field."
Mila (Earmark: Jacob Steinhardt)50,000.007772023-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/mila-workshop-on-human-level-ai/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a workshop on human-level artificial intelligence, led by Professor Jacob Steinhardt, that will bring together experts on AI and AI alignment."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
University of Chicago (Earmark: Chenhao Tan)250,000.004922023-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-chicago-research-on-complementary-ai/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research, led by Professor Chenhao Tan, on how to train AI systems to complement human efforts." Chenhao Tan's website https://chenhaot.com/ is linnked from the grant page.
Rethink Priorities302,390.004462023-04AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rethink-priorities-ai-governance-workshop/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support an in-person workshop bringing together professionals working on AI governance."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
Rethink Priorities154,810.005912023-04AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rethink-priorities-ai-governance-research-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research on AI governance, with a focus on hardware security features."

Other notes: As of 2023-10-14, the text of the grant page states the amount to be $154,801, but the metadata on top and on the grants list page states the amount to be $154,810.
Center for AI Safety4,025,729.00512023-04AI safety/technical research/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. The Center for AI Safety works on research, field-building, and advocacy to reduce existential risks from artificial intelligence."
Epoch6,922,565.00282023-04AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/epoch-general-support-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. Epoch researches trends in machine learning to better understand the pace of progress in artificial intelligence, and to help forecast the development of advanced AI and its subsequent economic impacts."
Conjecture (Earmark: SERI-MATS program)245,000.005142023-04AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [Conjecture's] collaboration with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) on SERI’s Machine Learning Alignment Theory Scholars (MATS) program. MATS is an educational seminar and independent research program that aims to provide talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI alignment. This grant will support a London-based extension of the MATS program’s third cohort, which we supported last year."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This grant is a followup to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ for the original SERI-MATS cohort (the third cohort). Conjecture was likely selected for the grant due to its interest, willingness and ability to manage the logistics of the extension in London, and its success at running a similar extension for the second cohort; that extension was also funded by Open Philanthropy (see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-program-in-london/ for details).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): While no reason is provided for the amount, the amount is a little over 10% of the amount for the SERI-MATS grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ and a little over half the amount of the previous extension grant. The previous extension grant had been about half the corresponding SERI-MATS cohort grant. The reason for the reduced amount of this grant is not clear.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made six months after the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ for the SERI-MATS cohort whose extension is being funded by this grant. This makes sense since the extension happens after the program, whose duration (including application steps) is about 6 months.
University of Utah (Earmark: Daniel Brown)140,000.006172023-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-utah-ai-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research led by Professor Daniel Brown on ways to verify the extent to which an AI system is aligned with human values."
AI Safety Support (Earmark: Owain Evans)443,716.003732023-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-support-situational-awareness-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Three grants "to support research led by Owain Evans to evaluate whether machine learning models have situational awareness. These grants were made to AI Safety Support, Effective Ventures Foundation USA, and the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative, and will support salaries, office space, and compute for this research project."

Other notes: Both the Open Philanthropy website and the donations list website list the grantee as AI Safety Support, but this is actually a combination of three grants, one each to "AI Safety Support, Effective Ventures Foundation USA, and the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative"; the single donee is for simplicity and due to system limitations.
RAND Corporation (Earmark: Jason Matheny)5,500,000.00372023-04AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-fellowships-and-research/Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to be spent at RAND President Jason Matheny’s discretion. Matheny has designated this funding to launch two new initiatives: a technology policy training program, and a research fund to help produce information that policymakers need to make wise decisions about emerging technology and security priorities."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We have been impressed with Matheny’s past work on technology and security — at IARPA, at the Center for Security and Technology, and in the White House — and we believe RAND is well-positioned to use such funding to great impact."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-initiatives/ for similar purposes suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
University of Maryland312,959.004412023-04AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-maryland-policy-fellowship-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the University of Maryland to support a fellowship related to technology and national security."
National Science Foundation5,000,000.00402023-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/national-science-foundation-safe-learning-enabled-systems/-- Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [National Science Foundation's] Safe Learning-Enabled Systems program, which will regrant the funds to foundational research projects aimed at finding ways to guarantee the safety of machine learning systems." https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/safe-learning-enabled-systems is the linked webpage for the Safe Learning-Enabled Systems program.
Leap Labs230,000.005252023-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/leap-labs-interpretability-research/-- Donation process: The grant page says: "This grant was made primarily based on the recommendation of an external technical advisor."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Leap Labs to support research on AI interpretability, particularly model agnostic interpretability." The links are as follows: https://www.alignmentforum.org/s/Tp3ryR4AxY56ctGh2/p/CzZ6Fch4JSpwCpu6C for AI interpretability and https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uXGLciramzNfb8Hvz/why-i-m-working-on-model-agnostic-interpretability (GW, IR) for model agnostic interpretability.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This grant was made primarily based on the recommendation of an external technical advisor."
FAR AI280,000.004702023-03AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-far-labs-office-space/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support FAR Labs, an office space in Berkeley for people working on AI safety and alignment."
FAR AI100,000.006652023-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-ai-interpretability-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a research project, led by Open Philanthropy AI Fellow Alex Tamkin, aimed at developing a neural network architecture that could serve as a more interpretable alternative to the transformer architecture used in leading language models."
California State University, San José (Earmark: Yan Zhang)39,000.008422023-03AI safety/governance/forecastinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/san-jose-state-university-ai-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research by Professor Yan Zhang on AI forecasting and AI governance." The webpage https://www.sjsu.edu/people/yan.zhang/ is linked.
Forecasting Research Institute150,000.005962023-03AI safety/strategy/forecastinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/forecasting-research-institute-ai-forecasting-project/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a project that will bring together forecasters who disagree about the magnitude of AI existential risk to discuss and make predictions about AI, with the goal of identifying key views and arguments driving their forecasts and disagreements. The participants will include some “superforecasters” (people with a strong track record of making accurate predictions) and some AI subject-matter experts, among others."
University of Illinois (Earmark: Ben Levinstein)80,000.007262023-03AI safety/tecnical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-illinois-ai-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Professor Ben Levinstein’s research on AI alignment." Levinstein's website https://www.levinstein.org/ is linked.
Center for AI Safety1,433,000.001582023-02AI safety/technical research/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-philosophy-fellowship/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the CAIS Philosophy Fellowship, which is a research fellowship that will support philosophers researching topics related to AI safety. This grant also supported a workshop on adversarial robustness, as well as prizes for safety-related competitions at the 2022 NeurIPS conference." Links: https://philosophy.safe.ai/ for CAIS Philosophy Fellowship, https://eccv22-arow.github.io/ for the workshop, and https://trojandetection.ai/ and https://neurips2022.mlsafety.org/ for the prizes.
Epoch188,558.005742023-02AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/epoch-ai-worldview-investigations/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [Epoch's] “worldview investigations” related to AI." The linked blog post section https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/our-progress-in-2019-and-plans-for-2020/#worldview-investigations describes this in more detail, starting with: "Identify debatable views we hold that play a key role in our cause prioritization, such as the view that there’s a nontrivial likelihood of transformative artificial intelligence being developed by 2036."
Longview Philanthropy770,076.002472023-02AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/longview-philanthropy-ai-policy-development-at-the-oecd/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Longview Philanthropy to support their collaboration with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on a project to develop potential policies that could reduce existential risks from artificial intelligence."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 720,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).
University of Tübingen (Earmark: Matthias Bethge)575,000.002862023-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research led by Professor Matthias Bethge on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."
Brian Christian37,903.008432023-02AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/brian-christian-psychology-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a DPhil in psychology at the University of Oxford. His research will focus on human preferences, with the goal of informing efforts to align AI systems with human values."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 29,700.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Responsible AI Collaborative100,000.006652023-02AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/responsible-ai-collaborative-ai-incident-database/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work maintaining the AI Incident Database, which is a database of incidents where AI systems have caused real-world harm." https://incidentdatabase.ai/ is the linked webpage for the AI Incident Database.
Alignment Research Engineer Accelerator18,800.008842023-02AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-engineer-accelerator-ai-safety-technical-program/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Alignment Research Engineer Accelerator (ARENA), which is a program to help individuals interested in AI safety improve their technical skills in machine learning."
Cornell University (Earmark: Lionel Levine)342,645.004222023-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/cornell-university-ai-safety-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Professor Lionel Levine’s research related to AI alignment and safety."
University of Toronto (Earmark: Toryn Klassen)80,000.007262023-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-toronto-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Toryn Klassen’s research on topics related to AI alignment."
University of California, Santa Cruz (Earmark: Cihang Xie)114,000.006482023-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-california-santa-cruz-adversarial-robustness-research-2023/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research, led by Professor Cihang Xie, on adversarial robustness in AI systems. This funding will support salaries and other costs for two graduate students in Professor Xie’s lab." The webpage https://cihangxie.github.io/ is linked.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This grant is made two years after the previous grant, that was intended to be a three-year grant. So, the new grant is being made a year before the running out of the old grant. The reason for the timing is not explicitly specified.
University of British Columbia (Earmark: Jeff Clune)100,375.006642023-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-british-columbia-ai-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "over two years to the University of British Columbia to support research led by Professor Jeff Clune on AI alignment." The webpage https://www.cs.ubc.ca/people/jeff-clune is linked.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Adam Jermyn19,231.008822023-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/adam-jermyn-independent-ai-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Adam Jermyn to support his independent technical research on AI alignment."
Neel Nanda70,000.007462023-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/neel-nanda-interpretability-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Neel Nanda to support his independent research on interpretability. His work is aimed at improving human understanding of neural networks and machine learning models."
FAR AI (Earmark: Alex Tamkin)50,000.007772022-12AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-interpretability-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [FAR AI's] research on machine learning interpretability, in collaboration with Open Philanthropy AI Fellow Alex Tamkin."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-ai-interpretability-research/ for the same research area and same leader (Alex Tamkin), as well as several other grants to the organization, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.
FAR AI49,500.008192022-12AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-inverse-scaling-prize/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support their Inverse Scaling Prize, which is a contest that awards prizes to contestants who find examples of tasks where language models perform worse as they scale."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The announcement post https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/eqxqgFxymP8hXDTt5/announcing-the-inverse-scaling-prize-usd250k-prize-pool (published six months prior to the grant) states that the total prize pool is $250,000. https://github.com/inverse-scaling/prize#prize-information says "2023/03/21 Update: The prize pool has been funded by Open Philanthropy" suggesting that the amount provided by Open Philanthropy closed the funding gap to the target amount of $250,000.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made six months after the announcement https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/eqxqgFxymP8hXDTt5/announcing-the-inverse-scaling-prize-usd250k-prize-pool of the $250,000 prize pool for the prize. https://github.com/inverse-scaling/prize#prize-information says "2023/03/21 Update: The prize pool has been funded by Open Philanthropy"; this suggests that Open Philanthropy made the grant in light of the already-running prize in order to fill the funding gap.

Other notes: See the announcement post https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/eqxqgFxymP8hXDTt5/announcing-the-inverse-scaling-prize-usd250k-prize-pool and the GitHub repository https://github.com/inverse-scaling/prize for more details.
FAR AI625,000.002742022-12AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-general-support/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. FAR AI works to incubate and accelerate research agendas to ensure AI systems are more trustworthy and beneficial to society."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-general-support-2023/ as well as other followup grants to FAR AI suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Georgetown University239,061.005182022-12AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-policy-fellowship-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a fellowship related to AI and cybersecurity policy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of the grant is very similar to the amount of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-policy-fellowship-2021/ to the grantee for the same fellowship the previous year.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made exactly one year after the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-policy-fellowship-2021/ to the grantee for the same fellowship, suggesting that this is an annual renewal grant as the fellowship is being run for a second year.
Apart Research89,000.007192022-12AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/apart-research-ai-alignment-hackathons/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "two grants totaling $130,050 to Apart Research to support their work hosting four “hackathons” where participants will work on small projects related to AI alignment."

Other notes: This is a total across two grants.
Jérémy Scheurer110,000.006512022-12AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/jeremy-scheurer-independent-ai-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] independent research on AI alignment." The Google Scholar citations page https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_6nYXQYAAAAJ is linked from the grantee's name.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This is part of our strategy to grow the field of AI researchers who are focused on reducing potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."
Simon McGregor7,000.009102022-12AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/simon-mcgregor-ai-risk-workshop/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work to organize a workshop on AI risk."
Purdue University (Earmark: Xiangyu Zhang)170,000.005792022-12AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/purdue-university-language-model-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research led by Professor Xiangyu Zhang on improving the robustness of language models against adversarial attacks." The webpage https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/xyzhang/ is linked.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative100,000.006652022-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-general-support-2/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. BERI seeks to reduce existential risks to humanity by providing services and support to university-based research groups, including the Center for Human-Compatible AI at the University of California, Berkeley."
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: SERI-MATS program)2,047,268.001162022-11AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support their collaboration with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) on SERI’s Machine Learning Alignment Theory Scholars (MATS) program. MATS is an educational seminar and independent research program that aims to provide talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI alignment, and connect them with the Berkeley alignment research community. This grant will support the MATS program’s third cohort."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made in time for the third cohort of the SERI-MATS program; this is the cohort being funded by the grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 6

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-2023/ for the London-based extension suggests continued satisfaction with this funded program.

Other notes: See https://www.serimats.org/program for details of the program including its timeline. Although the research phase of the timeline is just two months, the application process, training phase, and extension phase together make up about half a year. See also the companion grants: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-support-seri-mats-program/ to AI Safety Support and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-2023/ to Conjecture for the London-based extension.
Alignment Research Center1,250,000.001702022-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-center-general-support-november-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. The Alignment Research Center conducts research on how to align AI with human interests, with a focus on techniques that could be adopted in existing machine learning systems and effectively scale up to future systems."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: While no reason is specified in the grant page, it's worth noting that the founder of the donee organization, Paul Christiano, has previously been a technical advisor to Open Philanthropy, and has been affiliated with multiple organizations (Machine Intelligence Research Institute, OpenAI, and Ought) that have previously received funding from Open Philanthropy for AI safety. These past connections may have influenced the grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made eight months after the previous $265,000 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-center-general-support/ and likely reflects the renewal of that now-used-up funding.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24
Center for AI Safety5,160,000.00392022-11AI safety/technical research/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. The Center for AI Safety does technical research and field-building aimed at reducing catastrophic and existential risks from artificial intelligence."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support-2023/ in 2023 for a similar amount suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
AI Safety Support (Earmark: SERI-MATS program)1,538,000.001462022-11AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-support-seri-mats-program/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [AI Safety Support's] collaboration with Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) on SERI’s Machine Learning Alignment Theory Scholars (MATS) program. MATS is an educational seminar and independent research program that aims to provide talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI alignment, and connect them with in-person alignment research communities."

Other notes: See also the companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ to Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative and the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-2023/ to Conjecture for the London-based extension.
AI Safety Hub63,839.007592022-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-hub-safety-labs/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] Safety Labs program, which will match students with mentors while the students research questions related to AI safety."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 53,700.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Northeastern University (Earmark: David Bau)562,128.002902022-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/northeastern-university-large-language-model-interpretability-research/-- Donation process: This is a followup grant to the grant to David Bau made as part of a collection of grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/funding-for-ai-alignment-projects-working-with-deep-learning-systems/ providing funding for projects working with deep learning systems. That previous grant had been made through grant applications sought at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/request-for-proposals-for-projects-in-ai-alignment-that-work-with-deep-learning-systems/ (a request for proposals).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Professor David Bau’s research on interpreting large language models." The webpage https://baulab.info/ is linked.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/northeastern-university-mechanistic-interpretability-research/ to Northeastern University for David Bau's lab suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Mordechai Rorvig110,000.006512022-11AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/mordechai-rorvig-independent-ai-journalism/-- Donation process: The grantee's webpage gives context on why the grantee sought the grant: "In November 2022, I was awarded a grant from Open Philanthropy, a grantmaking organization, to provide one year’s worth of support for my independent journalism work in computer science and AI. This grant neither affects my editorial independence nor indicates an endorsement of my writing by the Open Philanthropy organization. I sought out grants after leaving Quanta in August 2022, and becoming increasingly informed about what I believe is a severe state of underfunding in science journalism, particularly for areas as important as computer science and AI." The Twitter thread https://twitter.com/mordecwhy/status/1559254697940336640 is linked from the webpage.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support his independent journalism on topics related to computer science, AI, and AI safety." The webpage https://mordechairorvig.com/ is linked.
Jacob Steinhardt100,000.006652022-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/jacob-steinhardt-ai-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to provide operational support to Steinhardt’s lab at the University of California Berkeley, which specializes in research on how to align machine learning systems." The webpage https://jsteinhardt.stat.berkeley.edu/ is linked.
Conjecture (Earmark: SERI-MATS program)457,380.003632022-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-program-in-london/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [Conjecture's] collaboration with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) on SERI’s Machine Learning Alignment Theory Scholars (MATS) program. MATS is an educational seminar and independent research program that aims to provide talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI alignment. This grant will support a London-based extension for a MATS cohort that started in Berkeley. Conjecture will use this funding to provide office space in London and operations support."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is a followup to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program/ for the original SERI-MATS cohort (the second cohort). Conjecture was likely selected for the grant due to its interest, willingness and ability to manage the logistics of the extension in London.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): While no reason is provided for the amount, the amount is a little under half the amount granted at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program/ for the SERI-MATS cohort whose extension is being funded by this grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made six months after the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program/ for the SERI-MATS cohort whose extension is being funded by this grant. This makes sense since the extension happens after the program, whose duration (including application steps) is about 6 months.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-2023/ for a similar London-based extension of the third SERI-MATS cohort suggests continued satisfaction with the program being funded.
Foundation Model Tracker (Earmark: Thomas Liao)15,000.008872022-10AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/thomas-liao-foundation-model-tracker/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Thomas Liao to support his work on maintaining Foundation Model Tracker, a website that tracks the release of large AI models." The webpage https://foundationmodeltracker.com/ is linked, but does not work as of 2023-11-19. However, the webpage https://foundationmodeltracker.notion.site/foundationmodeltracker/Model-Tracker-v0-9-794ba77f74ec469186efdbdb87e9b8e6 that https://foundationmodeltracker.com/ used to redirect to still works.
OxAI Safety Hub (Earmark: Catherine Brewer)11,622.009012022-10AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/catherine-brewer-oxai-safety-hub/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Catherine Brewer to support the OxAI Safety Hub, which is a new Oxford-based group working on building the AI safety community."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 10,540.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Centre for the Governance of AI50,532.007752022-09AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-the-governance-of-ai-compute-strategy-workshop/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a workshop bringing together compute experts from several subfields, such as large-model infrastructure, ASIC design, and governance, to discuss compute governance ideas that could reduce existential risk from artificial intelligence."
Centre for the Governance of AI19,200.008832022-09AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-the-governance-of-ai-research-assistant/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a new research assistant."
AI Safety Hub (Earmark: Julia Karbing)235,000.005222022-09AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-hub-startup-costs/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Open Philanthropy recommended two grants totaling $235,000 to the AI Safety Hub to support their initial development costs, and to hire several contractors to work on projects related to AI safety. The AI Safety Hub, directed by Century Fellow Julia Karbing, is a new organization that will work on movement building in the AI safety field."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-hub-safety-labs/ suggests satisfaction with the outcome of this grant.

Other notes: This is a total across two grants.
AI Alignment Awards70,000.007462022-09AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-alignment-awards-shutdown-problem-contest/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "over 1.5 years to AI Alignment Awards to support a contest asking participants to share ideas on how AI systems can be designed or trained to avoid the shutdown problem." The webpage https://www.alignmentawards.com/shutdown is linked.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 18.
Redwood Research10,700,000.00172022-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support-2/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. Redwood Research is a nonprofit research institution focused on aligning advanced AI with human interests."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support-2023/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 18.
FAR AI (Earmark: Ethan Perez)463,693.003602022-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/fund-for-alignment-research-language-model-misalignment-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research projects, led by Ethan Perez, related to misalignment in language models."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants, such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/far-ai-general-support/ for general support, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. However, as of mid-2023, there are no followup grants exclusively for the research area of this grant (language model misalignment).

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 18.
Daniel Dewey175,000.005772022-08AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/daniel-dewey-ai-alignment-projects-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support [Dewey's] work on AI alignment. Daniel will continue work on a website explaining how artificial intelligence poses a global risk, and continue work on proposals for experiments related to AI safety." The webpage https://www.danieldewey.net/risk/index.html is linked.
Centre for Effective Altruism250,000.004922022-08AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-harvard-ai-safety-office/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to rent and refurbish a temporary office space for one year for the Harvard AI Safety Team." The webpage https://haist.ai/ is linked.
Center for a New American Security4,816,710.00462022-07AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-a-new-american-security-work-on-ai-governance/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support work related to artificial intelligence policy and governance."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Stanford University (Earmark: Clark Barrett|Scott Viteri)153,820.005922022-07AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-ai-alignment-research-barrett-and-viteri/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research on AI alignment by Professor Clark Barrett and Stanford student Scott Viteri."
Carnegie Mellon University (Earmark: Aditi Raghunathan)343,235.004212022-07AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/carnegie-mellon-university-research-on-adversarial-examples/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support research led by Professor Aditi Raghunathan on adversarial examples (inputs optimized to cause machine learning models to make mistakes)." The webpages https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aditirag/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adversarial_machine_learning#Adversarial_examples are linked.

Other notes: Aditi Raghunathan, whose work the grant funds, previously received money from Open Philanthropy as part of the Open Phil AI Fellowship https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2018-class/ and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-research-aditi-raghunathan/ while at UC Berkeley. Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Samuel Bowman)30,000.008552022-06AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-language-model-alignment-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a project led by Professor Samuel Bowman of New York University to develop a dataset and accompanying methods for language model alignment research."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
AI Impacts364,893.004112022-06AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. AI Impacts works on strategic questions related to advanced artificial intelligence."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-expert-survey-on-progress-in-ai/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Epoch1,960,000.001242022-06AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/epoch-general-support/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. Epoch is a research organization that works on investigating trends in machine learning and forecasting the development of transformative artificial intelligence."
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: SERI-MATS program)1,008,127.001992022-04AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative to support its collaboration with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) on the second cohort of the SERI Machine Learning Alignment Theory Scholars (MATS) Program. MATS is an educational seminar and independent research program that aims to provide talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI alignment, and connect them with the Berkeley alignment research community."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made in time for the second cohort of the SERI-MATS program; this is the cohort being funded by the grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 6

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ for the third cohort of the SERI-MATS program suggests the donor's continued satisfaction with the SERI-MATS program. Also, the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/conjecture-seri-mats-program-in-london/ for the London-based extension of this cohort (the second cohort) also suggests the donor's satisfaction with the program.

Other notes: See https://www.serimats.org/program for details of the program including its timeline. Although the research phase of the timeline is just two months, the application process, training phase, and extension phase together make up about half a year.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity)210,000.005402022-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-ai-standards-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on the development and implementation of AI safety standards that may reduce potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made at the same time as the companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-long-term-cybersecurity-ai-standards-2022/ to the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), via the University of California, Berkeley.

Other notes: There is a companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-long-term-cybersecurity-ai-standards-2022/ to the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), via the University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: David Krueger)140,050.006162022-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-david-krueger-collaboration/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative to support its collaboration with Professor David Krueger."

Other notes: The grant page says: "The grant amount was updated in August 2023.".
Open Phil AI Fellowship (Earmark: Adam Gleave|Cassidy Laidlaw|Cynthia Chen|Daniel Kunin|Erik Jenner|Johannes Treutlein|Lauro Langosco|Maksym Andriushchenko|Qian Huang|Usman Anwar|Zhijing Jin)1,840,000.001302022-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2022-class/-- Donation process: The Open Phil AI Fellowship is awarded annually based on an application process. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence-the-open-phil-ai-fellowship/ has more details on the application process.

Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: Grant to provide scholarship to eleven machine learning researchers over five years.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to the grant page: "These [eleven] fellows were selected for their academic excellence, technical knowledge, careful reasoning, and interest in making the long-term, large-scale impacts of AI a central focus of their research. [...] We believe that progress in artificial intelligence may eventually lead to changes in human civilization that are as large as the agricultural or industrial revolutions; while we think it’s most likely that this would lead to significant improvements in human well-being, we also see significant risks. Open Phil AI Fellows have a broad mandate to think through which kinds of research are likely to be most valuable, to share ideas and form a community with like-minded students and professors, and ultimately to act in the way that they think is most likely to improve outcomes from progress in AI. The intent of the Open Phil AI Fellowship is both to support a small group of promising researchers and to foster a community with a culture of trust, debate, excitement, and intellectual excellence."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Although the amount per researcher is lower than in previous years (at $1,840,000 over 11 years, it averages to around $170,000 per researcher, less than the $260,000 in the previous year), this reduced amount is partly explained by some of the grantees also receiving funding as Vitalik Buterin Postdoctoral Fellows (see https://futureoflife.org/team/fellowship-winners-2022/ for details); for these grantees, Open Phil and Future of Life Institute split the money equally. Also, regarding the amount, the grant page says: "This is an estimate because of uncertainty around future year tuition costs and currency exchange rates. This number may be updated as costs are finalized."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is the fourth of annual sets of grants, decided through an annual application process, with the announcement made between April and June each year. The timing may have been chosen to sync with the academic year.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Other notes: Five of the eleven grantees (Cynthia Chen, Erik Jenner, Johannes Treutlein, Usman Anwar, and Zhijing Jin) also receiving funding as Vitalik Buterin Postdoctoral Fellows (see https://futureoflife.org/team/fellowship-winners-2022/ for details); for these grantees, Open Phil and Future of Life Institute split the money equally.
AI Safety Support (Earmark: Jaime Sevilla)42,000.008282022-04AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-support-research-on-trends-in-machine-learning/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to scale up a research group, led by Jaime Sevilla, which studies trends in machine learning."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Further grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-support-seri-mats-program/ and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-safety-support-situational-awareness-research/ from Open Philanthropy, though with slightly different goals, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.
OpenMined28,320.008602022-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openmined-research-on-privacy-enhancing-technologies-and-ai-safety/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support research on the intersection between privacy-enhancing technologies and technical infrastructure for AI safety." The webpage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy-enhancing_technologies is linked.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openmined-software-for-ai-audits/ in September 2023 for a much larger amount suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity20,000.008782022-04AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-long-term-cybersecurity-ai-standards-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support work by CLTC’s AI Security Initiative on the development and implementation of AI standards."

Other notes: This grant is made via the University of California, Berkeley. A related, much larger ($210,000) grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-ai-standards-2022/ is made by Open Philanthropy to the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative for supporting work.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Earmark: Neil Thompson)13,277,348.00132022-03AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-ai-trends-and-impacts-research-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support research led by Neil Thompson on modeling the trends and impacts of AI and computing. Thompson will use this funding to hire new staff and expand his lab work."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 48.
Alignment Research Center265,000.004812022-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-center-general-support/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. ARC focuses on developing strategies for AI alignment that can be adopted by industry today and scaled to future machine learning systems."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: While no reason is specified in the grant page, it's worth noting that the founder of the donee organization, Paul Christiano, has previously been a technical advisor to Open Philanthropy, and has been affiliated with multiple organizations (Machine Intelligence Research Institute, OpenAI, and Ought) that have previously received funding from Open Philanthropy for AI safety. These past connections may have influenced the grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made shortly after the announcement by Alignment Research Center of its plans at https://www.alignment.org/blog/early-2022-hiring-round/ to hire beyond its current full-time staff of two. As grants are often committed after the internal decision process to make them, it is possible that the funding for this grant was sought for the purpose of this round of hiring, and was factored into the hiring announcement.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-center-general-support-november-2022/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Rethink Priorities2,728,319.00842022-03AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rethink-priorities-ai-governance-research-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to Rethink Priorities to expand its research on topics related to AI governance."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rethink-priorities-ai-governance-research-2023/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Hofvarpnir Studios (Earmark: Jacob Steinhardt|Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence)1,443,540.001572022-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/hofvarpnir-studios-compute-cluster-for-ai-safety-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "create and maintain a compute cluster for Jacob Steinhardt’s lab that will also be used by researchers at the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence." The webpage https://jsteinhardt.stat.berkeley.edu/ is linked.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Earmark: Matt Sheehan)597,717.002832022-03AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace-ai-governance-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support a research project on international AI governance led by Matt Sheehan."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung444,000.003712022-03AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stiftung-neue-verantwortung-ai-policy-analysis/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support data-driven reports on AI-related talent flows and the global microchip supply chain."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 390,528.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).
Egor Krasheninnikov (Earmark: David Krueger)6,526.009132022-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/egor-krasheninnikov-research-collaboration-with-david-krueger/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support [grantee's] research on machine learning in collaboration with Professor David Krueger." The webpage https://www.davidscottkrueger.com/ is linked.

Other notes: This is a followup to the April 2021 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-cambridge-machine-learning-research/ to University of Cambridge in support of David Krueger's work. At around the same time, a similar grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/usman-anwar-research-collaboration-with-david-krueger/ is made to Egor Krasheninnikov, also for work with David Krueger. Currency info: donation given as 5,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Usman Anwar (Earmark: David Krueger)6,526.009132022-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/usman-anwar-research-collaboration-with-david-krueger/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support his research on machine learning in collaboration with Professor David Krueger." The webpage https://www.davidscottkrueger.com/ is linked.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Usman Anwar would also be the recipient of the Open Phil AI Fellowship https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2022-class/ in 2022.

Other notes: This is a followup to the April 2021 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-cambridge-machine-learning-research/ to University of Cambridge in support of David Krueger's work. At around the same time, a similar grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/egor-krasheninnikov-research-collaboration-with-david-krueger/ is made to Egor Krasheninnikov, also for work with David Krueger. Currency info: donation given as 5,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Center for Human-Compatible AI)1,126,160.001862022-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-chai-collaboration-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support continued work with the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at UC Berkeley. BERI will use the funding to facilitate the creation of an in-house compute cluster for CHAI’s use, purchase compute resources, and hire a part-time system administrator to help manage the cluster."
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine309,441.004422022-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/national-academies-of-sciences-engineering-and-medicine-safety-critical-machine-learning/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support research on machine learning in safety-critical environments."
Michael Page52,500.007712022-02AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/michael-page-career-transition-grant/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to work on several short-term projects while [Michael Page] explores different career options."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Page recently finished his tenure as a Research Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and we believe that his expertise on forecasting and AI policy makes him an exceptionally strong candidate for an impactful career."
The Wilson Center2,023,322.001172022-01AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/wilson-center-ai-policy-training-program-2022/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support [grantee's] AI policy training program, which is aimed at staffers for members of Congress and other policymakers. The program’s ultimate goal is to increase policymakers’ access to technical AI expertise."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Centre for the Governance of AI2,537,600.00932021-12AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/gov-ai-field-buildingLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support activities related to building the field of AI governance research. GovAI intends to use this funding to conduct AI governance research and to develop a talent pipeline for those interested in entering the field."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-the-governance-of-ai-research-assistant/ and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-the-governance-of-ai-general-support-2/ suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Grant made via the Centre for Effective Altruism. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Georgetown Universty246,564.005132021-12AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-policy-fellowship-2021/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a fellowship related to AI and cybersecurity policy."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-policy-fellowship-2022/ the next year for the same purpose and for a similar amount suggest satisfaction with the outcome of the grant.
theguardian.org450,000.003682021-12Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-guardian-journalism-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-2021Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support journalism on factory farming and farm animal cruelty. In keeping with The Guardian’s journalistic and transparency standards, all supported content will be clearly labeled, and Open Philanthropy will have no editorial control over the content ultimately published."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount per year for this grant ($450,000 / year) is the same as for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-guardian-journalism-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-2020 ($900,000 over two years).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right after the end of the two-year timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-guardian-journalism-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-2020 (2020-01).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant, so Open Philanthropy has no plans to make followup grants.
The Good Food Institute10,000,000.00202021-12Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-general-support-2021Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support, including its work promoting plant-based alternatives to animal products."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Farm Animal Welfare team has been particularly impressed with GFI’s public policy work relating to plant-based products."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made is made right after the end of the two-year timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-international-work (2019-12).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24
Animal Welfare Awareness, Research, and Education267,723.004792021-12Animal welfare/factory farming/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-welfare-awareness-research-and-education-pig-welfare-reformsAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "AWARE identified pig welfare as a promising policy reform opportunity following our October 2020 support."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on pig welfare reforms in South Korea. [...] This funding is intended to support the implementation of a sow stall ban and the creation of a welfare standard assessment for pigs."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 318,000,000.00 KRW (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: South Korea.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: SERI-MATS program)195,000.005722021-11AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program-2/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its collaboration with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) on the SERI ML Alignment Theory Scholars (MATS) Program. MATS is a two-month program where students will research problems related to AI alignment while supervised by a mentor."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program/ and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ for the second and third cohort of the SERI-MATS program suggests the donor's continued satisfaction with the SERI-MATS program.

Other notes: See https://www.serimats.org/program for details of the program including its timeline. Although the research phase of the timeline is just two months, the application process, training phase, and extension phase together make up about half a year. Intended funding timeframe in months: 6.
Stanford University (Earmark: Percy Liang)1,500,000.001492021-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-ai-alignment-research-2021/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support research led by Professor Percy Liang on AI safety and alignment."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We hope this funding will accelerate progress on technical problems and help to build a pipeline for younger researchers to work on AI alignment."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason is given for the amount. It is somewhat but not a lot higher per year ($1,500,000 over 3 years = $500,000) than the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-support-for-percy-liang/ ($1,337,600 over 4 years = $334,400 per year).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reason is given for the timing. The grant is made right around the end of the timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-support-for-percy-liang/ (four-year grant made in 2017) also for Percy Liang's research.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
Redwood Research9,420,000.00242021-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support/Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. Redwood Research is a new research institution that conducts research to better understand and make progress on AI alignment in order to improve the long-run future."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support-2/ of a comparable amount ($10.7 million) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: This is a total across four grants.
Mila237,931.005202021-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/mila-research-project-on-artificial-intelligence/Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a research project investigating AI consciousness and moral patienthood. The research will be conducted in collaboration with the Université de Montréal and the Future of Humanity Institute. This funding will support postdoctoral researchers and students studying the topic, as well as publications and workshops."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 295,900.00 CAD (conversion done via donor calculation).
The Degrees Initiative5,000,000.00402021-11Climate change/geoengineering/solar radiation managementhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/degrees-initiative-general-support-2021Jacob Trefethen Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding is intended to support research in lower- and middle-income countries on the potential physical and socio-political implications of solar radiation management (SRM)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We see supporting researchers, especially those outside the Global North, as a promising step towards improving governance around SRM. And we continue to view SRM governance as a field that is largely neglected by philanthropists and governments."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reason for timing is given; the grant is made about one year after the end of the three-year timeframe of the preceding grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support-2017 (2017-09).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Grant made via Prism the Gift Fund.
Just Impact50,000,000.0022021-11Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-impact-safely-reducing-incarcerationZachary Robinson Donation process: The money is seed funding for an organization being spun out of Open Philanthropy. The decision to provide seed funding is tied with the whole process of spinning out. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-now-independent-organization-just-impact has more details.

Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Intended use of funds: Grant "to launch Just Impact. Just Impact describes itself as “a criminal justice reform advisory group and fund that is focused on building the power and influence of highly strategic, directly-impacted leaders and their allies to create transformative change from the ground up.”" Given its role as a successor to Open Phil's grantmaking, it is expected that most of these funds will be regranted to other criminal justice reform organizations.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-now-independent-organization-just-impact goes into details on the reasons for spinning Just Impact out of Open Philanthropy, including: reduced interest in Open Philanthropy continuing to fund criminal justice reform, ability of a separate organization to attract other donors, ability of a separate organizations to implement more vision and strategy, and value as an experiment in spinning out organizations. The seed funding is provided to "make this transition in a way that positions the CJR work to maintain its successes, navigate the transitional period smoothly, and hopefully raise enough from other funders to have even more impact in the future."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount per unit time is a little lower than Open Philanthropy's criminal justice reform grantmaking so far ($130 million over 6 years), but likely enough for Open Philanthropy's goal to "make this transition in a way that positions the CJR work to maintain its successes, navigate the transitional period smoothly, and hopefully raise enough from other funders to have even more impact in the future."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing of the grant is determined by the timing of the decision to spin out the organization. It comes two years after the post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/givewells-top-charities-are-increasingly-hard-beat that has the background thinking that led to Open Philanthropy deprioritizing criminal justice reform philanthropy. It also comes a few months after https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/open-philanthropy-s-new-co-ceo where the near-termist portion of grantmaking got its own name "Global Health and Wellbeing" and a co-CEO, Alexander Berger, to lead it.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 42

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-now-independent-organization-just-impact says: "We will continue to follow progress and continually revisit the right level of support in light of both Just Impact’s impact and our understanding of our alternative giving opportunities, and may continue our support beyond this initial seed grant."

Other notes: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-now-independent-organization-just-impact has more details on the spinout. It is also cross-posted to the EA Forum at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5jTiPa2MJ3umhzT3S/our-criminal-justice-reform-program-is-now-an-independent (GW, IR) by an unaffiliated individual. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2021-11-16.
Californians Against Pandemics5,000,000.00402021-10Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/californians-against-pandemics-ballot-initiativeZachary Robinson Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on the California Pandemic Early Detection and Prevention Act ballot initiative. If passed by voters, the California Pandemic Early Detection and Prevention Act will create a grantmaking institute that will fund research on and development of pathogen genomics in order to reduce biosecurity risks posed by novel pathogens."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; affected states: California.
University of Rochester (Earmark: Travis Baseler)893,156.002342021-10Migration policyhttp://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/university-of-rochester-rural-urban-migration-in-kenyaSaarthak Gupta Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the scale-up of a previous study https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3534715 conducted by Professor Travis Baseler, on the impact of information asymmetries on rural-urban migration in Kenya. Approximately 500 rural households participated in the previous study, which found that correcting underestimates of wages in Nairobi led to increased migration and significantly increased migrants’ household incomes. Professor Baseler intends to use this funding to expand the study to 16,800 households in Kenya."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reasons for timing are discussed, but the grant is made about one month after the paper https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3534715 about the previous study is published.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Other notes: Affected countries: Kenya.
Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund500,000.003142021-10Effective altruismhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-infrastructure-fundClaire Zabel Donation process: https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/payouts/may-august-2021-ea-infrastructure-fund-grants says: "the EAIF has a large funding gap of $3M+ per year that currently looks like it may only be possible to fill by grants from large donors such as Open Philanthropy. [...] For this reason, we have started to apply for grants from large funders"

Intended use of funds (category): Regranting

Intended use of funds: The funding is to be used for the EAIF's ongoing grantmaking. Since the EAIF expects to grant $3 million+ per year, this funding would effectively get spent within the next few months. The grant page says: "The EAIF intends to re-grant this funding to interventions that aim to increase the impact of projects related to effective altruism, by increasing those projects’ access to talent, capital, and knowledge." https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/payouts/may-august-2021-ea-infrastructure-fund-grants also says: "by default, the EAIF will not fund organizations that are Open Philanthropy grantees and that plan to apply for renewed funding from Open Philanthropy in the future."
FAR AI (Earmark: Ethan Perez)425,800.003812021-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/language-model-safety-fund-language-model-misalignment/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Fund for Alignment Research, led by Ethan Perez, to support salaries and equipment for projects related to misalignment in language models. Perez plans to hire and supervise four engineers to work on these projects."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/fund-for-alignment-research-language-model-misalignment-2022/ for a similar amount (and with the same research area and leader Ethan Perez), as well as several other followup grants in the coming years, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.
University of Washington (Earmark: Ludwig Schmidt)730,000.002552021-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-washington-adversarial-robustness-research/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support early-career research by Ludwig Schmidt on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Center for a New American Security101,187.006632021-09AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-a-new-american-security-risks-from-militarized-ai/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support a working group that will focus on mitigating risks from possible military applications of artificial intelligence. This group will be composed of technical and policy experts from the US, Russia, China, and Europe, and will investigate possible confidence-building measures (actions designed to prevent miscalculation and conflict between states) for militarized AI."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 18.
Stanford University78,000.007322021-09AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-ai-index/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support the AI Index, which collects and reports data related to artificial intelligence, including data relevant to AI safety and AI ethics." The webpage https://aiindex.stanford.edu/ is linked.
Université de Montréal (Earmark: Mila|Future of Humanity Institute)210,552.005392021-09AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/universite-de-montreal-research-project-on-artificial-intelligence/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support a research project investigating AI consciousness and moral patienthood. The research will be conducted in collaboration with Mila and the Future of Humanity Institute. This funding will support post-docs and students studying the topic, as well as publications and workshops."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 266,200.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).
University of California, Berkeley (Earmark: Aditi Raghunathan)87,829.007212021-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-research-aditi-raghunathan/-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support postdoctoral research by Aditi Raghunathan on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/carnegie-mellon-university-research-on-adversarial-examples/ for the continuation of the grantee's work at Carnegie Mellon University suggests satisfaction with the grant outcome.

Other notes: The grant page says: "The grant amount was updated in July 2023.".
Center for Security and Emerging Technology38,920,000.0032021-08AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-security-and-emerging-technology-general-support-august-2021/Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "CSET is a think tank, incubated by our January 2019 support, dedicated to policy analysis at the intersection of national and international security and emerging technologies. This funding is intended to augment our original support for CSET, particularly for its work on security and artificial intelligence."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Stanford University (Earmark: Dimitis Tsipras)330,792.004302021-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-tsiprasCatherine Olsson Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support early-career research by Dimitris Tsipras on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes the two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-santurkar and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-southern-california-adversarial-robustness-research made around the same time, as well as grants earlier in the year to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Tübingen, and UC Berkeley.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): At around the same time as this grant, Open Philanthropy made two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-santurkar and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-southern-california-adversarial-robustness-research to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Open Phil made another grant http://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-santurkar at the same time, for the same amount and 3-year timeframe, with the same grant investigator, and with the same receiving university.
Stanford University (Earmark: Shibani Santurkar)330,792.004302021-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-adversarial-robustness-research-shibani-santurkar/Catherine Olsson Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support early-career research by Shibani Santurkar on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes the two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-tsipras and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-southern-california-adversarial-robustness-research made around the same time, as well as grants earlier in the year to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Tübingen, and UC Berkeley.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): At around the same time as this grant, Open Philanthropy made two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-tsipras and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-southern-california-adversarial-robustness-research to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Open Phil made another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-tsipras at the same time, for the same amount and 3-year timeframe, with the same grant investigator, and with the same receiving university.
University of Southern California (Earmark: Robin Jia)320,000.004382021-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-southern-california-adversarial-robustness-research/Catherine Olsson Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support early-career research by Robin Jia on adversarial robustness and out-of-distribution generalization as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes the two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-tsipras and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-santurkar made around the same time, as well as grants earlier in the year to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Tübingen, and UC Berkeley.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): At around the same time as this grant, Open Philanthropy made two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-tsipras and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-adversarial-robustness-research-santurkar to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
Animal Alliance Asia120,000.006382021-08Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-alliance-asiaAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support farm animal welfare movement building in Asia. AAA intends to use this funding to host conferences for animal welfare groups across Asia, provide skills-building and networking for groups and individuals working on farm animal advocacy in the region, and reach out to value-aligned organizations."

Other notes: Grant via The Pollination Project. Affected countries: Asia.
Center for Security and Emerging Technology3,330,000.00652021-08Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-security-and-emerging-technology-biosecurity-researchAndrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a project investigating the extent and risks of dual-use research in the biosciences."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "The hope is that the results of this project will better inform policymakers and other stakeholders of the security implications of such research."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Purdue University (Earmark: Douglas Brubaker)1,500,000.001492021-08Scientific research/tools and techniqueshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/purdue-preclinical-data-research-brubakerHeather Youngs Chris Somerville Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research led by Dr. Douglas Brubaker on developing a computational model to translate preclinical data in mouse disease models to humans. [...] Dr. Brubaker intends to use this funding to develop a computational model that uses mouse data from an Alzheimer’s disease study conducted by Washington University to attempt to predict the study’s human trial outcomes."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "It is not uncommon that preclinical data from mice fail to translate to similar preclinical results in humans, limiting the applicability of mouse data to human medicine. [...] Our scientific research team believes that Dr. Brubaker’s computational model, if successful, could improve drug discovery and reduce reliance on mouse experiments."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 60.
Open New York1,000,000.002002021-08Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/open-new-yorkOtis 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.
Dezernat Zukunft4,000,000.00522021-07Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/dezernat-zukunft-general-support-and-regrantingPeter Favaloro Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support|Regranting

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support and re-granting to budding and established organizations working on monetary and fiscal policy throughout Europe. Dezernat Zukunft is a nonpartisan German think tank that focuses on European monetary and fiscal policy, prioritizing employment gains, widely shared prosperity, and a more sustainable macroeconomic environment."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Europe.
Federation of American Scientists600,000.002772021-07Migration policy/high-skilled migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/us-policy/immigration-policy/federation-of-american-scientists-high-skilled-immigration-policyEmily Oehlsen Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on high-skilled immigration policy."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States.
Rethink Priorities495,685.003522021-07AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rethink-priorities-ai-governance-research/Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research projects on topics related to AI governance."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe that Rethink Priorities’ research outputs may help inform our AI policy grantmaking strategy."
Reducetarian Foundation200,000.005442021-07Animal welfare/diet changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/reducetarian-fellowshipLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a new fellowship program for undergraduate students in the United States. Fellows will work with mentors, participate in seminars and networking opportunities, and be placed in internships at participating organizations and startups working to reduce societal consumption of animal products."
Wild Animal Initiative3,500,000.00602021-06Animal welfare/wild animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wild-animal-initiative-animal-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "[grant] to support research on animal welfare. This funding is intended to support academic projects relevant to the field of welfare biology."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "WAI, recently named an Animal Charity Evaluators Top Charity, has previously recommended to us a number of giving opportunities, including to the University of Missouri and the University of Glasgow." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-missouri-animal-welfare-research and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-glasgow-animal-welfare-research are the linked grants.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Mercy For Animals3,000,000.00682021-06Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-fre/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2021Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate engagement on animal welfare. MFA plans to use this funding to continue its cage-free and broiler welfare corporate campaigns in Latin America and the United States, respectively."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant follows up on several past grants for similar uses, and reasons for past grants, including strong track record, probably apply. Nothing is explicitly mentioned on the grant page.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason is given for the amount, but the amount is about half the amount of the previous two-year grant. The smaller grant amount may reflect a shorter timeframe of this grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the end of the two-year timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2019 (2019-07) that had a very similar intended use of funds. It is likely motivated by the end of the previous grant.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Latin America.
Daniel Dewey175,000.005772021-05AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/daniel-dewey-ai-alignment-projectNick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "work on an AI alignment project and related field-building efforts. Daniel plans to use this funding to produce writing and reports summarizing existing research and investigating potentially valuable projects relevant to AI alignment, with the goal of helping junior researchers and others understand how they can contribute to the field."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/daniel-dewey-ai-alignment-projects-2022/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grant outcome.
Carnegie Mellon University (Earmark: Zico Kolter)330,000.004322021-05AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/carnegie-mellon-university-adversarial-robustness-research/Catherine Olsson Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Professor Zico Kolter on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes grants earlier and later in the year to early-stage researchers at UC Berkeley, University of Tübingen, Stanfard University, and University of Southern California.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Employ America1,000,000.002002021-05Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-general-support-2021Alexander Berger Donation process: This is a total across two grants.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Employ America makes the public and intellectual case for policies that support full employment and seeks to build a broad set of allies to further that goal. It produces research and analysis on the state of the labor market and current and potential macroeconomic policies and policymakers. Employ America was founded by Sam Bell, who has consulted for us and our grantee Fed Up."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Open Phil AI Fellowship (Earmark: Collin Burns|Jared Quincy Davis|Jesse Mu|Meena Jagadeesan|Tan Zhi-Xuan)1,300,000.001682021-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2021-classDaniel Dewey Donation process: According to the grant page: "These [five] fellows were selected from 397 applicants for their academic excellence, technical knowledge, careful reasoning, and interest in making the long-term, large-scale impacts of AI a central focus of their research."

Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: Grant to provide scholarship to five machine learning researchers over five years.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to the grant page: "The intent of the Open Phil AI Fellowship is both to support a small group of promising researchers and to foster a community with a culture of trust, debate, excitement, and intellectual excellence. We plan to host gatherings once or twice per year where fellows can get to know one another, learn about each other’s work, and connect with other researchers who share their interests."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): An explicit reason for the amount is not specified, and the total amount is lower than previous years, but the amount per researcher ($260,000) is a little higher than previous years. It's likely that the amount per researcher is determined first and the total amount is the sum of these.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is the fourth of annual sets of grants, decided through an annual application process, with the announcement made between April and June each year. The timing may have been chosen to sync with the academic year.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2022-class/ confirms that the program would continue.

Other notes: The initial grant page only listed four of the five fellows and an amount of $1,000,000. The fifth fellow, Tan Zhi-Xuan, was added later and the amount was increased to $1,300,000.
The Wilson Center291,214.004662021-04AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-training-programLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to pilot an AI policy training program. The Wilson Center is a non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue."
University of Cambridge (Earmark: David Krueger)250,000.004922021-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-cambridge-david-kruegerDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Professor David Krueger’s machine learning research."

Other notes: Grant made via Cambridge in America. Intended funding timeframe in months: 48.
Wakker Dier1,180,000.001812021-04Animal welfare/factory farming/litigationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wakker-dier-faw-litigationLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support farm animal welfare litigation in the Netherlands, based on violations of European Union directives transposed into Dutch law."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes that successful litigation could encourage large-scale reforms to and enforcement of key European Union farm animal welfare policies."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 1,000,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 36; affected countries: Netherlands.
Compassion in World Farming USA550,000.002942021-04Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-general-support-2021Lewis Bollard Donation process: This is a followup grant to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support-2018 (March 2018).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. CIWF intends to use this funding to continue to seek implementation of existing cage-free reforms, pursue its meat reduction strategy and priorities, and to secure new corporate broiler welfare reforms."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right around the expiration of the previous three-year grant, so the timing is likely determined by that expiration.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Dao Foods1,100,000.001892021-03Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/dao-foods-plant-based-meat-promotionLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support work promoting plant-based meat in Asia."

Other notes: The grant is via Rethink Charity. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Asia.
FAI Farms600,000.002772021-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-cage-free-egg-certification-and-summitLewis Bollard Donation process: This grant appears to be a result of successful progress funded by a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-cage-free-egg-investigation to launch a cage-free egg certification project. Also, the grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support cage-free certification work — in partnership with the China Chain Store and Franchise Association — and a summit promoting poultry welfare and cage-free egg production. The certification project’s aim is to develop a large-scale production and certification model for cage-free eggs in China, the world’s largest egg producer."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason is given, but the grant page hints at the scale of the problem being addressed: "The certification project’s aim is to develop a large-scale production and certification model for cage-free eggs in China, the world’s largest egg producer." Open Philanthropy has previously explained its support for cage-free campaigns at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms and in other blog posts.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China.
Rethink Priorities315,500.004402021-03Animal welfare/moral patienthood/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-moral-patienthood-moral-weight-researchLuke Muehlhauser Lewis Bollard Donation process: The donation process is not explicitly described, but hints are provided. One of the grant investigators is Luke Muehlhauser, who is not usually involved with animal welfare grants, but had previously produced a report https://www.openphilanthropy.org/2017-report-consciousness-and-moral-patienthood on consciousness and moral patienthood that the grant page links to.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research related to moral patienthood and moral weight."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe the research outputs may help us compare future opportunities within farm animal welfare, prioritize across causes, and update our assumptions informing our worldview diversification work." It links to the blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/worldview-diversification from 2016.

Other notes: This is a total across two grants. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Wageningen University & Research (Earmark: Hendrik Kramer|Michelle Boonstra|Hans van de Vis)519,434.003082021-03Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/wild-caught demersal fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wageningen-university-wild-fishLewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to develop and implement a humane stunning system for wild-caught demersal fish."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 473,260.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Stanford Existential Risks Initiative)210,000.005402021-03AI safety/technical research/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-summer-fellowships/Claire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to provide stipends for the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) summer research fellowship program."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The multiple future grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program-2/ https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-seri-mats-program/ and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-machine-learning-alignment-theory-scholars/ from Open Philanthropy to BERI for the SERI-MATS program, a successor of sorts to this program, suggests satisfaction with the outcome of this grant.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 2.
Brian Christian66,000.007532021-03AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/brian-christian-alignment-book-promotionNick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Contractor agreement "with Brian Christian to support the promotion of his book The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence team hopes that the book will generate interest in AI alignment among academics and others."
Hypermind (Earmark: Metaculus)121,124.006362021-03AI safety/strategy/forecastinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/hypermind-ai-forecasting-tournamentLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Contractor agreement "to collaborate with Metaculus on an AI development forecasting tournament. Forecasts will cover the themes of hardware and supercomputing, performance and benchmarks, research trends, and economic and financial impact."
MIT Media Lab (Earmark: Kevin Esvelt)1,000,000.002002021-03Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/massachusetts-institute-technology-media-lab-kevin-esvelt-2021Andrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to continue to support the research of Professor Kevin Esvelt. Professor Esvelt plans to use this funding to conduct work on topics related to biosecurity."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not discuss reasoning but alludes to an earlier grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/massachusetts-institute-technology-media-lab-kevin-esvelt also supporting Kevin Esvelt's lab, though the earlier grant was more broadly focused on global health, animal welfare, and global catastrophic risks.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative3,129,000.00672021-03Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/schistosomiasis-control-initiative-general-support-2021GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#SCI_Foundation says: "We estimate that SCI's overall cost-effectiveness is 10x cash, which is right at our current funding threshold. We focus on SCI's overall cost-effectiveness because, based on our past experience with SCI and our understanding that SCI has access to a substantial amount of non-GiveWell-driven flexible funding, we don't currently believe that we can either predict or drive how SCI will use marginal funding. [...] our estimate of SCI's overall cost-effectiveness is quite sensitive to our estimates for its three most cost-effective country programs. [...] SCI's current and expected funding, along with this grant of $3.1 million, will allow SCI to maintain its current work through 2022."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#SCI_Foundation says: "SCI's current and expected funding, along with this grant of $3.1 million, will allow SCI to maintain its current work through 2022."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 4.47%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#SCI_Foundation says: "SCI will be facing a large budget shortfall in 2023. We plan to decide in the next year whether we believe that SCI's use of additional funding in 2022 and 2023 is competitive with other opportunities to which we could direct funding. We plan to do further work on our worm burden assessment and have further conversations with SCI about how its choices of which countries to work with affect our estimate of its cost-effectiveness."

Donor retrospective of the donation: SCI continues to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/sci-foundation/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of SCI at the time of the grant recommendation.
Abundant Housing Massachusetts600,000.002772021-03Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/abundant-housing-massachusettsZachary 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.
Sightsavers2,796,000.00802021-02Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/sightsavers-deworming-2021GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Sightsavers-_deworming_program says the grant is "to continue, through 2022, Sightsavers' deworming programs that have previously been funded by GiveWell-directed funding. This includes deworming programs in several states in Nigeria ($1.5 million, 30x cash), Cameroon ($1.2 million, 15x cash), and DRC ($200,000, 2x cash)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy puts the grant in the bucket of "Limited support to programs that we have funded in the past that are less cost-effective than the needs we're prioritizing." It further says: "Many of these programs are only slightly less cost-effective than the programs we recommend on the margin (the programs that we model as more than 10x cash, listed in the next bullet). We may want to fund these programs in the future if available funding for our top charities outpaces new giving opportunities or if new information increases our estimate of their cost-effectiveness. We also think this funding could be justified on the basis of being responsible funders—i.e., not making large changes in our funding each year, which may help charities in their ability to plan."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is the total amount that falls under the bucket of "Limited support to programs that we have funded in the past that are less cost-effective than the needs we're prioritizing." https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Sightsavers-_deworming_program has details on programs the amount will fund. It also lists funding gaps not being filled right now, for different reasons for the different gaps: desire to get Sightsavers to agree to more thorough data collection, as well as a low estimate of or high skepticism about cost-effectiveness.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 3.99%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Sightsavers-_deworming_program lists unfuded opportunities of sizes $5.4 million (Chad), $1.3 million (Senegal), and $300,000 (Nigeria). For the first two, GiveWell plans to discuss more with Sightsavers and possibly recommend grants in the future.

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund for the program in Chad in 2021 (see https://www.givewell.org/maximum-impact-fund/allocation-q1-2021 for details) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee. Sightsavers' deworming program would continue to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/sightsavers/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of Sightsavers at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Nigeria|Cameroon|Demoocratic Republic of the Congo.
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition50,000.007772021-02Global health/nutrition/iodinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/global-alliance-improved-nutrition-universal-salt-iodization-january-2021GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support the Universal Salt Iodization program."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition's Universal Salt Iodization Program was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/GAIN-May-2017-version (May 2017 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation50,000.007772021-02--https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/gui2de-zusha-road-safety-campaign-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support the Zusha! Road Safety Campaign."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation's Zusha! Road Safety Campaign was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/zusha-road-safety-campaign-June-2018-version (June 2018 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Changing Markets Foundation500,000.003142021-02Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/changing-markets-foundation-fish-welfareAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on global investor engagement and on retailer and investor fish welfare campaigns in Spain, France, Austria, and Switzerland."

Other notes: Affected countries: Spain|France|Austria|Switzerland.
Crustacean Compassion786,830.002412021-02Animal welfare/factory farming/crustacean/decapod crustaceanhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/crustacean-compassion-general-supportLewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "intended to support work to advance UK welfare reforms for decapod crustaceans, approximately 420 million of which are caught by UK vessels every year."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 575,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United Kingdom.
Crate-Free Illinois70,350.007452021-02Animal welfare/factory farming/pig/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/crate-free-illinois-campaigning-against-gestation-crates-2021Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support campaigning against the use of gestation crates for pigs. There are approximately 6 million sows in the United States, at least three-quarters of which are routinely confined in gestation crates."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at scale being a factor: "There are approximately 6 million sows in the United States, at least three-quarters of which are routinely confined in gestation crates."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
University of California, Berkeley (Earmark: Dawn Song)330,000.004322021-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-songCatherine Olsson Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research by Professor Dawn Song on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner are the foour other grants.It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes three other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein made at the same time as well as grants later in the year to early-stage researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and University of Southern California.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in Januaay and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
University of California, Berkeley (Earmark: David Wagner)330,000.004322021-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagnerCatherine Olsson Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research by Professor David Wagner on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes three other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song made at the same time as well as grants later in the year to early-stage researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and University of Southern California.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Earmark: Aleksander Madry)1,430,000.001592021-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-researchCatherine Olsson Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research by Professor Aleksandr Madry on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
University of Tübingen (Earmark: Wieland Brendel)590,000.002852021-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-tubingen-robustness-research-wieland-brendel/Catherine Olsson Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support early-career research by Wieland Brendel on robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil made five grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, around the time of this grant. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Open Phil made five grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, around the time of this grant. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
University of Tübingen (Earmark: Matthias Hein)300,000.004472021-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-tubingen-adversarial-robustness-research-matthias-hein/Catherine Olsson Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research by Professor Matthias Hein on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes three other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song made at the same time as well as grants later in the year to early-stage researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and University of Southern California.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-santa-cruz-xie-adversarial-robustness https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
Center for Security and Emerging Technology8,000,000.00262021-01AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-security-and-emerging-technology-general-supportLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says "This funding is intended to augment our original support for CSET, particularly for its work on the intersection of security and artificial intelligence."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-security-and-emerging-technology-general-support-august-2021 for a much larger amount suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Center for Human-Compatible AI11,355,246.00162021-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-2021Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says "The multi-year commitment and increased funding will enable CHAI to expand its research and student training related to potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Other notes: This is a renewal of the original founding grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai made August 2016. Intended funding timeframe in months: 60.
University of California, Santa Cruz (Earmark: Cihang Xie)265,000.004812021-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/uc-santa-cruz-adversarial-robustness-research/Catherine Olsson Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support early-career research by Cihang Xie on adversarial robustness as a means to improve AI safety."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given, but the amount is similar to the amounts for other grants from Open Philanthropy to early-stage researchers in adversarial robustness research. This includes three other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song made at the same time as well as grants later in the year to early-stage researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and University of Southern California.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is one of five grants made by the donor for "adversarial robustness research" in January and February 2021, all with the same grant investigators (Catherine Olsson and Daniel Dewey) except the Santa Cruz grant that had Olsson and Nick Beckstead. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-tuebingen-adversarial-robustness-hein https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/mit-adversarial-robustness-research https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-wagner and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-adversarial-robustness-song are the four other grants. It looks like the donor became interested in funding this research topic at this time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/university-of-california-santa-cruz-adversarial-robustness-research-2023/ to support the same research leader and research agenda suggests satisfaction with the grant outcome.
Berryville Institute of Machine Learning (Earmark: Gary McGraw)150,000.005962021-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/berryville-institute-of-machine-learningCatherine Olsson Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "[the grant is] to support research led by Gary McGraw on machine learning security. The research will focus on building a taxonomy of known attacks on machine learning, exploring a hypothesis of representation and machine learning risk, and performing an architectural risk analysis of machine learning systems."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence team hopes that the research will help advance the field of machine learning security."
People for Animals Uttarakhand85,000.007222021-01Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/people-for-animals-uttarakhand-farm-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a movement-building fellowship for farm animal welfare advocates in India. The 10-month fellowship, run by People for Animals Uttarakhand and Humane Society International India, will train fellows and place them in animal welfare internships."

Other notes: Grant made via the Karuna Foundation. Intended funding timeframe in months: 10; affected countries: India.
Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology237,043.005212021-01Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/sea bass/sea bream/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/irta-fish-welfare-standardsLewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the development of welfare certification standards for sea bass and sea bream farms in Spain. The standards will be adopted by Welfair(TM), Spain’s largest farm animal welfare certifier."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 193,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Spain.
Mount Kenya University (Earmark: Maina Ngotho)167,766.005822021-01Animal welfare/factory farming/movement growth/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mount-kenya-universityLewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support the implementation of a masters degree program in farm animal welfare science, led by Professor Maina Ngotho. [...] This funding is intended to cover costs related to course resources and student research projects.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes that the program will help develop farm animal welfare expertise and capacity in Kenya and across Africa." Open Philanthropy has previously made grants to support a talent pipeline, but past grants were to UK universities to support masters students in existing programs; this grant supports the creation of a new program.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Kenya.
New Incentives16,785,243.00112021-01Cash transfers/conditional cash transfershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/new-incentives-general-support-2021GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#New_Incentives says the amount will allow New Incentives to: "(1) Scale as fast as it believes it can in 2021 ($5.6 million needed in total; New Incentives has $1.2 million remaining from previous grants that it can use). (2) Maintain the scale it projects it will achieve at the end of 2021 in 2022 and 2023 ($12.4 million)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy describes the overall thinking behind the grant. This grant is listed under "fully-vetted opportunities for 2021-2022 that are more than 10x cash" and in particular this grant is listed as 11x cash.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#New_Incentives gives the breakdown of the amount funded. It also says about donating more: "We decided to wait until 2021 to make this decision so that we could observe how its initial scale-up proceeds."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 23.98%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#New_Incentives says: "Before the end of 2021, we expect to decide whether to recommend additional funding that would enable New Incentives to scale up to new clinics in 2022. We decided to wait until 2021 to make this decision so that we could observe how its initial scale-up proceeds."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant in August 2021 from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund at the recommendation of GiveWell suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Nigeria.
GiveDirectly500,000.003142021-01Cash transfers/unconditional cash transfershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/givedirectly-general-support-2021GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy describes the grant as an incentive grant since the grantee is a GiveWell top charity.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The size of the grant is chosen as the standard size of the incentive grant of $500,000. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for reducing the incentive grant size from $2.5 million to $500,000: "We considered the cases where an organization is on our top charity list, but due to relatively lower cost-effectiveness, we are not prioritizing its funding needs most highly—i.e. we don't expect to grant donations from the Maximum Impact Fund to it or recommend that Open Philanthropy make a grant to it beyond the incentive grant. In those cases, we felt that the amount of time we asked from the organization's staff to engage with us was not commensurate with the $2.5 million grants we had been making. We considered other grants we've made and our perception of norms in international development and decided to change the standard amount of these grants to $500,000 for top charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.71%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#END_Fund-s_deworming_program says: "GiveDirectly is significantly less cost-effective (1x cash) than the other funding gaps recommended here." It is likely that GiveDirectly will only receive the annual incentive grant from Open Philanthropy and nothing more.

Donor retrospective of the donation: GiveDirectly would continue to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of GiveDirectly at the time of the grant recommendation.
Positive Money Europe73,368.007442021-01Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/positive-money-europeAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research and advocacy on macroeconomic policy in the Eurozone."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 60,000.00 EUR; affected countries: Europe.
Malaria Consortium27,076,757.0062020-12Global health/malaria/seasonal malaria chemopreventionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/malaria-consortium-seasonal-malaria-chemoprevention-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Malaria_Consortium-s_seasonal_malaria_chemoprevention_program breaks down the programs funded by this money plus $3.8 million from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund: (1) "Extend its funding runway for its current programs in Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria, and Togo through 2022 ($20.8 million) at the scale Malaria Consortium expects to achieve in 2021." (2) "Expand to newly-eligible states or local government areas (LGAs) in Nigeria in 2022 and maintain work in those new areas in 2023 ($7.8 million). We estimate that the cost-effectiveness of SMC in Nigeria is 14x cash." (3) "Put $2.2 million toward continuing its work in 2023."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy describes the overall thinking behind the grant. Malaria Consoortium gets a grant because it is a GiveWell top charity, and additionoally gets a lot of additional money as the best opportunity (with $24.1 million of the funding at 14x cash) among the top charities.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Malaria_Consortium-s_seasonal_malaria_chemoprevention_program breaks down the programs funded by this money plus $3.8 million from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund, It also lists several other unfunded opportunities that are not being filled at this time.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 38.68%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Malaria_Consortium-s_seasonal_malaria_chemoprevention_program lists some funding opportunities that are not being filled at this time because they are not sufficiently cost-effective and/or time-sensitive. SOme of them may be funded in the future.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund to Malaria Consortium in 2021 at GiveWell's recommendation suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/malaria-consortium/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of Malaria Consortium at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Burkina Faso|Chad|Nigeria|Togo.
Helen Keller International8,059,000.00252020-12Global health/nutrition/Vitamin A supplementationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/helen-keller-international-vitamin-a-supplementation-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Helen_Keller_International-s_vitamin_A_supplementation_program says the grant is to (1) "Extend its funding runway for its current programs through 2023 ($5.4 million). We estimate that the cost-effectiveness of these programs is 15-50x cash." (2) "Expand to Benue State, Nigeria ($2.6 million for 2021-2023). We estimate that the cost-effectiveness of VAS in Nigeria is 25x cash."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy describes the overall thinking behind the grant. This grant is listed under "fully-vetted opportunities for 2021-2022 that are more than 10x cash" and in particular this grant is listed as over 15x cash.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Helen_Keller_International-s_vitamin_A_supplementation_program gives the expected breakdown in spending of the grant. It also lists various funding gaps that it chose not to fill, including expansion to Cameroon, expansion to Kenya, and expansion to one more Nigerian state. Although these opportunities are also estimated to be 10x or more cash, GiveWell does not recommend any of them since they are not time-sensitive and other funders might fill some of these gaps.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 11.51%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Helen_Keller_International-s_vitamin_A_supplementation_program lists some other funding gaps of HKI that are not yet being funded, despite being over 10x cash. Some of these might be recommendd in the future.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The HKI Vitamin A supplementation program would continue to be recommended by GiveWell in 2021 and get GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund money in 2021 at GiveWell's recommendation, suggesting continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/helen-keller-international/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of Helen Keller International at the time of the grant recommendation.
Against Malaria Foundation6,651,000.00292020-12Global health/malaria/bednetshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/against-malaria-foundation-general-support-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Against_Malaria_Foundation says: "This is the amount that we estimate will allow AMF to fund all the campaigns it is considering implementing that require commitments before August 2021. [...] We expect that AMF will use this funding for campaigns in DRC (15x cash) and/or Guinea (14x cash) in 2022."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy describes the overall thinking behind the grant. This grant is listed under "fully-vetted opportunities for 2021-2022 that are more than 10x cash" and in particular this grant is listed as 14x cash.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Against_Malaria_Foundation says: "This is the amount that we estimate will allow AMF to fund all the campaigns it is considering implementing that require commitments before August 2021. It is possible that this is an underestimate, as we are assuming AMF will continue to receive a relatively high amount of revenue from individual donors, based on recent trends. This risk is mitigated by the fact that we will have the opportunity to check whether this assumption has held up when we revisit AMF's room for more funding in January 2021."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 9.50%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Against_Malaria_Foundation says: "Funding gaps that AMF told us about that we are not recommending filling at this time include those for distributions that will occur in 2023 (totaling $37.8 million). We are not recommending funding these gaps at this time because (a) we want to review recently-available monitoring results from AMF's recent distributions in DRC before committing additional funding to distributions there, and (b) these gaps are less time-sensitive (we expect that AMF will need to commit funding to these distributions in the latter half of 2021 to avoid delaying them). We expect to revisit AMF's room for more funding as part of our January 2021 recommendation to Open Philanthropy."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Against Malaria Foundation would continue to be a GiveWell top charity in 2021 as well as receive grants from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund at GiveWell's recommendation in 2021, suggesting contined satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf/November-2020-Version for GiveWell's review of Against Malaria Foundation at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo|Guinea.
Deworm the World Initiative4,103,000.00502020-12Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/evidence-action-deworm-the-world-initiativeGiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Evidence_Action-s_Deworm_the_World_Initiative lists these intended uses: (1) "Extend its funding runway for its programs in Kenya ($1.9 million, 32x cash) and in three states in Nigeria ($1.9 million, 13-16x cash) through 2023. (2)Conduct scoping work in Ghana and Indonesia and do a prevalence survey in Ghana ($300,000)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy lists $3.8 million of the $4.1 million in this grant as being under "The most cost-effective opportunities we know of for 2023" and estimates it as 13-30+ as good as cash.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Evidence_Action-s_Deworm_the_World_Initiative describes the programs funded by this grant, whose cost totals to the grant amount. It also notes another funding gap that it estimates at 5x cash that is being left unfunded: "Extending its funding runway through 2023 for its programs in Pakistan and Lagos State, Nigeria."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.86%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Evidence_Action-s_Deworm_the_World_Initiative says: "Funding gaps that Deworm the World told us about that we are not recommending filling at this time: Extending its funding runway through 2023 for its programs in Pakistan and Lagos State, Nigeria. [...] We plan to discuss the future of these programs with Deworm the World, including getting further feedback on our worm burden update."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Deworm the World Initiative continues to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/deworm-world-initiative/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of Deworm the World Initiative at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Kenya|Nigeria|Ghana|Indonesia.
The END Fund500,000.003142020-12Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/end-fund-general-support-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support The END Fund's deworming programs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_recommended_allocation_to_Open_Philanthropy describes the grant as an incentive grant since the grantee is a GiveWell top charity.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The size of the grant is chosen as the standard size of the incentive grant of $500,000. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for reducing the incentive grant size from $2.5 million to $500,000: "We considered the cases where an organization is on our top charity list, but due to relatively lower cost-effectiveness, we are not prioritizing its funding needs most highly—i.e. we don't expect to grant donations from the Maximum Impact Fund to it or recommend that Open Philanthropy make a grant to it beyond the incentive grant. In those cases, we felt that the amount of time we asked from the organization's staff to engage with us was not commensurate with the $2.5 million grants we had been making. We considered other grants we've made and our perception of norms in international development and decided to change the standard amount of these grants to $500,000 for top charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.71%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#END_Fund-s_deworming_program says: "We completed a project in October that changed the worm burden adjustment in our cost-effectiveness analysis and increased our estimate of the END Fund's cost-effectiveness from 5x cash to 11x cash. We have lower confidence in this estimate than we do for our other deworming top charities. Based on past experience with cost-effectiveness estimates that we have low confidence in, we expect this estimate to go down as we continue to work on it. We had previously deprioritized work on improving this estimate, due to both the low cost-effectiveness of the program and challenges in understanding what the END Fund was funding with marginal GiveWell-directed dollars. Given the recent increase in our estimate of the END Fund's cost-effectiveness, we plan to consider whether to increase our time investment in understanding the END Fund's cost-effectiveness."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The END Fund would continue to be a GiveWell top charity in 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/end-fund/November-2020-version for GiveWell's review of The END Fund at the time of the grant recommendation.
Development Media International50,000.007772020-12Global healthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/development-media-international-general-support-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Development Media International was a GiveWell standout chraity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/DMI-July-2021-Version (July 2021 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Dispensers for Safe Water50,000.007772020-12Global healthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/development-media-international-general-support-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Dispensers for Safe Water was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/dispensers-for-safe-water-December-2018-version (December 2018 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Food Fortification Initiative50,000.007772020-12Global health/nutritionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/food-fortification-initiative-general-support-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Food Fortification Initiative was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/food-fortification-initiative-March-2017-version (March 2017 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Iodine Global Network50,000.007772020-12Global health/nutrition/iodinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/iodine-global-network-general-support-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Iodine Global Network was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/IGN-December-2014-version (December 2014 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Living Goods50,000.007772020-12--https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/living-goods-general-support-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Living Goods was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/living-goods-November-2014-version (November 2014 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
Project Healthy Children50,000.007772020-12Global health/nutritionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/project-healthy-children-general-support-december-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget of $100 million is set by Open Philanthropy, but GiveWell decided to allocate only $70 million in end-of-year grantmaking and defers the remaining $30 million to early 2021. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published February 2021).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: At the time of the grant, Project Healthy Children was a GiveWell standout charity, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/other-charities/November-2020-version and https://www.givewell.org/charities/project-healthy-children-March-2017-version (March 2017 review). It therefore qualified for the $50,000 end-of-year incentive grant recommendation that all GiveWell standout charities received.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of $50,000 is the amount of the incentive grant chosen for standout charities in 2020. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2020/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Size_of_incentive_grants explains the reason for chosing the amount: "We also reduced our incentive grant recommendations for standout charities [from $100,000] to $50,000. Once a standout charity has been added to our list, we ask it to have one conversation with us each year and to review the notes we write to summarize what we learned from that conversation. We believe a smaller grant of $50,000 is appropriate for the time commitment this requires from standout charities."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.07%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://blog.givewell.org/2021/10/05/discontinuing-standout-charity-designation/ (November 2021) announces discontinuation of the standout charity designation, and says: "We’ve recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $100,000 exit grant to each standout charity on our list."
University of Glasgow (Earmark: Davide Dominoni)109,552.006572020-12Animal welfare/wild animal welfare/bird/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-glasgow-animal-welfare-researchWild Animal Initiative Lewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "The project was endorsed by the Wild Animal Initiative due to its potential to expand the field of welfare biology." This suggests that this endorsement was influential to the grantmaking process.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research on animal welfare led by Davide Dominoni. This funding will support research on the effects of urbanization and artificial light on birds’ welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "The project was endorsed by the Wild Animal Initiative due to its potential to expand the field of welfare biology." This suggests that this endorsement was influential to the grantmaking process.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 81,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal100,000.006652020-12Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chicken/pig/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/forum-nacional-de-protecao-e-defesa-animal-crate-and-cage-free-campaigning-in-brazil-2020Amanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work campaigning to reduce the use of battery cages for layer hens and gestation crates for pigs in Brazil."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the previous two-year grant reaching its end.

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil.
Animal Friends Jogja78,000.007322020-12Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-friends-jogjaAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support its farm animal welfare work in Indonesia. This cooperation agreement will support Animal Friend Jogja’s animal welfare investigations, as well as its corporate campaigns and lobbying efforts promoting poultry and fish welfare."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Indonesia.
The Humane League UK507,900.003132020-12Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-humane-league-uk-general-supportAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "THL-UK has secured a number of broiler welfare and cage-free commitments from major UK and international restaurant chains and food service companies. This funding is intended to enable THL-UK to fill positions focused on European and global corporate welfare campaigns."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "THL-UK has secured a number of broiler welfare and cage-free commitments from major UK and international restaurant chains and food service companies." The grant page also links to past support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-broiler-welfare-campaigns to The Humane League (not the UK branch).
University of Toronto (Earmark: Chris Maddison)520,000.003062020-12AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-toronto-machine-learning-researchDaniel Dewey Catherine Olsson Donation process: The researcher (Chris Maddison) whose students' work is to be funded with this grant had previously been an Open Phil AI Fellow while pursuing his DPhil in 2018. The past connection and subsequent academic progress of the researcher (now an assistant professor) may have been factors, but the grant page has no details on the decision process.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "[the grant is] to support research on understanding, predicting, and controlling machine learning systems, led by Professor Chris Maddison, a former Open Phil AI Fellow. This funding is intended to enable three students and a postdoctoral researcher to work with Professor Maddison on the research."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The researcher (Chris Maddison) whose students' work is to be funded with htis grant had previously been an Open Phil AI Fellow while pursuing his DPhil in 2018. The past connection and subsequent academic progress of the researcher (now an assistant professor) may have been factors, but the grant page has no details on the decision process.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 48.
AI Impacts50,000.007772020-11AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support-2020/Tom Davidson Ajeya Cotra Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "AI Impacts plans to use this grant to work on strategic questions related to potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Renewal in 2022 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support/ (for a much larger amount) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Earmark: Neil Thompson)275,344.004742020-11AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-ai-trends-and-impacts-researchLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says "The research will consist of projects to learn how algorithmic improvement affects economic growth, gather data on the performance and compute usage of machine learning methods, and estimate cost models for deep learning projects."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-ai-trends-and-impacts-research-2022/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
L2141,642,046.001392020-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/L214-broiler-chicken-campaigns-2020Lewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Donation process: Based on the grant write-up, evaluation of L214's progress since the previous grant appears to have been part of the grantmaking process.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support fundraising, professionalization, investigations, and broiler welfare advocacy in France. [...] This funding is intended to support additional welfare campaigns, investigations, and fundraising.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Since our November 2017 support, L214 has secured broiler welfare and cage-free commitments from a number of major French supermarket chains and companies." The current grant is for continuing and expanding on similar activities.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): This is a total across two grants. The grant page initially gave a smaller total of 1,432,130 (1,228,000 EUR) for just one grant, and was updated around June 2021 to be a total of two grants, with the updated amount. The donation was given as 1,408,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed; the grant happens about one year after the expiration of the previous two-year grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: This is a total across two grants. Affected countries: France.
University of Bern (Earmark: Michael Toscano)410,000.003882020-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chicken/cage-free/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-bern-layer-hensAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the University of Bern to support research led by Michael Toscano on breeding layer hens better adapted to cage-free environments."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant fits in with Open Philanthropy's funding of corporate campaigns pushing for cage-free systems for chicken, an effort that https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms documents. The research focus of this grant is relatively unusual for Open Phil's cage-free campaign spending, but it is similar to a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-bern-higher-welfare-cage-free-systems to the same grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 72.
Compassion in World Farming1,228,407.001732020-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-farm-animal-welfare-in-asiaAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "work to advance farm animal welfare in Asia. CIWF plans to engage in corporate outreach on poultry welfare and to re-grant funds to farm animal welfare groups throughout Asia."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant amount is £964,600 ($1,228,407 at the time of conversion).

Other notes: This is a total across two grants.
GLOBALG.A.P.90,554.007172020-11Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/globalgap-fish-welfare-standardsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the development of an animal welfare add-on module for its Aquaculture Standard, in collaboration with RSPCA Assured. GLOBALG.A.P. aims to promote more humane and sustainable aquaculture practices by setting certification standards for farmed fish." https://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/for-producers/globalg.a.p./integrated-farm-assurance-ifa/aquaculture/ is the link for the Aquaculture Standard.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 75,600.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Impact Alliance40,000.008312020-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/impact-alliance-cage-free-programLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work to secure corporate participation in a cage-free program in Asia."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes that this funding could help advance the implementation of cage-free systems across Asia."

Other notes: Grant made via Textile Exchange.
Material Innovation Initiative200,000.005442020-11Animal welfare/animal fashion alternativeshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/material-innovation-initiative-plant-based-fashion-alternativesLewis Bollard Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work promoting plant-based alternatives to animal-based fashion. This funding is intended to enable MII to hire a Senior Material Scientist, who will promote alternatives to silk and fur by connecting fashion companies with promising alternatives, providing support to plant-based alternatives start-ups, and working with academic researchers."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
International Farm Animal Welfare Fellowship58,050.007662020-11Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-farm-animal-welfare-fellowship-farm-animal-welfare-fellowship-programAmanda Hungerford Lwis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support an international farm animal welfare fellowship program. The program aims to alleviate bottlenecks in the field of farm animal welfare by cultivating a network of talented individuals, exchanging knowledge and expertise, and linking participants to opportunities for future engagement."

Other notes: Grant made via The Pollination Project.
Dezernat Zukunft202,079.005432020-11Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/dezernat-zukunft-monetary-and-fiscal-policy-2020Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "work on monetary and fiscal policy in Europe. Dezernat Zukunft is a nonpartisan German think tank that seeks to gear European monetary and fiscal policies toward encouraging employment gains and sharing prosperity more widely. Dezernat Zukunft plans to use these funds to hire staff to encourage fiscal expansion in Germany."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/dezernat-zukunft-general-support-and-regranting (2021-07) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 170,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); affected countries: Germany.
Urban Institute50,000.007772020-11Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/urban-institute-counter-cyclical-state-funding-mechanismsAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a report on implementing countercyclical state funding mechanisms as a means to support states and localities in managing the effects of economic shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic and recession."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
International Refugee Assistance Project1,000,000.002002020-11Migration policy/refugee migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2020Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page links to the grant page for the first grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support (2016-05) for the rationale for supporting the grantee.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason is given for the amount, but both the amount and the timeframe match the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2019 (2019-01).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right around the end of the timeframe of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2019 (2019-01).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24
YIMBY Law500,000.003142020-10Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/yimby-law-general-support-october-2020Zachary 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.
Animal Welfare Awareness, Research, and Education64,600.007572020-10Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-welfare-awareness-research-and-education-farm-animal-welfare-workAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work researching potential farm animal welfare policy reforms in South Korea."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Approximately 460 million farm animals are alive in South Korea at any given time." This suggests that the scale of factory farming in South Korea is an influencing factor.

Other notes: Affected countries: South Korea.
Vegan Women Summit20,000.008782020-10Animal welfare/meat alternatives/diversity, equity, and inclusionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/vegan-women-summit-pitch-competitionLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a pitch competition for female founders in the plant- and cell-based space. The Vegan Women Summit aims to use the competition to support early-stage female founders, particularly women of color, by connecting them with investors and publicizing their startups."
Center for a New American Security (Earmark: Paul Scharre)24,350.008722020-10AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-a-new-american-security-ai-governance-projects/Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work exploring possible projects related to AI governance."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason is provided for the donation, but another donation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-a-new-american-security-ai-and-security-projects is made at around the same time, to the same donee and with the same earmark (Paul Scharre) suggesting a broader endorsement.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reason is provided for the timing of the donation, but another donation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-a-new-american-security-ai-and-security-projects is made at around the same time, to the same donee and with the same earmark (Paul Scharre).
Center for a New American Security (Earmark: Paul Scharre)116,744.006452020-10AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-a-new-american-security-ai-and-security-projects/Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work by Paul Scharre on projects related to AI and security."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason is provided for the donation, but another donation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-a-new-american-security-ai-governance-projects is made at around the same time, to the same donee and with the same earmark (Paul Scharre) suggesting a broader endorsement.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reason is provided for the timing of the donation, but another donation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-a-new-american-security-ai-governance-projects is made at around the same time, to the same donee and with the same earmark (Paul Scharre).
Smitha Milli (Earmark: Smitha Milli)370.009212020-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/smitha-milli-participatory-approaches-machine-learning-workshopDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Participatory Approaches to Machine Learning, a virtual workshop held during the 2020 International Conference on Machine Learning."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The donee had previously been a recipient of the Open Phil AI Fellowship, so it is likely that that relationship helped make the way for this grant.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reasons are given for the amount; this is an unusually small grant size by the donor's standards. The amount is likely determined by the limited funding needs of the grantee.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The 2020 International Conference on Machine Learning was held in July 2020, so this grant seems to have been made after the thing it was supporting was already finished. No details on timing are provided.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1
Center for Strategic and International Studies118,307.006432020-09AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competitionLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to explore possible projects related to AI accident risk in the context of technology competition."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No specific reasons are provided, but two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-international-security-and-cooperation-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/rice-hadley-gates-manuel-ai-risk made at about the same time for the same intended use suggests interest from the donor in this particular use case at this time.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No specific reasons are provided, but two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-international-security-and-cooperation-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/rice-hadley-gates-manuel-ai-risk made at about the same time for the same intended use suggests interest from the donor in this particular use case at this time.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The increase in grant amount in May 2021, from $75,245 to $118,307, suggests that Open Phil was satisfied with initial progress on the grant.

Other notes: The grant amount was updated in May 2021. The original amount was $75,245.
Center for International Security and Cooperation67,000.007522020-09AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-international-security-and-cooperation-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competitionLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to explore possible projects related to AI accident risk in the context of technology competition."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No specific reasons are provided, but two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/rice-hadley-gates-manuel-ai-risk made at about the same time for the same intended use suggests interest from the donor in this particular use case at this time.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No specific reasons are provided, but two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/rice-hadley-gates-manuel-ai-risk made at about the same time for the same intended use suggests interest from the donor in this particular use case at this time.
Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC25,000.008622020-09AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/rice-hadley-gates-manuel-ai-riskLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Contractor agreement "to explore possible projects related to AI accident risk in the context of technology competition."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No specific reasons are provided, but two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-international-security-and-cooperation-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition made at about the same time for the same intended use suggests interest from the donor in this particular use case at this time.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No specific reasons are provided, but two other grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/center-for-international-security-and-cooperation-ai-accident-risk-and-technology-competition made at about the same time for the same intended use suggests interest from the donor in this particular use case at this time.
The Humane League3,600,000.00582020-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-open-wing-alliance-2020Amanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to continue to support program grants and associated costs for the Open Wing Alliance. This funding will support members of the Open Wing Alliance who are working to secure corporate cage-free and broiler pledges and build an effective farm animal welfare movement in more nations."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes that the Open Wing Alliance has a strong track record in identifying promising groups in new countries, training them in corporate campaigning, and coordinating them to achieve global corporate wins."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made a few months before the timeframe for the previous grant to the Open Wing Alliance was scheduled to end; that might partly explain the timing.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24
World Animal Net37,600.008442020-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-net-broiler-chicken-and-pig-welfare-guidelinesLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to engage with international financial institutions, including the World Bank, on the adoption of broiler chicken and pig welfare guidelines for agribusiness projects."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Asia for Animals52,400.007722020-09Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/asia-for-animals-farm-animal-welfare-coordinatorAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to hire a farm animal welfare coordinator. Asia for Animals is a coalition of animal welfare organizations operating in Asia. The farm animal welfare coordinator will enable Asia for Animals to expand the network’s engagement on farm animal welfare issues."

Other notes: Grant via the Animals Asia Foundation. Affected countries: Asia.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals500,000.003142020-08Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rspca-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-asia-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work to advance farm animal welfare in Asia. The RSPCA intends to use this funding to build institutional support for farm animal welfare, develop and implement welfare standards, and award scholarships to researchers studying topics related to farm animal welfare."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 400,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Catalyst350,000.004142020-08Animal welfare/factory farming/pig/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/catalyst-farm-animal-welfare-in-thailandAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to advocate for farm animal welfare in Thailand. This funding is intended to enable the new organization to advocate for pig and chicken welfare, specifically by working with the government to, among other things, provide welfare training and develop humane certification standards."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Thailand.
Economic Policy Institute550,000.002942020-08Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2020Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "EPI plans to use these funds to continue to produce policy-relevant research on the ways in which macroeconomic policy can boost living standards for working Americans, including work on different aspects of the relationships between unemployment, wage growth, inflation, and productivity."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons are given for the amount; it is a little less than the amount ($700,000) of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2018 (2018-07).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right around the end of the timeframe of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2018 (2018-07).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Labor Mobility Partnerships500,000.003142020-08Migration policy/labor mobilityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/labor-mobility-partnerships-international-labor-mobilityZachary Robinson Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work to enhance international labor mobility. LaMP aims to ensure workers can access employment opportunities abroad. It focuses on connecting governments, employers, researchers, and advocates to bridge gaps in international labor markets, and creating and curating resources to design and implement mobility partnerships."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Philanthropy had provided the original grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-partnerships (2019-03) to incubate the organization. This is a renewal of that grant and also an exit grant.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount was chosen to provide a year of operating support, which is a typical amount for an exit grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made at around the end of the timeframe of the previous grant (the incubation grant) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-partnerships (2019-03).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant; there are no plans for followup grants.
Employ America1,250,000.001702020-07Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-general-support-2020Alexander Berger Donation process: This is a total across two grants.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Employ America makes the public and intellectual case for policies that support full employment and seeks to build a broad set of allies to further that goal. It produces research and analysis on the state of the labor market and current and potential macroeconomic policies and policymakers. Employ America is led by Sam Bell, who has consulted for us and our grantee Fed Up."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-general-support-2021 (2021-05) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Group Nine Media680,448.002652020-07Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/group-nine-media-factory-farming-videos-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to continue to produce videos on factory farming topics. These videos could cover farm animal welfare campaigns, the welfare of chicken, fish, and other animals, and other relevant topics."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes that the videos could increase the salience of farm animal welfare issues among the public."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
VegeProject102,400.006612020-07Animal welfare/diet changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/vegeproject-corporate-outreachAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support its work conducting corporate outreach to increase the availability of plant-based food in Japan."

Other notes: Affected countries: Japan.
Dharma Voices for Animals150,000.005962020-07Animal welfare/factory farming/legislative changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/dharma-voices-for-animals-farm-animal-welfare-legislationAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to Dharma Voices for Animals, a Buddhist animal welfare organization, to support its work advocating for farm animal welfare legislation in Sri Lanka."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Sri Lanka.
New York University (Earmark: Becca Franks)95,000.007142020-07Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/nyu-work-on-fish-welfare-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research scientist Becca Franks’s work on fish welfare. These funds will support research on curiosity in fish, and will enable Professor Franks to help commission articles that promote state-of-the-art fish welfare research as guest editor of Frontiers in Veterinary Science."
Animal Advocacy Careers432,000.003772020-06Animal welfare/movement growth/career counselinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-advocacy-careers-general-supportAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Animal Advocacy Careers seeks to increase the effectiveness of farm animal welfare advocacy, and was incubated following our support for Charity Science. This funding is intended to enable Animal Advocacy Careers to provide training on leadership and management, career guidance, and effective animal advocacy to existing and aspiring farm animal welfare advocates."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
World of Good (Earmark: Michelle Sinclair)10,178.009042020-06Animal welfare/factory farming/legislative changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-of-good-research-on-farm-animal-welfare-legislationAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to World of Good to support research led by Michelle Sinclair on possible farm animal welfare legislation in Asia. This funding is intended to enable Sinclair and a research assistant to conduct field studies in Asia."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 14,765.00 AUD (conversion done via donor calculation); affected countries: Asia.
Food Frontier200,000.005442020-06Animal welfare/factory farming/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/food-frontier-plant-based-meat-alternativesAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to Food Frontier to support work to develop and promote plant-based meat alternatives in the Asia-Pacific region."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
CAF America (Earmark: Guo Peng)130,670.006252020-06Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/caf-america-farm-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support the work of Shandong University Professor Guo Peng, a leading animal protection scholar in China. Professor Peng plans to use these funds to expand the research work of the Centre for Animal Protection Studies of Shandong University and host an expanded Annual National Academic Conferences on Animal Studies."

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
We Animals Media517,000.003102020-06Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/we-animals-media-content-for-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-2020Amanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to continue documenting the lives and experiences of farm animals. WAM works with filmmakers, writers, and photographers to produce open-source media content via the We Animals Archive for advocates and others to utilize in their campaigns. [...] This funding is intended to support WAM’s photography and video archive and farm animal welfare media work."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Many of our farm animal welfare grantees have used WAM’s media content in their work to secure corporate and governmental farm animal welfare commitments."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research444,000.003712020-06Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-chickpea-and-corn-zein-researchChris Somerville Lewis Bollard Donation process: The grant funds proposals received in response to the request for proposals from FFAR co-funded by an April 2020 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-farm-animal-welfare-research-2020 from Open Phil. Also worth noting: one of the grant investigators (Chris Somerville) is one of Open Phil's scientific advisors and he does not usually investigate animal welfare grants. Moreover, one portion of the grant is matched with a grant from the scientific researcch program.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support protein optimization in chickpeas, led by NuCicer, and research into improving corn zein’s functionality for plant-based meat, led by Professor Bruce Hamaker of Purdue University." The chickpea portion of this research represents a match of a similar grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/foundation-for-food-and-agriculture-research-plant-protein-optimization-research from the scientific research program.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined by the specifics of the proposals submitted.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant funds proposals submitted in response to a request for proposals co-funded two months ago. The timing of the grant is likely determined by the timing of the original request for proposals.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
Center for Popular Democracy465,000.003592020-06Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2020Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve. Fed Up plans to use this funding to build up grassroots support for policies that prioritize full employment during and following the current economic crisis."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not discuss reasons, but a reasonable inference based on the information on the page as well as the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 is that the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic motivated the grant. A goal of the Fed Up campaign is to make the Fed care more about unemployment, and the COVID-19-induced recession is a time when this concern becomes particularly salient.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is not a renewal grant; the time period for the preceding two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 (2019-11) is still ongoing. Based on the grant description, the timing of this grant seems to be due to the COVID-19-induced economic recession; the grant is made about three months after the COVID-19-induced decline in economic activity.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
The Wilson Center496,540.003512020-06AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-seminar-series-june-2020Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to organize additional in-depth AI policy seminars as part of its seminar series."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "We continue to believe the seminar series can help inform AI policy discussions and decision-making in Washington, D.C., and could help identify and empower influential experts in those discussions, a key component of our AI policy grantmaking strategy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No reason is given for the amount. The grant is a little more than the original $368,440 two-year grant so it is likely that the additional amount is expected to double the frequency of AI policy seminars.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is a top-up rather than a renewal; the previous two-year grant was made in February 2020. No specific reasons for timing are given.

Donor retrospective of the donation: A later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-training-program in the same general area suggests Open Philanthropy's continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Andrew Lohn (Earmark: Andrew Lohn)15,000.008872020-06AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/andrew-lohn-paper-machine-learning-model-robustnessLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to write a paper on machine learning model robustness for safety-critical AI systems."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Nothing is specified, but the grantee's work had previously been funded by Open Phil via the RAND Corporation for AI assurance methods.
Open Phil AI Fellowship (Earmark: Alex Tamkin|Clare Lyle|Cody Coleman|Dami Choi|Dan Hendrycks|Ethan Perez|Frances Ding|Leqi Liu|Peter Henderson|Stanislav Fort)2,300,000.001102020-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2020-classCatherine Olsson Daniel Dewey Donation process: According to the grant page: "These fellows were selected from more than 380 applicants for their academic excellence, technical knowledge, careful reasoning, and interest in making the long-term, large-scale impacts of AI a central focus of their research."

Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: Grant to provide scholarship to ten machine learning researchers over five years

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to the grant page: "The intent of the Open Phil AI Fellowship is both to support a small group of promising researchers and to foster a community with a culture of trust, debate, excitement, and intellectual excellence. We plan to host gatherings once or twice per year where fellows can get to know one another, learn about each other’s work, and connect with other researchers who share their interests." In a comment reply https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DXqxeg3zj6NefR9ZQ/open-philanthropy-our-progress-in-2019-and-plans-for-2020#BCvuhRCg9egAscpyu (GW, IR) on the Effectiive Altruism Forum, grant investigator Catherine Olsson writes: "But the short answer is I think the key pieces to keep in mind are to view the fellowship as 1) a community, not just individual scholarships handed out, and as such also 2) a multi-year project, built slowly."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is comparable to the total amount of the 2019 fellowship grants, though it is distributed among a slightly larger pool of people.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is the third of annual sets of grants, decided through an annual application process, with the announcement made between April and June each year. The timing may have been chosen to sync with the academic year.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2021-class (2021) confirms that the program would continue.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-05-12.
Centre for the Governance of AI450,000.003682020-05AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/gov-ai-general-supportCommittee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The grant was recommended by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support following its process https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "GovAI intends to use these funds to support the visit of two senior researchers and a postdoc researcher."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" but does not link to specific past writeups (Open Phil has not previously made grants directly to GovAI).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The much larger followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/gov-ai-field-building (December 2021) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Grant made via the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative.
International Conference on Learning Representations3,500.009182020-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ICLR-machine-learning-paper-awardsDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to the International Conference on Learning Representations to provide awards for the best papers submitted as part of the “Towards Trustworthy Machine Learning” virtual workshop.
Encompass200,000.005442020-05Animal welfare/movement growth/diversity, equity, and inclusionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/encompass-diversity-farm-animal-welfare-movementAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support its work to make the farm animal welfare movement more racially diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Encompass intends to use these funds to provide long-term support to advocates of color, as well as to farm animal welfare organizations."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Charity Entrepreneurship260,000.004862020-05Animal welfare/movement growth/new organizationshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/charity-entrepreneurship-development-of-new-animal-welfare-charitiesLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding is intended to enable CE to incubate two additional animal welfare charities."
Animal Outlook44,200.008252020-05Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-outlook-factory-farm-investigations-media-coverageLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to promote media coverage of its factory farm investigations. This funding is intended to enable Animal Outlook to hire two outside contractors specializing in public relations and the entertainment industry."
The Pollination Project75,800.007352020-05Animal welfare/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/pollination-project-conferenceLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Farm Animal and Veg Advocacy Conference, a new annual movement-building conference hosted by farm animal welfare organizations. This funding is intended to cover costs related to hiring a conference organizer."
Eurogroup for Animals635,000.002702020-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/layer chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-animals-eu-chicken-welfare-advocacy-2020Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support EU advocacy work for layer hen and broiler chicken welfare. This funding will enable Eurogroup for Animals to carry out EU welfare campaigns, provide regrants to cage-free advocacy groups, and research layer hen and broiler chicken welfare."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 586,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: European Union.
Humane Society International60,000.007642020-05Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-african-swine-fever-training-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to conduct trainings in Vietnam in response to emergency disease outbreaks of African Swine Fever and other animal diseases. This funding is intended to pay for three two-day trainings for government officials in Vietnam and related travel expenses."

Other notes: Affected countries: Vietnam.
Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation488,467.003562020-05Animal welfare/factory farming/legislative changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/conservative-animal-welfare-foundation-farm-animal-welfare-advocacyLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work advocating for farm animal welfare policies in the U.K. [...] These funds are intended to support work on animal welfare and not any other activities."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes that the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation is well-positioned to advance farm animal welfare policies with the parliamentary majority."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 395,200.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United Kingdom.
Sinergia Animal800,000.002392020-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/sinergia-animal-corporate-cage-free-campaignsAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate cage-free campaigns and investigations across Latin America. Sinergia Animal intends to use this funding to secure cage-free corporate commitments and carry out investigations in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, which have a combined total of approximately 184 million layer hens."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at the scale of factory farming in the target countries as being a factor: "Sinergia Animal intends to use this funding to secure cage-free corporate commitments and carry out investigations in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, which have a combined total of approximately 184 million layer hens."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Argentina|Chile|Colombia|Ecuador|Peru.
Animal Nepal271,700.004782020-04Animal welfare/factory farming/poultry/cattlehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-nepal-farm-animal-welfareAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This grant is intended to provide funding for Animal Nepal’s poultry and buffalo welfare advocacy, as well as its work raising awareness of animal welfare within Nepal’s government and media outlets."

Other notes: Affected countries: Nepal.
Reducetarian Foundation (Earmark: Gregg Sparkman|Johanna Matt-Navarro)14,190.008972020-04Animal welfare/diet change/fish/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/reducetarian-foundation-fish-consumption-messaging-researchLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research to analyze the impact of various messages on fish consumption, led by Gregg Sparkman and Johanna Matt-Navarro. The research will include a survey on norms and values correlated with fish consumption, an assessment of messages to reduce fish consumption, and a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of selected messages in reducing fish consumption among consumers."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/reducetarian-fellowship suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though its intended use of funds is somewhat different.
Equalia150,000.005962020-04Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/equalia-broiler-welfare-cage-free-campaignsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of chickens and caged hens in Spain and international investigations into welfare standards for chickens and laying hens in cages."

Other notes: Affected countries: Spain.
Compassion in World Farming USA78,750.007312020-04Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-global-eggtrack-programAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the global expansion of its EggTrack program. This funding will support CIWF USA’s work tracking and reporting on multinational companies’ progress implementing cage-free egg commitments."
Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research500,000.003142020-04Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-farm-animal-welfare-research-2020Lewis Bollard Donation process: Nothing specific is stated on the grant page, but the outcommes of two past similar grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-farm-animal-welfare-research was made in April 2017 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-egg-tech-challenge in December 2018 likely informed this grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "co-fund a request for proposals for research on optimizing plant protein for use in plant-based meat. The resulting research could eventually improve the quality and lower the costs of plant-based meat."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-chickpea-and-corn-zein-research made two months later (for proposals submitted as a result of this request for proposals) suggests continued endorsement by Open Phil of the reasoning behind the grant.
World Economic Forum50,000.007772020-04AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/world-economic-forum-global-ai-council-workshopDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a workshop hosted by the Global AI Council and co-developed with the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley. The workshop will facilitate the development of AI policy recommendations that could lead to future economic prosperity, and is part of a series of workshops examining solutions to maximize economic productivity and human wellbeing."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
University of Colorado (Earmark: May Chu)250,000.004922020-04Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/COVID-19https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/university-of-colorado-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-experimentsJacob Trefethen Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support experiments on the decontamination and safe reuse of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers (HCWs) treating COVID-19 patients. This effort is led by Professor May Chu at the Colorado School of Public Health with collaborators from academic research labs, professional PPE testing laboratories, and infectious disease hospitals around the world. The aim of this study is to identify simple, executable processes for decontamination of homemade masks, surgical masks, and N95 respirators that can be applied anywhere, from hospitals to low-resource settings, so that HCWs are protected. The results could inform PPE recommendations for HCW protection from bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is made around the time that COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and around the time that efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up. The grant page also highlights the credentials of the grantee: "Professor Chu serves on the WHO’s Expert Advisory Committee for COVID-19 and helped lead the United States’ response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic at the Office of Science and Technology Policy."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the time that COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and around the time that efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-04-15.
Brown Institute for Media Innovation15,000.008872020-04Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/COVID-19https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/brown-institute-for-media-innovation-covid-19-rapid-micro-grantsJacob Trefethen Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support rapid micro-grants for work that aims to inform the public about the COVID-19 virus. This funding enabled the Brown Institute to award five micro-grants https://brown.columbia.edu/covid19-grant-winners/ to journalists, technologists, health researchers, data scientists, social scientists, and others."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is made shortly after COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and as efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount covers 60% of the award money granted out (five grants of $5,000 each). The reason for funding only 60% are not included in the grant page; it is likely that other sources of funding cover the remaining cost.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the timing of the microgrants round being funded. The grant is made shortly after COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and as efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-04-27.
Sea-Long Global Respiratory Systems325,000.004362020-04Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/COVID-19https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/sea-long-global-respiratory-systems-covid-19-ventilation-helmet-productionJacob Trefethen Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the increased production of non-invasive ventilation helmets for COVID-19 patients. The helmets are intended to aid patients under respiratory distress and reduce the demand for ventilators in regions experiencing severe outbreaks, in the U.S. and internationally."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is made shortly after COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and as efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made shortly after COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and as efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-04-24.
Mercy Corps1,000,000.002002020-04Migration policy/labor mobility/seasonal migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/mercy-corps-seasonal-migration-pilot-project-and-rctZachary Robinson Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "in partnership with the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University, to conduct a pilot project with a randomized control trial (RCT) on seasonal migration for rural Nigeriens. The project and the RCT will examine the drivers and returns to seasonal migration, and will subsidize the transportation of underemployed men in the rural Tillabéri region to urban centers in Niger and surrounding countries."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Nigeria.
Center for Global Development (Earmark: Michael Clemens)1,000,000.002002020-03Migration policy/labor mobilityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program-2020Alexander Berger Zachary Robinson Donation process: This renews a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program (2017-03). A conversation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Michael_Clemens_11-29-17_%28public%29.pdf (2017-11-29) with Michael Clemens happens between the two grants.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its migration program, led by Dr. Michael Clemens. [...] this funding includes one additional year at the previous funding level and two subsequent years at a funding level that we believe may be more sustainable for the long run. This funding is intended to support Dr. Clemens’s ongoing research and policy work on immigration." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CGD/CGD_Migration_Program_Description.pdf describes the activities that the previous grant (renewed by this) funded; this grant is likely similar.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "this funding includes one additional year at the previous funding level and two subsequent years at a funding level that we believe may be more sustainable for the long run." The previous funding level was $600,000 per year, so this breaks down to $600,000 for one year and $200,000 each for the next two years.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right at the end of the timeframe for the previous three-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program#About_the_grant (2017-03).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The framing "funding level that we believe may be more sustainable for the long run" in the grant page suggests that Open Philanthropy is planning to renew funding at the reduced level ($200,000/year) after this three-year grant ends.
Against COVID-1910,000.009052020-03Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/COVID-19https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/against-covid-19-covid-19-database-supportJacob Trefethen Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the expansion of its database of COVID-19 cases to include data from additional countries. The database tracks COVID-19 cases by transmission (local or imported), age, and other relevant characteristics, and is made available in a public dashboard for researchers, policymakers, and others working to limit the spread of the virus."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is made around the time that COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and around the time that efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the time that COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and around the time that efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-04-20.
Good Judgment Inc.40,000.008312020-03Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/COVID-19https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/good-judgment-inc-covid-19-forecastingLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to expand "efforts to aggregate, publish, and track forecasts about the COVID-19 outbreak with the hope that the forecasts can help improve planning by health security professionals and the broader public, limit the spread of the virus, and save lives. The forecasts are aggregated each day from the most accurate 1-2% of forecasters from a large-scale, government-funded series of forecasting tournaments, plus an annual uptake of a handful of top performers from the nearly 40,000 forecasters on Good Judgement Open." The predictions are at https://goodjudgment.io/covid/dashboard/ and the reasoning is explained more in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/forecasting-covid-19-pandemic

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is made at around the time the COVID-19 pandemic is being acknowledged worldwide, and just as Open Phil is ramping up grantmaking in the area. The grant investigator, Luke Muehlhauser, has generally been interested in forecasting. Most other COVID-19 grants are investigated by Jacob Trefethen.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount likely determined by project cost

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determmined by the breaking out of the COVID-19 pandemic
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/forecasting-covid-19-pandemic says: "We may commission additional forecasts related to COVID-19 in the coming months, and we welcome suggestions of well-formed questions for which regularly updated forecasts would be especially helpful to public health professionals and the broader public."

Other notes: Announced: 2020-03-17.
Center for Global Development (Earmark: Jeremy Konyndyck)250,000.004922020-03Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/COVID-19https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-global-development-covid-19-local-response-guidelinesAndrew Snyder-Beattie Jacob Trefethen Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work led by Jeremy Konyndyk on developing COVID-19 response guidelines and decision support tools to disseminate to local leaders. The guidelines and tools are intended to help local leaders take appropriate measures to limit the spread of the virus."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is made around the time that COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and as efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up. The grant page notes: "Konyndyk was formerly the director of the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, where he managed an annual budget of more than $1.4 billion and helped lead the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the time that COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic, and as efforts to fight the pandemic are ramping up.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-03-18.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals425,000.003822020-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rspca-broiler-chicken-welfare-outreachLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its outreach to improve the welfare of broiler chickens in the United Kingdom. RSPCA plans to use these funds to support corporate campaigns, industry events and awards, advertising, reports and materials, and other outreach expenses."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 329,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United Kingdom.
fair-fish international association630,370.002712020-03Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fair-fish-international-association-general-supportLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This grant is intended to help FFI develop welfare profiles for more species in its FishEthoBase database, conduct and disseminate research on new fish welfare solutions, and consult with fish farms to comply with new fish welfare standards adopted by Friend of the Sea and others."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 565,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Alianima130,000.006262020-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chicken/pig/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/alianima-general-supportLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Alianima works to secure corporate pledges to reduce the use of battery cages for layer hens and gestation crates for pigs in Brazil."

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil.
Brighter Green340,000.004242020-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work to host another national Good Food Hero Summit as well as several symposia, and to continue its movement-building efforts in Asia."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing matches the end of the timeframe for the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2018 (2018-03).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
International Society for Applied Ethology229,830.005272020-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-advance-farm-animal-welfare-science-in-developing-nations-2020Amanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to advance welfare science in developing nations. [...] ISAE intends to use these funds to host workshops and meetings, and to provide scholarships for farm animal welfare scientists in developing nations."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Developing nations account for an increasing share of the world’s factory farmed animals, yet have relatively few farm animal welfare scientists. [...] Our farm animal welfare team believes ISAE’s work could help to both accelerate the development of farm animal welfare science in developing nations and increase the likelihood that the science focuses primarily on welfare rather than productivity."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit amount calculations are provideed. The amount per year is pretty similar to the previosu two-year grant of $135,412.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made shortly before the end of the two-year timeframe for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-advance-farm-animal-welfare-science-in-developing-nations (2018-04).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36
Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security2,400,000.001052020-03Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-march-2020Andrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to provide general support and to support GHSS project activities on deliberate events and global health security."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is an "exit grant" intended to provide approximately two years of operating support. It follows a February 2020 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-2020 and is probably intendd to give the grantee enough time to find other sources of support.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says that the grant "will provide GHSS with approximately two years of operating support." This is probably considered a reasonable amount of time for the grantee to find alternativ sources of support.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are unclear; it seems that the timing is determined by Open Phil's decision to stop supporting GHSS long-term. The decision seems relatively sudden, considering the February 2020 operating support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-2020 just one month before this exit grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This grant is an exit grant, which means that Open Phil plans to make no further grants to GHSS.

Other notes: This exit grant comes at around the time that the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to be recognized, and Open Phil is doubling down on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness spending related to COVID-19. The relationship of this exit to COVID-19, if any, is unclear. Announced: 2020-04-27.
Johns Hopkins University (Earmark: Jared Kaplan|Brice Ménard)55,000.007692020-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/johns-hopkins-kaplan-menardLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the initial research of Professors Jared Kaplan and Brice Ménard on principles underlying neural network training and performance."
Study and Training Related to AI Policy Careers (Earmark: Emefa Agawu|Karson Elmgren|Matthew Gentzel|Becca Kagan|Benjamin Mueller)594,420.002842020-03AI safety/governance/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/study-and-training-related-to-ai-policy-careersLuke Muehlhauser Donation process: This is a scholarship program run by Open Philanthropy. Applications were sought at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/funding-AI-policy-careers with the last date for applications being 2019-10-15.

Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: Grant is "flexible support to enable individuals to pursue and explore careers in artificial intelligence policy." Recipients include Emefa Agawu, Karson Elmgren, Matthew Gentzel, Becca Kagan, and Benjamin Mueller. The ways that specific recipients intend to use the funds is not described, but https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/funding-AI-policy-careers#examples gives general guidance on the kinds of uses Open Philanthropy was expecting to see when it opened applications.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/funding-AI-policy-careers#goal says: "The goal of this program is to provide flexible support that empowers exceptional people who are interested in positively affecting the long-run effects of transformative AI via careers in AI policy, which we see as an important and neglected issue." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/funding-AI-policy-careers#appendix provides links to Open Philanthropy's other writing on the importance of the issue.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/funding-AI-policy-careers#summary says: "There is neither a maximum nor a minimum number of applications we intend to fund; rather, we intend to fund the applications that seem highly promising to us."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing is likely determined by the time taken to review all applications after the close of applications on 2019-10-15.

Donor retrospective of the donation: As of early 2022, there do not appear to have been further rounds of grantmaking from Open Philanthropy for this purpose.

Other notes: Open Philanthropy runs a related fellowship program called the Open Phil AI Fellowship, that has an annual cadence of announcing new grants, though individual grants are often multi-year. The Open Phil AI Fellowship grantees are mostly people working on technical AI safety, whereas this grant is focused on AI policy work. Moreover, the Open Phil AI Fellowship targets graduate-level research, whereas this grant targets study and training.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute7,703,750.00272020-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2020Claire Zabel Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The decision of whether to donate seems to have followed the Open Philanthropy Project's usual process, but the exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: MIRI plans to use these funds for ongoing research and activities related to AI safety

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" with the most similar previous grant being https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2019 (February 2019). Past writeups include the grant pages for the October 2017 three-year support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2017 and the August 2016 one-year support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. Three other grants decided by CEAS at around the same time are: Centre for Effective Altruism ($4,146,795), 80,000 Hours ($3,457,284), and Ought ($1,593,333).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but this is likely the time when the Committee for Effective Altruism Support does its 2020 allocation.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: The donee describes the grant in the blog post https://intelligence.org/2020/04/27/miris-largest-grant-to-date/ (2020-04-27) along with other funding it has received ($300,000 from the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative and $100,000 from the Long-Term Future Fund). The fact that the grant is a two-year grant is mentioned here, but not in the grant page on Open Phil's website. The page also mentions that of the total grant amount of $7.7 million, $6.24 million is coming from Open Phil's normal funders (Good Ventures) and the remaining $1.46 million is coming from Ben Delo, co-founder of the cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, as part of a funding partnership https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/co-funding-partnership-ben-delo announced November 11, 2019. Announced: 2020-04-10.
The Wilson Center368,440.004082020-02AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-seminar-series-february-2020Luke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to continue support for a series of in-depth AI policy seminars."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grat page says: "We continue to believe the seminar series can help inform AI policy discussions and decision-making in Washington, D.C., and could help identify and empower influential experts in those discussions, a key component of our AI policy grantmaking strategy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is similar to the previous grant of $400,000 over a similar time period (two years).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made almost two years after the original two-year grant, so its timing is likely determined by the original grant running out.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-seminar-series-june-2020 suggests ongoing satisfaction with the grant outcomes. A later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-training-program in the same general area suggests Open Philanthropy's continued satisfaction with the grantee.
WestExec540,000.002992020-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/westexec-report-on-assurance-in-machine-learning-systemsLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Contractor agreement "to support the production and distribution of a report on advancing policy, process, and funding for the Department of Defense’s work on test, evaluation, verification, and validation for deep learning systems."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The increases in grant amounts suggest that the donor was satisfied with initial progress.

Other notes: The grant amount was updated in October and November 2020 and again in May 2021. The original grant amount had been $310,000. Announced: 2020-03-20.
Animal Equality1,901,000.001272020-02Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-cage-free-and-broiler-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support cage-free and broiler welfare. Animal Equality plans to use these funds to support work in Italy, Spain, Germany, and the UK, including investigations, fundraising, and general operations."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Animal Equality has helped secure cage-free and broiler welfare wins and conducted investigations in Europe, and plans to use these funds to continue its work."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is very similar to a similar two-year grant ($2,110,460) made to the same four countries in November 2017. However, there was a separate grant made June 2018 covering two of the countries, which confuses the comparison.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing roughly coincides with the expiration of the November 2017 support. No explicit reasons for the timing are given.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: This is a total of four grants (presumably one grant per country). Affected countries: Germany|Italy|Spain|United Kingdom.
Soko Tierschutz297,291.004642020-02Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/poultryhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/soko-tierschutz-factory-farm-investigations-october-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support investigations and publicity on fish and poultry welfare in Germany and Eastern Europe."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at both the scale of the problem and the grantee's track record: "Approximately 150 million farmed birds and 20 million farmed fish are alive in Germany at any time. Soko Tierschutz investigations have generated media coverage in Germany and elsewhere."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 270,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Germany|Eastern Europe.
Commonwealth Veterinary Association15,000.008872020-02Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/commonwealth-veterinary-association-farm-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This grant will provide funding for a farm animal welfare workshop in February 2020, course fees for two staff members of the Veterinary College, Bangalore, to attend farm animal welfare classes at Cambridge University, and related educational materials."

Other notes: Affected countries: India.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security1,860,000.001292020-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/johns-hopkins-center-health-security-masters-phd-program-supportAndrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the implementation of a Masters and PhD program. The program will focus on major biological and health security risks. This funding will support four PhD students for four years each and four masters students for one year each, as well as faculty time for advising students and a junior administrator."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 48; announced: 2020-03-23.
Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security1,200,000.001752020-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-2020Andrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The intended uses are not described explicitly, but the previous three-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support that this renews had a list of intended uses, and this renewal likely has similar intended uses.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Just one month later, in March 2020, Open Phil would make an exit grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-march-2020 to the grantee, covering two years of operating support. This suggests a change of some sort within the interim one-month period in Open Phil's evaluation of GHSS.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 12; announced: 2020-03-09.
80,000 Hours3,457,284.00632020-02Effective altruism/movement growth/career counselinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2020Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The decision of whether to donate seems to have followed the Open Philanthropy Project's usual process, but the exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: 80,000 Hours aims to solve skill bottlenecks for career paths in what it considers to be the world’s most pressing problems. It does this by providing online research, in-person advice, and support with the goal of helping talented graduates age 20-40 enter high-impact careers.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil's grant writeup says: "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" with the most recent similar grant being https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2019 (February 2019) and the most recent grant with a detailed writeup being https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2018 (February 2018)

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but this is likely the time when the Committee for Effective Altruism Support does its 2020 allocation. Two other grants decided by CEAS at around the same time are: Machine Intelligence Research Institute ($7,703,750),Centre for Effective Altruism ($4,146,795), and Ought ($1,593,333)

Other notes: Announced: 2020-03-09.
Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense2,620,000.00902020-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/bipartisan-commission-on-biodefense-general-supportAndrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says that the grantee "advocates for improvements to U.S. biodefense policy through a variety of activities, including hosting public meetings, publishing reports, and conducting outreach to those in the U.S. government."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says that this grant follows January 2018 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support-2018 to the Blue Ribbon Panel Study on Biodefense, but the connection between the two grantees is not explained.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-03-16.
Nuclear Threat Initiative6,000,000.00332020-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-biosecurity-program-support-2020Andrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support NTI's biosecurity program. This includes "work to reduce Global Catastrophic Biological Risks, enhance biosecurity, and advance pandemic preparedness."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No reasons stated, but reasons likely similar to the previous three-year $6 million support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-biosecurity-program-support#Case_for_the_grant lists these reasons for the previous grant: (1) "NTI’s track record of securing wins in the nuclear security and arms control space." (2) "Our confidence in Dr. Elizabeth Cameron". (3) "NTI appears open to considering work focused on GCR prevention." Also: "we consider biosecurity a neglected area, particularly with regard to GCRs, and this grant is part of a broader effort to fund influential organizations and individuals working in this space that we find credible and that share some of our priorities."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Both the amount and duration of the funding timeframe ($6 million over 3 years) are identical to the previous grant to support the program, made October 2017.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by the three-year window of the previous grant coming to an end. However, the grant is made a little before the end of the three-year window.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Announced: 2020-04-10.
Malaria Consortium33,926,000.0042020-02Global health/malaria/seasonal malaria chemopreventionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/malaria-consortium-seasonal-malaria-chemoprevention-february-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published November 2019).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Malaria_Consortium-s_SMC_program says: "This funding will enable Malaria Consortium to spend: (1) $30.1 million to fully fill its funding gaps in its three current countries of operation—Burkina Faso, Chad, and Nigeria—through 2021. This figure includes scaling up operations to cover additional areas in each country. Cost-effectiveness: 16x cash, (2) $3.8 million to expand its SMC program to a fourth country. Malaria Consortium has told us that this will most likely be Togo. Cost-effectiveness: 18x cash for Togo."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_process says: "This work is highly cost-effective. We model this funding gap as 17x cash. In addition, Malaria Consortium performs well on our qualitative measures of organizational strength; this assessment supports our view that this gap is highly cost-effective to fill. The funding gap is time-sensitive. Malaria Consortium will need to begin planning for 2021 in 2020." https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/qualitative-assessments has the lined qualitative assessments. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed lists the general principles followed.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is chosen to be sufficient to cover Malaria Consortium's funding gaps till 2021. https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Malaria_Consortium-s_SMC_program says: "We are choosing not to recommend that Open Philanthropy fill some or all of Malaria Consortium's funding gap for 2022—a funding gap of $35.6 million at an estimated cost-effectiveness of 17x cash—in order to preserve our options for the future. We do not expect that having funding for 2022 would affect how Malaria Consortium operates in 2020."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 23

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Malaria_Consortium-s_SMC_program says: "However, we think that the 2022 funding gap is the most cost-effective unfilled option among our top charities, and we're excited for individual donors to close this gap. Malaria Consortium's SMC program is our recommendation for donors who want to give directly to a specific charity."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Malaria Consortium would continue to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2020 and 2021, and receive several additional grants from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund and Open Philanthropy on GiveWell's recommendation.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/malaria-consortium/November-2019-version for GiveWell's review of Malaria Consortium at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Burkina Faso|Chad|Nigeria|Togo.
Center for Applied Rationality375,000.004042020-02Epistemic institutionshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support-2020Claire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "CFAR is an adult education nonprofit that seeks to find and develop cognitive tools and to deliver these tools to promising individuals, groups, organizations, and networks focused on solving large and pressing problems. [...] They introduce people to and/or strengthen their connections with the effective altruism (EA) community and way of thinking, which we hope results in people with outstanding potential pursuing more impactful career trajectories. CFAR is particularly interested in growing the talent pipeline for work on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our primary interest in these workshops is that we believe they introduce people to and/or strengthen their connections with the effective altruism (EA) community and way of thinking, which we hope results in people with outstanding potential pursuing more impactful career trajectories." Also: "CFAR is particularly interested in growing the talent pipeline for work on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). More on our interest in supporting work [...]"

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount chosen to provide one year of operating support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determind by the end of the funding timeframe of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support-2018 made January 2018
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant, so Open Phil does not plan to make further grants to CFAR.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-04-20.
YIMBY Law100,000.006652020-01Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/yimby-law-general-supportAlexander 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.
The Center on Poverty and Inequality50,000.007772020-01Macroeconomic stabilization policy/automatic fiscal stabilizershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/georgetown-university-center-on-poverty-and-inequalityAlexander Berger Donation process: The grant is via Georgetown University, where the Center on Poverty ad Inequality is housed.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Center on Poverty and Inequality’s work on enhancing automatic fiscal stabilizers. Automatic fiscal stabilizers are taxes and government programs that respond automatically to changing economic conditions, and do not require additional Congressional action."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says, of the research topic: "We believe [automatic fiscal stabilizers] are important for mitigating the effects of economic downturns."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Niskanen Center200,000.005442020-01Migration policy/politicshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-center-research-on-immigration-policy-2020Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work on immigration policy. The Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank, seeks to reduce barriers to immigration by developing and disseminating information, arguments, and policy ideas."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is a renewal of a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration-2018 (2018-01) and is being offered as an exit grant to give the grantee time to transition out.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is at the same rate per year ($200,000) as the previous grant, that was $400,000 over two years. The shorter timeframe (and hence lower amount) is a reflection of the "exit grant" nature.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made at the end of the timeframe foor the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration-2018 (2018-01).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant, so there are no plans for further grants.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Centre for Effective Altruism4,146,795.00492020-01Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-and-community-building-grants-2020Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for a mix of organizational general support and supporting the Effective Altruism Community Building Grants program operated by CEA

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil's grant writeup says: "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" and links to the September 2019 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-and-community-building-grants-2019 that had the same intended use of funds (general support + Community Building Grants)

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support (CEAS) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. Two other grants decided by CEAS at around the same time are: Machine Intelligence Research Institute ($7,703,750), 80,000 Hours ($3,457,284), and Ought ($1,593,333)

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but this is likely the time when the Committee for Effective Altruism Support does its 2020 allocation

Other notes: Announced: 2020-03-09.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative150,000.005962020-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-general-support/Claire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "BERI seeks to reduce existential risks to humanity, and collaborates with other long-termist organizations, including the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley. This funding is intended to help BERI establish new collaborations."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-general-support-2/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
Ought1,593,333.001432020-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support-2020Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The grant was recommended by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support following its process https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Ought conducts research on factored cognition, which we consider relevant to AI alignment and to reducing potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter"

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. Three other grants decided by CEAS at around the same time are: Machine Intelligence Research Institute ($7,703,750), Centre for Effective Altruism ($4,146,795), and 80,000 Hours ($3,457,284).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but this is likely the time when the Committee for Effective Altruism Support does its 2020 allocation

Other notes: Announced: 2020-02-14.
Stanford University (Earmark: Dorsa Sadigh)6,500.009152020-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-ai-safety-seminarDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant "is intended to fund the travel costs for experts on AI safety to present at the [AI safety] seminar [led by Dorsa Sadigh]."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
RAND Corporation (Earmark: Andrew Lohn)30,751.008542020-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/rand-corporation-research-on-the-state-of-ai-assurance-methodsLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support exploratory research by Andrew Lohn on the state of AI assurance methods."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A few months later, Open Phil would make a grant directly to Andrew Lohn for machine learning robustness research, suggesting that they were satisfied with the outcome from this grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2020-03-19.
Press Shop (Earmark: Stuart Russell)17,000.008852020-01AI safety/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/press-shop-human-compatibleDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the publicity firm Press Shop to support expenses related to publicizing Professor Stuart Russell’s book Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page links this grant to past support for the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) where Russell is director, so the reason for the grant is likely similar to reasons for that past support. Grant pages: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-2019

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made shortly after the release of the book (book release date: October 8, 2019) so the timing is likely related to the release date.
Dao Foods215,000.005352020-01Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/dao-foods-plant-based-startup-incubatorLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to launch a plant-based startup incubator in China. Dao Foods is a Chinese-led impact investment firm that supports entrepreneurs who seek to develop meat alternatives."

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
FAI Farms105,000.006592020-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-cage-free-egg-investigationLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support its work launching a cage-free egg certification project in partnership with the China Chain Store and Franchise Association. The project’s aim is to develop a large-scale production and certification model for cage-free eggs in China, the world’s largest egg producer."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason is given, but the grant page hints at the scale of the problem being addressed: "The project’s aim is to develop a large-scale production and certification model for cage-free eggs in China, the world’s largest egg producer." Open Philanthropy has previously explained its support for cage-free campaigns at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms and in other blog posts.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-cage-free-egg-certification-and-summit for continuation and scaling up of the work suggest that Open Philanthropy would be satisfied with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
ACTAsia300,000.004472020-01Animal welfare/clothing change/furhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/act-asia-reduce-fur-demand-in-asia-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research and reporting on the fur industry, fashion forums to discuss alternatives to fur, and corporate outreach to obtain fur-free pledges from retailers."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason is given for the amount, but it is quite similar to (though slightly less than) the $350,000 amount for the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/act-asia-reduce-fur-demand-in-asia-2020 (2018-03).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The time of the grant is shortly before the en of the two-year timeframe of the previosu grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/act-asia-reduce-fur-demand-in-asia-2020 (2018-03).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
Krystal Caldwell & Sydney Heiss (Earmark: Krystal Caldwell|Sydney Heiss)156,781.005902020-01Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat/factoring farming/fish/consumer preferenceshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/krystal-caldwell-and-sydney-heiss-farm-animal-welfare-researchAmanda Hungerford Donation process: The grant page says the grant "was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The funding will support research projects on consumer preferences for plant-based foods, consumer attitudes toward fish welfare, and questions about the comparative moral status of different species."
University of Missouri (Earmark: Samniqueka Halsey)189,000.005732020-01Animal welfare/wild animal welfare/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-missouri-animal-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "The project was endorsed by the Wild Animal Initiative due to its potential to expand the field of welfare biology."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding will support the creation of a database of wildlife diseases and disease interventions, as well as a stress index measuring the impact of disease on wild animal welfare."

Other notes: The role of Wild Animal Initiative in recommending the grant would be mentioned by Open Philanthropy in its later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wild-animal-initiative-animal-welfare-research to Wild Animal Initiative.
Essere Animali462,974.003612020-01Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/chicken/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/essere-animali-farm-animal-welfare-work-italy-2020Lewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support investigations and corporate campaigns on fish, chicken, and pig welfare in Italy."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Approximately 260 million farmed land animals and 140 million farmed fish are alive in Italy at any time. Essere Animali investigations at farms where fish, pigs, and chickens are raised and slaughtered have generated media coverage in Italy and elsewhere."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 420,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Italy.
Certified Humane210,000.005402020-01Animal welfare/factory farming/certificationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/certified-humane-farm-animal-welfare-certification-workAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the expansion of [grantee's] certification work into China."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Certified Humane seeks to promote more humane farm animal practices among producers, and has certified over 5,000 farms in 16 countries."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China.
Center for Welfare Metrics784,586.002422020-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/center-for-welfare-metrics-impacts-of-animal-welfare-reforms-2020Lewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Among other projects, the Center for Welfare Metrics plans to produce a report on the welfare impact of reforms for egg-laying hens, including a comparison of the prevalence, duration, and intensity of harms under various systems, including cages, enriched cages, and cage-free aviaries."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This analysis could inform farm animal welfare grantmaking decisions and assessment." The grapnt page also links to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/cynthia-schuck-wladimir-alonso-daly-project-2019 as a similar previous grant.

Other notes: This is a total across two grants (both contracts). Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Environmental & Animal Society of Taiwan521,000.003052020-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/environmental-animal-society-taiwan-farm-animal-welfare-campaignsAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support campaigns for layer hens, farmed fish, broiler hens, water fowl, and humane slaughter in Taiwan. EAST plans to hire scientists, campaigners, and outreach staff."

Other notes: This is a total across two grants. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Taiwan.
theguardian.org900,000.002322020-01Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-guardian-journalism-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support journalism on factory farming and animal cruelty. The funds will allow The Guardian to continue to report on issues related to factory farming. In keeping with The Guardian’s journalistic and transparency standards, all supported content will be clearly labeled, and Open Philanthropy will have no editorial control over the content ultimately published."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
World Animal Protection400,000.003942020-01Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-farm-animal-welfare-southeast-asiaAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support re-granting to farm animal groups in Southeast Asia."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes this is a way to support movement-building in countries with many farmed animals but relatively fewer organizations dedicated to farmed animal welfare."
Animal Charity Evaluators650,000.002672020-01Animal welfare/factory farming/meta/charity evaluatorhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-support-2020Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "ACE seeks to build a more effective farm animal welfare movement by identifying the most effective animal welfare charities and recommending them to donors."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes ACE’s top charities are consistently effective, and finds value in pushing farm animal welfare organizations to focus on effectiveness and impact."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reason for the amount is provided. The amount is almost double the previous 2-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-support made in April 2017; the increase might reflect increased budget of the donee or greater confidence in it from Open Phil.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is shortly after the end of the two-year time for the previous grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: This is a total across two grants.
Rethink Priorities910,000.002312020-01Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-farm-animal-welfare-research-2020Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support farm animal research. This funding is intended to help Rethink Priorities continue to produce research on potential and existing interventions, including analyzing public support for various types of reform and producing survey results that inform future farm animal welfare policy proposals."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe more high-quality research in this area would help us and other farm animal welfare funders compare future opportunities."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-moral-patienthood-moral-weight-research from Open Phil to Rethink Priorities suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though the intended use of funds of the later grant is quite different.

Other notes: This is a total across two grants. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Vegan Women Summit5,000.009162020-01Animal welfare/diversity, equity, and inclusionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/vegan-women-summit-general-supportLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for the summit to be held in San Francisco in February 2020. "The summit aims to empower vegan women, particularly women of color, and inspire them to be leaders of the plant-based movement. A portion of the summit’s proceeds will benefit Mercy for Animals."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/vegan-women-summit-pitch-competition from Open Phil to Vegan Women Summit later in the year suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1.
Helen Keller International9,709,000.00222020-01Global health/nutrition/Vitamin A supplementationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/helen-keller-international-vitamin-a-supplementation-january-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published November 2019).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Helen_Keller_International-s_VAS_program gives the expected allocation of this money plus $2.6 million from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund: "$5.5 million to continue its work in five countries (Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Niger), including supplementing its budgets in 2020 and 2021 and extending its funding runway to 2022. Cost-effectiveness: 31x cash, $4.5 million to start a new program in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with funding to cover 2020-2022. Cost-effectiveness: 27x cash, $2.4 million to expand its program to Bauchi State, Nigeria, with funding to cover 2020-2022. Cost-effectiveness: 25x cash."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Our_process says: "This work is highly cost-effective. We estimate that it is 28 times as cost-effective as cash transfers ("28x cash") overall, and, by country, ranges from 19x cash to 38x cash."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Helen_Keller_International-s_VAS_program gives the expected allocation of this money plus $2.6 million from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund. It further says: "We chose not to recommend that Open Philanthropy provide funding for HKI to begin new programs in Cameroon ($1.8 million at 14x cash) and Kenya ($1.5 million at 11x cash). When we model multiple funding gaps as having similar cost-effectiveness, we generally prefer continuing programs to starting new ones, in order to avoid undue disruption."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Helen Keller International would continue to retain GiveWell top charity status in the coming years and continue receiving annual grants from Open Philanthropy at GiveWell's recommendation.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/helen-keller-international/November-2019-version for GiveWell's review of Helen Keller International at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Guinea|Mali|Burkina Faso|Côte d'Ivoire|Niger|Democratic Republic of the Congo|Nigeria.
Sightsavers2,710,100.00852020-01Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/sightsavers-deworming-january-2020GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published November 2019).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Sightsavers-_deworming_program gives the breakdown of expected spending for the Sightsavers deworming program: "(1) $0.3 million to extend deworming in Yobe State, Nigeria through 2022. We estimate that Sightsavers' average cost-effectiveness is 9x cash (2) $1.3 million to expand its program in Cameroon to new regions, with funding to cover 2020-2022. We estimate that Sightsavers' average cost-effectiveness is 9x cash. (3) $1.1 million to expand its program in DRC to a new province, with funding to cover 2020-2022. We estimate that Sightsavers' average cost-effectiveness is 9x cash."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The Sightsavers deworming program is a GiveWell top charity, and therefore receives the $2.5 million incentive grant that all top charities receive, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7: "To this end, since 2016, we have recommended that Open Philanthropy provide a minimum “incentive grant” to top charities ($2.5 million) and standout charities ($100,000)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Sightsavers-_deworming_program says: "After receiving an incentive grant of $2.5 million, Sightsavers would have a small funding gap for two programs. We are recommending a grant of $2.7 million total in order to fill that gap."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor retrospective of the donation: Helen Keller International would continue to retain GiveWell top charity status in the coming years and continue receiving annual grants from Open Philanthropy at GiveWell's recommendation.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/sightsavers/November-2019-version for GiveWell's review of Sightsavers at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Nigeria|Cameroon|Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Against Malaria Foundation2,500,000.00952019-12Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/against-malaria-foundation-general-support-december-2019GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published November 2019).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Against Malaria Foundation is a GiveWell top charity, and therefore receives the $2.5 million incentive grant that all top charities receive, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7: "To this end, since 2016, we have recommended that Open Philanthropy provide a minimum “incentive grant” to top charities ($2.5 million) and standout charities ($100,000)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount ($2.5 million) is chosen since it is the size of the incentive grant (per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7). https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Against_Malaria_Foundation says: "We decided not to recommend filling AMF's room for more funding beyond the $2.5 million incentive grant."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Against_Malaria_Foundation says: "Over the next few months, we plan to revisit the possibility of making a large grant to AMF. Our decision will rely on what 2020 distribution agreements AMF signs in the near future (if any); how well we are able to answer outstanding questions we have about AMF's monitoring; and, if available, results from AMF's 2019 distributions in DRC, where it is likely to commit marginal funding. We estimate that AMF's average cost-effectiveness is 17x cash."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Against Malaria Foundation would continue to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2020 and 2021, and receive several additional grants from the GiveWell Maximum Impact Fund and Open Philanthropy on GiveWell's recommendation.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf/November-2019-Version for GiveWell's review of Against Malaria Foundation at the time of the grant recommendation.
The END Fund2,500,000.00952019-12Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/end-fund-general-support-2019GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published November 2019).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The END Fund's deworming program is a GiveWell top charity, and therefore receives the $2.5 million incentive grant that all top charities receive, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7: "To this end, since 2016, we have recommended that Open Philanthropy provide a minimum “incentive grant” to top charities ($2.5 million) and standout charities ($100,000)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount ($2.5 million) is chosen since it is the size of the incentive grant (per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7). https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#END_Fund-s_deworming_program says: "We only recommended the $2.5 million incentive grant. The END Fund’s estimated cost-effectiveness is lower than that of Deworm the World Initiative and Sightsavers' deworming program."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The END Fund's deworming program would continue to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2020 and 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/end-fund/November-2019-version for GiveWell's review of The END Fund's deworming program at the time of the grant recommendation.
GiveDirectly2,500,000.00952019-12Cash transfers/unconditional cash transfershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/givedirectly-general-support-december-2019GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation (published November 2019).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveDirectly is a GiveWell top charity, and therefore receives the $2.5 million incentive grant that all top charities receive, per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7: "To this end, since 2016, we have recommended that Open Philanthropy provide a minimum “incentive grant” to top charities ($2.5 million) and standout charities ($100,000)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount ($2.5 million) is chosen since it is the size of the incentive grant (per https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/2019/open-philanthropy-recommendation#Principles_we_followed Principle 7).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: GiveDirectly would continue to remain a GiveWell top charity in 2020 and 2021.

Other notes: See https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly/November-2019-version for GiveWell's review of GiveDirectly at the time of the grant recommendation.
Sightline Institute600,000.002772019-12Land 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.
Dezernat Zukunft100,000.006652019-12Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/dezernat-zukunft-macroeconomic-stabilizationAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "work on monetary and fiscal policy in Europe. Currently run by volunteers, Dezernat Zukunft is a nonpartisan German think tank that seeks to gear European monetary and fiscal policies towards encouraging employment gains and sharing prosperity more widely. Dezernat Zukunft plans to use these funds to increase its organizational capacity, specifically by hiring a full-time staff person, and to support its ability to disseminate innovative macroeconomic policy proposals among policymakers, the press, and the general public."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/dezernat-zukunft-monetary-and-fiscal-policy-2020 (2020-11) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/dezernat-zukunft-general-support-and-regranting (2021-07) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 91,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); affected countries: Europe.
The Good Food Institute4,000,000.00522019-12Animal welfare/meat alternativeshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-international-workAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its international work. GFI promotes alternatives to animal products. This funding will support GFI’s international expansion of its mission to create a sustainable, healthy, and just global food system."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says the funding is "to create a sustainable, healthy, and just global food system."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Global Animal Partnership1,000,000.002002019-12Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-farm-animal-welfare-activities-2019Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its farm animal welfare work. GAP intends to use these funds to secure new corporate partners and increase the number of animals covered by its program."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Griffith University (Earmark: Deborah Cao)100,000.006652019-11Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacyAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to provide a scholarship for a PhD candidate to study farm animal welfare in China. The funding will also support a survey of farm animal industry workers, which aims to gauge workers’ attitudes toward farm animal welfare and inform future advocacy efforts."

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
Plant Based Foods Association230,000.005252019-11Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat/consumer preferenceshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/plant-based-foods-association-grocery-store-studyLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to conduct a study in partnership with U.S. supermarket chain Kroger to determine the effects of moving plant-based meat into the meat section of grocery stores. [Grantee] hopes that retailers and the plant-based food industry will use the study’s findings to more effectively market plant-based meat."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Center for Human-Compatible AI)705,000.002582019-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-chai-collaboration-2019/Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support continued work with the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at UC Berkeley. This includes one year of support for machine learning researchers hired by BERI, and two years of support for CHAI."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-chai-collaboration-2022/ from Open Philanthropy to BERI for the same purpose (CHAI collaboration) suggests satisfaction with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Open Phil makes a grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-2019 to the Center for Human-Compatible AI at the same time (November 2019). Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-12-13.
University of California, Berkeley (Earmark: Jacob Steinhardt)1,111,000.001882019-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-ai-safety-research-2019Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding will allow Professor Steinhardt to fund students to work on robustness, value learning, aggregating preferences, and other areas of machine learning."

Other notes: This is the third year that Open Phil makes a grant for AI safety research to the University of California, Berkeley (excluding the founding grant for the Center for Human-Compatible AI). It continues an annual tradition of multi-year grants to the University of California, Berkeley announced in October/November, though the researchers would be different each year. Note that the grant is to UC Berkeley, but at least one of the researchers (Jacob Steinhardt) is affiliated with the Center for Human-Compatible AI. Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2020-02-19.
Center for Human-Compatible AI200,000.005442019-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-2019Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says "CHAI plans to use these funds to support graduate student and postdoc research."

Other notes: Open Phil makes a $705,000 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-chai-collaboration-2019 to the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (BERI) at the same time (November 2019) to collaborate with CHAI. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-12-20.
Ought1,000,000.002002019-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support-2019Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Ought conducts research on factored condition, which we consider relevant to AI alignment."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support-2020 made on the recommendation of the Committee for Effective Altruism Support suggest that Open Phil would continue to have a high opinion of the work of Ought

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2020-02-14.
Center for Popular Democracy600,000.002772019-11Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but we continue to believe it to be worthwhile to support the campaign through the next recession, when its advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its impact."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount, this time for two years, is significantly less than the amounts of previous one-year grants in 2016, 2017, and 2018 (over $1 million each).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made after the end of the 2018 grant, but not immediately afterward; it is made in late 2019. The reasons for the gap in timing are unclear.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page notes that the next recession would be an occasion to better evaluate the impact of the Fed Up campaign.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2020 (2020-06) is made in light of the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other notes: Unlike the two preceding grants to CPD, this grant is not accompanied by any (publicly announced) grant to CPD Action. Affected countries: United States.
Washington Center for Equitable Growth750,000.002502019-11Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/washington-center-for-equitable-growth-macroeconomic-policy-researchAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to hire a director of macroeconomic policy and research staff. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth conducts and funds research on the effect of economic inequality on economic growth and stability in the United States. It recently partnered with the Hamilton Project to publish the book Recession Ready: Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy, which proposes policies for preparing for and mitigating the long-term effects of the next economic recession."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States.
Employ America1,000,000.002002019-10Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-general-support-october-2019Alexander Berger Donation process: This is a total across two grants.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Employ America makes the public and intellectual case for policies that support full employment and seeks to build a broad set of allies to further that goal. It produces research and analysis on the state of the labor market and current and potential macroeconomic policies and policymakers. Employ America is led by Sam Bell, who has consulted for us and our grantee Fed Up."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-general-support-2020 (2020-07) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Future of Life Institute100,000.006652019-10Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2019Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Other notes: Announced: 2019-11-18.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals36,957.008472019-10Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/royal-society-prevention-cruelty-animals-organizational-developmentAmanda Hungerford Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for organizational development."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 30,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).
Humane Society International (Earmark: Dennis Will)13,145.008992019-10Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-african-swine-fever-trainingAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to allow Dr. Dennis Will to provide expertise and training to World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Animal Welfare Focal Points in response to the emergency disease outbreak of African Swine Fever that has swept through Asia."
SPCA Selangor134,000.006202019-10Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/spca-selangor-farm-animal-welfareAmanda Hungerford Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, because of the funding being used for lobbying efforts

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to start a farm animal welfare program largely focused on a cage-free campaign for layer and broiler hens. SPCA Selangor plans to build connections to retailers and producers, attend trainings, workshops, and meetings, and reach out to the government in Malaysia, where millions of farmed birds are consumed each year."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Malaysia.
Anima International1,700,000.001372019-10Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/broiler chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/anima-international-chicken-welfare-campaignsAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support cage-free and broiler corporate campaigns. Anima International plans to use these funds to support campaigns, investigations, and communications, with a focus on cage-free egg campaigns in Ukraine and a mixture of cage-free egg and broiler chicken campaigns in Norway, Denmark, and Poland."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Ukraine|Norway|Denmark|Poland.
University of California, Berkeley700,000.002592019-10Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/uc-berkeley-alternate-meats-lab-october-2019Lewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Alternative Meats Lab, housed at The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This grant may help spur new startups developing alternatives to animal products, and could help build the talent pipeline for existing companies working in this space." This is a followup to a smaller grant of $131,579 (2019-01) for a similar purpose.
Oxford University (Earmark: Michael Bonsall)41,800.008302019-10Animal welfare/wild animal welfare/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/oxford-university-animal-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Donation process: Grant made as a gift

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research on animal welfare. The work will be led by Michael Bonsall, Professor of Mathematical Biology in the Department of Zoology. This funding will support a one-day academic workshop on wild animal welfare as well as pilot research seeking to analyze existing ecological data for information about the welfare of members of various species."
FAI Farms132,400.006212019-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-promoting-poultry-welfare-cage-free-eggs-chinaLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support events promoting poultry welfare and cage-free egg production in China. The events include a summit for food companies and producers, a poultry welfare conference in partnership with the China Animal Health and Food Safety Innovation Alliance, and a technical seminar promoting cage-free production."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Later grants such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-cage-free-egg-investigation for similar work suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
Plant Based Foods Association625,000.002742019-09Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat/legislative changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/plant-based-foods-association-state-level-policy-2019Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to protect the plant-based food sector from state-level policy threats. PBFA plans to use these funds to monitor, analyze, and, when necessary, oppose attempts to create policies that undermine plant-based alternatives to animal products."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Though no explicit reasons are given for timing, the timing is likely determined by the outcome and the end of timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/plant-based-foods-association-state-level-policy-advocacy-against-threats-to-the-plant-based-sector (2018-08).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 18

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Animal Kingdom Foundation220,866.005322019-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-kingdom-foundation-corporate-campaigns-september-2019Amanda Hungerford Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, because of the funding being used for lobbying efforts

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns for layer hens, a model commercial farm, and efforts to secure certification standards and guidelines from the government in the Philippines, which is home to millions of farmed land animals."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at the scale of factory farming in the Philippines: "the Philippines, which is home to millions of farmed land animals."

Other notes: This grant is announced concurrently with another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-kingdom-foundation-corporate-campaigns-may-2019 (2019-05) and the (identical) pages for both grants refer to the totality of the two grants. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Philippines.
Compassion in World Farming2,169,429.001122019-09Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-fish-welfare-and-efforts-to-end-cagesLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on fish welfare and efforts to end the use of cages and crates for all farmed animal species in the UK and Europe. These funds will support staffing needs, marketing, social media, advocacy work, investigations, and technical and operational costs."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant amount is £1,759,701 ($2,169,429 at the time of conversion).

Other notes: This is a total across two grants. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United Kingdom.
Global Food Partners3,500,000.00602019-09Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-food-partners-general-supportLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Global Food Partners is a new organization, led by Elissa Lane, N.G. Jayasimha, and Sabina Garcia, that plans to focus primarily on helping companies implement animal welfare commitments in Asia. [...] Global Food Partners also plans to eventually use a portion of these funds to support work with companies seeking new pledges.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes this work [helping companies implement animal welfare commitments in Asia] will help ensure that corporate pledges are fulfilled.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is a founding grant, so timing likely determined by timing of the creation of the organization
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Announced: 2019-09-05.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security19,500,000.0082019-09Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-health-security-biosecurity-health-security-gcrs-2019Andrew Snyder-Beattie Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on biosecurity, global catastrophic risks posed by pathogens, and other work related to CHS’s mission, and to support the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative. CHS plans to use these funds to continue to conduct policy research and continue to build communications and advocacy capacity."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason for amount given, but it is similar to the previous three-year support amount of $16 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by the fact that the timeframe for the previous three-year grant (starting January 2017) is coming to an end
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Announced: 2019-10-04.
Centre for Effective Altruism1,755,921.001342019-09Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-and-community-building-grants-2019Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for a mix of organizational general support and supporting the Effective Altruism Community Building Grants program operated by CEA

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil's grant writeup says: "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" and links to the February 2019 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2019

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support (CEAS) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. No other grants seem to have been decided by CEAS close in time to this grant

Other notes: Announced: 2019-11-08.
Greater Greater Washington300,000.004472019-08Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/greater-greater-washington-housing-and-land-use-reform-2019Alexander 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..
Crate-Free Illinois94,720.007152019-08Animal welfare/factory farming/pig/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/crate-free-illinois-campaigning-against-gestation-cratesLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support campaigning against the use of gestation crates for pigs. There are approximately 6 million sows in the United States, at least three-quarters of which are routinely confined in gestation crates."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at scale being a factor: "There are approximately 6 million sows in the United States, at least three-quarters of which are routinely confined in gestation crates."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant for the same intended use https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/crate-free-illinois-campaigning-against-gestation-crates-2021 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare1,099,020.001922019-08Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/iccawLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work to organize a major farm animal welfare conference, host animal welfare trainings for producers, translate the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s animal welfare website into Chinese, promote the “Good Product Welfare” awards that ICCAW works on with Compassion in World Farming, and support local outreach on farm animal welfare."

Other notes: This is a total across two grants via Give2Asia and the China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China.
Albert Schweitzer Foundation1,600,000.001412019-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-general-support-2019Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The funding will allow the Albert Schweitzer Foundation to continue to pursue animal welfare reforms across Europe, including campaigns and litigation to improve the welfare of egg-laying hens, broiler chickens, farmed fish, and other animals."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
World Animal Protection557,466.002932019-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-broiler-chicken-welfare-august-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support campaigns aimed at mobilizing the food industry to improve their chicken welfare standards. WAP plans to use these funds to develop and produce campaign materials, engage with key stakeholders, and support travel, research, and salaries."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Group Nine Media215,000.005352019-07Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/group-nine-media-videosLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is to "to produce videos on factory farming topics. These videos could cover farm animal welfare campaigns, legislation, regulations, and ballot measures; profile effective groups and political leaders working on farm animal welfare issues; investigate whether food companies are honoring pledges; and explain the mental capacity of farm animals and environmental impacts of factory farming."
The Pollination Project362,000.004122019-07Animal welfare/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/pollination-project-global-animal-advocacy-movement-2019Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says say the grant is "to support movement-building and re-granting to farm animal groups in Brazil, India, Mexico, and possibly Thailand and Vietnam."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: " Our farm animal welfare team believes this is a low-cost way to support movement-building in countries with many farmed animals but relatively few welfare advocates."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant timing matches the end of the timeframe for the previous grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: A further grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/pollination-project-conference suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil|India|Mexico|Thailand|Vietnam.
Animal Rights Center Japan274,000.004772019-07Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-rights-center-japan-broiler-layer-hen-campaignsAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support broiler and layer hen campaigns, including campaigns on humane slaughter."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Hundreds of millions of farmed birds are consumed in Japan each year."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Japan.
Sankalpa22,000.008742019-07Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/sankalpa-farm-animal-welfare-workshopLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to host a workshop on cage-free egg production in Brazil. Sankalpa had a commercial-scale free-range egg company from the UK and a Brazilian cage-free model farm lead a workshop with local producers, industry representatives, NGOs, certifiers, retailers, and investors that they hope will kick off a technical assistance process for cage-free egg production in Brazil."

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil.
Eurogroup for Animals700,000.002592019-07Animal welfare/factory farming/legislative changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-for-animals-european-union-trade-strategyAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to work on inserting farm animal welfare language into European Union trade agreements. In the event that farm animal welfare language is included in any agreements, Eurogroup for Animals plans to work with in-country groups to help ensure any provisions in the language are implemented into national regulations or export practices."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 625,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: European Union.
Plant-based meat startups92,000.007162019-07Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/plant-based-meat-startups-bootcamps-in-chinaLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant " to a fiscal sponsor that supported Dao Foods to spur more plant-based meat startups in China. Dao Foods, a Chinese-led venture capital fund focused on plant-based and cell-based meat, plans to use these funds to organize four Next-Gen Good Food Bootcamps in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. Each bootcamp will identify, convene and nurture promising Chinese startups and entrepreneurs as well as connect them with international plant-based experts and local mentors."

Other notes: Affected countries: China.
Effective Altruism Foundation1,000,000.002002019-07Effective altruismhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/effective-altruism-foundation-research-operationsNick Beckstead Claire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research and operations"

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "A major purpose of this grant is to encourage and support EAF and our other grantees in the space in taking approaches to longtermism with greater emphasis on shared objectives between different value systems. We conceive of this grant as falling under our work aimed at growing and supporting the EA community." Earlier in the document, past reservations that Open Phil has had about EAF are described: "EAF is an organization whose values put a particular emphasis on trying to reduce the risks of future suffering. While preventing suffering is a value we share, we also believe that the speculative and suffering-focused nature of this work means that it needs to be communicated about carefully, and could be counterproductive otherwise. As a result, we have felt ambivalent about EAF’s work to date (despite feeling unambiguously positively about some of their projects)."

Other notes: The grant would be discussed further by Simon Knutsson in his critical post https://www.simonknutsson.com/problems-in-effective-altruism-and-existential-risk-and-what-to-do-about-them/ that also includes discussion of guidelines that Nick Beckstead of the Open Philanthropy Project developed, and that EAF was now adopting and encouraging others to adopt. Knutsson sees the adoption of the guidelines as being linked to the grant money, due to both the timing matching and the language of the grant page. On separate pages, Knutsson publishes correspondence between him and people at Open Phil and EAF where he tried to get more specific information from the two organizations: https://www.simonknutsson.com/e-mail-exchange-with-the-open-philanthropy-project and https://www.simonknutsson.com/message-exchange-with-eaf/. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-07-30.
California Institute of Technology2,000,000.001182019-07Scientific research/transformative basic sciencehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/california-institute-technology-research-reproductive-biology-magdalena-zernicka-goetzChris Somerville Heather Youngs Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support research by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz on reproductive biology. Dr. Zernicka-Goetz’s proposed research would focus on understanding the molecular processes by which a single cell gives rise to all of the cell types and organ/tissue structures that comprise a fully developed embryo."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Progress in this area could eventually enable people with fertility challenges to have children and could eventually help reduce the incidence of a wide variety of high-burden disorders (such as heart disease, chronic pain, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease) and promote other positive outcomes. Dr. Zernicka-Goetz’s research is amongst the most promising our science team has encountered so far in this field."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 48; announced: 2019-09-05.
Mercy For Animals6,638,000.00302019-07Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2019Lewis Bollard Donation process: This larger grant appears to have been under consideration at the time of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (May 2018) that said: "We expect to evaluate the merits of a longer renewal of our support to MFA closer to the end of 2018."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate engagement on animal welfare and capacity building. MFA plans to continue its broiler chicken campaigns and cage-free egg enforcement work in the U.S. and Canada and its cage-free egg campaigns in Brazil and Mexico."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant follows up on several past grants for similar uses, and reasons for past grants, including strong track record, probably apply. Nothing is explicitly mentioned on the grant page.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason for the amount is provided; this is a much larger grant than any past grant to MFA. The grant page says: "The grant amount was updated in February, March, and July 2020, and in March 2021."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This larger grant appears to have been under consideration at the time of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (May 2018) that said: "We expect to evaluate the merits of a longer renewal of our support to MFA closer to the end of 2018." The timing of the grant is likely determined by the evaluation being completed.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-campaigns-2021 (2021-06) for a very similar intended use of funds suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Canada|Brazil|Mexico.
Center for Global Development3,000,000.00682019-06Global health and developmenthttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2019Alexander Berger Jacob Trefethen Donation process: This is a grant renewal of another grant of the same size three years ago. The grant page says: "Our renewal decision at this stage was based largely on our previous decision and the view that three years was too short a window on which to update for a mature but hits-based organization like CGD."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grantee "is a think tank that conducts research on and promotes improvements to rich-world policies that affect the global poor." For the previous grant: "CGD says it used to conduct research on aid effectiveness, U.S. development policy, universal basic income in India, and taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugar."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant renews a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016 and the reasons remain the same as specified in that grant write-up. The grant page says: "Our renewal decision at this stage was based largely on our previous decision and the view that three years was too short a window on which to update for a mature but hits-based organization like CGD."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant amount as well as structure of the grant exactly match the February 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016 namely $3 million over 3 years

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by the end of the previous three-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016 made in Februay 2016 (the renewal, in June 2019, is four months ago)
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: According to the grant page: "We expect to undertake a more thorough evaluation of CGD’s performance approximately two years into this grant, which would be five years into our overall support."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-09-05.
Sightline Institute50,000.007772019-06Land 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.
Humane Society International India1,039,124.001942019-06Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-india-animal-welfare-reform-2019Lews Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support public policy change, organizing, and the work of People for Animals. The groups intend to use these funds to continue commissioning studies on the impact of factory farming in India and potential policy solutions, as well as outreach, coalition-building, litigation, and policy."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 71,095,000.00 INR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: India.
Sinergia Animal187,600.005752019-06Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/sinergia-animal-southeast-asia-animal-welfareAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support farm animal investigations and corporate campaigns in Southeast Asia. Sinergia Animal specifically plans to use these funds to launch corporate cage-free egg campaigns, as the region has a large number of farmed birds."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24.
Sentient Media100,000.006652019-06Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/sentient-media-digital-content-optimizationLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to promote public awareness of factory farming and farm animal advocacy groups. Sentient Media plans to optimize digital content to make it easier for supporters to find advocacy groups working on key issues and shift public opinion in coming years."
Animals Australia Federation48,324.008202019-06Animal welfare/factory farming/pig/slaughterhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animals-australia-federation-pig-welfare-indonesiaAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support trainings into the more humane treatment of pigs at slaughter in Indonesia, with an emphasis on Bali. Animals Australia Federation plans to use these funds to conduct a literature review to inform protocols, draft and reach an agreement on the protocols, and visit slaughterhouses to conduct trainings."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at scale: "According to Animals Australia Federation, nearly 400,000 pigs are slaughtered annually in Bali."

Other notes: Affected countries: Indonesia; affected states: Bali.
Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations445,000.003702019-06Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cattle/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/federation-indian-animal-protection-organisations-india-farm-animal-welfare-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding will support work to improve the welfare of chickens at slaughter and dairy cows as well as support movement building and exploratory work on fish farming in India."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant timing is around the end of the timeframe of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/federation-indian-animal-protection-organisations-india-animal-welfare-reform (2017-07).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Affected countries: India.
Animal Kingdom Foundation17,000.008852019-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-kingdom-foundation-corporate-campaigns-may-2019Amanda Hungerford Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, because of the funding being used for lobbying efforts

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns for layer hens, a model commercial farm, and efforts to secure certification standards and guidelines from the government in the Philippines, which is home to millions of farmed land animals."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at the scale of factory farming in the Philippines: "the Philippines, which is home to millions of farmed land animals."

Other notes: This grant is announced concurrently with another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-kingdom-foundation-corporate-campaigns (2019-09) and the (identical) pages for both grants refer to the totality of the two grants. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Philippines.
The Greenfield Project250,000.004922019-05Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/greenfield-project-general-support-2019Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This new funding represents an “exit grant” that will provide The Greenfield Project with approximately one year of operating support to allow them to secure other funding."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/The_Greenfield_Project/Greenfield_Project_Budget.png submitted by the grantee for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/greenfield-project-general-support had a total estimated annual cost of $250,000. This grant covers funding for one year according to that budget.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant timing is around the end of the two-year timeframe for the previous grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant; Open Philanthropy does not intend to make further grants to The Greenfield Project.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Asia Research & Engagement340,875.004232019-05Animal welfare/factory farming/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/asia-research-engagement-farm-animal-welfareAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate outreach for farm animal welfare reforms. ARE plans to work with banks and investors to secure corporate commitments in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China|Indonesia|Japan|Korea|Malaysia|Philippines|Singapore|Thailand|Vietnam.
International Refugee Assistance Project75,000.007362019-05Migration policy/refugee migration/family reunificationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-family-reunificationAlexander Berger Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a family reunification pilot project. IRAP intends to try to reunite approximately 125 refugee children with their families."
Ethan Alley437,800.003752019-05Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/scholarship-support-2019Claire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "over four years in scholarship funds support to Ethan Alley to pursue a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The funding is intended to be used for his tuition, fees, healthcare, and a living stipend during his degree program

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says the grant "is part of an effort to support value-aligned and qualified early-career researchers interested in global catastrophic risks."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "The funding is intended to be used for his tuition, fees, healthcare, and a living stipend during his degree program [over four years]" so the amount is likely determined based on the sum of the costs of these over four years

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely determined by the start time of the grantee's PhD program
Intended funding timeframe in months: 48

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page calls the grant "part of an effort to support value-aligned and qualified early-career researchers interested in global catastrophic risks" so it will likely be followed by other similar grants to other researchers

Other notes: Announced: 2019-07-18.
Open Phil AI Fellowship (Earmark: Aidan Gomez|Andrew Ilyas|Julius Adebayo|Lydia T. Liu|Max Simchowitz|Pratyusha Kullari|Siddharth Karamcheti|Smitha Milli)2,325,000.001092019-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2019-classDaniel Dewey Donation process: According to the grant page: "These fellows were selected from more than 175 applicants for their academic excellence, technical knowledge, careful reasoning, and interest in making the long-term, large-scale impacts of AI a central focus of their research."

Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: Grant to provide scholarship support to eight machine learning researchers over five years

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to the grant page: "The intent of the Open Phil AI Fellowship is both to support a small group of promising researchers and to foster a community with a culture of trust, debate, excitement, and intellectual excellence. We plan to host gatherings once or twice per year where fellows can get to know one another, learn about each other’s work, and connect with other researchers who share their interests."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is about double the amount of the 2018 grant, although the number of people supported is just one more (8 instead of 7). No explicit comparison of grant amounts is done in the grant page.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is the second of annual sets of grants, decided through an annual application process, with the announcement made in May/June each year. The timing may have been chosen to sync with the academic year.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2020-class (2020) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2021-class (2021) confirm that the program would continue. Among the grantees, Smitha Milli would receive further support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/smitha-milli-participatory-approaches-machine-learning-workshop from Open Philanthropy, indicating continued confidence in the support.

Other notes: Announced: 2019-05-17.
Altruistic Technology Labs440,525.003742019-05Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/altruistic-technology-labs-biological-risk-preventionClaire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grantee, "AltLabs", a new organization, intends to use these funds to hire initial staff and pursue various research projects related to catastrophic risk reduction, including machine-learning-based attribution of engineered DNA and broad-spectrum infectious disease diagnostics.

Other notes: Announced: 2019-07-18.
Engineers Without Borders USA500,000.003142019-05Scientific research/human health and wellbeinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/human-health-and-wellbeing/engineers-without-borders-off-grid-refrigerationHeather Youngs Chris Somerville Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Affordable Off-Grid Refrigeration Challenge. The competition will seek to develop proof of concept prototypes for refrigerators and ice-makers that have the potential to provide sustainable and affordable refrigeration for off-grid, developing world communities. Engineers Without Borders USA believes that affordable off-grid refrigeration will help reduce illnesses and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases, food poisoning, and malnutrition, and that making refrigeration more widely available will also diminish food waste, enable small farmers to grow higher value crops, and reduce the burden on women by eliminating the need to travel to the market daily for perishable food."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Grant made for the goal of advancing human health and wellbeing, and likely for the same reasons that the grantee thinks the project has value, namely: "affordable off-grid refrigeration will help reduce illnesses and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases, food poisoning, and malnutrition, and that making refrigeration more widely available will also diminish food waste, enable small farmers to grow higher value crops, and reduce the burden on women by eliminating the need to travel to the market daily for perishable food."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-07-19.
Rita Allen Foundation495,000.003532019-04Scientific research/human health and wellbeing/pain studieshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/rita-allen-foundation-fellowship-supportChris Somerville Heather Youngs Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to provide three years in flexible support to three scholars identified by the American Pain Society in collaboration with the Rita Allen Foundation as excellent researchers in the fields of pain, neuroscience, anesthesiology and neurology. The scholars are: Jordan McCall, assistant professor, Washington University St. Louis; Peter Grace, assistant professor, MD Anderson Center Texas; and Vivianne Tawfik, assistant professor, Stanford University.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount likely determined by the number of researchers being funded and the total cost of funding them for three years. No explicit discussion of reason for amount on the grant page

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2019-06-26.
Kyoto University4,000,000.00522019-04Scientific research/transformative basic science/stem cell researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/kyoto-university-research-reproductive-biology-mitinori-saitouChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support research by Professor Mitinori Saitou on reproductive biology. Dr. Saitou has been at the forefront of research into methods of causing induced pluripotent stem cells to develop into oocytes in mice. Progress in this area could eventually enable people with fertility challenges to have children and could eventually help reduce the incidence of a wide variety of high-burden disorders (such as heart disease, chronic pain, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease) and lead to other beneficial outcomes. Announced: 2019-04-23.
University of California, Los Angeles2,368,300.001072019-04Scientific research/transformative basic sciencehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/ucla-epigenetic-clock-researchChris Somerville Heather Youngs Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to UCLA Professor Steve Horvath and collaborators to pursue a series of experiments directed toward understanding why an algorithm based on the presence or absence of epigenetic modifications at several hundred sites in the human genome, which they call the “epigenetic clock,” is able to predict age with very high accuracy. Dr. Horvath and his collaborators plan to systematically alter the activity of genes that are thought to affect the clock in mice, to test whether they can slow or accelerate the clock and, if they can, what effects perturbation of the clock may have on the aging processes in the mice. They will also investigate why some human syndromes are associated with accelerated aging, and will study how the clock works in various types of cultured human cells."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "The research will seek to understand how the clock measures age and whether changes to the associated processes can have useful impact on aging in humans."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2019-06-22.
Life Sciences Research Foundation1,170,000.001822019-04Scientific research/trasnformative basic sciencehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/life-sciences-research-foundation-young-investigators-2019Chris Somerville Heather Youngs Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The funds will support six postdoctoral fellows for three years apiece. The fellows have proposed research projects investigating Alzheimer’s disease, infectious disease dynamics, forebrain development, cross-species transmission of bird flu, muscle stem cell function, and immune system evolution."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2019-06-26.
FAI Farms426,000.003802019-04Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-tilapia-welfareLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we do not typically publish pages for contractor agreements, we chose to write about this funding because we view it as conceptually similar to an ordinary grant, despite its structure as a contract due to the recipient’s organizational form."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to develop welfare measures, best practice guidelines, and training materials to improve the welfare of farmed tilapia. FAI plans to research optimal stocking density, humane transport and slaughter methods, ways to minimize handling stress, and alternatives to mouth clipping of territorial male tilapia"

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-06-07.
FAI Farms107,200.006582019-04Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-cage-free-eggs-chinaLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we do not typically publish pages for contractor agreements, we chose to write about this funding because we view it as conceptually similar to an ordinary grant, despite its structure as a contract due to the recipient’s organizational form."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Chinese farm animal welfare auditor trainings, egg farm audits, and a cage-free conference. These projects will promote cage-free production in China, the world’s largest egg producer, and aim to reduce the suffering of egg-laying hens."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fai-farms-promoting-poultry-welfare-cage-free-eggs-china for very similarr work, as well as more grants in the coming years, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2019-06-07.
Anima (Earmark: Andrzej Pazgan|Laura Gough)367,222.004102019-04Animal welfare/factory farming/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/anima-movement-buildingLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: According to the grant page, the grant is "to support a new project focused on building the farm animal welfare movement globally. The project will be run by Andrzej Pazgan and Laura Gough, will be initially housed at Anima International, and will launch with a focus on Eastern Europe. Early success there could lead to expansion to to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and/or Africa."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes large portions of the world still have little organized farm animal welfare advocacy, and that the only support capacity that does exist in some regions is in the form of corporate cage-free advocacy, which may not be a good fit for all countries and activists. This project, by identifying promising groups, training them, coordinating them around campaigns, and funding them, could eventually increase farm animal welfare capacity globally."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/anima-international-chicken-welfare-campaigns to Anima International references this grant.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 325,494.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-07-18.
World Animal Protection781,498.002442019-04Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-se-asia-broilerAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate broiler chicken campaigns in Southeast Asia with a focus on Thailand and Indonesia. WAP plans to increase its broiler chicken campaigns in Thailand and perform scoping research to lay the groundwork for future campaigns in Indonesia, as both Thailand and Indonesia have large numbers of farmed birds."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Thailand|Indonesia; announced: 2019-06-26.
California YIMBY2,000,000.001182019-04Land use reformhttps://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.
Employ America300,000.004472019-04Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-start-upAlexander Berger Donation process: This is a total across two grants, one of which is being made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to help launch Employ America and cover a six-month pilot period." The grant page says: "Employ America will focus on making the public and intellectual case for policies that support full employment and building a broader set of allies to further that goal, especially with an eye to the next economic downturn. In order to do so, it will produce research and analysis on the state of the labor market and current and potential macroeconomic policies and policymakers. It will be led by Sam Bell, who has previously consulted for us and our grantee Fed Up."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As labor market conditions have improved over the last few years, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but we continue to believe it is worthwhile to support research and advocacy like this, at least through the next recession."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined based on how much is needed for an initial 6-month startup.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants starting with https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/employ-america-general-support-october-2019 (2019-10) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 6; affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-05-29.
Tampere University (Earmark: Hiski Haukkala)15,000.008872019-04Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/tampere-university-2019Claire Zabel Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Professor Hiski Haukkala’s efforts related to global catastrophic risks. Haukkala, a Finnish professor of international relations, plans to use the funding to bring speakers to Finland to discuss existential risks, to attend events related to existential risks, and to support networking and related projects."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-06-07.
Real Justice PAC50,000.007772019-04Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/real-justice-pac-criminal-justice-reform-april-2019Chloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant recommended for Cari Tuna to make personally (normally, grants for lobbying are recommended to be made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund)

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Real Justice intends to use these funds to elect reform-minded candidates who will work to safely reduce the number of people incarcerated in their jurisdictions." Use of funds is limited to work in New York state

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; announced: 2019-05-24.
Working Families Party117,300.006442019-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-york-2019Chloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant recommended for Cari Tuna to personally make

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Working Families Party’s work on criminal justice issues in New York, including electing prosecutors who are supportive of criminal justice reform, and not other priorities of the Working Families Party. The grant page says: "The funding will allow the Working Families Party to recruit, interview, and support potentially reform-minded prosecutor candidates throughout New York State."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason for selecting the donee is given, but the reason is likely similar to that for the first October 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-york

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is a little higher than the previous December 2018 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-general-support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely because of the timeframe of the previous grant ending; however, no explicit timing-related reasons are given

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; announced: 2019-05-24.
Just Liberty100,000.006652019-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2019Chloe Cockburn Donation process: Discretionary grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the money is being used for lobbying

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Just Liberty intends to use these funds to continue its organizing, lobbying, and outreach activities to build support for criminal justice reform in Texas. Many of its activities appeal to center-right voters, whose voices may be impactful on Republican lawmakers."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Many of its activities appeal to center-right voters, whose voices may be impactful on Republican lawmakers."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount of this grant ($100,000) is much less than the amounts of previous grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2016 (October 2016, $530,000) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2018 (January 2018, $569,000). However, it is also, unlike the previous grants, a discretionary grant. Reasons for these changes are not discussed

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely determined by the expiration of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2018 (January 2018). The spacing from the previous grant to this one of 15 months matches the spacing between the previous grant and the grant before that (October 2016) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2016

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2019-06-07.
Ayni Institute264,000.004842019-03Criminal justice reform/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-criminal-justice-reform-coachingChloe Cockburn Jesse Rothman Donation process: Discretionary grant co-decided by Chloe Cockburn, the Program Officer for criminal justice reform

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support coaching and training on strategy, operational capacity, leadership, and scaling. The Ayni Institute plans to provide this support to other organizations working on criminal justice reform.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason given, but it is likely for reasons similar to the original March 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-training and the December 2016 followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-and-metrics

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-05-18.
Just Outcomes30,000.008552019-03Criminal justice reform/restorative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-outcomes-restorative-justiceChloe Cockburn Jesse Rothman Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant via the Social Good Fund to hire a third facilitator and support statewide restorative justice standards convenings in Oregon.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: Oregon; announced: 2019-05-18.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative2,500,000.00952019-03Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/schistosomiasis-control-initiative-general-support-december-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#Schistosomiasis_Control_Initiative_SCI

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for general operating support, which has GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/Schistosomiasis-Control-Initiative SCI works with governments in sub-Saharan Africa to create or scale up programs that treat schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) (deworming). Its role has primarily been to identify country recipients, provide funding to governments for government-implemented programs, provide advisory support, and conduct monitoring and evaluation on the process and outcomes of the programs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends Schistosomiasis Control Initiative for the following reasons: (1) Program has strong track record and excellent cost-effectiveness. (2) Organization has strong track record. (3) Standout transparency. (4) Room for more funding. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/Schistosomiasis-Control-Initiative and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to only allocate to the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative the minimum amount for top charities, i.e., $2.5 million. It is relevant that organizational factors not modeled explicitly are marked "Relatively weak" by GiveWell for SCI

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $16.9 million for Against Malaria Foundation. The grant page on the Open Philanthropy Project website is at.
Sinergia Animal245,000.005142019-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/sinergia-animal-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to pursue corporate campaigns across Latin America."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Approximately 500 million layer hens and 2 billion broiler chickens are alive in Latin America at any time, and corporate campaigners have had some success in Latin America, securing numerous cage-free commitments in the last two years. We believe Sinergia Animal played a significant role in some of those campaigns, including some of the first wins in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/sinergia-animal-corporate-cage-free-campaigns suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Argentina|Chile|Colombia.
Soko Tierschutz100,000.006652019-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/soko-tierschutz-factory-farm-investigationsLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to conduct and publicize investigations at factory farms in Germany and Eastern Europe. This funding will enable Soko Tierschutz to hire an investigator and cover all of their costs for multiple investigations over the course of one year."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe these investigations will support the corporate and policy advocacy of other animal welfare groups."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/soko-tierschutz-factory-farm-investigations-october-2020 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 12; affected countries: Germany|Eastern Europe.
Claremont Graduate University (Earmark: Joshua Tasoff)57,000.007672019-03Animal welfare/diet change/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/claremont-graduate-university-leafleting-studyLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "for research to measure the effect of animal advocacy leafleting on real food purchases. The project is led by CGU Economics Professor Joshua Tasoff."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "The results of the study could inform future farm animal welfare strategy."
Compassion in World Farming1,891,890.001282019-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-china-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grantee plans to use these funds to continue working with Chinese producers, food companies, and industry to raise farm animal welfare standards.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our farm animal welfare team believes Compassion’s China team has collaborated productively with industry, and benefits from dedicated senior leadership."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant of £1,430,000 ($1,891,890 at time of conversion)

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely determined by the end of the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china made February 2017
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2019-06-26.
Humane Slaughter Association570,402.002872019-03Animal welfare/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-slaughter-association-wild-caught-fishLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research on ways to improve the welfare of wild-caught fish. This will allow HSA to seek proposals for a peer-reviewed and published systematic review of current fish slaughter practices, potential changes to the catching process to minimize suffering, and new stunning methods that could be more humane than current practices, economically viable for wide adoption, and feasible for on-ship use."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Grant follows a similar June 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-slaughter-association-fish-welfare that was also focused on fish

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant of £1,999,137 ($2,528,678 at time of conversion)

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-06-26.
Rethink Priorities200,000.005442019-03Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-farm-animal-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This funding is intended to help Rethink Priorities produce research on potential and existing interventions like evaluating the efficacy of corporate campaigns and analyzing public support for various types of reform."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe more high-quality research in this area would help us and other farm animal welfare funders compare future opportunities."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-farm-animal-welfare-research-2020 and the continued endorsement on the grant page suggests that Open Phil would be satisfied with the success of the grant.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-07-18.
New York University (Earmark: Becca Franks)125,840.006282019-03Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/nyu-becca-frank-fish-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: According to the grant page, the grant is "to support research scientist Becca Franks’ work on fish welfare. These funds will support projects including systematic reviews of the literature on aquaculture (farmed fish) welfare and general fish welfare, as well as research on curiosity, play, and positive emotions in fish."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup donation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/nyu-work-on-fish-welfare-2020 for similar purposes in July 2020 sugggests Open Phil's continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2019-07-18.
Yale University180,000.005762019-03Scientific research/human health and wellbeinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/human-health-and-wellbeing/yale-university-school-of-medicine-vascular-therapyChris Somerville Heather Youngs Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says that the grant is "to support research on the modification of vascular permeability by monoclonal antibodies against key regulatory proteins. Increased permeability might allow medicines to cross the blood-brain barrier and could accelerate the development of new therapies for neurogenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease, while decreased permeability could be useful in treating conditions such as swelling in stroke victims and sepsis."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-07-18.
The Humane League1,565,000.001442019-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-open-wing-alliance-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support program grants, events, and associated costs for the Open Wing Alliance. This funding will support members of the Open Wing Alliance who are working to secure corporate cage-free pledges and build an effective farm animal welfare movement in more nations.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reasons given but likely the same as the reasons for the original support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-open-wing-alliance-2017 (September 2017).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing is not explicitly discussed, but it is likely because the timeframe for the earlier grants is ending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Announced: 2019-04-26.
University of Michigan2,500,000.00952019-03Scientific research/transformative basic sciencehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/university-michigan-research-on-mammalian-gamete-developmentChris Somerville Heather Youngs Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support research by Professor Sue Hammoud on mammalian gamete development. Dr. Hammoud’s proposed research would be specifically focused on development of gametes from stem cells.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Progress in this area could eventually enable people with fertility challenges to have children and could eventually help reduce the incidence of a wide variety of high-burden disorders (such as heart disease, chronic pain, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease) and promote other positive outcomes. Dr. Hammoud’s research is amongst the most promising our science team has encountered so far in this field." The grant follows up on an April 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-southern-california-genomic-research-methods

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 48; announced: 2019-05-18.
Labor Mobility Partnerships (Earmark: Lant Pritchett|Rebekah Smith)709,888.002572019-03Migration policy/labor mobilityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-partnershipsAlexander Berger Donation process: The grant page cites https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/goldilocks-solution-just-right-promotion-labor-mobility.pdf as the working paper that led to the idea of the organizattion being incubated by the grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Center for Global Development to support a working group on and incubation of a new organization aimed at enhancing international labor mobility. The new organization, called LaMP (Labor Mobility Partnerships), hopes to assist countries negotiating new legal channels for migration on terms of mutual benefit and to generate research and evidence on effective labor mobility regimes, in the ultimate service of reducing global poverty and inequality. Rebekah Smith and Lant Pritchett, who will be working together on the incubation and launch, proposed the idea for this type of organization in a 2016 CGD working paper."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems related to the timing of the incubated organization's start, and is dependent on the release of the 2016 working paper https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/goldilocks-solution-just-right-promotion-labor-mobility.pdf that proposed the idea.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 18

Donor retrospective of the donation: Labor Mobility Partnerships would get off the ground and Open Philanthropy would make a followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/labor-mobility-partnerships-international-labor-mobility (2020-08) to Labor Mobility Partnerships that would also serve as an exit grant.

Other notes: The grant was made to the Center for Global Development to incorporate Labor Mobility Partnerships, but we're listing it as a grant to Labor Mobility Partnerships here. Announced: 2019-04-18.
MIT Media Lab1,000,000.002002019-03Global catastrophic risks|Global health|Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/massachusetts-institute-technology-media-lab-kevin-esveltClaire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant over two years to the MIT Media Lab to support the research of Professor Kevin Esvelt. Professor Esvelt plans to use this funding to conduct research on global catastrophic risks, global health, and animal welfare.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2019-06-26.
California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund340,000.004242019-02Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-support-2019Alexander 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.
Sightline Institute150,000.005962019-02Land 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.
80,000 Hours4,795,803.00472019-02Effective altruism/movement growth/career counselinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2019Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The decision of whether to donate seems to have followed the Open Philanthropy Project's usual process, but the exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: 80,000 Hours aims to solve skill bottlenecks for career paths in what it considers to be the world’s most pressing problems. It does this by providing online research, in-person advice, and support with the goal of helping talented graduates age 20-40 enter high-impact careers.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil's grant writeup says: "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" and links to the February 2018 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2018

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. Two other grants with amounts decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support, made at the same time and therefore likely drawing from the same money pot, are to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute ($2,112,5000) and Centre for Effective Altruism ($2,756,250)

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but likely include (1) It is about a year since the last grant to 80,000 Hours, and the grants are generally expected to last a year, so a renewal is due, (2) The Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support did its first round of money allocation, so the timing is determined by the timing of that allocation round
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The February 2020 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2020 with very similar reasoning suggests that the Open Philanthropy Project and Committee for Effective Altruism Support would continue to stand by the reasoning behind the grant

Other notes: Announced: 2019-03-28.
Centre for Effective Altruism2,756,250.00822019-02Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2019Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant writeup says: "CEA is a central organization within the effective altruism (EA) community that engages in a variety of activities aimed at helping the EA community."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil's grant writeup says: "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter"

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. Two other grants with amounts decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support, made at the same time and therefore likely drawing from the same money pot, are to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute ($2,112,5000) and 80,000 Hours ($4,795,803)

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but likely include (1) It is about a year since the last grant to the Centre for Effective Altruism, and the grants are generally expected to last a year, so a renewal is due, (2) The Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support did its first round of money allocation, so the timing is determined by the timing of that allocation round
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup September 2019 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-and-community-building-grants-2019 and January 2020 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-and-community-building-grants-2020 suggest that Open Phil would continue to stand behind the reasoning for this grant, and in fact, that it would consider the original grant amount inadequate for the grantee

Other notes: Announced: 2019-04-18.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute2,652,500.00882019-02AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2019Claire Zabel Committee for Effective Altruism Support Donation process: The decision of whether to donate seems to have followed the Open Philanthropy Project's usual process, but the exact amount to donate was determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support using the process described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: MIRI plans to use these funds for ongoing research and activities related to AI safety. Planned activities include alignment research, a summer fellows program, computer scientist workshops, and internship programs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "we see the basic pros and cons of this support similarly to what we’ve presented in past writeups on the matter" Past writeups include the grant pages for the October 2017 three-year support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2017 and the August 2016 one-year support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount decided by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support (CEAS) https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support but individual votes and reasoning are not public. Two other grants with amounts decided by CEAS, made at the same time and therefore likely drawing from the same money pot, are to the Centre for Effective Altruism ($2,756,250) and 80,000 Hours ($4,795,803). The original amount of $2,112,500 is split across two years, and therefore ~$1.06 million per year. https://intelligence.org/2019/04/01/new-grants-open-phil-beri/ clarifies that the amount for 2019 is on top of the third year of three-year $1.25 million/year support announced in October 2017, and the total $2.31 million represents Open Phil's full intended funding for MIRI for 2019, but the amount for 2020 of ~$1.06 million is a lower bound, and Open Phil may grant more for 2020 later. In November 2019, additional funding would bring the total award amount to $2,652,500.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Reasons for timing are not discussed, but likely reasons include: (1) The original three-year funding period https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2017 is coming to an end, (2) Even though there is time before the funding period ends, MIRI has grown in budget and achievements, so a suitable funding amount could be larger, (3) The Committee for Effective Altruism Support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/committee-effective-altruism-support did its first round of money allocation, so the timing is determined by the timing of that allocation round.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: According to https://intelligence.org/2019/04/01/new-grants-open-phil-beri/ Open Phil may increase its level of support for 2020 beyond the ~$1.06 million that is part of this grant.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The much larger followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2020 with a very similar writeup suggests that Open Phil and the Committee for Effective Altruism Support would continue to stand by the reasoning for the grant.

Other notes: The grantee, MIRI, discusses the grant on its website at https://intelligence.org/2019/04/01/new-grants-open-phil-beri/ along with a $600,000 grant from the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative. Announced: 2019-04-01.
Fair and Just Prosecution1,500,000.001492019-02Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/fair-and-just-prosecution-general-support-2019Chloe Cockburn Grant over two years via the Tides Center. Grantee brings together recently elected local prosecutors as part of a network interested in implementing innovative criminal justice system policy and practicing reforms in their own offices. Grant renews the January 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/fair-and-just-prosecution-general-support. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-04-26.
Princeton University (Earmark: Peter Singer)100,000.006652019-02Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/princeton-animal-liberationLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support expenses related to updating Animal Liberation. Animal Liberation, a 1975 book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, [...] The update work will be led by Professor Singer."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "[The book] has been influential in the farm animal welfare field. The book has remained continuously in print since first publication, and the author has written new prefaces, but the basic text has not been revised since 1990 and is now dated. We believe updating the book to reflect recent developments would provide an accurate and up-to-date resource on factory farming and help recruit new leaders to the field."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reasons for timing are given, but the grant is mmad shortly afteer another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/princeton-university-guo-peng also involving Peter Singer, to translate animal welfare books to Chinese.
We Animals Media240,000.005172019-02Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/we-animals-farm-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: According to the grant page, the grant is "to continue documenting the lives and experiences of farm animals. We Animals works with filmmakers, writers, and photographers to produce open-source media content that advocates and others can deploy in their campaigns. We Animals also intends to use some of the funds to support the Unbound Project, which recognizes and celebrates women at the forefront of animal advocacy."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-07-18.
Essere Animali150,000.005962019-02Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/chicken/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/essere-animali-farm-animal-welfare-work-in-italyLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to conduct farm investigations and scale up media outreach and corporate campaigning in Italy."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Approximately 260 million farmed land animals and 140 million farmed fish are alive in Italy at any time. Essere Animali investigations at farms where fish, pigs, and chickens are raised and slaughtered have generated media coverage in Italy and elsewhere, and we believe these investigations are useful to others working on animal welfare globally."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/essere-animali-farm-animal-welfare-work-in-italy in 2020-01 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Italy.
Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education368,188.004092019-02Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/jeanne-marchig-centre-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work to improve farm animal welfare in China. The Centre plans to use these funds to continue hosting workshops for Chinese pig and poultry producers and to fund a promising Chinese farm animal welfare PhD to study at Edinburgh."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 277,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China; announced: 2019-04-02.
WildAid500,000.003142019-02Animal welfare/diet changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wildaid-reducing-meat-consumption-in-asia-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support campaigns to promote the reduction of meat consumption in Asia. WildAid plans to use these funds to produce another public service announcement campaign featuring celebrities in television advertisements and on billboards promoted in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major Asian cities, including Hong Kong and others."

Other notes: Affected countries: China|Hong Kong.
World Animal Protection1,200,000.001752019-02Animal welfare/factory farming/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2019Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work to advance farm animal welfare in China. World Animal Protection is supporting model pig farms to demonstrate higher welfare to large pig producers, and has secured China’s first corporate crate-free pledges for pigs." "WAP plans to use these funds to continue engaging with Chinese pig producers and supermarkets, and expand outreach to large-scale chicken producers and retailers."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit amount-related reasons are provided, but this amount is over double the amount ($544,607) of the previous grant related to factory farming in China.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China; announced: 2019-06-22.
University Health Network1,134,975.001852019-02Scientific research/human health and wellbeinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/university-health-network-preterm-birth-researchHeather Youngs Grant to the University Health Network, a Canadian research center affiliated with the University of Toronto, to support a randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of an intervention to reduce preterm birth in Malawi. Preterm birth is a leading cause of global under-five mortality, resulting in over 1 million deaths each year. The research will be led by Kevin Kain and Chloe McDonald. Announced: 2019-04-26.
The Center for Election Science1,800,000.001312019-02Politicshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/the-center-for-election-science-general-support-2019Willam MacAskill Grantee is a US-based nonprofit that promotes alternative voting methods to plurality voting. The grant is a renewal of December 2017 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/the-center-for-election-science-general-support which allowed the grantee to organize a ballot initiative for approval voting https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/15/18092206/midterm-elections-vote-fargo-approval-voting-ranked-choice that was adopted by Fargo, North Dakota. The renewal is intended to help CES scale up its operations and replicate ballot initiatives for approval voting in other cities. Announced: 2019-03-01.
Sherlock Biosciences17,500,000.0092019-01Scientific research/Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/sherlock-biosciences-research-viral-diagnosticsChris Somerville Heather Youngs Donation process: The Open Philanthropy Project's scientific advisors Chris Somerville and Heather Youngs were hopeful about viral diagnostics after hearing of research coming out of Feng Zhang's lab (Zhang would later co-found Sherlock Biosciences). When they ran into David Walt, they asked him if his new company (Sherlock Biosciences) would be interested in developing a viral diagnostic, and after consulting with his team, he said they would. This started the process of vetting Sherlock Biosciences for the grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the development of a diagnostic platform to identify any virus present in a patient sample.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Chris Somerville and Heather Youngs have been interested in viral diagnostics because development of this technology could both reduce threats from viral pandemics and also benefit health care broadly. The selection of Sherlock Biosciences was because of their team and technology, which made it plausible that they could develop this technology

Other notes: The Open Philanthropy Project also recommended an additional investment in Sherlock Biosciences. Sherlock recently spun out of Harvard University’s Wyss Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The launch of Sherlock Biosciences, and the funding by the Open Philanthropy Project, are discussed in Forbes at https://www.forbes.com/sites/elliekincaid/2019/03/21/with-launch-of-new-crispr-company-competition-extends-to-diagnostics/ More background explanation related to the grant is in the conversation blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/explaining-our-bet-sherlock-biosciences-innovations-viral-diagnostics. Intended funding timeframe in months: 60; announced: 2019-03-21.
University of Southern California2,250,000.001112019-01Scientific research/tools and techniqueshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/Social-Science-Genetic-Association-Consortium-general-supportAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC). Approximately 20% of this grant is intended to support work on bioethics and the public discussion of these topics.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our understanding is that SSGAC has received substantially less funding to date than comparable consortia (such as in psychiatric genetics), but still produces high-quality, replicable research and serves as a model of careful public communication, most notably through their discussions of frequently asked questions."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-05-18.
Center for Global Development333,550.004282019-01Scientific research/human health and wellbeinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/center-for-global-development-gene-drive-researchAlexander Berger Discretionary grant to support research on the assessment and regulation of gene drive technology. CGD plans to use this grant to identify key political and social considerations that may inform global decisions on the development and deployment of gene drive technology, particularly with respect to malaria. CGD will conduct interviews and site visits to develop a better understanding of regulatory, social, and political considerations at play in different contexts. The research will be led by Gyude Moore, CGD visiting fellow and former Minister of Public Works in Liberia. Announced: 2019-02-15.
Center for International Security and Cooperation1,625,000.001402019-01Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-international-security-and-cooperation-biosecurity-research-2019Claire Zabel Grant over three years to Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) to support Megan Palmer’s work on biosecurity. This research is focused on developing ways to improve governance of biological science and to reduce the risk of misuse of advanced biotechnology. This funding is intended to allow Dr. Palmer to continue and extend a study on the attitudes of participants in International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM), to better understand how institutional environments, safety practices or competition incentives might motivate young scientists and engineers. The grant is a renewal of the October 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-international-security-and-cooperation-biosecurity-research. Announced: 2019-02-12.
Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative491,000.003552019-01Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reform-jails-and-community-reinvestment-initiative-reform-la-jails-ballot-measure-january-2019Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund to support work on the Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative (Reform L.A. Jails). If passed by voters, Reform L.A. Jails will task Los Angeles leaders with developing a comprehensive plan to reduce jail populations and redirect the cost savings to alternatives to incarceration. The original grant amount in January 2019 was $150,000; in March 2019, $341,000 was added to the grant amount, giving a total of $491,000. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Los Angeles; announced: 2019-01-28.
Sightsavers9,700,000.00232019-01Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/sightsavers-deworming-2019GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#Sightsavers-_deworming_program

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support deworming programs, which have GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/sightsavers More specifically, these programs include advocating for, funding, and monitoring programs that treat schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) (deworming)

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends the Sightsavers deworming program for the following reasons: (1) Strong track record and excellent cost-effectiveness. (2) Moderately strong monitoring process. (3) Standout transparency. (4) Room for more funding. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/sightsavers and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to allocate $6-10 million two of its deworming charities and to Helen Keller International; Sightsavers ends up getting $9.7 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $1.6 million for Sightsavers deworming programs.
Peterson Institute for International Economics (Earmark: Karen Dynan|Jason Furman)400,000.003942019-01Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/peterson-institute-international-economics-macroeconomic-projectsAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant funds two projects by nonresident fellows: (1) "Karen Dynan, a PIIE nonresident senior fellow, Harvard professor, and former chief economist at the Treasury Department, will study the optimal design of automatic stabilizer programs — taxes and government programs that respond automatically to changing economic conditions." (2) "Jason Furman, a PIIE nonresident senior fellow and formerly chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, will study the costs and benefits of allowing employment to exceed some estimates of full employment."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We see these both as crucially important questions in macroeconomic stabilization policy and believe Dynan and Furman are especially well-placed to address them in an influential and informative fashion."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-05-17.
International Refugee Assistance Project1,000,000.002002019-01Migration policy/refugee migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2019Alexander Berger Donation process: Between the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support (2016-05) and this grant, Open Philanthropy had four conversations with Becca Heller, director of the grantee organization: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_05-09-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-05-09), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_07-06-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-07-06), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_10-05-17_%28public%29.pdf (2017-10-05), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_03-15-18_%28public%29.pdf (2018-03-15).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. IRAP plans to expand its work to Europe, focusing on family reunification, asylum, and humanitarian visas."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "In the past, our immigration policy work has not focused much on refugee resettlement, which we had assumed would be more crowded than other aspects of immigration policy with funders aimed at supporting increased opportunities for people to move to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons. While we continue to believe that is directionally correct, our increased interest in supporting advocacy around refugee resettlement is partially based on learning more about the fairly limited foundation funding for advocacy around refugee resettlement."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons for the amount are given; the amount is slightly larger than the previous two-year grant of $700,000.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made a few months after the end of the timeframe for the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support (2016-05).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2020 (2020-11) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2019-03-29.
Center for Security and Emerging Technology55,000,000.0012019-01Security/Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/Global catastrophic risks/AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/georgetown-university-center-security-and-emerging-technologyLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant via Georgetown University for the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), a new think tank led by Jason Matheny, formerly of IARPA, dedicated to policy analysis at the intersection of national and international security and emerging technologies. CSET plans to provide nonpartisan technical analysis and advice related to emerging technologies and their security implications to the government, key media outlets, and other stakeholders.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil thinks that one of the key factors in whether AI is broadly beneficial for society is whether policymakers are well-informed and well-advised about the nature of AI’s potential benefits, potential risks, and how these relate to potential policy actions. As AI grows more powerful, calls for government to play a more active role are likely to increase, and government funding and regulation could affect the benefits and risks of AI. Thus: "Overall, we feel that ensuring high-quality and well-informed advice to policymakers over the long run is one of the most promising ways to increase the benefits and reduce the risks from advanced AI, and that the team put together by CSET is uniquely well-positioned to provide such advice." Despite risks and uncertainty, the grant is described as worthwhile under Open Phil's hits-based giving framework

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The large amount over an extended period (5 years) is explained at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/questions-we-ask-ourselves-making-grant "In the case of the new Center for Security and Emerging Technology, we think it will take some time to develop expertise on key questions relevant to policymakers and want to give CSET the commitment necessary to recruit key people, so we provided a five-year grant."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely determined by the timing that the grantee plans to launch. More timing details are not discussed
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Other notes: Donee is entered as Center for Security and Emerging Technology rather than as Georgetown University for consistency with future grants directly to the organization once it is set up. Founding members of CSET include Dewey Murdick from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, William Hannas from the CIA, and Helen Toner from the Open Philanthropy Project. The grant is discussed in the broader context of giving by the Open Philanthropy Project into global catastrophic risks and AI safety in the Inside Philanthropy article https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/3/22/why-this-effective-altruist-funder-is-giving-millions-to-ai-security. Announced: 2019-02-28.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Center for Human-Compatible AI)250,000.004922019-01AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-chai-ml-engineers/Daniel Dewey Donation process: The grant page describes the donation decision as being based on "conversations with various professors and students"

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to temporarily or permanently hire machine learning research engineers dedicated to BERI’s collaboration with the Center for Human-compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI).

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Based on conversations with various professors and students, we believe CHAI could make more progress with more engineering support."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-chai-collaboration-2019 suggests that the donor would continue to stand behind the reasoning for the grant.

Other notes: Follows previous support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/uc-berkeley-center-for-human-compatible-ai-2016/ for the launch of CHAI and previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-core-support-and-chai-collaboration/ to collaborate with CHAI. Announced: 2019-03-04.
The Humane League750,000.002502019-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-broiler-welfare-campaignsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of broiler chickens. Broiler chickens are the most numerous land farm animals. Broiler welfare campaigns seek to address these causes of suffering.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil considers broiler chicken welfare a high-impact cause: "Broiler chickens are the most numerous land farm animals, with more than a billion alive at any time and approximately 9 billion slaughtered annually in the U.S. alone. Their welfare is impacted by genetics, overcrowding, inhumane slaughter, and environmental factors like chronic sleep deprivation due to lighting schedules optimized for growth." Part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See also https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken The Humane League is selected for reasons outlined in earlier grants, such as the August 2018 general support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support-2018

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely based on funding needs and the using up of funds from previous grants. No explicit reasons for timing are given

Other notes: Announced: 2019-04-30.
Mercy For Animals261,000.004852019-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-welfare-campaignsLewis Bollard Donation process: This seems like a followup grant to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns and is likely informed by considerations affecting that and earlier grants, and also by the progress since then.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of broiler chickens. [...] Their welfare is impacted by genetics, overcrowding, inhumane slaughter, and environmental factors like chronic sleep deprivation due to lighting schedules optimized for growth. Broiler welfare campaigns seek to address these causes of suffering."
Animal Equality215,000.005352019-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-broiler-welfare-campaignsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of broiler chickens. [...] Their welfare is impacted by genetics, overcrowding, inhumane slaughter, and environmental factors like chronic sleep deprivation due to lighting schedules optimized for growth. Broiler welfare campaigns seek to address these causes of suffering."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page hints at scale: "Broiler chickens are the most numerous land farm animals, with more than a billion alive at any time and approximately 9 billion slaughtered annually in the U.S. alone."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-cage-free-and-broiler-welfare (2020-02) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Royal Veterinary College130,850.006242019-01Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/royal-vet-college-halalAmanda Hungerford Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to investigate a more humane method of halal poultry slaughter." "Controlled atmosphere slaughter techniques, which are among the most commonly used stunning systems, are not currently approved by halal authorities. Royal Veterinary College intends to use these funds to investigate a new method of stunning that would both be approved by halal authorities and allow chickens to be individually stunned."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says the grant would "potentially [reduce] suffering for more than 100 million chickens slaughtered in halal facilities in Europe each year."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant is for £100,000 ($130,850 at the time of conversion).

Other notes: Announced: 2019-05-23.
Princeton University (Earmark: Peter Singer|Guo Peng)170,000.005792019-01Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/princeton-university-guo-pengLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant, structured as a gift

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the work of Shandong University Professor Guo Peng, a leading animal protection scholar in China, in collaboration with Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University. This award will support the translation of books on animal ethics and farm animal welfare issues into Mandarin Chinese."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says the project "could bolster animal ethics in Chinese universities, foster more attention on these issues, and eventually influence policy discussions."

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2019-05-23.
Animal Outlook250,000.004922019-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-exit-grant-2019Amanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support farm animal welfare outreach and investigations related to chickens and fish. The new funding represents an “exit grant” that will provide Animal Outlook with approximately one year of operating support to allow them to secure other funding."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The donor had previously supported the donee in 2016 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-over-killing-us-broiler-welfare-campaigns The new grant is an exit grant to give the donee time to find other sources of funding.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Likely selected as a reasonable amount for a one-year exit grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by the end of the previous grant, and the need to provide more funding for a smooth exit grant.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: There is no plan for a next donation; this is an exit grant.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Despite this being an exit grant, Open Philanthropy would make a later grant to the grantee (albeit a much smaller amount with a narrow goal).

Other notes: The grantee name at the time, and listed in the grant, is Compassion Over Killing. Announced: 2019-05-06.
Cynthia Schuck & Wladimir Alonso (Earmark: Cynthia Schuck|Wladimir Alonso)100,000.006652019-01Animal welfare/factory farming/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/cynthia-schuck-wladimir-alonso-daly-project-2019Lewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says the grant "was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to continue development of a model for evaluating disability-adjusted life year impacts of animal welfare reforms."
University of California, Berkeley131,579.006232019-01Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/uc-berkeley-alternate-meats-labLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Alternative Meats Lab, housed at The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. The lab is the outgrowth of a class on developing animal product alternatives."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This grant may help spur new startups developing alternatives to animal products, and could help build the talent pipeline for existing startups working in this space."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/uc-berkeley-alternate-meats-lab-october-2019 for a similar purpose but much larger amount suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2019-02-21.
Farm Forward166,000.005842019-01Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/farm-forward-exit-grantAmanda Hungerford Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to continue to seek commitments from universities, hospitals, and companies to source certified higher-welfare animal products. This is an exit grant, so will not be renewed; the purpose of the grant is therefore also to give the grantee enough time to find alternate funding sources

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is a renewal grant and its timing is determined by the end of the timeframe for the previous grant

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: There will be no next donation; this is an exit grant

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-05-18.
Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research3,000,000.00682018-12Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/chick cullinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-egg-tech-challengeLewis Bollard Donation process: Nothing specific is stated on the grant page, but a similar grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-farm-animal-welfare-research was made in April 2017 so the progress with that grant likely informed this grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research into, and a prize for, developing a technology that can sex select male chicks at scale in ovo, eliminating the need for chick culling. This funding includes approximately $2,000,000 for FFAR to support research teams to compete for the prize, and approximately $1,000,000 for the prize itself, which will be awarded only if certain conditions are met."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Lewis Bollard, our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, believes this technology will end the acute suffering at death of ~6.5 billion chicks per year and will spare ~29 million hens per year from factory farming entirely because the aborted eggs will replace their output in the market."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page gives this breakdown of funding: "This funding includes approximately $2,000,000 for FFAR to support research teams to compete for the prize, and approximately $1,000,000 for the prize itself, which will be awarded only if certain conditions are met."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants in 2020 suggest continued satisfaction from Open Philanthropy in the grantee and the reasoning informing the grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2019-03-20.
Georgia Institute of Technology50,000.007772018-12Scientific research/transformative basic science/Innocentive challengehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/georgia-institute-of-technology-saad-bhamlaChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support research led by Dr. Saad Bhamla. Dr. Bhamla’s proposal, “Feathers as extreme water pumps,” was submitted in response to the Open Philanthropy Project's Innocentive challenge https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9934081 on bioinspiration and unusual biology. While this funding is not restricted to the execution of that proposal, the Open Philanthropy Project science team believes Dr. Bhamla's lab conducts other creative research, and wants to reward the spirit of creative science. Announced: 2019-02-12.
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities150,000.005962018-12Scientific research/transformative basic science/Innocentive challengehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-of-minnesota-nanomaterials-research-led-by-prof-claudia-schmidt-dannertChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support nanomaterials research led by Professor Claudia Schmidt-Dannert. Professor Schmidt-Dannert’s proposal, titled “Genetically programmable, adhesive nanomaterials as patterned and functional surface coatings,” is the grand prize winner of the Open Philanthropy Project's Innocentive challenge https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9934081 on bioinspiration and unusual biology. The Open Philanthropy Project science team believes Professor Schmidt-Dannert could be able to design new materials with applications such as anti-fouling, anti-corrosion, and anti-freeze coatings, as well as coatings for biomedical applications. Announced: 2019-02-12.
Biosecure Ltd25,000.008622018-12Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/biosecure-campaign-against-bioweapons-researchClaire Zabel Donation process: Discretionary grant structured through a contractor agreement. The grant page says: "While we do not typically publish pages for contractor agreements, we chose to write about this funding because we view it as conceptually similar to an ordinary grant, despite its structure as a contract due to the recipient’s organizational form."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grantee "intends to use these funds to explore different models for strengthening the societal norm against biological weapons and reducing the likelihood of an arms race involving biological weapons, as well as investigating the feasibility, costs, and potential benefits of the various models."

Other notes: Announced: 2019-06-07.
University of Sydney32,621.008492018-12Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/university-of-sydney-global-health-security-conferenceClaire Zabel Grant of $45,000 AUD ($32,620.50 at the time of conversion) to the University of Sydney to support the 2019 Global Health Security Conference in Sydney, Australia. The funds are intended for general support of the conference, and to support travel bursaries to allow participants from low-income countries to attend a gathering of the global health security community, including academics, policymakers, and practitioners. Announced: 2019-01-17.
Working Families Party109,600.006552018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-general-supportChloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant recommended for Cari Tuna to personally make

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Working Families Party’s work on criminal justice issues in New York, including electing prosecutors who are supportive of criminal justice reform, and not other priorities of the Working Families Party. The grant page says: "The funding will allow the Working Families Party to recruit, interview, and support potentially reform-minded prosecutor candidates throughout New York State."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reason for selecting the donee is given, but the reason is likely similar to that for the previous October 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-york

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is the same as the amount for the previous (October 2017) grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-york

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely because of the timeframe of the previous grant ending; however, no explicit timing-related reasons are given

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup April 2019 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-york-2019 suggests that the grant would be considered a success

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; announced: 2019-01-15.
Smart Justice CA25,000.008622018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/smart-justice-ca-california-criminal-justice-reform-lobbying-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant from the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, via the Tides Foundation, to support lobbying on criminal justice bills considered during the 2018 California legislative session, including bills related to bail reform, youth justice, mandatory sentencing, and law enforcement misconduct. Renewal of December 2017 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/smart-justice-ca-california-criminal-justice-reform-lobbying. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2019-01-26.
Mass Liberation Project120,000.006382018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mass-liberation-project-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant from the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, via Tides Advocacy Fund, for general support. Grantee is a new organization planning to focus on organizing and capacity building in target jurisdictions where there is opportunity for prosecutorial and bail reform. Grantee is interested in training formerly incarcerated organizers and helping to build robust, accountable relationships between prosecutors and communities most impacted by incarceration. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2019-01-26.
Promise of Justice Initiative75,000.007362018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/promise-justice-initiative-east-baton-rouge-parish-prison-reform-coalitionChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition, which is leading a campaign to replace the East Baton Rouge jail with a smaller, safer facility. This follows May 2016 general support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/promise-justice-initiative-general-support. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Louisiana; affected cities: Baton Rouge; announced: 2019-01-26.
Color of Change1,000,000.002002018-12Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-criminal-justice-reform-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund to support grantee to continue increasing the salience of prosecutor and bail reform at a national level and support local groups to win electoral and prosecutorial accountability campaigns in various jurisdictions. Renews December 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-criminal-justice-reform-2017. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-01-31.
Citizens for Juvenile Justice75,000.007362018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/citizens-juvenile-justice-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund to allow grantee continue advocating for reforms to the juvenile justice system in Massachusetts, in particular, raising the age of criminal court jurisdiction to 21. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Massachusetts; announced: 2019-02-12.
National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls350,000.004142018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-council-incarcerated-and-formerly-incarcerated-women-and-girls-general-support-december-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. The grant is a renewal of the March 2018 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-council-incarcerated-and-formerly-incarcerated-women-and-girls-general-support. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-02-12.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights200,000.005442018-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/leadership-conference-on-civil-and-human-rights-cjr-in-dcChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund for advocacy on federal criminal justice reform policy. LCCHR works with over 200 civil rights oriented groups and has taken a strong position on risk assessment. This funding will pay for staff time and overhead. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-02-12.
Malaria Consortium26,600,000.0072018-12Global health/malaria/seasonal malaria chemopreventionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/malaria-consortium-seasonal-malaria-chemoprevention-december-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#Malaria_Consortium-s_seasonal_malaria_chemoprevention_program

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant for the seasonal malaria chemoprevention program, which has GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/malaria-consortium The program distributes preventive anti-malarial drugs to children 3 to 59 months old in order to prevent illness and death from malaria

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program is recommended as a GiveWell top charity for these reasons: (1) program with a strong evidence base and strong cost-effectiveness, (2) track record of demonstrated past success, (3) room for more funding. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/malaria-consortium and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Based on these, GiveWell decided to recommend fully funding Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention program in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Chad.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Donor retrospective of the donation: The discretionary regranting decisions https://blog.givewell.org/2019/03/29/allocation-of-discretionary-funds-from-q4-2018/ (to Malaria Consortium) and https://blog.givewell.org/2019/06/12/allocation-of-discretionary-funds-from-q1-2019/ (to Against Malaria Foundation) can be viewed as a retrospective on this decision, insofar as they consider further funding gaps for Malaria Consortium after the grant

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $43.9 million for Malaria Consortium, and identifies Malaria Consortium as the best target for donations at the current margin. See https://www.givewell.org/charities/malaria-consortium/November-2018-version for GiveWell's review of Malaria Consortium at the time of the grant recommendation. Affected countries: Nigeria|Burkina Faso|Chad.
Deworm the World Initiative10,400,000.00192018-12Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/deworm-world-initiative-general-support-december-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#Evidence_Action-s_Deworm_the_World_Initiative

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant for general operating support, which has GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/deworm-world-initiative The grantee advocates for, supports, and evaluates government-run school-based deworming programs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends Deworm the World Initiative for these reasons: (1) Program with strong track record and excellent cost-effectiveness. (2) Strong monitoring process. (30 Standout transparency. (4) Room for more funding. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/deworm-world-initiative and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to allocate $6-10 million each to two of its deworming top charities and to Sightsacers; Deworm the World Initiative gets $10.4 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $27 million for Deworm the World Initiative.
Helen Keller International6,500,000.00312018-12Global health/nutrition/Vitamin A supplementationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/helen-keller-international-vitamin-a-supplementation-december-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#Sightsavers-_deworming_program

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) program, which has GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/helen-keller-international HKI provides technical assistance, engages in advocacy, and contributes funding to government-run vitamin A supplementation programs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends HKI's VAS program for the following reasons: (1) Strong evidence base and strong cost-effectiveness. (2) Track record. (3) Standout transparency. (4) Room for more funding. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/helen-keller-international and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to allocate $6-10 million two of its deworming charities as well as to HKI; HKI ends up getting $6.5 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $20.6 million for HKI's VAS program.
Against Malaria Foundation2,500,000.00952018-12Global health/malaria/bednetshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/against-malaria-foundation-general-support-december-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#Against_Malaria_Foundation_AMF

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for general operating support, which has GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf AMF funds distributions of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) for protection against malaria in developing countries

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends Against Malaria Foundation for the following reasons: (1) Excellent evidence of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. (2) Good monitoring process for checking long-term effects. (3) Room for more funding. (4) Transparency. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to only allocate to the Against Malaria Foundation the minimum amount for top charities, i.e., $2.5 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Donor retrospective of the donation: The discretionary regranting decisions https://blog.givewell.org/2019/03/29/allocation-of-discretionary-funds-from-q4-2018/ (to Malaria Consortium) and https://blog.givewell.org/2019/06/12/allocation-of-discretionary-funds-from-q1-2019/ (to Against Malaria Foundation) can be viewed as a retrospective on this decision, insofar as they consider further funding gaps for Against Malaria Foundation after the grant.

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $72.5 million for Against Malaria Foundation. See https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf/November-2018-version for GiveWell's review of AMF at the time of the grant recommendation.
The END Fund2,500,000.00952018-12Global health/deworminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/end-fund-deworming-programs-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#The_END_Fund-s_deworming_program

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant for deworming programs, which have GiveWell top charity status; see https://www.givewell.org/charities/end-fund The END Fund manages grants, provides technical assistance, and raises funding for controlling and eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The grant is for the subset of these programs that treat schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) (deworming)

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends The END Fund's deworming programs for the following reasons: (1) Deworming is a priority program with the possibility of string benefits at very low cost. (2) Organization is able to absorb additional funds to start and scale up deworming programs. (3) Standout transparency. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/end-fund and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to only allocate to the END Fund the minimum amount for top charities, i.e., $2.5 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of $45.8 million for The END Fund.
GiveDirectly2,500,000.00952018-12Cash transfers/unconditional cash transfershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/givedirectly-general-support-december-2018GiveWell Donation process: The grant is based on GiveWell's recommendation. GiveWell made the recommendations as part of its end-of-year recommendations to Open Philanthropy, along with allocations to other GiveWell top and standout charities. The total budget is based on guidelines set by Open Philanthropy. GiveWell explains the process in detail at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ Charity status updates in 2018 are at https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities/updates-in-november-2018#GiveDirectly

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for general operating support, which has GiveWell top charity status; see http://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly GiveDirectly transfers cash to households in developing countries via mobile phone-linked payment services. It targets extremely low-income households.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: GiveWell recommends GiveDirectly for the following reasons: (1) Program has strong track record and low burden of proof. (2) Strong monitoring process. (3) Documented success. (4) Standout transparency. (5) Room for more funding. The full GiveWell review is at https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly and the top charity selection is at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-updated-top-charities-for-giving-season-2018/

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): GiveWell explains the principles affecting its decision of how much money to allocate to each charity in https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/26/our-recommendation-to-good-ventures/ (1) Put significant weight on our cost-effectiveness estimates. (2) Consider additional information about an organization that we have not explicitly modeled. (3) Assess charities’ funding gaps at the margin, i.e., where they would spend additional funding, where possible. (4) Default towards not imposing restrictions on charity spending. (5) Fund on a three-year horizon, unless we are particularly uncertain whether we will want to continue recommending a program in the future. (6) Ensure charities are incentivized to engage with our process. Ultimately, GiveWell decides to only allocate to GiveDirectly the minimum amount for top charities, i.e., $2.5 million

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Part of GiveWell's end-of-year recommendations for Open Philanthropy, so the timing is determined by the timing of end-of-year recommendations (which is usually the week after Thanksgiving in the United States). The grant is made by Open Philanthropy shortly after the recommendations.

Other notes: Even accounting for this grant, GiveWell identifies a remaining funding gap of over $100 million for GiveDirectly; this is the largest identified room for more funding of all GiveWell top charities.
The Humane League22,000.008742018-12Animal welfare/factory farming/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-latin-america-summitLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to cover the costs of a Latin America regional summit held in November 2018. The funds will be used to reimburse travel costs for Latin American groups who attended a two-day event to discuss corporate campaigns and collaboration in the region."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant "to cover the costs of a Latin America regional summit held in November 2018. The funds will be used to reimburse travel costs for Latin American groups who attended a two-day event [...]"; the amount of the grant is likely determined by the travel costs.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by the timing of the summit, which was a month prior (2018-11).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Other notes: Affected countries: Latin America.
University of California, Berkeley (Earmark: Pieter Abeel|Aviv Tamar)1,145,000.001832018-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-california-berkeley-artificial-intelligence-safety-research-2018Daniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "for machine learning researchers Pieter Abbeel and Aviv Tamar to study uses of generative models for robustness and interpretability. This funding will allow Mr. Abbeel and Mr. Tamar to fund PhD students and summer undergraduates to work on classifiers, imitation learning systems, and reinforcement learning systems."

Other notes: This is the second year that Open Phil makes a grant for AI safety research to the University of California, Berkeley (excluding the founding grant for the Center for Human-Compatible AI). It continues an annual tradition of multi-year grants to the University of California, Berkeley announced in October/November, though the researchers would be different each year. Note that the grant is to UC Berkeley, but at least one of the researchers (Pieter Abbeel) is affiliated with the Center for Human-Compatible AI. Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2018-12-11.
Daniel Kang|Jacob Steinhardt|Yi Sun|Alex Zhai (Earmark: Daniel Kang|Jacob Steinhardt|Yi Sun|Alex Zhai)2,351.009192018-11AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/study-robustness-machine-learning-modelsDaniel Dewey Donation process: The grant page says: "This project was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to reimburse technology costs for their efforts to study the robustness of machine learning models, especially robustness to unforeseen adversaries."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says "We believe this will accelerate progress in adversarial, worst-case robustness in machine learning."
EicOsis Human Health, Inc.5,000,000.00402018-11Scientific research/human health and wellbeinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/eicosis-human-health-inc-pain-researchChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support clinical trials on a novel, non-opioid, oral therapy for neuropathic and inflammatory pain. The Open Philanthropy Project believes alternate therapies for chronic pain could help address the epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction. EicOsis previously received Blueprint funding https://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/ for neuroscience research from the National Institutes of Health. This seed-stage investment is intended to support continued early research and development in the hopes that EicOsis can subsequently raise additional funds from other investors. Announced: 2019-02-15.
University of Bern (Earmark: Michael Toscano)150,000.005962018-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-bern-higher-welfare-cage-free-systemsLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to develop and implement a pilot project for U.S. egg producers, equipment installers, and USDA extension agents to learn about management of high-welfare, cage-free systems in Switzerland, Sweden, Holland, and Belgium. The funds will support Dr. Michael Toscano, Group Leader of Switzerland’s Centre for Proper Housing of Poultry and Rabbits, and colleagues to develop the educational program and deploy it with approximately 20 U.S. producers, installers, and extension agents. Due to Switzerland’s ban of battery cages in 1992, its producers and scientists have more than 25 years of experience managing cage-free systems."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant fits in with Open Philanthropy's funding of corporate campaigns pushing for cage-free systems for chicken, an effort that https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms documents. Unlike the other grants that are focused on corporate campaigns, this grant takes more of a learning/educational approach.

Donor retrospective of the donation: A later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-bern-layer-hens also for Michael Toscano and also for research related to cage-free system, suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-12-11.
University of British Columbia (Earmark: Maria Chen)50,186.007762018-11Animal welfare/factory farming/pig/movement growth/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-british-columbia-research-pig-welfare-chinaLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to enable animal welfare science student Maria Chen to produce a Masters thesis on pig welfare in China. Her planned research could identify reform opportunities on mid-sized pig farms."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We see this grant as largely devoted to building a talent pipeline for farm animal welfare research in China."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount was likely determined by the cost of a masters degree at the University of British Columbia.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Open Philanthropy seems to have become interested in the idea of developing a "talent pipeline" around this time; another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-british-columbia-research-pig-welfare-china would be made about a month later.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2018-12-11.
Global Animal Partnership500,000.003142018-11Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-farm-animal-welfare-activitiesLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate outreach and certification oversight. GAP intends to use these funds to secure new corporate partners and increase the number of animals covered by its program."

Other notes: Announced: 2018-12-11.
Chinese Animal Welfare Institute1,489,201.001552018-11Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-welfare-standards-project-chinese-animal-welfare-instituteLewis Bollard Grant of $2,064,034 AUD (approximately $1,489,201 US at the time of conversion; this amount may be adjusted based on future exchange rates) over three years to the Animal Welfare Standards Project (AWSP) to create an animal welfare-focused institute, to be called the Sino-Australian Animal Welfare Centre, within China. Specifically, AWSP intends to use these funds to open a central hub in Beijing, in liaison with the China Agricultural University, to focus on attitudes, motivations, engagement, and outreach on animal welfare. AWSP will be collaborating with other institutes around China to build animal welfare capacities across the region and hopes these institutes will help develop Chinese animal welfare subject matter experts. The grant renews https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-welfare-standards-project-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china (December 2016 support); general discussion of the thinking behind these grants is at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china. Affected countries: China; announced: 2018-12-15.
Nuclear Threat Initiative1,904,942.001262018-11Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-projects-to-reduce-global-catastrophic-biological-risksClaire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support projects to reduce Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBRs). NTI intends to use these funds to support projects including, among others, strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention and reducing state biological threats and additional GCBRs through international dialogues."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2018-12-13.
International Genetically Engineered Medicine Foundation420,000.003862018-11Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/igem-synthetic-biology-safety-and-security-2018Claire Zabel Grant over two years to the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation for its work on safety and security, led by Piers Millett. iGEM is an international synthetic biology competition for students. Donor believes that supporting iGEM’s safety and security work could help raise awareness about biosecurity among current and future synthetic biologists. Renewal of May 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/igem-synthetic-biology-safety-and-security. Announced: 2019-01-31.
Corrections Accountability Project150,000.005962018-11Criminal justice reform/prison life qualityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/corrections-accountability-project-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support, renewing October 2017 seed grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/corrections-accountability-project-general-support Grantee is housed at the Urban Justice Center. Grantee, led by Bianca Tylek, educates the public about the harms of the commercialization of the corrections system, advocates against exploitation of incarcerated people, and supports others to lead campaigns that address these harms. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-11-27.
Forward Justice150,000.005962018-11Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/forward-justice-criminal-justice-reform-advocacy-and-organizing-2018Chloe Cockburn Grantee is led by nationally prominent formerly incarcerated advocate Daryl Atkinson, to support local prosecutor accountability and organizing work in North Carolina in Durham and Pitt counties. This funding will support Forward Justice to continue to grow the local chapter of All of Us or None, and will also support local organizing, public forums, and town halls to work with Durham’s newly elected district attorney to ensure policies are keeping communities safe without overly relying on jail and prison incarceration. Renewal of May 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/forward-justice-daryl-atkinson-north-carolina. Affected countries: United States; affected states: North Carolina; announced: 2018-11-27.
The Ahimsa Collective150,000.005962018-11Criminal justice reform/restorative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ahimsa-collective-life-comes-from-it-fundChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to grantee organization run by restorative justice practitioner and leader Sonya Shah, renewing July 2017 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ahimsa-collective-restorative-justice-report Grant to support administrative costs of the Life Comes From It fund. The fund provides grants up to $25,000 to restorative justice, transformative justice, and peacemaking projects. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-11-27.
Alliance for Safety and Justice3,000,000.00682018-11Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant via the Tides Center for general support. Renewal of previous support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support-2017 of $4,000,000. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-action-fund-general-support-2018 to the Alliance for Safety and Justice Action Fund of $2,000,000. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-12-12.
Alliance for Safety and Justice Action Fund2,000,000.001182018-11Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-action-fund-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, via The Advocacy Fund, for general support. This funding is intended to support ASJ Action’s ongoing policy reform, legislative and ballot advocacy, and lobbying efforts. Companion grant to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support-2018 to the Alliance for Safety and Justice. Renewal of April 2017 grant of $1,000,000. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-12-12.
Court Watch NOLA200,000.005442018-11Criminal justice reform/court watchinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/court-watch-nola-general-support-november-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee utilizes over 100 volunteers annually to observe and collect data on practices used in New Orleans courtrooms. Its observations and data are then compiled into regular reports, which can be used by the general public and advocacy groups for work related to criminal justice reform. Grant follows February 2018 support: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/court-watch-nola-general-support-2018. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New Orleans; announced: 2019-01-26.
University of Oxford (Earmark: Andrew Snyder-Beattie)26,086.008612018-10Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/oxford-university-dphil-support-for-andrew-snyder-beattieClaire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the research of the Mathematical Ecology Research Group and the research costs of Andrew Snyder-Beattie, who recently served as Director of Research at the Future of Humanity Institute and a member of FHI’s Biotechnology Research Team."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Andrew Snyder-Beattie, whose work the grant would fund, would later be hired by Open Philanthropy and lead its biosecurity and pandemic preparedness program. This probably indicates continued satisfaction with him.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 20,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); announced: 2018-10-29.
New Virginia Majority Education Fund220,000.005332018-10Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/new-virginia-majority-education-fund-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Renews October 2016 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/new-virginia-majority-formerly-incarcerated-organizers Grant funds will help support court watching, allow New Virginia Majority to hire and train formerly incarcerated organizers and increase its capacity in key counties, and lay groundwork for future elections. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Virginia; announced: 2018-10-30.
Chicago Community Bond Fund80,000.007262018-10Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/chicago-community-bond-fund-coordinator-for-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant to support coordination of a criminal justice coalition in Chicago. CCBF intends to use these funds to support and coordinate local organizers working on bail reform issues. The work will be led by Sharlyn Grace. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2018-11-03.
Citizen Action of New York266,000.004802018-10Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/citizen-action-of-new-york-criminal-justice-reform-advocacy-in-new-york-stateChloe Cockburn Grant to support legislative advocacy and organizing work for criminal justice reform in New York State. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; announced: 2018-11-03.
Momentum15,000.008872018-10Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/momentum-cjr-trainingsChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to Momentum, a training institute and movement incubator, to support a training in the South for organizers of color in Fall 2018. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-11-27.
Photo Patch Foundation10,000.009052018-10Criminal justice reform/prison life qualityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/photo-patch-foundation-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant. Grantee has a website and an app that allows kids with incarcerated parents to send letters and pictures to their parents in prison for free. This diminishes barriers, helps families remain in touch, and reduces the number of children who have not communicated with their parents in weeks, months, or sometimes years. The grant will pay for packaging, shipping, and other related costs. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-11-27.
CDC Foundation1,044,501.001932018-10Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/cdc-foundation-malaria-control-research-project-2018Chris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support research on malaria control. This funding will be used to support work on the cryopreservation of mosquito larvae (which, if successful, would make it easier for researchers to maintain different strains of mosquitoes) and on RNA interference (which, if successful, would make it easier for researchers to avoid releasing female mosquitoes — which could potentially spread malaria — as part of field trials). Related previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/cdc-foundation-malaria-control-research (September 2016) and related grant to Target Malaria https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research (May 2017). Announced: 2018-10-30.
University of California, Berkeley200,000.005442018-10Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-of-california-berkeley-research-on-drought-tolerant-rice-by-prof-brian-staskawiczChris Somerville Heather Youngs Discretionary grant over three years to support the editing of the rice genome for increased drought tolerance led by Professor Brian Staskawicz. The work involves using CRISPR modifications to increase drought tolerance on Indian rice, and the goal is to address the problem of erratic rice yields which have negative impoact on the livelihoods of 100 million small farmers. The experiments are funded in part my a match from the Innovative Genomics Institute. This follows the plant pathology workshop grant of December 2016 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/uc-berkeley-plant-pathology-workshop. Announced: 2018-10-23.
Duke University2,550,171.00922018-10Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/duke-university-CRISPR-Based-Epigenome-Editing-ToolsChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant over three years to Duke University to develop tools to apply epigenome editing to refine genome wide association studies (GWAS). The work will be led by Charles Gersbach, the Rooney Family Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. This funding will support research to develop CRISPR-based epigenetic tools to interrogate thousands of regions of DNA, allowing for more nuanced studies of genomic regions identified through GWAS. The grant will also fund testing and verification of the tools by identifying loci implicated in schizophrenia, a poorly understood disorder. Announced: 2018-10-30.
Boston Children's Hospital1,695,376.001382018-10Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/boston-childrens-hospital-chronic-pain-researchChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant over four years to conduct basic research into the epigenetics of chronic pain. The work will be led by Yi Zhang, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Fred Rosen Chair Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. This funding will support research to identify 1) specific neurons in a region of the brain involved in processing environmental stimulation into associative learning; 2) changes in gene expression and epigenetic modification in neurons associated with chronic pain; and 3) feedback and modulatory processes that may be involved in resolving pain signals and neuronal sensitivity. Announced: 2018-11-27.
University of Michigan46,696.008222018-10Global poverty/Global health and developmenthttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/university-of-michigan-support-for-david-manley-- Grant to support course development and research by Professor David Manley. Professor Manley is planning to develop and teach a new course titled “Changing the World.” The course will focus on global health and poverty, animal welfare, environmental preservation, and the long-term survival of human civilization. The goal is to provide students with the conceptual resources to evaluate which global causes matter most, and how they can most effectively make a difference. Announced: 2018-11-03.
Washington Center for Equitable Growth100,000.006652018-10Macroeconomic stabilization policy/automatic fiscal stabilizershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/washington-center-for-equitable-growth-automatic-stabilizers-conferenceAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to host a conference, in partnership with the Hamilton Project, on a framework for thinking about optimal design of automatic stabilizer programs as well as specific suggestions for reforms. Automatic fiscal stabilizers are taxes and government programs that respond automatically to changing economic conditions, and do not require additional Congressional action. [...] The conference will bring together macroeconomists who are interested in automatic stabilizers as a way to fight recession and academics and advocates who focus on the mechanics of various programs, such as the unemployment insurance system."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: On the subject (automatic fiscal stabilizers) that this grant is funding a conference for, the grant page says: "We believe [automatic fiscal stabilizers] are important for mitigating the effects of economic downturns. [...] will hopefully complement work in this area (by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-automatic-stabilizers is the linked grant to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 1; affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-11-26.
University of Edinburgh102,041.006622018-10Animal welfare/movement growth/talent pipelinehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-edinburgh-scholarship-program-in-applied-animal-behavior-and-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to provide scholarships for three African veterinarians or animal scientists to complete the Masters program in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We see this grant as largely devoted to building a talent pipeline for farm animal welfare research in Africa, which could account for a large number of new farm animals in the next 50 years."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount was likely determined by the cost of a masters degree at the University of Edinburgh.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Open Philanthropy seems to have become interested in the idea of developing a "talent pipeline" around this time; another grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/university-of-british-columbia-research-pig-welfare-china would be made about a month later.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Other notes: Announced: 2018-11-26.
Food Frontier100,000.006652018-10Animal welfare/factory farming/meat alternatives/plant-based meathttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/food-frontier-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Food Frontier is an Australian organization promoting plant-based meat alternatives, and will explore opportunities for Australia and New Zealand to supply the Asia-Pacific region with alternative proteins."

Other notes: Affected countries: Australia|New Zealand; announced: 2018-11-26.
Prevent Cruelty California4,000,000.00522018-10Animal welfare/factory farming/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/prevent-cruelty-california-prop-12Lewis Bollard Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Grantee is a coalition of veterinarians, animal shelters, farmworkers, food safety groups, and animal protection charities advocating for Proposition 12. Prop 12, which will appear on California’s general election ballot this November, would require cage-free housing and improve space requirements in California for veal calves, pigs, and egg-laying hens, and would ensure that veal, pork, and eggs sold in California come from operations meeting these standards. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-10-05.
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics6,683.009122018-10Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/oxford-uehiro-centre-for-practical-ethics-animal-sentience-workshopLewis Bollard Discretionary grant of £5,217 ($6,683 at the time of conversion) to host a workshop on animal sentience. The one-day workshop aimed at academics and policymakers will include presentations of new science on animal sentience, including in fish and invertebrates, as well as discussions of the ethical and policy implications of those findings. Announced: 2018-10-20.
Otwarte Klatki10,350.009032018-10Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/otwarte-klatki-care-conference-travel-grantsLewis Bollard Grant to make it possible for Eastern European farm animal advocates to attend the Conference on Animal Rights (CARE) in Europe in Prague in October. Follows previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/otwarte-klatki-chicken-welfare-campaigns-poland-ukraine to Otwarte Klatki. Announced: 2019-01-31.
Eurogroup For Animals990,000.002302018-09Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-animals-fish-welfare-2018Lewis Bollard Donation process: Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to continue and expand its fish welfare advocacy. This will allow Eurogroup for Animals to continue and expand its EU-level political advocacy, its support of its member groups’ advocacy in member states, and its support for corporate reforms and increased research funding on fish welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We consider building the field of fish welfare advocacy a priority because fish are likely the most numerous vertebrate farmed animals."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 853,415.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: European Union; announced: 2018-10-04.
Better Eating International12,690.009002018-09Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/better-eating-international-organizational-developmentLewis Bollard Discretionary grant for organizational development, follows February 2018 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/better-eating-international-millenial-vegan-survey. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-10-20.
Community Justice Exchange250,000.004922018-09Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/community-justice-exchange-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via the Tides Foundation for general support. CJE is a new organization that will house the National Bail Fund Network, which was previously supported by the Open Philanthropy Project https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/brooklyn-community-bail-fund-national-bail-fund-network-2018 CJE intends to use these funds to support information exchange across campaigns working with bail, court watching, participatory defense, and similar approaches, and to support particular campaigns seeking to implement litigation and policy wins relevant to bail reform. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-10-20.
Center for a New American Security (Earmark: Richard Danzig)400,352.003932018-09Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/center-for-a-new-american-security-richard-danzig-outreach-on-technological-risk-2018Claire Zabel Grant to support outreach by Richard Danzig, former Secretary of the Navy, on technological risks. This is a renewal and expansion of the August 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/center-for-a-new-american-security-richard-danzig-outreach-on-technological-risk#footnote1_ix4f0ts which allowed Dr. Danzig to produce Technology Roulette https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/technology-roulette a report intended for the national security community detailing the management of risks from losing control of advanced technology. Dr. Danzig intends to use these new funds to continue sharing these ideas with U.S. government officials, as well as spreading them to national security leaders abroad. Announced: 2018-10-20.
California YIMBY350,000.004142018-08Land use reformhttps://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.
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal200,000.005442018-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/layer chicken/pig/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/forum-nacional-de-protecao-e-defesa-animal-crate-and-cage-free-campaigning-in-brazilLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "for campaigning to reduce the use of battery cages for layer hens and gestation crates for pigs in Brazil." [Grantee] intends to use these funds to continue its corporate campaigns, to start a tracker of corporate implementation of cage-free pledges, and to host a conference with egg producers, food companies, scientists, and activists to discuss implementation."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No explicit reasons are provided, but the grant page suggests satisfaction with the grantee's progress after the previous grant, and with their intended use of the funds for this grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the previous two-year grant reaching its end.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/forum-nacional-de-protecao-e-defesa-animal-crate-and-cage-free-campaigning-in-brazil-2020 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil; announced: 2018-09-27.
Griffith University (Earmark: Deborah Cao)100,000.006652018-08Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2018Lewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a symposium on farm animal welfare in China in 2019 to be organized by Professor Deborah Cao, an expert on Chinese animal law, and to support Professor Cao’s work on a new book, in Chinese, about farm animal welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: A positive assessment of the outcome of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china for similar purposes seems to have played a role. The grant page says the previous grat "helped Professor Cao organize a farm animal academic conference in Beijing in 2017 attended by 60 scientists, mostly from Chinese agricultural universities and research institutes."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy (2019-11) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2018-08-31.
Plant Based Foods Association250,000.004922018-08Animal welfare/meat alternatives/plant-based meat/legislative changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/plant-based-foods-association-state-level-policy-advocacy-against-threats-to-the-plant-based-sectorLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, because of the funding being used for lobbying efforts

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "for state-level policy advocacy against threats to the plant-based food sector. [Grantee] plans to use these funds to monitor, analyze, and, when necessary, oppose attempts to create policies that undermine plant-based alternatives to animal products."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/plant-based-foods-association-state-level-policy-2019 (2019-09) suggests satisfaction with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-08-31.
University of California, San Francisco1,021,318.001982018-08Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-of-california-san-francisco-chronic-pain-researchChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant over three years to support basic research on understanding the brain mechanisms that process pain messages and that contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain after injury. The work will be led by Allan Basbaum, PhD, Professor and Chair of UCSF’s Department of Anatomy. This grant will allow UCSF to pursue an answer to the question of how the brain interprets various types of pain signals (e.g., heat, cold, mechanical) and itch, how these signals are regulated by different anesthetics and how they are altered when there is injury. Resolving these questions could facilitate the design of novel drugs that can block pain without also blocking consciousness. Announced: 2018-09-21.
GoalsRL (Earmark: Ashley Edwards)7,500.009092018-08AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/goals-rl-workshop-on-goal-specifications-for-reinforcement-learningDaniel Dewey Discretionary grant to offset travel, registration, and other expenses associated with attending the GoalsRL 2018 workshop on goal specifications for reinforcement learning. The workshop was organized by Ashley Edwards, a recent computer science PhD candidate interested in reward learning. Announced: 2018-10-05.
The Humane League10,000,000.00202018-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support-2018Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant renews four previous grants: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns (US corporate cage-free), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-international-cage-free-advocacy (international cage-free), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support (general support), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-open-wing-alliance-2017 (Open Wing Alliance). THL used previous funding to secure corporate cage-free and broiler welfare pledges that, if fully implemented, will benefit approximately 150 million hens and 50 million broiler chickens alive at any time. The new fundings helps THL continue current programs and strengthen infrastructure through initiatives like increasing staff salaries and benefits to be in line with industry standards.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The reason for selecting donee is not discussed explicitly, but likely includes the same reasons as for the previous grants, and continued satisfaction with progress made through those grants.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount breakdown is not explicitly discussed, but at about $3 million per year, it is similar to grant amounts per year for the previous grants, when added up.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing is not explicitly discussed, but it is likely because the timeframe for the earlier grants is ending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 42

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-28.
Real Justice PAC850,000.002362018-08Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/real-justice-pac-criminal-justice-reform-august-2018Chloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant recommended for Cari Tuna to make personally (normally, grants for lobbying are recommended to be made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund)

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Real Justice intends to use these funds to develop tools and infrastructure as it seeks to raise the profile of key prosecutor and sheriff races in 2018 and elect reform-minded candidates who will work to safely reduce the number of people incarcerated in their jurisdictions." Use of funds is limited to work outside California

Donor retrospective of the donation: The renewal of support with the April 2019 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/real-justice-pac-criminal-justice-reform-april-2019 suggests that the donor considered the grant successful

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-28.
Floridians for a Fair Democracy750,000.002502018-08Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/floridians-for-a-fair-democracy-ballot-committee-contributionChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund for a ballot measure committee seeking to pass an amendment to restore voting eligibility to 1.4 million people in Florida who were previously convicted of felonies. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Florida; announced: 2018-08-24.
Civil Rights Corps25,000.008622018-08Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/civil-rights-corps-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support; renewal of December 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/civil-rights-corps-general-support In the interim, Civil Rights Corps has been successful raising funds to support litigation of cases about money bail, probation, prosecutorial misconduct, and other matters relevant to decarceration. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-07.
Faith in Texas250,000.004922018-08Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/faith-texas-criminal-justice-reform-workChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support criminal justice reform work, including prosecutorial accountability. This funding is intended to support organizing faith communities for accountability in the lead-up to and aftermath of district attorney elections this fall, and organizing for statewide legislative work in 2019. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-07.
The Ladies of Hope Ministries150,000.005962018-08Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/the-ladies-of-hope-ministries-hope-house-projectChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the crafting of a scaling plan for Hope House and staffing for Hope House, a reentry housing program for and by formerly incarcerated women. These funds will be used to manage internal logistics and policies to inform the culture of the house and help manage relationships with the community. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-07.
The Soze Agency300,000.004472018-08Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/soze-agency-right-of-return-fellowshipChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the Right of Return fellowship program for formerly incarcerated artists. This is a renewal and expansion of the December 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/soze-agency-returning-citizens-project which The Soze Agency used to support seven artists. Co-founders and previous fellows Jesse Krimes and Russell Craig will continue to provide mentorship and leadership for the new class. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-07.
Players Coalition Charitable Foundation50,000.007772018-08Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/players-coalition-charitable-foundation-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support criminal justice reform efforts. Members of the players coalition have been vocal supporters of criminal justice reform work, writing op-eds, participating in prosecutor candidate forums, and working with communities to push for changes that will ensure better safety and representation for people impacted by crime and incarceration. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-19.
Texas Organizing Project Education Fund56,000.007682018-08Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-organizing-project-education-fund-working-with-move-san-antonio-foundationChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support partnership with the MOVE San Antonio Foundation on criminal justice reform work. MOVE San Antonio is a grassroots organizing group with an emphasis on engaging young people and has worked with TOP on issues including bail reform. MOVE San Antonio plans to use these funds for staffing, leadership, training, and other expenses. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; affected cities: San Antonio; announced: 2018-09-21.
American Conservative Union Foundation212,000.005382018-08Criminal justice reform/conservative advocacyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-conservative-union-center-criminal-justice-reform-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant to support the work of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform (CCJR), led by Pat Nolan and David Safavian. CCJR aims to increase support for criminal justice reform from conservative policymakers in Congress and at the state level, as well as among the conservative base more broadly. It renews the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-conservative-union-center-criminal-justice-reform-2017 of July 2017 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-conservative-union-center-criminal-justice-reform of May 2016. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-28.
Nuclear Threat Initiative3,556,773.00592018-07Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-global-health-security-index-grantJaime Yassif Donation process: It's likely that the donation process relied mostly on the legwork done during the planning grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-global-health-security-index-planning-grant as well as the followup on that grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to create a Global Health Security Index in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Economist Intelligence Unit. NTI plans to use these funds to support the development of an index of national-level biosecurity and pandemic preparedness capacity in at least 194 countries. The project is modeled on NTI’s analogous Nuclear Materials Security Index."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Reasons not listed, but likely same as for the planning grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-global-health-security-index-planning-grant (1) "We are not aware of an existing comprehensive source for this type of information, nor a comprehensive international standard for national global health security capacity." (2) "The GHS Index would be independent and therefore much less likely to be subject to political pressure." (3) "We believe that these three organizations are exceptionally well-equipped to do this work." (4) "Our understanding is that some past examples of similar indexes, such as NTI’s Nuclear Security Index, have been successful at creating political pressure and impacting government decision-making."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined by completion of the planning work that the planning grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-global-health-security-index-planning-grant (February 2017) had funded.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Announced: 2018-07-11.
New Economy Organisers Network42,285.008272018-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/new-economy-organisers-network-KIN-conveningsChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant of £32,000 ($42,284.80 at the time of conversion) to the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON) to support planning, travel, and other costs for convenings in London later this year and in 2019. The convenings will bring together black organizers from the U.S. and the UK to build relationships and discuss strategy on a number of issues, including mass incarceration. Affected countries: United States|United Kingdom; announced: 2018-07-20.
National Family Defense Project120,000.006382018-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-family-defense-project-general-supportChloe Cockburn Two discretionary grants totaling $120,000 to support the formation of a new organization —the National Family Defense Project, led by Lisa Sangoi and Erin Miles Cloud — via Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs. The organization will work on challenging the separation of children from their parents under current policies of the criminal justice and child welfare systems. One of the two grants was made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Previously, the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mission-launch-inc-lisa-sangoi-child-welfare had funded a report by Lisa Sangoi (one of the people starting the new organization) on child welfare, drug policy and criminalization. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-07-26.
Prosecutor Impact50,000.007772018-07Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prosecutor-impact-prosecutor-training-pilotChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via TNSE MissionWorks to support a partnership with Ideo for development of a prosecutor training pilot in Philadelphia. Prosecutor Impact believes taking a cohort of incoming district attorneys into prisons and jails and sharing skills and wisdom from national leaders can build community and camaraderie that helps the vision of reform-minded prosecutors permeate through their offices. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Pennsylvania; affected cities: Philadelphia; announced: 2018-08-02.
Aubin Pictures60,000.007642018-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/aubin-pictures-criminal-justice-media-archiveChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the launch of the Criminal Justice Media Archive, an online portal and offline networking and convening hub for filmmakers working with criminal justice reform content. The Criminal Justice Media Archive will compile footage from documentaries and news interviews and make it available for repurposing. Renewal of December 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/aubin-pictures-criminal-justice-media-archive-scoping. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-09-07.
One for the World153,750.005932018-07Effective altruism/fundraisinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/one-for-the-world-general-supportGiveWell The grant was announced and discussed on the donee blog at https://www.1fortheworld.org/blog/evanoppgrant The grant was also announced by GiveWell, the main influencer of the grant, on the page https://www.givewell.org/about/impact/one-for-the-world/july-2018-grant which also said it is a July 2018 grant. It is accompanied by a grant from Luke Ding of $51,250 (so the two grants are in a 3:1 ratio) also influenced by GiveWell. As of the time of entering this, the grant from the Open Philanthropy Project is not listed in the Open Philanthropy Project grants database. Also, the GiveWell page on the grant does not explicitly name either donor. The two grants together are expected to cover two years of costs, including budget for a COO (which they succeeded in doing: Evan McVail joined as COO for a year) and a CEO in 2019.
Economic Policy Institute700,000.002592018-07Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2018Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "EPI plans to use these funds primarily to continue producing policy-relevant research on the ways in which macroeconomic policy can boost living standards for working Americans, including work on different aspects of the relationships between unemployment, wage growth, inflation, and productivity."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2020 (2020-08) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-08-15.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities250,000.004922018-07Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project-2018Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Full Employment Project."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is an exit grant; the grant page says: "We continue to think the Project’s work is important but do not have a clear sense of how much of a difference marginal funding makes in driving that work forward. This grant will bring us to five years of supporting the Full Employment Project, and at this point we want to take the opportunity to step back and see if other funders may be interested in supporting the Project."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined to be enough to provide about a year of support, as is typical for exit grants.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project-2016 (2016-07) running out.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant, so there are no plans for further grants for the Full Employment Project. Open Philanthropy also made a grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-automatic-stabilizers (2018-05) to CBPP for automatic fiscal stabilizers, so it doesn't look like Open Philanthropy is exiting all grantmaking to CBPP.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-08-02.
Future of Humanity Institute12,066,808.93142018-07Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/future-humanity-institute-work-on-global-catastrophic-risksNick Beckstead Donation process: This is a series of awards totaling £13,428,434 ($16,200,062.78 USD at market rate on September 2, 2019); as of September 18, 2019, $12,066,808.93 of the amount has been allocated

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support work on risks from advanced artificial intelligence, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, and macrostrategy. The grant page says: "The largest pieces of the omnibus award package will allow FHI to recruit and hire for an education and training program led by Owen Cotton­Barratt, and retain and attract talent in biosecurity research and FHI’s Governance of AI program."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2018-09-01.
Charity Entrepreneurship265,000.004812018-07Animal welfare/movement growth/new organizationshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/charity-science-development-of-new-animal-welfare-charitiesLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Thegrant page says the grant is "to support the creation of new animal welfare charities through their Charity Entrepreneurship project. Charity Science plans to use these funds to review potential farm animal welfare interventions and incubate 3-5 new animal welfare charities, including the development of first-year plans, a training program teaching key skills, and ongoing assistance to the founders. Charity Science hopes the new groups will be able to secure ongoing funding to continue operations beyond the incubation period."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/charity-entrepreneurship-development-of-new-animal-welfare-charities in May 2020 to continue the program suggests satisfaction with the outcome of the grant. The page for the later grant says: "Since our July 2018 support to Charity Science, CE has incubated two promising farm animal welfare charities."

Other notes: In the Open Philanthropy grant database, the grant recipient is listed as Charity Science, since the Charity Entrepreneurship program was not spin off separately at that point. The later grant would have Charity Entrepreneurship as its recipient. Announced: 2018-07-25.
The Wilson Center400,000.003942018-07AI safety/governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-seminar-seriesLuke Muehlhauser Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a series of in-depth AI policy seminars."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe the seminar series can help inform AI policy discussions and decision-making in Washington, D.C., and could help identify and empower influential experts in those discussions, a key component of our AI policy grantmaking strategy."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-seminar-series-february-2020 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/wilson-center-ai-policy-seminar-series-june-2020 suggest that the donor was satisfied with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2018-08-01.
Stanford University (Earmark: Dan Boneh|Florian Tremer)100,000.006652018-07AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-machine-learning-security-research-dan-boneh-florian-tramerDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support machine learning security research led by Professor Dan Boneh and his PhD student, Florian Tramer."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page gives three reasons: (1) Florian Tremer is a very strong Ph.D. student, (2) excellent machine learning security work is important for AI safety, (3) increased funding in areas relevant to AI safety, like machine learning security, is expected to lead to more long-term benefits for AI safety.

Other notes: Grant is structured as an unrestricted "gift" to Stanford University Computer Science. Announced: 2018-09-06.
University of Oxford (Earmark: Allan Dafoe)429,770.003792018-07AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/oxford-university-global-politics-of-ai-dafoeNick Beckstead Grant to support research on the global politics of advanced artificial intelligence. The work will be led by Professor Allan Dafoe at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford, United Kingdom. The Open Philanthropy Project recommended additional funds to support this work in 2017, while Professor Dafoe was at Yale. Continuation of grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/yale-university-global-politics-of-ai-dafoe. Announced: 2018-07-20.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute150,000.005962018-06AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-ai-safety-retraining-programClaire Zabel Donation process: The grant is a discretionary grant, so the approval process is short-circuited; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/discretionary-grants for more

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to suppport the artificial intelligence safety retraining project. MIRI intends to use these funds to provide stipends, structure, and guidance to promising computer programmers and other technically proficient individuals who are considering transitioning their careers to focus on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence. MIRI believes the stipends will make it easier for aligned individuals to leave their jobs and focus full-time on safety. MIRI expects the transition periods to range from three to six months per individual. The MIRI blog post https://intelligence.org/2018/09/01/summer-miri-updates/ says: "Buck [Shlegeris] is currently selecting candidates for the program; to date, we’ve made two grants to individuals."

Other notes: The grant is mentioned by MIRI in https://intelligence.org/2018/09/01/summer-miri-updates/. Announced: 2018-06-27.
AI Impacts100,000.006652018-06AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support-2018/Daniel Dewey Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "AI Impacts plans to use this grant to work on strategic questions related to potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Renewal in 2020 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support-2020/ and 2022 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support/ suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee, though the amount of the 2020 renewal grant is lower (just $50,000).

Other notes: The grant is via the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Announced: 2018-06-27.
Animal Equality2,772,430.00812018-06Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-corporate-animal-welfare-campaignsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support corporate cage-free and broiler welfare campaigns. Animal Equality plans to expand its corporate campaigns in Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and the U.S."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is framed as a renewal of the past grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-international-cage-free-advocacy (August 2016) and also cites other past grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-india-animal-welfare-reform (2017, India) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-eu-farm-animal-welfare (2017, Europe). It is likely made for similar reasons: track record of successful investigations and confidence of Open Phil staff in Animal Equality leadership.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the time that the original two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-international-cage-free-advocacy expires, and is framed as a renewal, so its timing is likely determined by the original grant expiring.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-broiler-welfare-campaigns (2019-01) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-cage-free-and-broiler-welfare (2020-02) with somem overlapping countries suggests continued endorsement of Animal Equality by Open Philanthropy.

Other notes: This is a total of five grants (presumably one grant per country). Affected countries: United States|Brazil|Italy|Mexico|Spain; announced: 2018-07-11.
Future of Life Institute250,000.004922018-06Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2018Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for general support. It is a renewal of the May 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2017 whose primary purpose to administer a request for proposals in AI safety similar to a request for proposals in 2015 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/update-fli-grant

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant in 2019 suggests that Open Phil would continue to stand by its assessment of the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2018-07-05.
Centre for Effective Altruism2,688,000.00862018-06Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2018Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: According to the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding "Our funding will be used primarily to allow CEA to hire new staff; increase staff salaries (from what we see as previously low levels); provide additional support to local EA groups; increase its budget for EA Global and EAGx events (conferences about EA); and partially fund EA Grants." Also: "our funding will in total increase CEA’s 2017 budget by $1.25 million and its 2018 budget by $1.875 million, with the remaining $1.875 million partly offsetting reduced fundraising from other donors, and partly increasing CEA’s reserves for 2019." The current grant page stands by the previous grant page

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Case_for_the_grant "We believe that CEA has a good track record of helping the effective altruism community grow, and its leadership appears to be fairly value-aligned with us in terms of this goal." Two key contributions highlighted are "$1.4 billion worth of pledges made to Giving What We Can (GWWC)" and "Introducing effective altruism to people who have become valuable members of the EA community." The grant renewal is based on renewal plans described in the previous grant page

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Follow-up_expectations says: "We plan to renew this grant for between $1.25 million and $2.5 million next year depending on the outcomes of the various projects CEA plans to try out this year, and at a level consistent with our funding being less than 50% of CEA’s total budget." The grant ammount decided is at the top of the range

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made about one year after the previous grant; this is the expected timeframe for the grant renewal, according to the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Follow-up_expectations
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Grant of £2,000,000 ($2,688,000 at time of conversion). Announced: 2018-06-27.
VOCAL-NY75,000.007362018-06Criminal justice reform/court watchinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vocal-ny-court-watch-nycChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the Court Watch NYC program. Court Watch NYC seeks to increase accountability by training New Yorkers to watch court proceedings, collect data, and report out what they see. The goal of the program is to improve prosecutor practices on bail, plea deals, sentencing, and other related areas. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2018-06-21.
Project NIA121,000.006372018-06Criminal justice reform/transformative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/project-nia-transformative-justice-work-mariame-kabaChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via Chicago Freedom School to support Mariame Kaba’s transformative justice work. The funding is intended to support trainings to develop a model of intervention, prevention, and community engagement around violence against women and gender-nonconforming people; and the creation of a toolkit, a convening, and advocacy around incarcerated people who have been the victims of sexual harm and domestic violence. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2018-06-23.
Prison Policy Initiative100,000.006652018-06Criminal justice reform/data collectionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prison-policy-initiative-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to compile and report on key data trends in criminal justice reform and package that information in a manner that is most helpful to advocates, organizers, and others working to understand and reform the criminal justice system. Renewal of February 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prison-policy-initiative-general-support-2017. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-28.
We Got Us Now100,000.006652018-06Criminal justice reform/incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/we-got-us-now-general-support-2018Michelle Crentsil Grant for a digital platform seeking to organize children of incarcerated parents and raise public awareness about the impacts of parental incarceration. Michelle Crentsil, our Associate for Criminal Justice Reform and the investigator of this grant, believes it’s plausible that We Got Us Now will continue to encourage members to take various actions; begin to build a national network; develop partnerships to develop and deploy this constituency; and identify other leaders in this constituency. Renewal of September 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/we-got-us-now-general-support. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-28.
The People’s Lobby Education Institute125,000.006292018-06Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-lobby-education-institute-support-work-prosecutorial-accountability-chicago-2018Michelle Crentsil Grant to support work on prosecutorial accountability in Chicago. Grantee plans to use this grant to support local organizing to work with Cook County State’s Attorney (SA) Kim Foxx to ensure that her policies are keeping Cook County communities safe without overly relying on jail and prison incarceration. Grant renews March 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-lobby-education-institute-support-work-prosecutorial-accountability-chicago. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2018-07-12.
Workers Center for Racial Justice125,000.006292018-06Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/workers-center-racial-justice-prosecutorial-accountability-chicago-2018Michelle Crentsil Grant to support work on prosecutorial accountability in Chicago. Grantee plans to use this grant to support local organizing to work with Cook County State’s Attorney (SA) Kim Foxx to ensure that her policies are keeping Cook County communities safe without overly relying on jail and prison incarceration. Grant renews March 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/workers-center-racial-justice-prosecutorial-accountability-chicago. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2018-07-12.
Commonwealth Veterinary Association31,355.008532018-06Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/commonwealth-veterinary-association-animal-welfare-workshopLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to provide travel for international farm animal welfare experts to attend an animal welfare workshop in March 2019 in Bangalore, India."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As with our previous grants to support travel scholarships for animal welfare scientists, we believe it is possible to positively impact the trajectory of welfare science in developing nations." It links to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-travel-scholarships (a grant to the International Societoy for Applied Ethology for the 51st Congress).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount was likely determined by travel costs.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely influenced by thte timing of the workshop, but the grant is made nine months in advance of the workshop.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Other notes: Affected countries: India; announced: 2018-07-06.
Compassion in World Farming10,720.009022018-06Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-organizational-developmentLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant for organizational development. Follows October 2017 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/discretionary-grants

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant of £8,000 ($10,720 at the time of conversion)

Other notes: Discretionary grant for organizational development. Follows the October 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-end-the-cage-age-campaign. Announced: 2018-06-28.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security169,600.005812018-06Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/upmc-center-health-security-synbiobeta-2018-meetingJaime Yassif Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: $127,600 to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and $42,000 to SynBioBeta to support a biosecurity fellowship program and a biosecurity panel discussion at the 2018 SynBioBeta conference https://2018.synbiobeta.com/ on synthetic biology.

Other notes: Announced: 2018-07-26.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals231,677.005242018-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/researcchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rspca-broiler-breed-studyLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a broiler chicken breed welfare study. The study, to be conducted by the Royal Veterinary College under RSPCA supervision, will test the welfare of two new breeds and will validate two new behavioral measures to enhance future breed tests."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer Lewis Bollard believes the research is likely to assist broiler welfare campaigns in the U.S. and Europe."

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 171,600.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); affected countries: United Kingdom; announced: 2018-06-14.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities100,000.006652018-05Macroeconomic stabilization policy/automatic fiscal stabilizershttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-automatic-stabilizersAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on enhancing automatic fiscal stabilizers. Automatic fiscal stabilizers are taxes and government programs that respond automatically to changing economic conditions, and do not require additional Congressional action."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "[Automatic fiscal stabilizers] are important for mitigating the effects of economic downturns. We believe CBPP, which has done work in this area before, is a strong candidate to advance these policies given its combination of relevant relationships and deep knowledge of these issues."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-21.
Open Phil AI Fellowship (Earmark: Aditi Raghunathan|Chris Maddison|Felix Berkenkamp|Jon Gauthier|Michael Janner|Noam Brown|Ruth Fong)1,135,000.001842018-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ai-fellows-program-2018Daniel Dewey Donation process: According to the grant page: "These fellows were selected from more than 180 applicants for their academic excellence, technical knowledge, careful reasoning, and interest in making the long-term, large-scale impacts of AI a central focus of their research"

Intended use of funds (category): Living expenses during project

Intended use of funds: Grant to provide scholarship support to seven machine learning researchers over five years

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to the grant page: "The intent of the Open Phil AI Fellowship is both to support a small group of promising researchers and to foster a community with a culture of trust, debate, excitement, and intellectual excellence. We plan to host gatherings once or twice per year where fellows can get to know one another, learn about each other’s work, and connect with other researchers who share their interests."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is the first of annual sets of grants, decided through an annual application process.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Donor retrospective of the donation: The corresponding grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2019-class (2019), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2020-class (2020), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-phil-ai-fellowship-2021-class (2021) confirm that these grants will be made annually. Among the grantees, Chris Maddison would continue receiving support from Open Philanthropy in the future in the form of support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/university-of-toronto-machine-learning-research for his students, indicating continued endorsement of his work.

Other notes: Announced: 2018-05-31.
Ought525,000.003032018-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-supportDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support#Proposed_activities "Ought will conduct research on deliberation and amplification, aiming to organize the cognitive work of ML algorithms and humans so that the combined system remains aligned with human interests even as algorithms take on a much more significant role than they do today." It also links to https://ought.org/approach Also, https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support#Budget says: "Ought intends to use it for hiring and supporting up to four additional employees between now and 2020. The hires will likely include a web developer, a research engineer, an operations manager, and another researcher."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The case for the grant includes: (a) Open Phil considers research on deliberation and amplification important for AI safety, (b) Paul Christiano is excited by Ought's approach, and Open Phil trusts his judgment, (c) Ought’s plan appears flexible and we think Andreas is ready to notice and respond to any problems by adjusting his plans, (d) Open Phil has indications that Ought is well-run and has a reasonable chance of success.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reason for the amount is given, but the grant is combined with another grant from Open Philanthropy Project technical advisor Paul Christiano

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support#Key_questions_for_follow-up lists some questions for followup

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support-2019 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support-2020 suggest that Open Phil would continue to have a high opinion of Ought

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2018-05-30.
Mercy For Animals375,000.004042018-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-us-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaignsLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its broiler chicken welfare corporate campaigns in the U.S."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page links the grant to two past grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (broiler chicken welfare) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns (cage-free egg campaign).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant happens around two years after the linked previous two-year grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaigns (broiler chicken welfare) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns (cage-free egg campaign) suggesting that its timing is related to their expiration.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "We expect to evaluate the merits of a longer renewal of our support to MFA closer to the end of 2018."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants from Open Phil to Mercy For Animals (including https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-welfare-campaigns in January 2019 with a similar scope) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-14.
Early-Career Funding for Global Catastrophic Biological Risks570,000.002882018-05Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/early-career-funding-global-catastrophic-biological-risksClaire Zabel Total over three years in flexible support to enable five early-career people to pursue work and study related to global catastrophic biological risks. Original grant amount $515,000; $55,000 was added on top in October 2018. Announced: 2018-08-24.
Real Justice PAC350,000.004142018-05Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/real-justice-pac-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant recommended for Cari Tuna to make personally (normally, grants for lobbying are recommended to be made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund)

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "Real Justice intends to use these funds to develop tools and infrastructure as it seeks to raise the profile of key prosecutor and sheriff races in 2018 and elect reform-minded candidates who will work to safely reduce the number of people incarcerated in their jurisdictions." Use of funds is limited to work outside California

Donor retrospective of the donation: The renewal of support with the August 2018 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/real-justice-pac-criminal-justice-reform-august-2018 suggests that the donor considered the grant successful

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-28.
Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice20,000.008782018-05Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/greenburger-center-for-social-and-criminal-justice-criminal-justice-conveningChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support a convening regarding the intersection of mental health and incarceration. The purpose of the convening is to organize directly affected people to discuss strategies to decriminalize mental illness. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-05-31.
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition200,000.005442018-05Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/colorado-criminal-justice-reform-coalition-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support its work on prosecutorial accountability, civic engagement, and crime survivor organizing. CCJRC plans to register and mobilize eligible voters who have a criminal record, are incarcerated in jail, or are members of several target communities most impacted by over-criminalization; push for larger reforms; expand community-based services for victims; and raise community awareness of the power of prosecutors and the need for greater accountability. Renewal of December 2016 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/colorado-criminal-justice-reform-coalition-prosecutorial-reform. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Colorado; announced: 2018-06-15.
Faith in Action800,000.002392018-05Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/faith-in-action-live-free-campaign-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the national Live Free Campaign. This renews the August 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-national-network-live-free-campaign. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-15.
Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities50,000.007772018-05Criminal justice reform/disability rightshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/helping-educate-advance-rights-deaf-communities-heard-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant. Grantee, HEARD, plans to educate deaf and disabled communities about their rights and to train and support attorneys and advocates on how to work with and protect the rights of deaf/disabled defendants as well as incarcerated and formerly imprisoned people. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-15.
SPIN Academy42,000.008282018-05Criminal justice reform/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/spin-academy-communications-trainingChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via Community Initiatives to support criminal justice reform leaders seeking communications training. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-06-15.
Ohio Safe and Healthy Communities Campaign500,000.003142018-05Criminal justice reform/decriminalization/drug policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ohio-safe-and-healthy-communities-campaign-ohio-neighborhood-safety-drug-treatment-and-rehabilitation-amendment-may-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant to support the Ohio Neighborhood Safety, Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Amendment. The amendment, which advocates plan to place on the ballot in November 2018, aims to reduce imprisonment for low-level, nonviolent drug and probation violation offenses; encourage participation in rehabilitation for people in prison; and reallocate prison spending to drug treatment, community alternatives to incarceration, and victim services. Grant made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Ohio; announced: 2018-06-28.
Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative300,000.004472018-05Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reform-jails-and-community-reinvestment-initiative-reform-la-jails-ballot-measure-may-2018Chloe Cockburn Grant to support work on the Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative (Reform L.A. Jails). If passed by voters, Reform L.A. Jails will task Los Angeles leaders with developing a comprehensive plan to reduce jail populations and to redirect the cost savings to alternatives to incarceration, which advocates believe will reduce recidivism, prevent crime, and permanently reduce the population of people cycling into and out of jail that are experiencing mental health, drug dependency, or chronic homelessness issues. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. It is a renewal of the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reform-jails-and-community-reinvestment-initiative-reform-la-jails-ballot-measure made in April 2018 (a month ago). Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Los Angeles; announced: 2018-04-26.
Texas Freedom Network Education Fund150,000.005962018-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-freedom-network-education-fund-texas-rising-programChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support the Texas Rising program. This grant will allow Texas Rising to increase its base of young people (under 30 years old) engaged on criminal justice reform issues. The grant will pay for computers, student stipends, and field staff salaries for activities including convenings, trainings, leadership development, digital organizing, and grassroots organizing. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-04-19.
Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative500,000.003142018-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reform-jails-and-community-reinvestment-initiative-reform-la-jails-ballot-measureChloe Cockburn Grant to support work on the Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative (Reform L.A. Jails). If passed by voters, Reform L.A. Jails will task Los Angeles leaders with developing a comprehensive plan to reduce jail populations and to redirect the cost savings to alternatives to incarceration, which advocates believe will reduce recidivism, prevent crime, and permanently reduce the population of people cycling into and out of jail that are experiencing mental health, drug dependency, or chronic homelessness issues. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Previously, Open Phil made a grant to Justice Team Network, the parent organization: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-team-network-justice-la-campaign. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2018-04-26.
Gamechanger Labs400,000.003942018-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/gamechanger-labs-student-organizing-initiative-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant that is a renewal of September 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/gamechanger-labs-student-organizing-initiative The grant is via the Movement Voter Fund at the Tides Foundation to support student and community organizing to reduce incarceration. Gamechanger Labs intends to use these funds to organize convenings, hire support staff and a digital communications strategist, and support local youth and student organizations working on criminal justice reform issues. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-05-17.
Project South50,000.007772018-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/project-south-criminal-justice-reform-workChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for criminal justice reform work. Grantee works in education, local and regional organizing, legal infrastructure and advocacy, and movement support throughout the southern U.S. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-05-17.
California YIMBY500,000.003142018-04Land use reformhttps://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.
International Society for Applied Ethology135,412.006192018-04Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-advance-farm-animal-welfare-science-in-developing-nationsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to advance farm animal welfare science in developing nations. [...] ISAE intends to use these funds to send 15 developing nation scientists to its annual conference, and to host workshops, regional meetings, and farm visits"

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Developing nations account for an increasing share of the world’s factory farmed animals, yet few have many farm animal welfare scientists. [...] [Activities funded by the grant] could both accelerate the development of farm animal welfare science in developing nations and increase the likelihood that the science focuses primarily on welfare rather than productivity."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reason for timing is given, but it is likely based on having had enough time to evaluate the success of the March 2017 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-travel-scholarships and come up with a broader grant scope.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-advance-farm-animal-welfare-science-in-developing-nations-2020 just before the end of this grant's timeframe suggests satisfaction with the grant outcome.

Other notes: Announced: 2018-05-17.
Changing Tastes50,000.007772018-04Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/changing-tastes-market-insights-business-engagement-fish-welfareLewis Bollard Grant to conduct research on attitudes about humane production of fish and seafood among U.S. restaurant and supply chain decision-makers and consumers. Changing Tastes, a food consultancy, intends to conduct surveys to identify current marketplace recognition of humane production and disseminate the results via trade conferences and media. Legally structured as contract work, but conceptually considered similar to a grant, hence reported in the grants database. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-07-12.
Science Philanthropy Alliance225,000.005302018-04Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/science-philanthropy-alliance-general-supportChris Somerville Heather Youngs Discretionary grant over three years to join the Science Philanthropy Alliance, "a community of funders who work together to inspire new, emerging and current philanthropists to dedicate a portion of their philanthropy to basic science.". Announced: 2018-05-15.
Life Sciences Research Foundation780,000.002452018-04Scientific research/transformative basic sciencehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/life-sciences-research-foundation-young-investigatorsChris Somerville Heather Youngs Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support early-career investigators. The funds will support four postdoctoral fellows for three years apiece. The fellows have proposed research projects investigating immunology, virology, neurobiology, and tuberculosis."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup 2019 grant suggests that this grant would be considered a success

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2018-05-03.
VasoRx4,700,000.00482018-04Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/vasorx-atherosclerosis-investmentChris Somerville Heather Youngs Investment to test a new therapy for vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and pulmonary hypertension. The original amount was $1.6 million. In January 2019, $3.1 million was addded to the amount, and the total on the website was updated to reflect this. Announced: 2018-04-26.
Stanford University6,771.009112018-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-nips-workshop-machine-learningDaniel Dewey Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Neural Information Processing System (NIPS) workshop “Machine Learning and Computer Security.” at https://nips.cc/Conferences/2017/Schedule?showEvent=8775

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No specific reasons are included in the grant, but several of the workshop presenters for the previous year's conference (2017) would have their research funded by Open Philanthropy, including Jacob Steinhardt, Percy Liang, and Dawn Song.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount was likely determined by the cost of running the workshop. The original amount of $2,539 was updated in June 2020 to $6,771.

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

Other notes: The original amount of $2,539 was updated in June 2020 to $6,771. Announced: 2018-04-18.
Brighter Green430,000.003782018-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2018Lewis Bollard Donation process: Total across two grants, one of which was discretionary

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work to host another national China Good Food Hero Summit as well as regional summits, administer a “Good Food Incubator” for activists and social enterprises, and research the state of factory farming and advocacy in China."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This grant happens a few months after the end of the timeframe for the previous one-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china (2016-09).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-2020 right at the end of the timeframe of this grant suggests satisfaction with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2018-03-23.
ACTAsia350,000.004142018-03Animal welfare/clothing change/furhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/act-asia-reduce-fur-demand-2018Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on a fur-free ad campaign, fur-free courses at design colleges, research and reporting on the fur industry, and a Sustainable Fashion Forum to discuss alternatives to fur."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/act-asia-reduce-fur-demand-in-asia-2020 with a similar amount and similar purpose, made shortly before the end of the timeframe of this grant, suggests satisfaction with the grant outcome.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: China; announced: 2018-05-30.
Aquaculture Stewardship Council13,813.008982018-03Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/aquaculture-stewardship-council-organizational-developmentLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "for organizational development."

Other notes: Announced: 2018-04-19.
WildAid500,000.003142018-03Animal welfare/diet changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wildaid-reducing-meat-consumption-china-2018Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [WildAid's] campaign to reduce meat consumption in the Asia-Pacific region. We [Open Philanthropy] expect WildAid will use the funds to produce public service announcement campaigns featuring celebrities in television advertisements and on billboards in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major Asian cities, including Hong Kong and others."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wildaid-reducing-meat-consumption-in-asia-2019 (2019-02) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China|Hong Kong; announced: 2018-03-23.
Compassion in World Farming USA1,500,000.001492018-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support-2018Lewis Bollard Donation process: This is a followup grant to the first grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support made April 2016.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. CIWF USA has been one of the major contributors to the success of corporate reforms for layer hens, and intends to use these funds to seek implementation of existing cage-free reforms and to secure new corporate broiler welfare reforms."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not go into reasons, but suggests that the reasons are similar to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Case_for_the_grant (reasons for the first grant). Excerpt: "We see this grant as an opportunity to expand our support for organizations working to improve the living conditions of animals on U.S. factory farms beyond our early grants on cage-free corporate campaigns."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-25.
Justice Strategies100,000.006652018-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-strategies-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via Tides Center for general support. Justice Strategies is a small think tank that produces reports and convenings and provides testimony, thought-partnership and leadership, and other support to advocates. Grant renews 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-strategies-general-support. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-12.
Media Mobilizing Project140,000.006172018-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/media-mobilizing-project-criminal-justice-coalitionChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support coordination of the Coalition for a Just District Attorney. The coalition seeks to amplify the voices of communities fighting to end mass incarceration, raise the dignity of communities in Philadelphia, maintain public support for decarceration reforms in Philadelphia, and increase justice in the city and nationwide. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Pennsylvania; affected cities: Philadelhpia; announced: 2018-04-12.
National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls500,000.003142018-03Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-council-incarcerated-and-formerly-incarcerated-women-and-girls-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via Families for Justice as Healing for general support. The National Council is a network of women impacted by incarceration focused on ending the incarceration of women and girls—a fast-growing incarcerated population—through a mix of relationship building, research, leadership training, and advocacy work. Original grant amount was $250,000; in July 2018, an additional $250,000 was added to the grant amount. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-12.
The Justice Collaborative1,800,000.001312018-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/the-justice-collaborative-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support via the Tides Center. The grant is a renewal of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/the-justice-collaborative-general-support-2017 (2017-01, $1,301,280). Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-19.
Ohio Safe and Healthy Communities Campaign500,000.003142018-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ohio-safe-and-healthy-communities-campaign-ohio-neighborhood-safety-drug-treatment-and-rehabilitation-amendmentChloe Cockburn Grant to support the Ohio Neighborhood Safety, Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Amendment. The amendment, which advocates plan to place on the ballot in November 2018, aims to reduce imprisonment for low-level, nonviolent drug and probation violation offenses; encourage participation in rehabilitation for people in prison; and reallocate prison spending to drug treatment, community alternatives to incarceration, and victim services. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2018-04-26.
Harborlight Community Partners40,000.008312018-03Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/harborlight-community-partners-YIMBYtown-2018Alexander 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.
Carl Shulman Discretionary Fund (Earmark: Carl Shulman)5,000,000.00402018-03--https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-new-discretionary-fundHolden Karnofsky Money for a discretionary fund to be administered by Carl Shulman, who is a Research Associate at the Future of Humanity Institute and an advisor to the Open Philanthropy Project. Based on experience working with Shulman, Open Phil believes that the first $5 million that Shulman could allocate would be better allocated than the last $5 million that Open Phil could allocate. Open Phil is simultaneously experimenting with an “external investigators” program with similar goals but a different setup, namely that grants recommended by external investigators go through our standard process where the reasoning and recommendation is discussed in detail with Open Philanthropy Project decision-makers. Carl is also part of the external investigators program. Announced: 2018-05-17.
University of California, San Francisco500,000.003142018-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness/Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/ucsf-research-antiviral-activity-hsp90-inhibitorsChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support research led by Dr. Raul Andino to test the broad spectrum antiviral potential of several drugs. The grant will allow Dr. Andino to carry out tests of the effectiveness of two commercial-quality drugs against five different viruses. Original grant amount of $320,000 in February 2018, and an additional $180,000 added in June 2018 (grant page updated around 2018-06-29). Announced: 2018-03-24.
Global Priorities Institute2,674,284.00872018-02Cause prioritizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/global-priorities-institute-general-supportNick Beckstead Grant of £2,051,232 over five years (estimated at $2,674,284, depending upon currency conversion rates at the time of annual installments) via Americans for Oxford for general support. GPI is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Oxford that conducts foundational research to inform the decision-making of individuals and institutions seeking to do as much good as possible. GPI intends to use this funding to support global priorities research, specifically: to hire three early-career, non-tenured research fellows with expertise in philosophy or economics, as well as two operations staff; to secure a larger office space to accommodate them; to host visiting researchers; and to hold seminars which address global priorities research topics. Announced: 2018-05-21.
Founders Pledge3,222,653.00662018-02Effective altruism/donor pledgeshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/founders-pledge-general-support-2018Nick Beckstead Total across two grants for general support over three years, representing a renewal of the 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/founders-pledge-general-support Since the previous grant, Founders Pledge has increased its pledge commitments and a large percentage of donations made by founders taking their pledge have been to organizations that prioritize an evidence based approach with respect to their interventions. However, its expansion into other parts of Europe has been more limited than anticipated. Instead, FP has shifted its primary expansion focus to the United States and Canada. Announced: 2018-04-05.
Mamoreruinochi wo Mamorukai40,000.008312018-02Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/mamoreruinochi-wo-mamorukai-legal-aid-for-scientists-in-japanChris Somerville Heather Youngs Discretionary grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Grantee, which translates roughly as Protect the Lives Protectable, is a Japanese organization that protects science journalists and scientists from attacks, insults, and litigation. Announced: 2018-07-06.
MIT Synthetic Neurobiology Group3,000,000.00682018-02Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/massachusetts-institute-technology-synthetic-neurobiology-group-2018Chris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant over two years. Grantee group led by Ed Boyden. Followup to March 2016 grant, and made for similar reasons as that first grant: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/massachusetts-institute-technology-synthetic-neurobiology-group. Announced: 2018-03-08.
Center for Global Development49,942.008182018-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-for-global-development-pandemic-policy-project-jeremy-konyndykJaime Yassif Grant to support a project on "Policymaking during the Ebola Outbreak: Implications for Future Pandemics" led by Jeremy Konyndyk. Announced: 2018-03-08.
Texas Inmate Families Association200,000.005442018-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-inmate-families-association-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee (TIFA) is a primarily volunteer-driven organization that provides support, education, and advocacy for family members of incarcerated individuals. This funding is intended to allow TIFA to hire a full-time organizer to increase membership, provide marketing assistance, and conduct more trainings and workshops. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-02-22.
Court Watch NOLA100,000.006652018-02Criminal justice reform/court watchinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/court-watch-nola-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant. Grantee utilizes over 100 volunteers annually to observe and collect data on practices used in New Orleans courtrooms. Its observations and data are then compiled into regular reports, which can be used by the general public and advocacy groups for work related to criminal justice reform. Follows up on grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/court-watch-nola-general-support-october-2017. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New Orleans; announced: 2018-03-08.
Southerners On New Ground400,000.003942018-02Criminal justice reform/decriminalization and bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/southerners-on-new-ground-anti-criminalization-workChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant over two years to Southerners On New Ground (SONG) to support anti-criminalization work. SONG intends to use this funding to hire more full-time organizers and increase efforts on anti-criminalization campaigns, particularly those focused on the abolition of cash bail and the closure or slowed expansion of local jails. Open Phil is impressed by SONG’s reputation for effective community organizing around multiple issues. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-08.
Voters Organized to Educate100,000.006652018-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/voters-organized-to-educate-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee intends to use these funds to hire a senior legislative policy consultant and build administrative capacity for its criminal justice reform legislative efforts in Louisiana. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New Orleans; affected cities: Louisiana; announced: 2018-03-08.
Justice Team Network400,000.003942018-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-team-network-justice-la-campaignChloe Cockburn Grant to support work on the JusticeLA campaign. Justice Team Network intends to use this funding for base-building (e.g. town halls), lobbying, communications, and research activities related to the campaign. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/dignity-and-power-now-justice-la-campaign to Dignity and Power Now. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Los Angeles; announced: 2018-03-15.
Columbia University50,000.007772018-02Criminal justice reform/decriminalization and prison time reduction and formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/columbia-university-beyond-the-bars-conference-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant (labeled a gift) to the Center for Justice at Columbia University’s School of Social Work to support its 2018 Beyond the Bars conference. Beyond the Bars is an annual interdisciplinary conference on mass incarceration that brings together stakeholders including formerly incarcerated individuals as well as community organizations interested in ending mass incarceration and promoting justice and equity. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-24.
AI Scholarships (Earmark: Dmitrii Krasheninnikov|Michael Cohen)159,000.005892018-02AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ai-scholarships-2018Daniel Dewey Discretionary grant; total across grants to two artificial intelligence researcher, both over two years. The funding is intended to be used for the students’ tuition, fees, living expenses, and travel during their respective degree programs, and is part of an overall effort to grow the field of technical AI safety by supporting value-aligned and qualified early-career researchers. Recipients are Dmitrii Krasheninnikov, master’s degree, University of Amsterdam and Michael Cohen, master’s degree, Australian National University. Announced: 2018-07-26.
Cynthia Schuck & Wladimir Alonso (Earmark: Cynthia Schuck|Wladimir Alonso)96,130.007132018-02Animal welfare/factory farming/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/cynthia-schuck-wladimir-alonso-daly-projectLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says the grant "was supported through a contractor agreement. While we typically do not publish pages for contractor agreements, we occasionally opt to do so."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to develop a model for evaluating disability-adjusted life year (DALY) impacts of animal welfare reforms. This six-month pilot project will focus on the impact of various potential welfare reforms for pigs, including banning crates or mutilations and requiring indoor enrichment or outdoor access. If successful, the project could be expanded to analyze the DALY impact of other welfare reforms for other farmed species."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 6; announced: 2018-05-17.
Farm Forward165,691.005862018-02Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/farm-forward-leadership-circle-2018Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to continue to seek commitments from universities, hospitals, and companies to source certified higher-welfare animal products. This continues the January 2017 support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/farm-forward-broiler-chicken-welfare-advocacy

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is a renewal grant and its timing is determined by the end of the timeframe for the previous grant
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor retrospective of the donation: The exit grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/farm-forward-exit-grant made next year suggests that the results of the grant were not fully satisfactory

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-05.
Better Eating International67,110.007512018-02Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/better-eating-international-millenial-vegan-surveyLewis Bollard Discretionary grant to support a market research study to "Segment U.S. millennials for Targeted Vegan Education.". Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-24.
Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security44,627.008242018-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-2018Jaime Yassif Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to collect data about Libya’s pandemic preparedness capacity and also to establish a model process that can be applied in other countries in the region where it is difficult to obtain data due to political instability or ongoing conflict."

Other notes: Announced: 2018-03-14.
Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund100,000.006652018-02Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018Alexander Berger Donation process: Grant made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund; this complements the grant made by Open Philanthropy directly to the Center for Popular Democracy (the associated 501(c)(3)) at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 (2018-02).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve. [...] CPD Action expects to use this funding primarily for lobbying activities associated with the campaign."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but we continue to believe it to be worthwhile to support the campaign through the next recession, when its advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its impact." It also links to the corresponding CPD grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 for more context.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons are given for the amount; it is 1/12 of the amount for the corresponding CPD grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 (2018-02) of about $1.2 million.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is coordinated with the corresponding CPD grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 whose timing in turn is based on an annual cadence of granting.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor retrospective of the donation: As of November 2021, Open Philanthropy has made no further grants to the CPD Action Fund, though it has made two further grants to CPD. The reasons for ending the practice of complementary graants to the Action Fund are not clear.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-23.
Center for Popular Democracy1,200,000.001752018-02Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2018Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy, but we continue to believe it to be worthwhile to support the campaign through the next recession, when its advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its impact."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reasons are given for the amount, but it roughly matches the amounts of the previous years: $1,100,000 for 2017 and $1,429,000 for 2016.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 was for the 2017 year, so with the end of the year, funds are needed for 2017's Fed Up campaign.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page notes that the next recession would be an occasion to better evaluate the impact of the Fed Up campaign.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants include https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2019 (2019-11) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-up-campaign-2020 (2020-06). The latter grant is made in light of the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other notes: An associated grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 is made to the CPD Action Fund by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-23.
80,000 Hours510,000.003122018-02Effective altruism/movement growth/career counselinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2018Nick Beckstead Nicole Ross Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: No explicitly listed priority uses of the funds, but likely similar to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support that it is renewing

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Likely the same reasons as for the 2017 grant that this is renewing; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support#Case_for_the_grant The key reason is that Open Phil finds impressive the large number of impact-adjusted significant plan changes (IASPCs) that 80,000 Hours claims to have brought about, and broadly agrees with 80,000 Hours' calculation of their IASPCs

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount determined by the amount ($510,000) raised from other donors in 2017, which turned out to be the smallest of the three constraining amounts described in the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support#Case_for_the_grant "We expect to recommend another grant to 80,000 Hours at the beginning of 2018, with the amount recommended being whichever of the following is smallest: (1) $1.25 million (2) The amount 80,000 Hours raises from other donors in 2017 (3) The amount necessary for 80,000 Hours to have $3.75 million in its bank account"

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing as pre-committed on the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support#Case_for_the_grant "We expect to recommend another grant to 80,000 Hours at the beginning of 2018"

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2019 for $4,795,803 in February 2019 (amount determined by the Committee for Effective Altruism Support) suggests general satisfaction with the grantee and the grant

Other notes: Announced: 2018-02-22.
Niskanen Center400,000.003942018-01Migration policy/politicshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration-2018Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work on immigration policy. [...] Niskanen has grown its immigration program to approximately $1M/year."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Because we do not expect significant positive movement on immigration at the federal level over the next few years [a likely reference to the Trump presidency at the time], we view this support primarily as a way to ensure the Niskanen Center is able to continue developing relationships and policy ideas in advance of any future opportunities for progress."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The previous grant was $360,000 for two years; this grant amount is pretty comparable. The grant page says: "Niskanen has grown its immigration program to approximately $1M/year." So this grant now accounts for only 20% of the cost of the program.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made around the end of the timeframe for the previous two-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration (2015-10).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-center-research-on-immigration-policy-2020 (2020-01) would be an exit grant. Open Philanthropy does not provide reasons for the exit, so its retrospective evaluation of this grant isn't clear.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-30.
WaitList Zero100,000.006652018-01Organ donationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/waitlist-zero-general-support-exit-grant-2017-- Exit grant, to give WaitList Zero approximately 18 months of operating support to allow them to secure other funding. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-30.
Center for Applied Rationality560,000.002912018-01Epistemic institutionshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparc-2018Nick Beckstead Nicole Ross Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Summer Program on Applied Rationality and Cognition (SPARC). SPARC is a two-week summer program for top high school students to further develop skills related to applied reasoning, with a broad-ranging curriculum."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We expect that this program will expand the horizons of some students with extremely high potential and, hopefully, increase their positive impact on the world. We are especially interested in the possibility that participation in SPARC leads to greater awareness of effective altruism and issues important to the effective altruism community."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Open Phil had previously funded SPARC for 2016 and 2017 with the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparc This grant continues the funding to 2018 (and possibly to later years)

Other notes: Announced: 2018-02.
Center for Applied Rationality1,000,000.002002018-01Epistemic institutionshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support-2018Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "CFAR is an adult education nonprofit that seeks to find and develop cognitive tools and to deliver these tools to promising individuals, groups, organizations, and networks focused on solving large and pressing problems."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our primary interest in [CFAR] workshops is that we believe they introduce people to and/or strengthen their connections with the effective altruism (EA) community and way of thinking, which we hope results in people with outstanding potential pursuing more impactful career trajectories. CFAR is particularly interested in growing the talent pipeline for work on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). More on our interest in supporting work along these lines is here."

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "CFAR’s performance on this grant will be judged primarily in terms of whether it provides adequate evidence of its programs resulting in improved career trajectories of the sort described above."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support-2020 would be an exit grant, suggesting that Open Phil would revise downward its assessment of continued support of CFAR, but still continue to value CFAR enough to help it exit smoothly.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2018-02-28.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center2,934,400.00792018-01Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/beth-israel-deaconess-medical-center-clinical-trial-sepsis-therapyChris Somerville Heather Youngs Grant to support Dr. Michael Donnino to conduct a multicenter clinical trial of a therapy for severe sepsis. Announced: 2018-01-30.
Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense2,588,162.00912018-01Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support-2018Jaime Yassif Intended use of funds: Grantee advocates for improvements to U.S. biodefense policy through a variety of activities, including hosting public meetings, publishing reports, and conducting outreach to members of Congress and the executive branch.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Likely similar reason as for the 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support that it is renewing. An earlier renewal/top-up was done in January 2017.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/bipartisan-commission-on-biodefense-general-support for a February 2020 grant to the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense calls that grant a followup to this and previous grants to the Blue Ribbon Panel Study on Biodefense.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2018-02-16.
Just Liberty569,000.002892018-01Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2018Chloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the money is being used for lobbying

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant "will allow the organization to continue its organizing, lobbying, and outreach activities to build support for criminal justice reform ahead of the 2019 Texas legislative session. Just Liberty intends to target many of its activities toward center-right voters, whose voices may be impactful on Republican lawmakers."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Just Liberty intends to target many of its activities toward center-right voters, whose voices may be impactful on Republican lawmakers."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is similar to (slightly higher than) the previous general support amount of $530,000 for the October 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2016

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely determined by the expiration of the previous round of support https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2016 (made October 2016, likely for a year). No explicit timing-related considerations are discussed.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2019 is much reduced (only $100,000) which suggests a mixed evaluation of the success of this grant. No explicit retrospective is provided

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-03-15.
Detroit Justice Center50,000.007772018-01Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/detroit-justice-center-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via the Urban Justice Center for general support. DJC is a new nonprofit law firm focused on remedying the impacts of mass incarceration by building a model of integrated legal services, advocacy, and alternatives in Detroit. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Michigan; affected cities: Detroit; announced: 2018-02-22.
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund100,000.006652018-01Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/brooklyn-community-bail-fund-national-bail-fund-network-2018Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant supports the National Bail Fund Network led by Pilar Weiss. It is accompanied by a grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/silicon-valley-debug-bail-fund-participatory-defense-pilot to Silicon Valley De-Bug, a collaboator on the project. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-01.
Silicon Valley De-Bug20,600.008772018-01Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/silicon-valley-debug-bail-fund-participatory-defense-pilotChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support a pilot project exploring a partnership between bail funds and participatory defense, led by Raj Jayadev. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/brooklyn-community-bail-fund-national-bail-fund-network-january-2018 to the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-01.
LatinoJustice50,000.007772018-01Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/latino-justice-media-fellowship-programChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support a media fellowship. The fellowship program is intended to allow a member of the Latinx community to document and eventually publish an account of his or her direct involvement with the criminal justice and correction system. For its inaugural fellow, LatinoJustice selected Jason Hernandez, one of the first individuals to receive clemency under President Barack Obama’s clemency program. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-15.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace613,380.002762017-12Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/carnegie-endowment-international-peace-chinese-indian-perspectives-biosecurityJaime Yassif Grant over three years to support a project to assess Chinese and Indian perspectives on biosecurity risks associated with advances in biotechnology. Announced: 2018-01-09.
American Society for Microbiology43,149.008262017-12Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/american-society-for-microbiology-biothreats-conference-2018Jaime Yassif Discretionary grant to support a keynote panel discussion and dinner on “Preparing for Biological Catastrophe” during the 2018 ASM Biothreats Meeting, see https://www.asm.org/index.php/biothreats-2018 for more. The dinner discussion will address global catastrophic biological risks as part of a broader conversation about past and potential future pandemics, and is expected to be attended by approximately 400 guests. Announced: 2018-02-15.
Blackbird425,000.003822017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/blackbird-ending-mass-incarceration-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant to support efforts to end mass incarceration. The grant is intended to support communications, policy and organizing work. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-05.
Aubin Pictures25,000.008622017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/aubin-pictures-criminal-justice-media-archive-scopingChloe Cockburn Grant to support a criminal justice media archive scoping project. The grant will allow Aubin Pictures to conduct a needs assessment and propose a strategic development plan to catalogue and archive media footage related to criminal justice reform (e.g. interviews, courtroom or prison footage). Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-23.
Smart Justice CA25,000.008622017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/smart-justice-ca-california-criminal-justice-reform-lobbyingChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via The Advocacy Fund to support lobbying on criminal justice bills in the California legislature in 2017. Grant financed by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2018-01-23.
Color Of Change1,000,000.002002017-12Criminal justice reform/bail reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-criminal-justice-reform-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant supports work on criminal justice reform, and continues https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-prosecutor-accountability (2016 grant). Grantee works on movement coordination and prosecutor accountability activities, as well as work on bail reform. Grant financed by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-02-15.
The Ordinary People Society280,000.004702017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ordinary-people-society-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant renews https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ordinary-people-society-prodigal-child-project (2016 grant) and is for general support. See also https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prodigal-child-project-general-support (a related grant). Affected countries: United States; affected states: Alabama|Georgia|Florida|Tennessee; announced: 2018-02-15.
The Prodigal Child Project20,000.008782017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prodigal-child-project-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant to support work training and organizing pastors to advocate for criminal justice reform with legislators across several southern U.S. states. Grant financed by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. See also https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ordinary-people-society-general-support-2017 to an affiliated organization. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Alabama|Georgia|Florida|Tennessee; announced: 2018-02-15.
Voters Organized to Educate305,000.004432017-12Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/voters-organized-to-educate-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant intended to allow Voters Organized to continue developing and testing its electoral impact and voter engagement strategies, vet and publicly endorse local political candidates who support policies aligned with Voters Organized’s mission, and raise its profile as an organization representing the interests of formerly incarcerated people. Grant financed by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Louisiana; announced: 2018-02-15.
Citizens for Juvenile Justice75,000.007362017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/citizens-for-juvenile-justice-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Total across two discretionary grants (one made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund) for general support, representing a continuation of the 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/citizens-for-juvenile-justice-general-support-2016. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Massachusetts; announced: 2018-03-01.
Mijente255,000.004892017-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mijente-anti-criminalization-workChloe Cockburn Two discretionary grants totaling $255,000 to support criminal justice reform and anti-criminalization work. Mijente is a national hub for Latinx- and Chincanx-focused organizing and direct action, and this grant is intended to help Mijente mobilize Latinxs, particularly young activists and organizers, on issues related to criminal justice reform. Renewal of 2016 grant: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mijente-criminal-justice-reform. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-01.
Urban Institute165,833.005852017-12History of philanthropyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/history-of-philanthropy/urban-institute-history-of-philanthropy-projectLuke Muehlhauser Alexander Berger Grant to support a series of literature reviews and case studies on the history of philanthropy. The work will be led primarily by Benjamin Soskis, a research associate at the Urban Institute, who has previously produced case studies for our history of philanthropy project. Announced: 2018-02-22.
protocols.io200,000.005442017-12Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/protocols-io-platform-improvementsHeather Youngs Discretionary grant to ZappyLab, Inc (doing business as “protocols.io”) to support improvements to the protocols.io platform, which provides open access for science methods. Announced: 2017-12-08.
The Center for Election Science628,600.002722017-12Politicshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/the-center-for-election-science-general-supportWilliam MacAskill Grantee is a US-based nonprofit that promotes alternative voting methods to plurality voting, with an emphasis on cardinal methods and a special focus on approval voting. The grant is intended to go toward CES’ general expenses over the next year such as salaries, marketing, office supplies, as well as its Ballot Initiative Education Campaign project. In October of 2018, Open Phil added $30,000 to the original award amount of $598,600. Announced: 2018-01-23.
Humane Society Legislative Fund525,000.003032017-12Animal welfare/factory farming/legislative campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/Humane-Society-Legislative-Fund-Opposing-King-AmendmentLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support efforts to defeat the Protect Interstate Commerce Act, also known as the King Amendment. The amendment, if enacted, would prevent states from imposing animal welfare standards on the sale of animal products produced in another state. HSLF plans to run targeted advertising, organize new grassroots support and third-party validators, and advocate against the amendment with key congressional committee members.

Other notes: The grant is made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, because it is being used for lobbying purposes. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-04-29.
Family Farm Action153,000.005942017-12Animal welfare/factory farming/legislative standardshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/family-farm-action-opposing-king-amendmentLewis Bollard Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, because of the funding being used for lobbying efforts

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support efforts to defeat the Protect Interstate Commerce Act, also known as the King Amendment. The amendment, if enacted, would prevent states from imposing animal welfare standards on the sale of animal products produced in another state. FFA plans to conduct grassroots outreach to affected groups, especially family farmers."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2019-06-07.
L2141,347,742.001642017-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/L214-broiler-chicken-campaignsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support work on broiler chicken welfare in France. Using this funding, L214 will conduct a campaign advocating for reduced chicken meat consumption as well as a corporate campaign targeting higher welfare standards for broiler chickens. Additionally, it plans to establish a new campus outreach program for movement building purposes, and will apply some funding toward capacity building such as software, training, and fundraising expenses."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil's "Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, is excited to support L214 due to its track record securing large wins to date, such as cage-free pledges from some of France’s largest retailers; his impression of its leadership team; and the organization’s strategic alignment with our goal to build a stronger farm animal welfare movement in Europe."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The write-up for a followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/L214-broiler-chicken-campaigns-2020 (November 2020) indicates Open Phil's satisfaction with L214's progress since this grant.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 1,140,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: France; announced: 2017-12-08.
fair-fish international association453,841.003652017-11Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fair-fish-international-fish-welfare-standardsLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, began looking into funding opportunities related to farmed fish welfare last year, due to the number of animals affected by fish farming." The grant page links to a grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Fair_Fish_International_Association/Fair_Fish_International_Friends_of_the_Sea_Proposal_2017.pdf submitted July 31, 2017.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "FFI’s research team, FishEthoBase, will work jointly with fish welfare certifier Friend of the Sea (FOS) to assess fish welfare at approximately 50% of all FOS-certified farms. Findings from these assessments will then be used to create farm-specific improvement recommendations and to develop animal welfare criteria for possible inclusion in FOS standards. Additionally, FFI plans to share its findings through formal presentations at academic and industry conferences. [...] FFI intends to use these funds for expenses related to onsite consulting, standards development, project management, travel, conference participation and presentations, and media and public relations." The linked grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Fair_Fish_International_Association/Fair_Fish_International_Friends_of_the_Sea_Proposal_2017.pdf has more.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, began looking into funding opportunities related to farmed fish welfare last year, due to the number of animals affected by fish farming."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Fair_Fish_International_Association/Fair_Fish_International_Friends_of_the_Sea_Proposal_2017.pdf includes a budget estimate; the actual grant amount is close to the total per the budget estimate. The donation was given as 375,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/fair-fish-international-association-general-support suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2017-12-08.
theguardian.org886,600.002352017-11Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-guardian-journalism-factory-farmingLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support journalism on factory farming and farm animal cruelty. Theguardian.org has stated that it will regrant the funds to The Guardian newspaper, which will allow The Guardian to increase its reporting output on issues related to factory farming, including publishing approximately one article per week as well as the creation of multimedia content. In keeping with The Guardian’s journalistic and transparency standards, all supported content will be clearly labeled and the Open Philanthropy Project will have no editorial control over the content ultimately published."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, considers this grant both an opportunity to learn valuable lessons about the efficacy of media sponsorship, as well as an opportunity to increase the salience of farm animal welfare issues amongst influential journalists, policymakers, and business leaders."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/the-guardian-journalism-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-2020 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2017-12-08.
Aquaculture Stewardship Council533,036.003012017-11Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/aquaculture-stewardship-council-fish-welfare-standard-developmentLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to develop a fish welfare standard. ASC’s goal is to develop an objective, evidence-based standard that is applicable to all eligible ASC-certified species and recognized globally. The fish welfare standard will be linked to the ASC farm standards. ASC intends to share its approach to fish welfare with all farms engaged with the program and encourage adoption of it. [...] ASC intends to use these funds for expenses related to standard development, such as salaries, consulting, outreach and communications, overhead, market testing, and travel and administrative costs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, began looking into funding opportunities related to farmed fish welfare last year, due to the number of animals affected by fish farming."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/aquaculture-stewardship-council-organizational-development suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 459,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2017-11-28.
The Good Food Institute1,500,000.001492017-11Animal welfare/meat alternativeshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-general-support-2017Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, considers GFI to be the leading nonprofit promoting alternatives to industrial farmed animal products and has been particularly impressed with its strategic support (for example, providing branding guidance, facilitating venture capital connections, conducting market research, and consulting on media rollout plans) for early-stage companies producing plant-based products, such as Good Dot and Good Catch. GFI has also achieved growing influence as a think tank and resource provider. GFI expects to use much of this new funding for programmatic expansion by hiring new staff."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing of the grant is about a year after the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-general-support and roughly around the timeframe when that grant funding is about to run out.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-international-work suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2018-01-05.
Otwarte Klatki472,864.003582017-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/otwarte-klatki-chicken-welfare-campaigns-poland-ukraineLewis Bollard Grant to support farm animal welfare campaigns and organizational capacity building in Poland and Ukraine. The funding will allow Otwarte Klatki to launch broiler chicken welfare campaigns in Poland and cage-free campaigns in Ukraine, as well as support expenses related to a planned merger with the Danish animal rights organization, Anima. Affected countries: Poland|Ukraine; announced: 2017-11-21.
InterAcademy Partnership14,605.008962017-11Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/interacademy-partnership-bwc-meeting-state-partiesJaime Yassif Discretionary grant to support a side event at the December 2017 Biological Weapons Commission (BWC) Meeting of State Parties, and other related activities to support the BWC. Announced: 2017-12-01.
David Manheim65,308.007552017-11Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/david-manheim-research-existential-riskClaire Zabel Grant to perform a research and analysis project, "Eliciting Evaluations of Existential Risk from Infectious Disease.". Announced: 2018-01-30.
Youth First Initiative250,000.004922017-11Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/youth-first-initiative-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee is undertaking a coordinated national advocacy campaign with the ultimate goals of completely ending youth incarceration, closing youth prisons, and redirecting young people to community-based programs, and is a project of New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-12-01.
ColorOfChange PAC200,000.005442017-11Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-pac-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant to support electoral engagement work related to prosecutor accountability and reform. Color of Change PAC intends to use this funding to organize national and local partners to participate in voter engagement activities several months prior to important district attorney elections, with a goal to promote prosecutors or prosecutor candidates who are supportive of criminal justice reform.. See the related grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-criminal-justice-reform-2017 to the parent 501(c)(4) organization. Grant financed by Cari Tuna personally. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-02-15.
Animal Equality2,110,460.001132017-11Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-eu-farm-animal-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support farm animal advocacy in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom." "The funding will support corporate outreach and animal welfare campaigns, investigations, and capacity building for Animal Equality’s teams in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, is excited to continue supporting Animal Equality due to its track record of successful corporate outreach and investigations to date; his confidence in its leadership team; and the organization’s alignment with our strategy to build a stronger farm animal welfare movement in Europe."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is a total across amounts for each of the four countries (Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). This comes to a cost per country a little over $500,000. This is somewhat higher than the cost for the India grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-india-animal-welfare-reform and no explicit budget information is provided.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing matches up with Open Phil's "strategy to build a stronger farm animal welfare movement in Europe."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-corporate-animal-welfare-campaigns (two overlapping countries: Italy and Spain) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-corporate-animal-welfare-campaigns (same four countries) suggest that Open Philanthropy would be satisfied with the outcomme of the grant. The latter grant's page says: "Animal Equality has helped secure cage-free and broiler welfare wins and conducted investigations in Europe, and plans to use these funds to continue its work."

Other notes: This is a total across four grants (presumably one grant per country). Affected countries: Germany|Italy|Spain|United Kingdom; announced: 2017-11-28.
University of Washington (Institute for Protein Design)11,367,500.00152017-11Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-of-washington-universal-flu-vaccineChris Somerville Heather Youngs Donation process: In the blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/questions-we-ask-ourselves-making-grant Michael Levine describes the process of deciding the grant: "Through ongoing conversations, the original grant proposal focusing on the development of a universal flu vaccine evolved into an expanded grant incorporating work on a computational protein design system that we believe could have much broader utility if it makes it possible to rapidly design new vaccines or antiviral drugs."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support research on the use of computational protein design to develop a universal influenza vaccine. This work will be led by UW Professor David Baker, Ph.D., and UW Assistant Professor Neil King, Ph.D. In addition, part of this funding is intended to improve the Rosetta molecular modeling and design software originally developed in Baker’s lab. UW Assistant Professor Frank DiMaio, Ph.D., and others will work to improve Rosetta to better predict the properties of proteins

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/questions-we-ask-ourselves-making-grant suggests a scope increase for the grant from being for a universal flu vaccine to being for improving computational protein design techniques as well.

Other notes: The grant is discussed in https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason as part of an overview of the Open Philanthropy Project grantmaking strategy. Intended funding timeframe in months: 60; announced: 2018-04-04.
Arizona State University6,421,402.00322017-11Scientific research/transformative R01https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/arizona-state-university-canine-clinical-trial-multivalent-cancer-vaccineHeather Youngs Grant to be used in support of a canine clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of a multivalent, preventative cancer vaccine. The trial will test the cancer-prevention efficacy of a multi-valent frameshift peptide (FSP) vaccine, developed by Dr. Stephen Albert Johnston, in healthy, middle-aged pet dogs. The trial will be conducted under the direction of Dr. Douglas Thamm, Director of Clinical Research at the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University. Part of a set of "second chance" grants by the Open Philanthropy Project for some rejected applications for the NIH Transformative R01 program https://commonfund.nih.gov/tra discussed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-second-chance-program-nih-transformative-research-applicants and https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08795-0. Announced: 2017-12-20.
Nuclear Threat Initiative6,000,000.00332017-10Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-biosecurity-program-supportJaime Yassif Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-biosecurity-program-support#Our_process says: "Jaime [grant investigator] had several meetings with [Elizabeth] Cameron [leader of program being funded] and Deborah Rosenblum, Executive Vice President of NTI. She also reviewed and commented on NTI’s proposed budget and project concept notes.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support NTI's new biosecurity program being led by Dr. Elizabeth Cameron, who recently joined NTI. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-biosecurity-program-support#Proposed_activities says this includes "biosecurity work in China, developing international norms for dual use bioscience research, and a project to develop innovative ideas in the biosurveillance space. Additionally, some funding is reserved for new project ideas generated during the grant period."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-biosecurity-program-support#Case_for_the_grant lists these reasons for the grant: (1) "NTI’s track record of securing wins in the nuclear security and arms control space." (2) "Our confidence in Dr. Elizabeth Cameron". (3) "NTI appears open to considering work focused on GCR prevention." Also: "we consider biosecurity a neglected area, particularly with regard to GCRs, and this grant is part of a broader effort to fund influential organizations and individuals working in this space that we find credible and that share some of our priorities."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The renewal grant for the same amount ($6,000,000) over the same length of funding timeframe (3 years) suggests that Open Phil would be satisfied with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2018-01-09.
Working Families Party109,600.006552017-10Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-prosecutor-reforms-new-yorkChloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant recommended for Cari Tuna to make personally

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Working Families Party’s work on criminal justice issues in New York, including electing prosecutors who are supportive of criminal justice reform, and not other priorities of the Working Families Party.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Changing prosecutors’ behavior would go a long way towards increasing the chances for substantial reforms, and we believe the Working Families Party is well-positioned to try to do so in New York State."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup December 2018 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/working-families-party-general-support suggests that the grant would be considered a success

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; announced: 2017-11-10.
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund404,800.003902017-10Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/brooklyn-community-bail-fund-national-bail-fund-networkChloe Cockburn Discreionary grant to support National Bail Fund Network, led by Pilar Weiss. The Network is comprised of bail funds around the country—including immigration and movement-oriented funds as well as more traditional community-based funds engaging with local criminal justice systems—which pay bail for defendants who cannot otherwise afford to pay bail. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-10-25.
Initiate Justice5,000.009162017-10Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/initiate-justice-prisoner-education-prop-57Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support prisoner education on Proposition 57. Funds will be used to conduct direct mail campaign to prisoners in California educating them on the proposition and its potential effect on their sentences. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2017-11-10.
Essie Justice Group300,000.004472017-10Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/essie-justice-group-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee organizes women with incarcerated loved ones for criminal justice reform. Grantee plans to expand its on-the-ground network of women with incarcerated loved ones and continue to advocate for an end to the money bail system and industry. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-11-21.
Court Watch NOLA100,000.006652017-10Criminal justice reform/court watchinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/court-watch-nola-general-support-october-2017Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grant based on perceived success of previous grant made in April 2017. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New Orleans; announced: 2017-11-21.
Dignity and Power Now500,000.003142017-10Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/dignity-and-power-now-justice-la-campaignChloe Cockburn Grant is for work on the JusticeLA campaign. The campaign is a coalition of organizations opposed to the planned construction of two new jail facilities in Los Angeles county, which currently contains the largest jail system in the country, with an average daily inmate population of approximately 17,000. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-team-network-justice-la-campaign to the Justice Team Network from the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Los Angeles; announced: 2018-03-15.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals374,631.004072017-10Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rspca-broiler-chicken-welfare-campaign-UKLewis Bollard Donation process: RSPCA's budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/RSPCA/RSPCA_Budget_2018_2019.pdf was prepared as part of the grantmaking process.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a corporate chicken welfare campaign in the United Kingdom. Using this funding, RSPCA will launch a campaign encouraging retailers and food companies to adopt higher welfare broiler chicken practices."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/RSPCA/RSPCA_Budget_2018_2019.pdf has a full budget. The donation was given as 282,000.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation).

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants from Open Phil to RSPCA suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United Kingdom; announced: 2017-11-08.
Harvard University21,200.008762017-10Animal welfare/legislative change/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/harvard-university-animal-law-and-policy-programLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the Animal Law & Policy program at Harvard Law School. The program plans to use these funds to research the policy consequences of the Protect Interstate Commerce Act, also known as the King Amendment, in key states and jurisdictions."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
World Animal Net50,000.007772017-10Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-net-co-organizing-workshops-world-bankLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant " to support its engagement with the World Bank to co-organize farm animal welfare workshops. The funding is intended to allow WAN to contribute to the preparatory work and costs of the workshops; invite farm animal welfare experts/scientists who could potentially advocate for animal welfare reforms to the workshops; support research, analysis, and coordination of advocacy strategy in advance of the workshops; and conduct post-workshop follow-up and dissemination activities."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, believes influencing multilateral institutions’ policies through conference participation and activities is a potentially high-leverage route to improving farm animal welfare, particularly in emerging economies."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-net-broiler-chicken-and-pig-welfare-guidelines suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though the follup grant is for a different purpose.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-11-08.
Anima (Earmark: Otwarte Klatki)683,000.002642017-10Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/anima-corporate-campaigns-merger-supportLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support Anima’s corporate chicken welfare campaigns and organizational capacity building in Scandinavia. The funding will allow Anima to launch hen and broiler chicken welfare campaigns over the next two years, as well as support expenses related to a planned merger with the Polish animal rights organization, Otwarte Klatki."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, is excited to support Anima due to its track record securing Danish animal welfare reforms to date; his impression of its leadership team; and the organization’s strategic alignment with our goal to build a stronger farm animal welfare movement in Europe."

Other notes: This is a total across two grants. Affected countries: Scandinavia; announced: 2017-11-21.
Compassion in World Farming1,000,000.002002017-10Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-end-the-cage-age-campaignLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support [the] “End the Cage Age” campaign in the UK and Europe. The campaign will seek to end the use of cages and crates for all farmed animal species in the UK and Europe through advocacy and outreach, including an EU-wide citizens’ ballot measure. [The] funds will support staffing needs related to the campaign in six regional EU offices as well as its headquarters in the United Kingdom; marketing, social media, and exhibition activities; advocacy work; investigations; as well as technical and operational costs over the next two years."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Budget available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CIWF/CIWF_End_the_Cage_Age_Campaign_2017.pdf

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United Kingdom; announced: 2017-11-14.
Sightline Institute350,000.004142017-10Land 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.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute3,750,000.00572017-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2017Nick Beckstead Donation process: The donor, Open Philanthropy Project, appears to have reviewed the progress made by MIRI one year after the one-year timeframe for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support ended. The full process is not described, but the July 2017 post https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SEL9PW8jozrvLnkb4/my-current-thoughts-on-miri-s-highly-reliable-agent-design (GW, IR) suggests that work on the review had been going on well before the grant renewal date

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: According to the grant page: "MIRI expects to use these funds mostly toward salaries of MIRI researchers, research engineers, and support staff."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The reasons for donating to MIRI remain the same as the reasons for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support made in August 2016, but with two new developments: (1) a very positive review of MIRI’s work on “logical induction” by a machine learning researcher who (i) is interested in AI safety, (ii) is rated as an outstanding researcher by at least one of Open Phil's close advisors, and (iii) is generally regarded as outstanding by the ML. (2) An increase in AI safety spending by Open Phil, so that Open Phil is "therefore less concerned that a larger grant will signal an outsized endorsement of MIRI’s approach." The skeptical post https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SEL9PW8jozrvLnkb4/my-current-thoughts-on-miri-s-highly-reliable-agent-design (GW, IR) by Daniel Dewey of Open Phil, from July 2017, is not discussed on the grant page

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page explains "We are now aiming to support about half of MIRI’s annual budget." In the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support of $500,000 made in August 2016, Open Phil had expected to grant about the same amount ($500,000) after one year. The increase to $3.75 million over three years (or $1.25 million/year) is due to the two new developments: (1) a very positive review of MIRI’s work on “logical induction” by a machine learning researcher who (i) is interested in AI safety, (ii) is rated as an outstanding researcher by at least one of Open Phil's close advisors, and (iii) is generally regarded as outstanding by the ML. (2) An increase in AI safety spending by Open Phil, so that Open Phil is "therefore less concerned that a larger grant will signal an outsized endorsement of MIRI’s approach."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is mostly determined by the end of the one-year funding timeframe of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support made in August 2016 (a little over a year before this grant)
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The MIRI blog post https://intelligence.org/2017/11/08/major-grant-open-phil/ says: "The Open Philanthropy Project has expressed openness to potentially increasing their support if MIRI is in a position to usefully spend more than our conservative estimate, if they believe that this increase in spending is sufficiently high-value, and if we are able to secure additional outside support to ensure that the Open Philanthropy Project isn’t providing more than half of our total funding."

Other notes: MIRI, the grantee, blogs about the grant at https://intelligence.org/2017/11/08/major-grant-open-phil/ Open Phil's statement that due to its other large grants in the AI safety space, it is "therefore less concerned that a larger grant will signal an outsized endorsement of MIRI’s approach." is discussed in the comments on the Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10213581410585529 by Vipul Naik. Announced: 2017-11-08.
University of California, Berkeley (Earmark: Sergey Levine|Anca Dragan)1,450,016.001562017-10AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-ai-safety-levine-draganDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The work will be led by Professors Sergey Levine and Anca Dragan, who will each devote approximately 20% of their time to the project, with additional assistance from four graduate students. They initially intend to focus their research on how objective misspecification can produce subtle or overt undesirable behavior in robotic systems, though they have the flexibility to adjust their focus during the grant period." The project narrative is at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/UC_Berkeley/Levine_Dragan_Project_Narrative_2017.pdf

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our broad goals for this funding are to encourage top researchers to work on AI alignment and safety issues in order to build a pipeline for young researchers; to support progress on technical problems; and to generally support the growth of this area of study."

Other notes: This is the first year that Open Phil makes a grant for AI safety research to the University of California, Berkeley (excluding the founding grant for the Center for Human-Compatible AI). It would begin an annual tradition of multi-year grants to the University of California, Berkeley announced in October/November, though the researchers would be different each year. Note that the grant is to UC Berkeley, but at least one of the researchers (Anca Dragan) is affiliated with the Center for Human-Compatible AI. Intended funding timeframe in months: 48; announced: 2017-10-20.
The Humane League2,000,000.001182017-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-open-wing-alliance-2017Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Open Wing Alliance to expand corporate campaigns in Europe. The Alliance, started by The Humane League, supports global efforts to eliminate battery cages. The new grant will bolster these campaigns in Europe and allow Alliance members to expand into campaigns to improve the welfare of broiler (meat) chickens.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Grant investigator Lewis Bollard, is excited to continue supporting the Open Wing Alliance (which grew out of a previous Open Phil grant to The Humane League) due to the coalition’s strong track record of securing corporate cage-free pledges; his confidence in its leadership team; and the project’s strategic fit with our goal to build a stronger farm animal welfare movement in Europe.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely determined by the development timeline of the Open Wing Alliance, which grew out of an earlier grant about a year earlier, in February 2016: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support-2018 in 2018 renews this grant among others.

Other notes: This and other grants from Open Philanthropy Project to The Humane League are discussed in https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason as part of an overview of the Open Philanthropy Project grantmaking strategy. Announced: 2017-10-09.
Eurogroup for Animals625,400.002732017-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-animals-eu-chicken-welfare-advocacyLewis Bollard Donation process: Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support EU advocacy work for chicken welfare. Eurogroup for Animals plans to use these funds on either broiler chicken or egg-laying hen welfare campaigns, depending upon which campaign appears most tractable."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says the grant "is one of several other recent grants made to strengthen the farm animal welfare movement in Europe."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-animals-eu-chicken-welfare-advocacy-2020 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 530,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: European Union; announced: 2017-11-28.
Albert Schweitzer Foundation1,000,000.002002017-09Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/turkey/pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-general-support-2017Lewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page suggests that evaluation of results of previous grants played a role in deciding to make this grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The funding will allow the Albert Schweitzer Foundation to significantly expand their corporate outreach on broiler chicken welfare, increase their fundraising capacity, and hire a law firm to pursue litigation related to turkey and pig welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, is excited to increase our support due to the organization’s track record securing cage-free pledges from major German retailers; his confidence in its leadership team; and the organization’s strategic alignment with our goal to build a stronger farm animal welfare movement in Europe."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing likely determined based on Open Philanthropy having had enough time to evaluate the outcome of the previous grants and the grantee's overall track record.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-general-support-2019 (2019-08) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Germany; announced: 2017-10-25.
Global Animal Partnership285,000.004682017-09Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-fish-welfare-standardsLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, began looking into funding opportunities related to farmed fish welfare last year, due to the number of animals affected by fish farming."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to develop welfare standards for farmed fish species. GAP will seek to develop standards for 4-6 farmed fish species (beginning with salmon) by establishing a partnership with an existing aquaculture certification program and developing a multi-step framework for farmed fish based on land animal models. GAP also intends to develop a strategy for raising consumer awareness of farmed fish welfare, and to run a promotional campaign for the launch of their initial salmon certification program. [...] GAP intends to use these funds for the hiring of a fish welfare expert to lead the development of the standards, travel for visits to international fish farms, field testing of standards and consultations with experts, and marketing support."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "[Lewis Bollard] believes established fish welfare standards could eventually form the basis for welfare requests in corporate or institutional campaigns, and thinks GAP is well-positioned to lead this effort due to the credibility of its US land animal welfare certification program."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely deteermined based on the intended use of funds.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant appears to be based on searching by Open Philanthropy for this kind of grant oppoortunity: "Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, began looking into funding opportunities related to farmed fish welfare last year, due to the number of animals affected by fish farming."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Global Animal Partnership indicate continued satisfaction of Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-11-14.
Global Aquaculture Alliance435,000.003762017-09Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-aquaculture-alliance-fish-welfare-best-practicesLewis Bollard Grant over two years via the Responsible Aquaculture Foundation to develop best practices and proposed animal welfare standards for three farmed fish species. Announced: 2017-12-01.
The Degrees Initiative2,000,000.001182017-09Climate change/geoengineering/solar radiation managementhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support-2017Claire Zabel Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The funding is intended to help support SRMGI’s on-going governance work related to solar radiation management (SRM), and will additionally help support a new research fund for modeling the impacts of SRM across the developing world, called the Developing Country Impacts Modeling Analysis for SRM (DECIMALS)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "In short, our impression is that there is globally very little work focused on improving the governance of potential SRM implementation, and we therefore consider funding SRMGI as an opportunity to build a sparse field. Additionally, we are inclined to agree with SRMGI’s case that it is important to increase the engagement of experts in the developing world with SRM governance issues." It links to the previous grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support for more details.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/degrees-initiative-general-support-2021 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Grant via the Environmental Defense Fund. At the time, the grantee is called the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative. Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2017-10-09.
Corrections Accountability Project100,000.006652017-09Criminal justice reform/prisin life qualityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/corrections-accountability-project-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to project housed at the Urban Justice Center and led by Bianca Tylek. Grantee aims to eliminate the influence of commercial interests on the criminal system and end the exploitation of those it touches. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-10-03.
Texas After Violence Project52,000.007732017-09Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-after-violence-project-video-documentation-projectChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support a research and video documentation project in collaboration with Texas Advocates for Justice, focused on inacarceration and its effects. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2017-10-03.
Gamechanger Labs100,000.006652017-09Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/gamechanger-labs-student-organizing-initiativeChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via the Movement Voter Fund at the Tides Foundation to support awareness-raising and organizing of college students. This funding will support project planning, initial campaign staffing, travel, and potentially small sub-grants to partner organizations. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-10-09.
We Got Us Now100,000.006652017-09Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/we-got-us-now-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant to support the launch of a digital platform devoted to the interests of children of incarcerated parents. The digital platform will include resources for children of incarcerated parents, storytelling media such as videos, audio files, and a blog, and a leadership institute to train children of incarcerated parents (ages 16-35) to organize and advocate for relevant criminal justice reforms. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-10-20.
New York Working Families40,000.008312017-09Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/new-york-working-families-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant made via The Advocacy Fund to support work to pass legislation to reduce prison and jail populations in New York, and not for other priorities of New York Working Families. Affected countries: United STates; affected states: New York; announced: 2017-11-10.
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition558,000.002922017-09Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/florida-rights-restoration-coalition-power-buildingChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via The Advocacy Fund to support power-building work. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Florida; announced: 2017-11-21.
University of California, Berkeley5,000,000.00402017-08Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/uc-berkeley-aging-related-research-conboyHeather Youngs Grant over five years to support research on the basic biology of aging-related diseases and impairments, led by Dr. Irina Conboy. Grant is a result of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/cause-reports/mechanisms-aging (investigation into mechanisms of aging). Announced: 2017-11-03.
Center for a New American Security (Earmark: Richard Danzig)260,000.004862017-08Global catastrophic riskshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/center-for-a-new-american-security-richard-danzig-outreach-on-technological-riskHelen Toner Grant awarded to support outreach by Richard Danzig,1 former Secretary of the Navy, on technological risks. Specifically, this funding will allow Mr. Danzig to revise and publish an already-drafted manuscript exploring and providing guidance on issues facing the US government related to potential risks from advanced technology (e.g., biosecurity, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence risks). The funding would be used by Dr. Danzig to produce Technology Roulette https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/technology-roulette a report intended for the national security community detailing the management of risks from losing control of advanced technology. Announced: 2017-10-16.
Smithsonian Institution300,000.004472017-07Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/smithsonian-institution-outbreak-exhibitJaime Yassif Grant to support the Outbreak exhibit and related programming at the National Museum of Natural History. The exhibit is planned to open in 2018 and run for approximately three years; it may reach up to 8.5 million visitors during that time. Donor hopes this exhibit will help raise awareness of pandemics, in part by drawing public attention to the 100-year anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic, which is the largest on record. Announced: 2017-12-01.
The Ahimsa Collective15,000.008872017-07Criminal justice reform/restorative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ahimsa-collective-restorative-justice-reportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via Community Works West to support the completion of a restorative justice movement building report. The report is intended to be a resource for donors and advocates interested in supporting restorative justice1 work, and will include reference data on movement building efforts to date as well as recommendations on funding strategy. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-08-16.
American Conservative Union Foundation200,000.005442017-07Criminal justice reform/conservative advocacyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-conservative-union-center-criminal-justice-reform-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant to support the Center for Criminal Justice Reform (CCJR) led by Pat Nolan and David Safavian. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-08-21.
Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations332,944.004292017-07Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cattlehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/federation-indian-animal-protection-organisations-india-animal-welfare-reformLewis Bollard Donation process: Grantee submitted a budget at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FIAPO/FIAPO_Budget.pdf

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The grant will provide funding to support reform of poultry slaughter and dairy industry practices; grassroots advocacy including capacity building for farm animal welfare; and a pilot corporate/institution campaign to reduce animal product usage."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about the grant primarily because of FIAPO’s broad network of grassroots members across India; our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard’s, confidence in FIAPO’s relevant leadership; and the potential opportunity we see in India—one of the world’s largest producers of eggs, fish, and chicken—to encourage farm animal welfare reforms and advocacy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount in Indian rupees is consistent with the budget in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FIAPO/FIAPO_Budget.pdf submitted by the grantee.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This is one of five grants made to animal welfare groups in India at around the same time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/federation-indian-animal-protection-organisations-india-farm-animal-welfare-2019 (2019-06) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: India; announced: 2017-08-21.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Center for Human-Compatible AI)403,890.003922017-07AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/berkeley-existential-risk-initiative-core-support-and-chai-collaboration/Daniel Dewey Donation process: BERI submitted a grant proposal at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/BERI/BERI_Grant_Proposal_2017.pdf

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support work with the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at UC Berkeley, to which the Open Philanthropy Project provided a two-year founding grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai The funding is intended to help BERI hire contractors and part-time employees to help CHAI, such as web development and coordination support, research engineers, software developers, or research illustrators. This funding is also intended to help support BERI’s core staff. More in the grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/BERI/BERI_Grant_Proposal_2017.pdf

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our impression is that it is often difficult for academic institutions to flexibly spend funds on technical, administrative, and other support services. We currently see BERI as valuable insofar as it can provide CHAI with these types of services, and think it’s plausible that BERI will be able to provide similar help to other academic institutions in the future."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grantee submitted a budget for the CHAI collaboration project at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/BERI/BERI_Budget_for_CHAI_Collaboration_2017.xlsx

Other notes: Announced: 2017-09-28.
Mila (Earmark: Yoshua Bengio|Joelle Pineau|Doina Precup)2,400,000.001052017-07AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/montreal-institute-for-learning-algorithms-ai-safety-research/-- Donation process: The grant page says: "We spoke with Professor Bengio and several of his students during our recent outreach to machine learning researchers and formed a positive impression of him and his work. Our technical advisors spoke highly of Professor Bengio’s capabilities, reputation, and goals."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support technical research on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). $1.6 million of this grant will support Professor Yoshua Bengio and his co-investigators at the Université de Montréal, and $800,000 will support Professors Joelle Pineau and Doina Precup at McGill University. We see Professor Bengio’s research group as one of the world’s preeminent deep learning labs and are excited to provide support for it to undertake AI safety research."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Among potential grantees in the field, we believe that Professor Bengio is one of the best positioned to help build the talent pipeline in AI safety research. Our understanding, based on conversations with our technical advisors and our general impressions from the field, is that many of the most talented machine learning researchers spend some time in Professor Bengio’s lab before joining other universities or industry groups. This is an important contributing factor to our expectations for the impact of this grant, both because it increases our confidence in the quality of the research that this grant will support and because of the potential benefits for pipeline building. In our conversations with Professor Bengio, we’ve found significant overlap between his perspective on AI safety and ours, and Professor Bengio was excited to be part of our overall funding activities in this area. We think that Professor Bengio is likely to serve as a valuable member of the AI safety research community, and that he will encourage his lab to be involved in that community as well. We believe that members of his lab could likely be valuable participants at future workshops on AI safety."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "Our impression is that MILA is already fairly well-funded, and that its ability to use additional marginal funding is somewhat limited. Professor Bengio told us that the amount of additional yearly funding that he would be able to use productively for AI safety research is $400,000; we have decided to grant this full amount for four years ($1.6 million total). We have also granted two of Professor Bengio’s co-investigators at MILA who are also interested in working on this agenda, Professors Pineau and Precup, $200,000 per year ($800,000 total), which they estimated as the amount of funding they would be able to use productively."

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "We expect to have a conversation with Professor Bengio six months after the start of the grant, and annually after that, to discuss his projects and results, with public notes if the conversation warrants it. In the first few months of the grant, we plan to visit Montreal for several days to meet Professor Bengio’s co-investigators and discuss the project with them. At the conclusion of this grant in 2020, we will decide whether to renew our support. If Professor Bengio’s research is going well (based on our technical advisors’ assessment and the impressions of others in the field), and if we have achieved a better mutual understanding with Professor Bengio about how his research is likely to be valuable, it is likely that we will decide to provide renewed funding. If Professor Bengio is using half or more of our funding to pursue research directions that we do not find particularly promising, it is likely that we would choose not to renew."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/mila-research-project-on-artificial-intelligence/ suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though the amount of this followup grant is much smaller and the scope narrower than that of the original grant.

Other notes: See also https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10110258359382500&id=13963931 for a Facebook share by David Krueger, a member of the grantee organization. The comments include some discussion about the grantee. Intended funding timeframe in months: 48; announced: 2017-07-19.
Yale University (Earmark: Allan Dafoe)299,320.004622017-07AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/yale-university-global-politics-of-ai-dafoeNick Beckstead Grant to support research into the global politics of artificial intelligence, led by Assistant Professor of Political Science, Allan Dafoe, who will conduct part of the research at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford, United Kingdom over the next year. Funds from the two gifts will support the hiring of two full-time research assistants, travel, conferences, and other expenses related to the research efforts, as well as salary, relocation, and health insurance expenses related to Professor Dafoe’s work in Oxford. Announced: 2017-09-28.
Future of Research150,000.005962017-07Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/future-research-exit-grant-2017Nick Beckstead Exit grant to allow grantee to find time for alternative funding sources. Follows a $300,000 grant made in 2016 for two years. Announced: 2017-08-21.
University of Pennsylvania1,550,000.001452017-07Epistemic institutions/forecastinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/university-pennsylvania-philip-tetlock-making-conversations-smarter-fasterLuke Muehlhauser Grant to support development and pre-testing of the “Making Conversations Smarter, Faster” project. The work is led by Professors Philip Tetlock and Barbara Mellers of University of Pennsylvania, and Professor Emeritus Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University. The original grant amount was $1.3 million, and $250,000 was added in February 2019. Announced: 2017-08-25.
University of California, San Francisco825,000.002372017-06Scientific research/transformative R01https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/ucsf-liver-regeneration-experimentsChris Somerville Grant over three years to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to support research into the development of a stem cell treatment method for repairing or replacing damaged human livers. The work will be led by Tammy T. Chang, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Surgery. Part of a set of "second chance" grants by the Open Philanthropy Project for some rejected applications for the NIH Transformative R01 program https://commonfund.nih.gov/tra discussed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-second-chance-program-nih-transformative-research-applicants and https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08795-0. Announced: 2017-12-20.
Duke University81,500.007232017-06Scientific research/antiviral and inhibitor workhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/duke-university-timothy-haystead-hsp70Chris Somerville Grant for work that will be led by Dr. Timothy Haystead, Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University School of Medicine. Funding from this grant will allow Dr. Haystead to pay a specialized company to determine the molecular structure of the human Hsp70i protein in a complex with HS-72, and to hire a summer intern to support his antiviral and inhibitor work. The original grant amount was $49,500. In May 2018, $32,000 to the original award amount for additional work on the project. Announced: 2017-08-16.
University of Notre Dame2,054,142.001142017-06Scientific research/transformative R01https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-notre-dame-nanopore-protein-sequencing-developmentHeather Youngs Grant over three years to the University of Notre Dame to support the development of an instrument that uses a sub-nanometer-diameter pore (i.e. a sub-nanopore) to read the amino acid sequence of whole protein molecules. The collaborative effort led by Dr. Gregory Timp involves researchers at the University of San Diego and Johns Hopkins University. Part of a set of "second chance" grants by the Open Philanthropy Project for some rejected applications for the NIH Transformative R01 program https://commonfund.nih.gov/tra discussed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-second-chance-program-nih-transformative-research-applicants and https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08795-0. Announced: 2017-12-20.
Humane Slaughter Association419,236.003872017-06Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-slaughter-association-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "work to improve farm animal welfare in China. HSA plans to use this grant to translate its guides on humane handling, transport, stunning, and slaughter into Mandarin Chinese and publicize the translated publications in Chinese agriculture industry magazines. It also plans to pay for HSA staff to travel to China to lecture at veterinary universities and train staff at slaughterhouses and livestock markets, and invite Chinese officials for an expenses-paid study tour of slaughterhouses and livestock markets in the United Kingdom." Project proposal at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/HSA/Revised_HSA_Project_Proposal_190916.pdf

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about this project’s potential to reduce suffering and institutionalize farm animal welfare values." Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09)

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant of grant of £331,458 ($419,236 at time of conversion). Budget breakdown in the project proposal at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/HSA/Revised_HSA_Project_Proposal_190916.pdf

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2017-07-19.
Humane Slaughter Association2,528,678.00942017-06Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-slaughter-association-fish-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research to improve the welfare of farmed fish, decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), and/or coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, squid)." The grant page says: "This funding will allow HSA to seek proposals for research to improve the welfare of farmed fish, decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), and/or coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, squid), and to translate related HSA publications. This work may take several years depending on the nature of the research applications received."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "According to the best estimates we are aware of, fish account for about three quarters of all vertebrate farmed animals alive at any time.1 Despite this, we are not aware of any major animal welfare groups that have campaigns focused on fish welfare, and we therefore believe that it is important to start building this area of farm animal welfare advocacy and research. Over the past year, we recommended three previous grants in the area of fish welfare: one to Eurogroup for Animals, one to Dyrevernalliansen, and one to the Albert Schweitzer Foundation."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Grant of £1,999,137 ($2,528,678 at time of conversion)

Other notes: Grant to support research to improve the welfare of farmed fish, decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), and/or coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, squid). Grant made in light of perceived lack of fish welfare efforts relative to importance of the issue. The funding will allow HSA to seek proposals for research to improve the welfare of farmed fish, decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), and/or coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, squid), and to translate related HSA publications. This work may take several years depending on the nature of the research applications received. Announced: 2017-11-08.
Animal Welfare Action Lab79,100.007302017-06Animal welfare/factory farming/survey researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-welfare-action-lab-meat-reduction-surveyLewis Bollard Discretionary grant via the Reducetarian Foundation to fund a study to replicate and improve upon an earlier multi-wave study by grantee (AWAL). Improvements include a larger, more representative sample via YouGov, and the potential to fund a third-wave component analyzing whether any effect endures after two months. Funds primarily cover spending on YouGov. The initial amount of $58,550 was topped up by $20,550 in July 2018, for a total of $79,100. Announced: 2017-08-21.
Greater Greater Washington250,000.004922017-06Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/greater-greater-washington-housing-and-land-use-reform-2017Washington, 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.
Dignity and Power Now132,000.006222017-06Criminal justice reform/Reallocation of funds outside criminal justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/dignity-and-power-now-la-jail-oppositionChloe Cockburn Grant for an organized campaign to permanently defeat Los Angeles plans for jails. Grantee plans to organize a convening of community coalitions, labor groups, elected officials, and other interested parties to discuss and assess the potential for a larger campaign opposing the jails. Specifically, the funding will cover meeting materials, food and location costs, staff support, and potentially a commissioned report on alternative uses for the city and state funds estimated to be needed for the jail construction projects. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Los Angeles; announced: 2017-08-08.
National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine452,545.003672017-05Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/national-academy-sciences-international-meeting-governance-dual-use-researchJaime Yassif Grant to support an international meeting on governance of dual-use research in the life sciences organized by the National Academy of Sciences. Announced: 2017-06-14.
Genspace454,025.003642017-05Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/genspace-diy-bio-labs-projectJaime Yassif Grant to support an evaluation of biosafety and biosecurity in the DIYbio lab community, and a biosafety & biosecurity pilot program in three DIY bio labs, led by Daniel Grushkin and Todd Kuiken, Ph.D. See also the twin grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/north-carolina-state-university-diy-bio-labs-project to North Carolina State University. Announced: 2017-09-26.
North Carolina State University252,725.004912017-05Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/north-carolina-state-university-diy-bio-labs-projectJaime Yassif Grant to support an evaluation of biosafety and biosecurity in the DIYbio lab community, and a biosafety & biosecurity pilot program in three DIY bio labs, led by Daniel Grushkin and Todd Kuiken, Ph.D. See also the twin grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/genspace-diy-bio-labs-project to Genspace. Announced: 2017-09-26.
Color of Change30,000.008552017-05Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-change-criminal-justice-meetingChloe Cockburn Grant to support activities including meeting on bail reform. Discretionary grant decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-05-16.
Forward Justice75,000.007362017-05Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/forward-justice-daryl-atkinson-north-carolinaChloe Cockburn Grant via Repairers of the Breach to support the advocacy and organizing activities of Daryl Atkinson in North Carolina. The funding is intended to support the hiring of two organizers in North Carolina who will attempt to grow the local chapter of All of Us or None—a grassroots advocacy organization—and outreach and public education activities in Durham and Pitt counties related to prosecutorial accountability and reform. Affected countries: United States; affected states: North Carolina; announced: 2017-09-28.
JustLeadershipUSA100,000.006652017-05Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaign-summer-canvassingChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant to support advocacy campaign to close the Rikers Island Prison Compex in New York City. Continuation of grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaign and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaign-2016. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2018-01-19.
Future of Life Institute100,000.006652017-05Global catastrophic risks/AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-2017Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for general support. However, the primary use of the grant will be to administer a request for proposals in AI safety similar to a request for proposals in 2015 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/update-fli-grant

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants in 2018 and 2019, for similar or larger amounts, suggest that Open Phil would continue to stand by its assessment of the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-09-27.
Target Malaria17,500,000.0092017-05Scientific research/malaria/gene drive testing and governancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support-- Donation process: As explained in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support#Our_process the donation process included conversations with Target Malaria, the Gates Foundation, Kevin Esvelt, Stephanie James, and several other people, and review by scientific advisors Chris Somerville and Daniel Martin-Alarcon

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant to help the project develop and prepare for the potential deployment of gene drive technologies to help eliminate malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, if feasible, ethical, safe, approved by the regulatory authorities, and supported by the affected communities. This grant will support training and outreach programs, research into the potential ecological effects of releasing gene drives, operational development, regulatory support, and an unrestricted funding reserve.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: As described in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support#Case_for_the_grant (1) Gene drives, and Target Malaria's work in particular, seem important and tractable as a malaria elimination strategy, (2) Target Malaria has a lot of room for more funding, (3) Even a few weeks of speed-up of the work would likely have good cost-effectiveness. More explicit quantification is available in the back-of-the-envelope calculation (BOTEC) at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GsE2_TNWn0x6MWL1PTdkZT2vQNFW8VFBslC5qjk4sgo/edit?ts=5cc10604#heading=h.g3c8stqygqae Quantification related to (3) is also in the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E8qu474nUUvPjK21oBqGkdQ9FuXanigOgSGfumhL3_c/edit#gid=1061406209

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The reasoning for the amount is not articulated, but it is likely related to the budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support#Budget_and_proposed_activities as well as the cost-effectiveness calculations. One factor helping with the size of the grant is that the organization is also heavily funded by the Gates Foundation (grant of $36 million over 3.5 years) so that the Open Philanthropy Project will be under 50% of the grantee's funds, and can also piggyback on th vetting already done by the Gates Foundation

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is probably affected by two factors: (a) The belief that even a few weeks of speed-up of the work would likely have good cost-effectiveness, qunaitified in the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E8qu474nUUvPjK21oBqGkdQ9FuXanigOgSGfumhL3_c/edit#gid=1061406209 (b) The timing of the Gates Foundation grant and the scaling up of the project
Intended funding timeframe in months: 48

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Key questions for follow-up are listed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support#Key_questions_for_follow-up but there is no explicit discussion of follow-up grants

Donor retrospective of the donation: In the July 2019 blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/givewells-top-charities-are-increasingly-hard-beat the grant is mentioned as one of the few grants that crosses the 1000x cost-effectiveness barrier in expected cost-effectiveness as of the time of making the grant, and also as accounting for over half of the total money volume of such grants

Other notes: The grant is discussed in https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason as part of an overview of the Open Philanthropy Project grantmaking strategy. Announced: 2017-05-17.
Center for Applied Rationality340,000.004242017-05Epistemic institutionshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-european-summer-program-rationalityNick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the "European Summer Program on Rationality (ESPR), a two-week summer workshop for about 40 mathematically gifted students aged 16-19."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about this grant because we expect that ESPR will orient participants to problems that we believe to be high impact, and may lead them to increase their positive impact on the world."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Donation made in time to fund the event for 2017

Other notes: Announced: 2017-09-27.
Eurogroup for Animals14,961.008952017-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-campaignLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a two-day International Broiler Advocacy Meeting in Brussels in June 2017. During the meeting, participants—which included representatives from various European animal welfare advocacy groups—discussed issues and strategy related to broiler chicken welfare campaigns. Our funds covered associated organizing costs, including travel expenses for representatives of smaller advocacy groups."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "In preparation for the meeting, Eurogroup for Animals conducted an inventory of broiler welfare campaigns and an initial analysis of the relevant economic, legislative, and policy climate in Europe. Recent cage-free campaigns have been successful in Europe, and we hope a convening of this kind will facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing among various European groups as they consider launching new campaigns related to broiler chicken welfare."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined by the total of the expenses being covered. The donation was given as 13,242.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing (May 2017) is likely determined by the timing of the conference (June 2017).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Other notes: Affected countries: European Union; announced: 2017-08-08.
Humane Society International India1,100,000.001892017-05Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-india-animal-welfare-reformLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The grant will provide funding to commission studies on the impact of factory farming in India and potential policy solutions; staff expansion primarily in the areas of outreach and coalition-building, litigation, and policy; operational costs; and re-grants to grassroots animal welfare groups across India."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about the grant primarily because of HSI/India’s track record of promising litigation activities and network-building in India; our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard’s, confidence in HSI/India’s Executive Director; and the potential opportunity we see in India—one of the world’s largest producers of eggs, fish, and chicken—to encourage farm animal welfare reforms and advocacy."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant page says: "This grant was one of five recent grants recommended to various organizations supporting farm animal welfare activities in India."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-india-animal-welfare-reform-2019 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: India; announced: 2017-08-03.
Compassion in World Farming USA30,000.008552017-05Animal welfare/factory farming/Latin Americahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-latin-america-broiler-chicken-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research into opportunities for broiler chicken welfare campaigns in Latin America." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CIWF/CIWF_Market_Research_Proposal_in_Latin_America_2017.pdf has the market research proposal from the grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Compassion in World Farming USA, despite no specific plans to follow up, suggest continued satisfaction from Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Argentina|Brazil|Columbia|Chile|Mexico; announced: 2017-07-27.
People for Animals120,000.006382017-05Animal welfare/factory farming/Indiahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/people-for-animals-india-animal-welfare-reformLewis Bollard Grant to support farm animal welfare work in India over two years, as part of the potential/promise for the nascent field of farm animal welfare in India. Grant one of five grants made to animal welfare groups in India. Affected countries: India; announced: 2017-08-03.
Stanford University (Earmark: Percy Liang)1,337,600.001652017-05AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-support-percy-liangDaniel Dewey Donation process: The grant is the result of a proposal written by Percy Liang. The writing of the proposal was funded by a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-percy-liang-planning-grant written March 2017. The proposal was reviewed by two of Open Phil's technical advisors, who both felt largely positive about the proposed research directions.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant is intended to fund about 20% of Percy Liang's time as well as about three graduate students. Liang expects to focus on a subset of these topics: robustness against adversarial attacks on ML systems, verification of the implementation of ML systems, calibrated/uncertainty-aware ML, and natural language supervision.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Both [technical advisors who reviewed te garnt proposal] felt largely positive about the proposed research directions and recommended to Daniel that Open Philanthropy make this grant, despite some disagreements [...]."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined by the grant proposal details; it covers about 20% of Percy Liang's time as well as about three graduate students.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the timing of the grant proposal being ready.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 48

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "At the end of the grant period, we will decide whether to renew our support based on our technical advisors’ evaluation of Professor Liang’s work so far, his proposed next steps, and our assessment of how well his research program has served as a pipeline for students entering the field. We are optimistic about the chances of renewing our support. We think the most likely reason we might choose not to renew would be if Professor Liang decides that AI alignment research isn’t a good fit for him or for his students."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/stanford-university-ai-alignment-research-2021/ suggests satisfaction with the grant outcome.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-09-26.
UCLA School of Law (Earmark: Edward Parson,Richard Re)1,536,222.001472017-05AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ucla-artificial-intelligence-governanceHelen Toner Grant to support work on governance related to AI risk led by Edward Parson and Richard Re. Announced: 2017-07-27.
Mercy For Animals500,000.003142017-05Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-india-animal-welfare-reformLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant is one of five grants made around the same time supporting farm animal welfare work in India. A budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Mercy_For_Animals_India_Farmed_Animal_Advocacy_Budget.pdf is included.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support new farm animal welfare work in India. The grant will help support undercover investigations, corporate campaigns, research, and policy-related campaign activities over the next two years." The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Mercy_For_Animals_India_Farmed_Animal_Advocacy_Budget.pdf has a breakdown per year is: $135,000 for investigation costs, $40,000 for investigations-related research costs, $50,000 for compensation for two corporate campaign staffers, $25,000 for compensation for one policy advocate staffer/lobbyist.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about the grant primarily because of Mercy For Animals’ track record of successful undercover investigations in the U.S.; our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard’s, confidence in Mercy For Animals’ relevant leadership staff; and the potential opportunity we see in India—one of the world’s largest producers of eggs, fish, and chicken—to encourage farm animal welfare reforms and advocacy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Mercy_For_Animals_India_Farmed_Animal_Advocacy_Budget.pdf has a breakdown per year is: $135,000 for investigation costs, $40,000 for investigations-related research costs, $50,000 for copmensation for two corporate campaign staffers, $25,000 for compensation for one policy advocate staffer/lobbyist.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is one of five grants made around the same time supporting farm animal welfare work in India.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Phil to Mercy For Animals suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: India; announced: 2017-08-03.
Animal Equality292,000.004652017-05Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/chick culling|Animal welfare/diet changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-india-animal-welfare-reformLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant is one of five grants made around the same time supporting farm animal welfare work in India.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support farm animal welfare work in India." The grant "will help support a pro-vegetarian messaging campaign, a corporate and/or institution-directed campaign encouraging animal product alternatives, organization capacity building, and advocacy related to in-ovo sex selection technology and other chicken welfare reforms." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Equality/Animal_Equality_India_Animal_Welfare_Reform_Budget.pdf has the budget proposal (with red background for unfunded items).

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about the grant primarily because of Animal Equality’s track record of successful undercover investigations and subsequent media coverage in India; our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard’s, confidence in Animal Equality’s relevant leadership staff; and the potential opportunity we see in India—one of the world’s largest producers of eggs, fish, and chicken—to encourage farm animal welfare reforms and advocacy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Equality/Animal_Equality_India_Animal_Welfare_Reform_Budget.pdf has the budget proposal (with red background for unfunded items).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is one of five grants recommended around the same time for farm animal welfare work in India, so the timing is likely determined by the timing of the decision to make this batch of grants.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Other notes: Affected countries: India; announced: 2017-07-27.
New Partnership for Africa’s Development2,350,000.001082017-04Scientific research/malaria/gene drivehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/new-partnership-africa-s-development-general-supportClaire Zabel Grant to the Planning and Coordinating Agency, the technical arm of the African Union, to support the evaluation, preparation, and potential deployment of gene drive technologies in some African regions. Part of a set of grants related to gene drives; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support for a larger grant to Target Malaria in the same domain and at around the same time. Announced: 2017-05-26.
Rockefeller University1,600,000.001412017-04Scientific research/transformative R01https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/rockefeller-university-viral-histone-mimicsHeather Youngs Grant to support research on viral histone mimics led by Professor Alexander Tarakhovsky. Professor Tarakhovsky has discovered a novel mechanism through which viruses may influence host gene expression: he found that in influenza H3N2, the non-structural 1 (NS1) protein acts to downregulate antiviral genes (i.e. weaken host defense systems) by mimicking human histone 3, which interferes with normal histone regulation in the host cell. Professor Tarakhovsky and his collaborators plan to use this grant to further explore this mechanism in the life cycle of the yellow fever virus and to determine whether the mechanism occurs in other host-virus interactions. Part of a set of "second chance" grants by the Open Philanthropy Project for some rejected applications for the NIH Transformative R01 program https://commonfund.nih.gov/tra discussed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-second-chance-program-nih-transformative-research-applicants and https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08795-0 Original grant amount $1.5 million; an additional $100,000 added to grant in July 2018 (page update: 2018-07-10). Announced: 2017-12-20.
BioBricks Foundation152,950.005952017-04Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/biobricks-foundation-biosecurity-activities-sb70Jaime Yassif Grant to support biosecurity activities at the SB7.0 meeting. Announced: 2017-07-07.
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation45,000.008232017-04Criminal justice reform/disability rightshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-civil-liberties-union-foundation-disability-rights-fellowshipChloe Cockburn Grant for Disability Rights Program to support a fellowship for Zoe Brennan-Kohn, a disability rights attorney. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-06-26.
Court Watch NOLA25,000.008622017-04Criminal justice reform/court watchinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/court-watch-nola-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Grantee supports over 100 volunteers who do regular court watching and data gathering on practices used in New Orleans courtrooms. Court watchers gather data relating to violations of transparency, constitutional rights, ethics rules, state law, and victim rights. This data is compiled into regular reports that the organization uses for advocacy. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New Orleans; announced: 2017-08-11.
Common Justice100,000.006652017-04Criminal justice reform/restorative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/common-justice-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant via Vera Institute of Justice structured as an exit grant since grantee has made progress in meeting goals and securing alternate funding. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vera-institute-justice-common-justice for the previous grant to Vera Institute of Justice that provided grantee funds to meet its goals. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2017-10-03.
Alliance for Safety and Justice Action Fund1,000,000.002002017-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-action-fund-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant to support ongoing policy reform, legislative and ballot advocacy, and lobbying efforts in states such as Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and California, and to lay the foundation for future advocacy work in Florida, Ohio, and California. Open Phil considers grantee an effective organization that has contributed to the passing of several criminal justice reform bills at the state level, such as Illinois Senate Bill 2872, the Neighborhood Safety Act, in March 2017. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund; companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support-2017 made via Tides Center. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-19.
Alliance for Safety and Justice4,000,000.00522017-04Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant for general support; renewal of previous similar grants such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support Donor considers grantee an exceptionally high-performing organization with a track record of securing significant criminal justice policy reforms. Grant via Tides Center. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-action-fund-general-support-2017 made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-19.
East Bay Forward40,000.008312017-04Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/east-bay-forward-yimbytown-2017-conferenceAlexander 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.
The Greenfield Project500,000.003142017-04Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/greenfield-project-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: Grantee submitted a budget at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/The_Greenfield_Project/Greenfield_Project_Budget.png

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant for "a new group created by Liz Hallinan and Ashley Carr, to push for federal reforms to improve farm animal welfare. The Greenfield Project plans to use this grant to conduct research, build relationships with government officials, build coalitions, and use legal and public relations advocacy to advance farm animal welfare reforms."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/The_Greenfield_Project/Greenfield_Project_Budget.png submitted by the grantee had a total estimated annual cost of $250,000. The funding of $500,000 seems to be for two years.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The organization seems to just be getting started and the grant is intended to provide general support for its initial years.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/greenfield-project-general-support-2019 (2019-05) is an exit grant, suggesting some satisfaction with the grantee but not enough.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-07-21.
Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research1,000,000.002002017-04Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken and pighttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/foundation-food-and-agriculture-research-farm-animal-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to co-fund requests for applications (RFAs) for research on solutions to what we see as two major problems in farm animal welfare: bone fractures in cage-free hens and the painful castration of male piglets. It is our impression that both of these problems are scientifically tractable. FFAR plans to use this grant and at least $1 million of its own funding to fund scientific projects focused on solving these problems." The request for applications https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FFAR/FFAR_Accelerating_Advances_in_Animal_Welfare_Final.pdf is linked.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are excited about this grant because a) we believe that it is an efficient way to fund research on farm animal welfare, since FFAR is co-funding the research and plans to handle the logistics of the RFAs and distribute the results of its research among industry, b) it is an opportunity for us to learn about co-funding with a Congressionally created and funded 501(c)(3) organization, which we believe could be a useful avenue for funding research to solve other problems in farm animal welfare, and c) it may increase FFAR’s interest in co-funding other animal welfare projects."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount seems to be chosen to target a 1:1 match with what FFAR was willing to fund with other funds.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Further grants from Open Phil to FFAR for similar purposes suggest continued endorsement of the thinking behind the grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-05-11.
Animal Charity Evaluators500,000.003142017-04Animal welfare/factory farming/meta/charity evaluatorhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-supportLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page section https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-support#Proposed_activities lists these proposed activities: increasing compensation (by $2,000 to $4,000 per year), adding staff time, hiring for two research positions, making small grants to evaluated charities (in the range of $500 to $1,000 per charity), intern stipends, and fundraising. The grant will increase ACE's expected revenue for 2017 from around $635,000 to $885,000. See also budget without Open Phil funding https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Charity_Evaluators/ACE_2017_Budget_not_including_OP_grant.pdf budget with Open Phil funding https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Charity_Evaluators/ACE_2017_Budget_including_OP_grant.pdf and plans for Open Phil funding https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Charity_Evaluators/ACE_Plans_for_OP_grant_funding.pdf

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-support#Case_for_the_grant gives these reasons: (1) Open Phil's version for the farm animal welfare movement in the next decade or two includes "an important role for an institution similar to a scaled-up version of ACE" (2) Open Phil expects that "the improvements ACE plans to make with this grant will allow it to direct more money to animal welfare groups that we consider highly effective, so we consider it fairly likely that this grant will achieve a roughly one-to-one return on investment in the near-term" (3) Open Phil hopes that the grant will help ACE address "what we view as some current shortcomings, including unsustainably low salaries, reliance on low-quality research, and undervaluing of long-term gainsx".

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount likely determined based on budgets submitted by ACE and intended use of funds; see budget without Open Phil funding https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Charity_Evaluators/ACE_2017_Budget_not_including_OP_grant.pdf budget with Open Phil funding https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Charity_Evaluators/ACE_2017_Budget_including_OP_grant.pdf and plans for Open Phil funding https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Animal_Charity_Evaluators/ACE_Plans_for_OP_grant_funding.pdf

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-support-2020 and the continued endorsement on the grant page suggests that Open Phil would be satisfied with the success of the grant.

Other notes: See also https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/on-receiving-a-grant-from-the-open-philanthropy-project/ on the ACE blog. It says "We feel that this grant is a reaffirmation of the value and impact of ACE’s work, and we are incredibly honored to have been selected." It says: "To those who may wonder if ACE will still be able to efficiently use additional donations, at this stage the answer is an emphatic yes." It links to https://animalcharityevaluators.org/about/background/goals-and-strategy/ fo the goals for 2017, and to https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/ace-fundraising-restrictions/ for its 2017 fundraising. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2017-06-09.
Humane Society International1,364,000.001632017-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-east-asian-and-oie-projectsLewis Bollard Donation process: The grantee submitted a grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Humane_Society_International/HSI_East_Asia_and_OIE_outreach_budget.pdf

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support five projects to improve farm animal welfare, primarily in East Asia: (1) Re-granting to local East Asian groups that HSI has worked with on farm animal welfare campaigns, particularly in Indonesia, (2) Hiring supply chain consultants to work within major Asian food companies and a government agency to improve farm animal welfare, (3) Funding Asia Research & Engagement to support Ben McCarron, an expert in investor engagement, to work with institutional investors and banks to promote farm animal welfare in Asia, (4) Funding corporate outreach on cage-free egg and crate-free pork production in Japan and South Korea, (5) Funding travel and part-time consultants to engage with decision-makers at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to improve global animal welfare standards."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We hope that this grant will lay the groundwork for future successful corporate advocacy on farm animal welfare in East Asia, where most of the world’s farm animals live, and potentially influence the only global animal welfare standards."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount seems to be influenced by the budget proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Humane_Society_International/HSI_East_Asia_and_OIE_outreach_budget.pdf though it is a little higher than the amount $1,240,000 specified in the budget proposal.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Indonesia|Japan|South Korea; announced: 2017-04-19.
International Society for Applied Ethology40,000.008312017-03Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-travel-scholarshipsLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support travel scholarships for 14 animal welfare scientists from developing nations to attend ISAE’s 2017 [51st] International Congress on applied animal behavior and welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We view this as a learning grant; we may consider recommending similar grants in the future if there is significant interest and evidence of positive results."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined by the total of travel costs being funded.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely determined by the timing of the conference; per https://www.applied-ethology.org/res/Abstract%20book%20ISAE2017.pdf the conference would happen on August 7 to 10 in Aarhus, Denmark.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "we may consider recommending similar grants in the future if there is significant interest and evidence of positive results."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-advance-farm-animal-welfare-science-in-developing-nations and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/international-society-applied-ethology-advance-farm-animal-welfare-science-in-developing-nations-2020 with similar purpose suggest satisfaction with the outcome of the grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-06-16.
Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education255,816.004882017-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/jeanne-marchig-centre-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work to improve farm animal welfare in China. The Centre plans to use this grant primarily to fund the staff and travel costs to send international farm animal welfare experts to China to work collaboratively with large-scale producers, veterinarians, small-scale rural producers, and technical staff to identify and solve animal welfare challenges. It also plans to fund a complete PhD focused on evaluating whether the program improves outcomes for animals."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/jeanne-marchig-centre-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2019 (2019-02) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Currency info: donation given as 201,594.00 GBP (conversion done via donor calculation); affected countries: China; announced: 2017-04-19.
World Animal Protection517,588.003092017-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-broiler-chicken-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant for campaigns to improve the welfare of broiler chickens. Activities: (1) Producing and promoting campaign materials to raise awareness of broiler chicken suffering (2) Developing and launching a corporate chicken welfare scorecard (3) Building evidence of the suffering endured by broiler chickens in factory farming operations (4) Staff time, creative development, and travel (5) Indirect costs such as occupancy, technical support, and administrative support.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: For more background on Open Phil grants related to broiler chicken, see https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Donee's budget proposal is at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/World_Animal_Protection/Revised_WAP_Chicken_Campaign_Proposal_REDACTED.xlsx

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2017-06-26.
Wageningen University & Research (Earmark: Marc Bracke)88,345.007202017-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wageningen-ur-broiler-welfare-reviewLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant page says: "We initially decided to recommend this grant in April 2016. At that time, we anticipated that the results of this research would help to guide our decision-making around grants to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of the approximately 9 billion broiler chickens raised each year in the U.S. However, due to difficulties and delays in finalizing the details of the grant, funds were only transferred in March 2017, after we had already begun to make grants to support broiler chicken welfare reforms."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to create a systematic assessment of broiler chicken welfare. [...] Dr. Bracke will assess the relative importance of the various attributes that together define broiler chicken welfare. Welfare attributes are factors such as stocking density, litter quality, breed, and lighting. Depending on the results of an initial investigation, he will produce either a basic broiler chicken welfare model or a review of expert opinion."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We initially decided to recommend this grant in April 2016. At that time, we anticipated that the results of this research would help to guide our decision-making around grants to support corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of the approximately 9 billion broiler chickens raised each year in the U.S."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant page says: "We initially decided to recommend this grant in April 2016. [...] However, due to difficulties and delays in finalizing the details of the grant, funds were only transferred in March 2017, after we had already begun to make grants to support broiler chicken welfare reforms."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Other notes: The grant is made via the King Baudouin Foundation. Currency info: donation given as 82,105.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); announced: 2017-05-08.
Institute for Advancement of Animal Welfare Science80,400.007252017-03Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/colorado-state-university-planning-giftLewis Bollard Grant goes for Colorado State University research on broiler chicken welfare. Discretionary grant. Amount increased from original value of $25,300 to $80,400 on 2018-02-16. See also https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken. Announced: 2017-06-26.
Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security3,500,000.00602017-03Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-- Donation process: The grant page says: "To investigate this grant, we had several phone conversations with GHSS leadership and reviewed materials they shared, including project proposals, budgets, and information about the track record of core staff."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grantee plans to spend the majority of the grant funding on three main activities: (1) "Improving the capacity of the international community to respond to biological attacks." (2) "Researching international best practices for building laboratory capacity within national-level biosurveillance systems." (3) "Conducting a review and financial audit of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), an international effort that is organizing hundreds of millions of dollars in donor funding to build capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks." Also: "GHSS plans to use most of the remaining funds on one or more additional projects that will be chosen in consultation with the Open Philanthropy Project; some to research new project ideas; and a small amount to cover minor infrastructure improvements."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Reasons for the grant include: (1) Main activities listed are in line with Open Phil priorities for biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. (2) "The co-leaders of GHSS, Rebecca Katz and Julie Fischer, are internationally recognized experts on the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations and global health security capacity building." (3) "This grant will free up GHSS staff time to do research on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness issues that are important to us" (by moving away from project-specific contracts with the United States government). (4) "Support for GHSS will help to build capacity for biosecurity and pandemic preparedness analysis and advocacy outside of government". (5) "Few other centers research similar topics".

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-2018 (2018) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness/georgetown-center-global-health-science-and-security-general-support-2020 (2020) suggest that Open Phil would continue to have a positive impression of the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2017-03-24.
ClimateWorks Foundation3,000,000.00682017-03Climate change/hydrofluorocarbonshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/climateworks-montreal-protocol-energy-cooling-office-- Donation process: The funding was committed in September 2016 but actually provided in March 2017.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to contribute to the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program, which was created recently to assist with a phase-down of the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in developing nations, in connection with the passing of an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty signed in 1987 that aimed to phase out the use of substances that damage the ozone layer. More recently, it has become clear that HFCs, which have been used to replace the ozone-damaging substances targeted by the Montreal Protocol, are themselves extremely potent greenhouse gases. In recognition of this, in 2016 an effort was made to amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of HFCs. This grant is contributing to a pool of funding provided by a group of philanthropic organizations and individuals to support energy efficiency initiatives in developing countries transitioning to HFC alternatives."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our goal was to incentivize countries in the developing world to agree to a more ambitious phase-out timeline and to assist them in achieving the proposed timeline." It also links to https://hewlett.org/newsroom/philanthropic-community-applauds-montreal-protocol-amendment-phase-potent-greenhouse-gas-prepares-distribute-53-million-energy-efficiency-cooling/ that provides more context on the fund.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing of the grant commitment (September 2016) matches the time of the fund creation; see https://hewlett.org/newsroom/philanthropic-community-applauds-montreal-protocol-amendment-phase-potent-greenhouse-gas-prepares-distribute-53-million-energy-efficiency-cooling/ for the press release on 2016-10-27 announcing the $53 million fund. A version of the proposed amendment to the Montreal Protocol is also passed around that time; see https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/22/leaders-100-countries-call-ambitious-amendment-montreal-protocol-phase for more details.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-03-08.
UCLA School of Law (Earmark: Edward Parson)776,095.002462017-03Global catastrophic risks/geoengineeringhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/ucla-climate-engineering-governance-- Donation process: Grantee submitted a proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/UCLA_Climate_Engineering/Parson_CE_Governance_Proposal_Narrative_02-10-17.pdf on 2017-02-10 with sections: (1) Background, Need, and Opportunity (2) Examples of questions to be addressed (3) Activities.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research and meetings on climate engineering governance led by Professor Edward Parson. Professor Parson plans to use this grant to hire one or two fellows for three years to do academic research, publish papers, and hold meetings and workshops on climate engineering governance with relevant policymakers." The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/UCLA_Climate_Engineering/Parson_CE_Governance_Proposal_Narrative_02-10-17.pdf also has an Activities section, though it's not clear how much the plans changed between the proposal and the final grant.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We hope that this grant will positively influence the future of climate engineering governance and policy."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/UCLA_Climate_Engineering/Parson_CE_Governance_Proposal_Narrative_02-10-17.pdf includes an attached budget, though this is not publicly available. The budget likely influenced the amount granted.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing was likely influenced by the timing of the submission of the grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/UCLA_Climate_Engineering/Parson_CE_Governance_Proposal_Narrative_02-10-17.pdf (2017-02-10, a month before the grant).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: Announced: 2017-04-19.
National Alliance of Faith and Justice100,000.006652017-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-alliance-faith-and-justice-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant to support the National Alliance of Faith and Justice work in advancing criminal justice reform by empowering victims of crime to become advocates for safe and just communities. Discretionary grant decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Grant page published on 2017-04-27, see https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/_iLMF5lWwnQ for the email announcing the grant. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-04-26.
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon145,000.006152017-03Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-civil-liberties-union-foundation-oregon-prosecutorial-accountabilityChloe Cockburn Grant to support prosecutorial reform, including a report cost on district attorney (DA) policies, practices, and positions, to be completed for each elected DA. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Oregon; announced: 2017-06-09.
Vera Institute of Justice50,000.007772017-03Criminal justice reform/Safety and justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vera-institute-justice-criminal-justice-reform-reportChloe Cockburn Grant to support a report on the state of safety and justice reform. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-06-26.
College and Community Fellowship50,000.007772017-03Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/college-and-community-fellowship-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee works to increase access to education for formerly incarcerated people via direct service work in New York City (including academic support and peer mentoring programs), policy advocacy, and technical assistance. CCF’s direct service work informs its national advocacy and national technical assistance programs, both of which aim to increase awareness about issues related to mass incarceration and education and to encourage community members and decision-makers to push for criminal justice reform. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2017-07-19.
Workers Center for Racial Justice125,000.006292017-03Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/workers-center-racial-justice-prosecutorial-accountability-chicagoChloe Cockburn Grant to support work on prosecutorial accountability in Chicago. The Workers Center for Racial Justice plans to use this grant to a) support local organizing to work with Cook County State’s Attorney (SA) Kim Foxx to ensure that her policies are ensuring the safety of Cook County communities without overly relying on jail and prison incarceration, and b) build these groups’ capacity to relate to SA Foxx in a productive way. Possible activities include town hall meetings, prayer vigils, and quarterly meetings with SA Foxx to determine whether she is meeting the groups’ standards for community accountability and reduced use of harsh criminal justice sanctions. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2017-09-07.
The People’s Lobby Education Institute125,000.006292017-03Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-lobby-education-institute-support-work-prosecutorial-accountability-chicagoChloe Cockburn Grant to support work on prosecutorial accountability in Chicago. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2018-01-05.
People's Action Institute279,000.004722017-03Criminal justice reform/movement growth/prosecutorial reform and decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-action-institute-prosecutor-accountabilityChloe Cockburn Grant to support its prosecutor accountability campaign.1 The People’s Action Institute is a national organization driven by local and state organizing, with member organizations across several states. Using this funding, they plan to expand their community organizing and public education activities related to prosecutor accountability and reform to several new cities and regions. The broad goal will be to mobilize stakeholders to advocate for reforms that reduce incarceration levels. We expect these funds to cover expenses related to personnel, leadership trainings, consulting fees, materials and supplies, communications, travel and lodging, and re-grants to member organizations. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-action-prosecutor-accountability to the People’s Action by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-19.
People's Action1,927,640.001252017-03Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-action-prosecutor-accountabilityChloe Cockburn Grant over two years to support prosecutor accountability campaign. People’s Action is a national organization driven by local and state organizing, with member organizations across several states. Using this funding, they plan to expand their community organizing and advocacy activities related to prosecutor accountability and reform to several new cities and regions such as Brooklyn, Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee. The broad goal was intended to be to mobilize stakeholders to advocate for policy reforms that reduce incarceration levels, particularly through movement building and voter engagement and outreach. Grant made by the Open Philnthropy Action Fund. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/peoples-action-institute-prosecutor-accountability to the People’s Action Institute. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-19.
Texas Organizing Project1,195,500.001782017-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-organizing-project-criminal-justice-reform-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant intended to grow TOP’s organizational capacity so that it can continue building pressure for criminal justice reforms in Texas. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Detailed writeup available. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/texas-organizing-project-education-fund-criminal-justice-reform made to the Texas Orgaizing Project Education Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-04-19.
Texas Organizing Project Education Fund765,000.002492017-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-organizing-project-education-fund-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant intended to support a build-up of TOP Ed Fund’s organizational capacity in Texas, in order to allow it to continue pushing for criminal justice reforms. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-organizing-project-criminal-justice-reform-2017 by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-04-19.
OpenAI30,000,000.0052017-03AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/openai-general-support-- Donation process: According to the grant page Section 4 Our process: "OpenAI initially approached Open Philanthropy about potential funding for safety research, and we responded with the proposal for this grant. Subsequent discussions included visits to OpenAI’s office, conversations with OpenAI’s leadership, and discussions with a number of other organizations (including safety-focused organizations and AI labs), as well as with our technical advisors."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The funds will be used for general support of OpenAI, with 10 million USD per year for the next three years. The funding is also accompanied with Holden Karnofsky (Open Phil director) joining the OpenAI Board of Directors. Karnofsky and one other board member will oversee OpenAI's safety and governance work.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil says that, given its interest in AI safety, it is looking to fund and closely partner with orgs that (a) are working to build transformative AI, (b) are advancing the state of the art in AI research, (c) employ top AI research talent. OpenAI and Deepmind are two such orgs, and OpenAI is particularly appealing due to "our shared values, different starting assumptions and biases, and potential for productive communication." Open Phil is looking to gain the following from a partnership: (i) Improve its understanding of AI research, (ii) Improve its ability to generically achieve goals regarding technical AI safety research, (iii) Better position Open Phil to promote its ideas and goals.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page Section 2.2 "A note on why this grant is larger than others we’ve recommended in this focus area" explains the reasons for the large grant amount (relative to other grants by Open Phil so far). Reasons listed are: (i) Hits-based giving philosophy, described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/hits-based-giving in depth, (ii) Disproportionately high importance of the cause if transformative AI is developed in the next 20 years, and likelihood that OpenAI will be very important if that happens, (iii) Benefits of working closely with OpenAI in informing Open Phil's understanding of AI safety, (iv) Field-building benefits, including promoting an AI safety culture, (v) Since OpenAI has a lot of other funding, Open Phil can grant a large amount while still not raising the concern of dominating OpenAI's funding.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No specific timing considerations are provided. It is likely that the timing of the grant is determined by when OpenAI first approached Open Phil and the time taken for the due diligence.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: External discussions include http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/an-openai-board-seat-is-surprisingly-expensive/ cross-posted to https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2z5vrsu7BoiWckLby/an-openai-board-seat-is-surprisingly-expensive (GW, IR) (post by Ben Hoffman, attracting comments at both places), https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/848009582492360704 (critical tweet with replies), https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10211478311489366 (Facebook post by Vipul Naik, with some comments), https://www.facebook.com/groups/effective.altruists/permalink/1350683924987961/ (Facebook post by Alasdair Pearce in Effective Altruists Facebook group, with some comments), and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14008569 (Hacker News post, with some comments). Announced: 2017-03-31.
Stanford University (Earmark: Percy Liang)25,000.008622017-03AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-percy-liang-planning-grantDaniel Dewey Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to enable Professor Liang to spend significant time engaging in our process to determine whether to provide his research group with a much larger grant." The larger grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-support-percy-liang would be made.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant is a planning grant intended to help Percy Liang write up a proposal for a bigger grant.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The bigger proposal whose writing was funded by this grant would lead to a bigger grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/stanford-university-support-percy-liang in May 2017.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-09-26.
Future of Humanity Institute1,994,000.001232017-03AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/future-humanity-institute-general-support-- Grant for general support. A related grant specifically for biosecurity work was granted in 2016-09, made earlier for logistical reasons. Announced: 2017-03-06.
Distill25,000.008622017-03AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/distill-prize-clarity-machine-learning-general-supportDaniel Dewey Grant covers 25000 out of a total of 125000 USD initial endowment for the Distill prize https://distill.pub/prize/ administered by the Open Philanthropy Project. Other contributors to the endowment include Chris Olah, Greg Brockman, Jeff Dean, and DeepMind. The Open Philanthropy Project grant page says: "Without our funding, we estimate that there is a 60% chance that the prize would be administered at the same level of quality, a 30% chance that it would be administered at lower quality, and a 10% chance that it would not move forward at all. We believe that our assistance in administering the prize will also be of significant help to Distill.". Announced: 2017-08-11.
Drug Policy Alliance1,371,630.001622017-03Drug policy/United States/Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/drug-policy-alliance-drug-decriminalization-- Grant supports the work of asha bandele and Kassandra Frederique, who plan to lead culture change and pilot project strategies to advance a public health approach to the use and sale of all drugs. Although the grantee is working on drug policy, the current criminalization of various drugs also makes the grant fall under criminal justice reform. Open Phil hopes to move the United States toward a Portugal-style public health approach to drugs, and sees the grant as a step in that direction. Of the original grant amount of $1.4 million, $28,370 of unspent funds were returned by DPA in December 2018, and the grant amount was updated to reflect this. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-04-22.
Center for Global Development (Earmark: Michael Clemens)1,800,000.001312017-03Migration policy/labor mobilityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-programAlexander Berger Donation process: The grant page does not discuss the process explicitly, but it's likely based on the follow-up exeecuted as part of https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research#Follow-up_expectations for the previous grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to fund the CGD 2017-2019 Migration Program. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CGD/CGD_Migration_Program_Description.pdf has some details of activities funded. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding says: "Our funding will continue to support Dr. Clemens’ salary, as well as costs of travel and working with consultants. Most of the increase in funding will cover the hiring of a full-time research fellow, plus additional support from administrative, communications, and policy staff."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program#About_the_grant gives the reasons for the grant, mostly centered around a positive evaluation of the outcome of the previous grant. Relevant excerpts include "the team has taken on some promising research projects" and "Our expectation is that this type of work may take a fairly long time to have noticeable effects, so even without concrete evidence of impact at this stage, extending our support seems to us like a worthwhile bet, and the immediate projects that Dr. Clemens’ team has proposed seem reasonable and potentially promising to us, though it is difficult for us to assess the value of the projects individually."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding says: "This grant represents an increase in our yearly funding for CGD over our previous grant, from roughly $400,000 to roughly $600,000 per year. Our funding will continue to support Dr. Clemens’ salary, as well as costs of travel and working with consultants. Most of the increase in funding will cover the hiring of a full-time research fellow, plus additional support from administrative, communications, and policy staff."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right at the end of the timeframe for the previous three-year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research (2014-03).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists key questions and follow-up expectations. It also says: "We will likely consider it successful if Dr. Clemens’ upcoming book is extremely well-received (which we do not anticipate, just because of the prior unlikelihood of any given book selling especially well), if any of the team’s initiatives have an impact such that a rough cost-effectiveness estimate suggests a good return on our investment, or if ambitious plans lead us to significantly increase our support in the future. We believe there is only a roughly 50% chance that at least one of the above happens, but that the grant is still justified in expected value terms."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup conversation with Michael Clemens happens at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Michael_Clemens_11-29-17_%28public%29.pdf (2017-11-29). The grant gets renewed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program-2020 (2020-03) though with a reduced funding level.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-06-27.
Rutgers University (Earmark: Alan Robock)2,982,206.00772017-03Global catastrophic risks/nuclear warhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/rutgers-university-nuclear-conflict-climate-modeling-- Grant over three years to support a series of modeling studies on the climatological and subsequent ecological and social effects of large nuclear conflict. Research to beconducted by Alan Robock of Rutgers University and Owen Brian Toon of the University of Colorado Boulder. Announced: 2017-04-19.
80,000 Hours1,125,000.001872017-03Effective altruism/movement growth/career counselinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-supportNick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support#Budget_and_proposed_activities grantee plans to use the grant to fund the following activities: (1) Hiring four new junior staff members to (a) improve career guides and career profiles, (b) do career coaching, (c) replacing a departing part-time software engineer, (d) research/career coaching/marketing. (2) Increasing staff salaries by 30% to be competitive in the Bay Area, to which it recently moved. (3) Marketing activities including online retargeting advertisements, Facebook advertisements for workshops targeted at universities, and giving away books. (4) Holding funds in reserve for year 2

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support#Case_for_the_grant explains the reasons. The key reason is that Open Phil finds impressive the large number of impact-adjusted significant plan changes (IASPCs) that 80,000 Hours claims to have brought about, and broadly agrees with 80,000 Hours' calculation of their IASPCs

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support#Case_for_the_grant "We expect to recommend another grant to 80,000 Hours at the beginning of 2018, with the amount recommended being whichever of the following is smallest: (1) $1.25 million (2) The amount 80,000 Hours raises from other donors in 2017 (3) The amount necessary for 80,000 Hours to have $3.75 million in its bank account"

Donor retrospective of the donation: The renewal grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2018 of $510,000 is consistent with the expectations set during this grant; the constraining factor in determining the amount for the renewal is "The amount 80,000 Hours raises from other donors in 2017"

Other notes: Announced: 2017-05-16.
Centre for Effective Altruism2,500,000.00952017-03Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017Nick Beckstead Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding "Our funding will be used primarily to allow CEA to hire new staff; increase staff salaries (from what we see as previously low levels); provide additional support to local EA groups; increase its budget for EA Global and EAGx events (conferences about EA); and partially fund EA Grants." Also: "If we renew our grant for $2.5 million next year (see below), our funding will in total increase CEA’s 2017 budget by $1.25 million and its 2018 budget by $1.875 million"

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Case_for_the_grant "We believe that CEA has a good track record of helping the effective altruism community grow, and its leadership appears to be fairly value-aligned with us in terms of this goal." Two key contributions highlighted are "$1.4 billion worth of pledges made to Giving What We Can (GWWC)" and "Introducing effective altruism to people who have become valuable members of the EA community."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding "If we renew our grant for $2.5 million next year (see below), our funding will in total increase CEA’s 2017 budget by $1.25 million and its 2018 budget by $1.875 million, with the remaining $1.875 million partly offsetting reduced fundraising from other donors, and partly increasing CEA’s reserves for 2019."

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2017#Follow-up_expectations "We plan to renew this grant for between $1.25 million and $2.5 million next year depending on the outcomes of the various projects CEA plans to try out this year, and at a level consistent with our funding being less than 50% of CEA’s total budget. "

Donor retrospective of the donation: The June 2018 renewal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-effective-altruism-general-support-2018 (for a similar amount) as well as subsequent grants in 2019 and 2020 suggest that Open Phil would continue to stand by its reasoning for the grant

Other notes: The grant writeup is fairly detailed, including a list of predictions as well as sources. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2017-08-17.
Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund305,000.004432017-02Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2017Alexander Berger Donation process: Grant made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund; this complements the grant made by Open Philanthropy directly to the Center for Popular Democracy (the associated 501(c)(3)) at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 (2017-02).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve, and specifically in the selection of regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents and leaders. [...] CPD Action expects to use this funding primarily for lobbying activities associated with the campaign."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page links to the corresponding CPD grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 that says: "We decided to renew our support based primarily on CPD’s continued success drawing attention for its agenda from the press, Congress, and the Fed; ongoing opportunities to potentially influence the appointment or priorities of new Federal Reserve governors and regional Fed presidents; and our intention to provide the campaign with enough sustainable funding to last through the next recession, when CPD’s advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its performance."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No explicit reasons are given for the amount; it is about 27% of the amount ($1,100,000) for the corresponding CPD grant, and likely reflects the expected amount of lobbying costs to support the campaign's other costs.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is coordinated with the corresponding CPD grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 whose timing in turn is based on an annual cadence of granting.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 (2018-02, $100,000) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though the size of the followup grant (both absolute and in proportion to the CPD grant) is substantially smaller.

Other notes: As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till Open Philanthropy was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-12-28.
Center for Popular Democracy1,100,000.001892017-02Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017Alexander Berger Donation process: This renewal grant for CPD's Fed Up campaign is based on a review of the campaign's performance so far as well as changes to the political and economic environment.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve, and specifically in the selection of regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents and leaders. [...] CPD expects to use this funding toward campaign expenses such as salaries, travel, sub-grants, and overhead."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We decided to renew our support based primarily on CPD’s continued success drawing attention for its agenda from the press, Congress, and the Fed; ongoing opportunities to potentially influence the appointment or priorities of new Federal Reserve governors and regional Fed presidents; and our intention to provide the campaign with enough sustainable funding to last through the next recession, when CPD’s advocacy might be especially useful and when we could better evaluate its performance. [...] However, our primary reason for continuing to support the campaign is that we believe it may be able to potentially prevent extraordinary harm during the next recession, when we think it will be more likely to have a meaningful short-term influence (as compared to the current gradual tightening cycle)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reasons are given for the amount; it is less than the $1,429,000 given the previous year.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016 was for the 2016 year, so with the end of the year, funds are needed for 2017's Fed Up campaign.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2018 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee, though it notes: "As labor market conditions have improved, we’ve become less confident about the appropriate short term stance of monetary policy." There are further followup grants in 2019 and 2020.

Other notes: The grant page says: "Since our last grant, one new area of uncertainty introduced for the campaign is the degree to which the Trump administration and a unified Republican Congress might support policies that reduce the need for expansionary monetary policy. Additionally, as unemployment rates have declined, we have become less confident in the appropriate short-term stance of monetary policy, and could imagine disagreeing with the Fed Up campaign about the appropriate direction for interest rates to move." An associated grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2017 is made to the CPD Action Fund by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-12-28.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals453,440.003662017-02Animal welfare/factory farming/Chinahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rspca-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support its work to advance farm animal welfare in China. The RSPCA plans to use this grant to develop and launch the country’s first higher farm animal welfare standards. Part of the award will allow the hiring of a China-based consultant to facilitate close collaboration with the official International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare, a key institution involved in bringing together Chinese stakeholders in the livestock and agriculture sectors."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is determined by the China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several further grants from Open Phil to RSPCA, including the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rspca-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-asia-2020 for continued animal welfare work in Asia, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2017-04-04.
Compassion in World Farming765,112.002482017-02Animal welfare/factory farming/Chinahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support work to improve farm animal welfare in China. Compassion plans to use this grant to augment the capacity of its dedicated China team, increase technical and operational support, expand its Good Pig Production Awards, roll out its recently-launched Good Chicken and Good Egg Production Awards, and extend work and deepen engagement with its in-country partner, the International Cooperation Committee on Animal Welfare. This grant will triple the scale of Compassion’s corporate and producer engagement in China.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09)

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Budget available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CIWF/CIWF_China_Programme_Budget_2015-16_to_2020-21.pdf Grant made in UK sterling, value 598,500, dollar amount of 765,112 at time of conversion

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2017-04-19.
Global Animal Partnership200,000.005442017-02Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support-2017Lewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "GAP plans to use this grant to hire a senior staff member to assist the executive director, which we believe will enable GAP to work more effectively on farm animal welfare projects such as its certifier accreditation program and standards development and management."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is likely determined by the amount needed for what's being funded: "hire a senior staff member to assist the executive director".

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Global Animal Partnership indicate continued satisfaction of Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-09-07.
Global Animal Partnership515,000.003112017-02Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-broiler-chicken-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research into broiler chicken welfare at the University of Guelph." The study is expected to "help to identify which breeds of broiler chicken have the best welfare outcomes."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Global Animal Partnership indicate continued satisfaction of Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2018-10-05.
Dyrevernalliansen378,000.004032017-02Animal welfare/fish welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/dyrevernalliansen-fish-welfareLewis Bollard Grantee is the Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance. Goal of grant is to enable grantee to expand its animal welfare engagement with the Norwegian fish farming industry as part of a larger effort to build the field of farmed fish welfare advocacy. Affected countries: Norway; announced: 2017-03-20.
Nuclear Threat Initiative476,859.003572017-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-global-health-security-index-planning-grant-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the first phase of the creation of the Global Health Security (GHS) Index, a public report that will score countries on factors relevant to biosecurity and pandemic preparedness." NTI intends to partner with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (also an Open Phil grantee) and the Economist intelligence Unit. Planned activities include: (1) "Developing a draft framework for the Index based on information from literature reviews and expert interviews." (2) "Convening an international expert advisory group to refine the framework and generate a list of potential metrics and indicators." (3) "Determining the availability of data sets for each metric and indicator." (4) "Publishing a set of 20-30 metrics and indicators that can be used to measure global health security in an index."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Reasons listed for the grant include: (1) "We are not aware of an existing comprehensive source for this type of information, nor a comprehensive international standard for national global health security capacity." (2) "The GHS Index would be independent and therefore much less likely to be subject to political pressure." (3) "We believe that these three organizations are exceptionally well-equipped to do this work." (4) "Our understanding is that some past examples of similar indexes, such as NTI’s Nuclear Security Index, have been successful at creating political pressure and impacting government decision-making."

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "The key open question for this grant is whether the proposed GHS Index can offer an improvement over the JEE in terms of how it measures capacity to prevent and respond to pandemics. An important related question is whether sufficient publicly available data exist to support an effective index. We recommended this planning grant to provide NTI, CHS and EIU with an opportunity to explore these questions by developing a preliminary set of categories for the Index and determining whether publicly available data exist in those categories."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/nuclear-threat-initiative-global-health-security-index-grant to create the Global Health Security index (i.e., to go beyond the planning grant to actual implementation) suggests that Open Phil would be satisfied with the results of the planning grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-03-07.
Genspace15,000.008872017-02Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/genspace-diybio-and-fbi-meetingJaime Yassif Grant to support a meeting between the DIYbio community and the FBI. Announced: 2017-06-16.
Prison Policy Initiative66,000.007532017-02Criminal justice reform/data collectionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prison-policy-initiative-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-03-15.
Justice Solutions112,613.006492017-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-solutions-anne-seymours-crime-victims-and-survivors-workChloe Cockburn Grant supports work of well-known victim rights advocate Anne Seymour. The project aims to assess the status of victims’ rights to dignity and respect, which are included in statutes and constitutions in many states but are not defined in most of these states. Discretionary grant by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-03-15.
ReFrame Mentorship100,000.006652017-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reframe-mentorship-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant via Center for Civic Policy, following up on https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reframe-mentorship-general-support an earlier grant. Discretionary grant decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-03-15.
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California250,000.004922017-02Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/aclu-nor-cal-prosecutorial-accountabilityChloe Cockburn Grant supports project on prosecutorial accountability called “What a difference a DA makes” and led by Ana Zamora. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2017-03-15.
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition130,000.006262017-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/florida-rights-restoration-coalition-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program officer Chlor Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Florida; announced: 2017-03-17.
National Network for Safe Communities161,040.005872017-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-network-safe-communities-la-larceny-projectChloe Cockburn Grant to support a larceny intervention project in Los Angeles. Grant page published on 2017-03-31. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Los Angeles; announced: 2017-03-31.
LatinoJustice500,000.003142017-02Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/latino-justice-work-end-mass-incarcerationChloe Cockburn Grant to support work to end mass incarceration by increasing the visibility and changing the public will of Latinx in favor of criminal justice reform. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-09-07.
Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense500,000.003142017-01Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support-2017-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant to enable it to continue its advocacy for biodefense policy improvements. Grant is a top-up to previous grant of 1300000 in 2016-08 described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Likely similar reason as for the 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Likely because the earlier funds of $1.3 million granted in August 2016 are running out

Donor retrospective of the donation: The further grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support-2018 suggests that the Open Philanthropy Project is happy with the results of the grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-02-27.
Mission: Launch, Inc.55,000.007692017-01Criminal justice reform/child welfare, drug policy, criminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mission-launch-inc-lisa-sangoi-child-welfareChloe Cockburn Grant to be used to increase awareness of the negative impacts of the criminal justice system and increase interest in criminal justice reform. Discretionary grant decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-03-15.
Fair and Just Prosecution1,500,000.001492017-01Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/fair-and-just-prosecution-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant to support launch of new project, a 501(c)(3) organization housed at the Tides Center. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-03-21.
Accountable Justice Collaborative200,000.005442017-01Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/accountable-justice-collaborative-advocacy-fund-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund via The Advocacy Fund to the Accountable Justice Collaborative (AJC) for general support. The funding is intended to increase AJC’s organizational capacity to facilitate advocacy, media engagement, and outreach related to prosecutor accountability. Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/the-justice-collaborative-general-support-2017 to The Justice Collaborative. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-15.
The Justice Collaborative1,301,280.001672017-01Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/the-justice-collaborative-general-support-2017Chloe Cockburn Grantee houses the Accountable Justice Project, that was launched via an April 2016 Open Phil grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/accountable-justice-project-general-support Companion grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/accountable-justice-collaborative-advocacy-fund-general-support-2017 by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-03-15.
Albert Schweitzer Foundation317,060.004392017-01Animal welfare/factory farming/fish/certificationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-fish-welfareLewis Bollard Donation process: Granteee submitted a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Albert_Schweitzer/Albert_Schweitzer_revised_budget_for_setting_welfare_standards_in_aquaculture.pdf with its 2017 and 2018 budgets.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support grantee's "work to develop and implement a fish welfare standard for German retailers. The Albert Schweitzer Foundation plans to use this grant to 1) conduct a study on ways to reduce fish suffering and to analyze the costs of various enhancements of fish welfare, and 2) build relationships with retailers and universities in the aquaculture industry. It plans to use the study to determine which welfare improvements to advocate for."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This is one of a series of grants to organizations working to improve the conditions of the approximately 1.7 billion fish farmed in the EU and Norway."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amout granted in euros matches the total in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Albert_Schweitzer/Albert_Schweitzer_revised_budget_for_setting_welfare_standards_in_aquaculture.pdf of the 2017 and 2018 budgets for this project. The donation was given as 299,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: Germany; announced: 2017-03-21.
Albert Schweitzer Foundation111,986.006502017-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-international-cage-free-advocacyLewis Bollard Donation process: Grantee submitted a budget proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Albert_Schweitzer/Albert_Schweitzer_Expansion_Budget_Poland.xlsx that included total expenses and a breakdown between what would be covered by the grant versus by the grantee's own resources.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work to end the confinement of hens in battery cages."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The linked blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms lists several reasons for the general focus on cage-free reforms, and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d describes the reasons for the internationalization phase.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount granted in euros matches the total in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Albert_Schweitzer/Albert_Schweitzer_Expansion_Budget_Poland.xlsx that should be covered by the grant. The donation was given as 102,000.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing matches the timing of other grants in this second phase (internationalization) of corporate cage-free campaign spending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup general support grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-general-support-2017 (2017-09) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/albert-schweitzer-foundation-general-support-2019 (2019-08) include support for work similar to this grant. The grant page for the first of these explicitly refers to Open Philanthropy's satisfaction with this grant's outcome.

Other notes: Affected countries: Poland; announced: 2017-03-21.
Farm Forward100,000.006652017-01Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/farm-forward-broiler-chicken-welfare-advocacyLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support work to secure pledges from institutions including universities, technology companies, and religious organizations to source higher-welfare animal products through The Leadership Circle. While Farm Forward typically works with institutions that purchase fewer animal products than the large food companies that other advocacy groups work with, it also seeks stronger welfare commitments, such as sourcing 100% of chicken from farms that are certified to at least Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Step 2 within two years. The Leadership Circle also asks institutions to commit to continuous improvement and investments in highest-welfare farms and ranches. Project description available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Farm_Forward/The_Leadership_Circle_Project_Description.pdf

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Open Phil writes: "It seems plausible to us that the institutions that Farm Forward works with may exert cultural influence that may influence much larger food companies."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grantee submitted a budget, available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Farm_Forward/The_Leadership_Circle_Budget_Public.xlsx that gives a total of $100,000 from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017

Donor retrospective of the donation: The February 2018 renewal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/farm-forward-leadership-circle-2018 suggests that the grant was considered at least somewhat successful. The renewal writeup says that the grantee says that the grant "helped enable its work with the University of California system, Dr. Bronner’s, Airbnb, Duke University, Villanova University, Johns Hopkins University, and others to commit to source some of their animal products from farms certified to higher-welfare standards."

Other notes: Recipient works with institutions that purchase animal food products, and pushes them to raise the standards of treatment of animals for the food they purchased, through the Leadership Circle. Example: sourcing 100% of chicken from farms that are certified to at least Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Step two in two years. Intended funding timeframe in months: 12; announced: 2017-03-30.
Compassion in World Farming1,026,253.001972017-01Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-fish-welfareLewis Bollard Donation process: One of the two grants is being made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grantee "plans to build a dedicated fish welfare team focused on engaging with food retailers and corporations; launch a new online information hub featuring resources on fish welfare such as white papers, technical reports, and case studies; conduct and commission new research and evidence-gathering on topics related to intensive fish farming, higher welfare systems, and to improve understanding of the welfare needs of fish. Compassion will also produce and promote public-facing materials designed to achieve a cultural and attitudinal shift toward fish in the longer-term. They will also conduct advocacy work in the EU and United Kingdom focused on securing enforcement of existing animal welfare laws which apply to farmed fish while also promoting species-specific protections."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Budget available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CIWF/Compassion%20in%20World%20farming_Fish%20Welfare_Budget_December%202017.pdf

Other notes: Two grants totaling £805,000 ($1,026,253 at the time of conversion). Announced: 2018-01-19.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security16,000,000.00122017-01Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-health-security-biosecurity-global-health-security-and-global-catastrophicJaime Yassif Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-health-security-biosecurity-global-health-security-and-global-catastrophic#Our_process "Jaime had several conversations with CHS leadership about high-level issues relevant to the grant, reviewed materials shared by CHS, and spoke to other experts in the field to get their perspectives on its work."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant to support CHS's work on biosecurity, global health security, and global catastrophic risks posed by pathogens. Over the course of the grant, CHS plans to devote about one-third of its total funding and staff time to GCR-related projects and two-thirds to general health security and public health preparedness work

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-health-security-biosecurity-global-health-security-and-global-catastrophic#The_organization the grantee organization has (1) Track record of research and policy development, (2) Track record of policy impact

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-health-security-biosecurity-global-health-security-and-global-catastrophic#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding "We do not have a detailed budget breakdown for the grant; it is mostly unrestricted and is designed to give CHS flexibility to pursue the projects it considers most important and to have the most impact." An approximate breakdown is given. Also: "Overall, we estimate that this grant will increase CHS’s annual budget from $5.3 million to approximately $8 million."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The September 2019 renewal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-health-security-biosecurity-health-security-gcrs-2019 (3 years, for $19.5 million) suggests that Open Phil would be satisfied with the results of the grant

Other notes: Largest grant made to date by Open Phil. Grant writeup includes lengthy discussion of grant. Open Phil had previously made a grant to the organization when it was housed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and known as the UPMC Center for Health Security. Using the grant money, the grantee would launch a bunch of projects related to Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBR); see http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/about-the-center/pressroom/press_releases/2017-07-27_global-catastrophic-biological-risk-definition.html (2017-07-27) for the associated press release. Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2017-02-08.
Animal Outlook500,000.003142016-12Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/research/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-over-killing-us-broiler-welfare-campaignsLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support broiler chicken welfare research and costs of United States corporate campaigns against the abuse of broiler chickens."

Other notes: The grantee name at the time, and listed in the grant, is Compassion Over Killing. Part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See also https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-16.
The Pollination Project233,000.005232016-12Animal welfare/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/pollination-project-global-animal-advocacy-movementLewis Bollard Donation process: A grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Pollination_Project/The_Pollination_Project_Animal_Advocacy_Program_2017.pdf was submitted by the grantee.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support a new pilot project focused on building the grassroots farm animal welfare movement globally. The Pollination Project will work with existing activists and groups to identify and fund grassroots projects around the world, and then evaluate their impact and potential for further funding." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Pollination_Project/The_Pollination_Project_Animal_Advocacy_Program_2017.pdf has the grant proposal.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Pollination_Project/The_Pollination_Project_Animal_Advocacy_Program_2017.pdf provides a budget breakdown of the amount.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/pollination-project-global-animal-advocacy-movement-2019 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/pollination-project-conference suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 18; announced: 2017-02-16.
Eurogroup for Animals535,699.003002016-12Animal welfare/factory farming/fishhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/eurogroup-animals-fish-welfareLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support its work to improve fish welfare."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "According to the best estimates we are aware of, fish account for about three quarters of all vertebrate farmed animals. Although conditions vary greatly by species and country, our understanding is that most fish are farmed for longer and in harsher conditions than those experienced by most other farm animals. Consequently, we find it plausible that fish farming could be the greatest cause of farm animal suffering globally. Despite this, we are not aware of any major animal welfare groups that have campaigns focused on fish welfare, and we therefore believe that it is important to start building this area of farm animal welfare advocacy."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This seems to be the time that Open Philanthropy decided to start focusing on fish, and Eurogroup for Animals appears to have been one of the few groups that was able to absorb fundsfoor fish welfare.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants to the grantee, some for chicken and some for fish, suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: This appears to be Open Philanthropy's first grant focused on fish welfare. Currency info: donation given as 498,928.00 EUR (conversion done via donor calculation); affected countries: European Union; announced: 2017-03-13.
Griffith University (Earmark: Deborah Cao)120,000.006382016-12Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Donation process: Profesor Deborah Cao submitted a grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Deborah_Cao/Deborah_Cao_Grant_Proposal_08-29-16.pdf (2016-08-29).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support the work of Professor Deborah Cao, an expert on Chinese animal law, on advancing farm animal welfare in China. Professor Cao plans to use this grant to fund her collaboration with several Chinese animal studies academics to write papers on farm animal welfare and vegetarianism in China; to host a Farm Animal Welfare in China Symposium in Beijing in 2017; and to edit and publish a book on farm animal welfare." It links to a grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Deborah_Cao/Deborah_Cao_Grant_Proposal_08-29-16.pdf (2016-08-29).

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is determined by the China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2018 (2018-08) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/griffith-university-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy (2019-11) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. The first followup grant write-up says that this grant "helped Professor Cao organize a farm animal academic conference in Beijing in 2017 attended by 60 scientists, mostly from Chinese agricultural universities and research institutes."

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2017-05-03.
Animal Welfare Standards Project238,212.005192016-12Animal welfare/factory farming/China and Southeast Asiahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-welfare-standards-project-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Grant to expand work on farm animal welfare in China and Southeast Asia. Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09). Affected countries: China; announced: 2017-03-20.
Harvard University (Earmark: Solar Geoengineering Research Program)2,500,000.00952016-12Climate change/geoengineering/solar radiation managementhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/harvard-university-solar-geoengineering-research-programClaire Zabel Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/harvard-university-solar-geoengineering-research-program#Our_process says: "Claire Zabel, a Research Analyst for the Open Philanthropy Project, spoke and exchanged emails with Professor [David] Keith and Dr. [Gernot] Wagner."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the founding of the Solar Geoengineering Research Program (SGRP) as part of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. This program will be a coordinated research effort focusing on solar geoengineering research, governance, and advocacy led by Professor David Keith and Dr. Gernot Wagner (formerly the Environmental Defense Fund’s lead senior economist)." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/harvard-university-solar-geoengineering-research-program#Budget_and_proposed_activities lists the kinds of expenses: executive director's salary, creation of a comprehensive blueprint, outreach and convening, advancing science and technology, assessing efficacy and risks, governance and social implications, and Harvard-wide faculty grants.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/harvard-university-solar-geoengineering-research-program#Case_for_the_grant says: "We see this grant as a good opportunity to build and advance the field of solar geoengineering, especially given SGRP’s emphasis on cooperation and collaboration between researchers and on developing solar geoengineering technology in the manner that is most likely to affect the world positively. [...] we consider Professor Keith to be a top scientist who is relatively aligned with us in terms of being pragmatic, cognizant of tradeoffs, and focused on global rather than national interests. It seems to us that earlier and more research on solar geoengineering will make it more likely that the global community will have an in-depth understanding of technological options and risks in the event that climate engineering is seriously considered as an approach to reducing harms from climate change at some point in the future.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by the timing of the founding of the institute. The founding is not solely funded by Open Philanthropy, so Open Philanthropy didn't determine the timing. The grant page says: "Other founding funders include Bill Gates, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 60

Other notes: The grant page says: "Other founding funders include Bill Gates, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/harvard-university-solar-geoengineering-research-program#Risks_and_reservations lists risks and reservations, both specific to the grant and general to geoengineering. Announced: 2017-04-14.
Ayni Institute250,000.004922016-12Criminal justice reform/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-and-metricsChloe Cockburn Donation process: Discretionary grant decided by Chloe Cockburn, the Program Officer for criminal justice reform

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support further research, communication and training on movement ecology and movement metrics. The Ayni Institute aims to identify metrics that can be used to determine both 1) the capacity of movements to create or capitalize on trigger events to shift public opinion, and 2) their capacity to absorb increased participation in high-profile moments.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The Open Phil grant writeup says: "We believe that the resulting analysis of how to strategically fund the movement ecosystem may help to inform the way that we and other funders think about supporting movement-building, both in criminal justice reform and in other areas. We believe that the creation of movement metrics, if successful, is likely to increase the effectiveness of funding for social movements and attract new funders who currently do not support social movements due to the lack of measurability."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Although no explicit timing-related considerations are discussed, the timing is likely based on the approximate end of life of the earlier $110,000 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-training made March 2016

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-criminal-justice-reform-coaching in March 2019 suggests that this grant was considered successful, but there is no explicit retrospective of the grant

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-02.
Impact Justice2,050,000.001152016-12Criminal justice reform/restorative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/impact-justice-restorative-justice-projectChloe Cockburn Grant supported the Restorative Justice Project. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-06.
Civil Rights Corps200,000.005442016-12Criminal justice reform/litigationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/civil-rights-corps-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-02.
LEAD National Support Bureau200,000.005442016-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/lead-national-support-bureau-general-supportChloe Cockburn Intended uses of grant money: 1) to hire Chief Brendan Cox, a highly-regarded retiring police chief, to serve as a police ambassador for LEAD, and 2) to provide technical support to the 20-30 places that are planning to be implementing or considering implementing LEAD programs by the end of 2017. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-02.
The Soze Agency216,500.005342016-12Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/soze-agency-returning-citizens-projectChloe Cockburn Grant supports the Returning Citizens Project. Michael Skolnik, CEO, plans to use the grant to coordinate the launch of a formerly incarcerated artist network, with an initial group of five selected artists. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-02.
The Ordinary People Society300,000.004472016-12Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ordinary-people-society-prodigal-child-projectChloe Cockburn Grant supports the Prodigal Child Project, which organizes pastors in the Southern U.S. in support of prisoners, former prisoners, their families, and communities, as part of larger campaigns to raise public awareness and reduce incarceration. The work is led by Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, a formerly incarcerated person who has long worked for reforms in Alabama and surrounding states. This grant would allow Pastor Glasgow to begin building up the infrastructure of his organization. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Alabama|Mississippi|Florida|Georgia; announced: 2017-02-02.
Mothers Against Police Brutality50,000.007772016-12Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mothers-against-police-brutality-prosecutorial-reformChloe Cockburn Grant supports efforts to increase prosecutorial accountability in Texas. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2017-02-02.
Dream Corps500,000.003142016-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/dream-corps-criminal-justice-and-criminalizationChloe Cockburn Grant supports the work of Van Jones and his team. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-02-16.
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition75,000.007362016-12Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/colorado-criminal-justice-reform-coalition-prosecutorial-reformChloe Cockburn Grant to be used to reach out to voters with criminal convictions, to provide public education on the powers and practices of prosecutors, and to work closely with a newly-elected district attorney on criminal justice reform. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Colorado; announced: 2017-02-16.
Blackbird425,000.003822016-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/blackbird-ending-mass-incarcerationChloe Cockburn Grant to support efforts to end mass inacercation. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-05-31.
JustLeadershipUSA3,400,000.00642016-12Criminal justice reform/jail-closing campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaign-2016Chloe Cockburn Grant renews a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaign supporting a campaign to close Rikers Island. Detailed writeup on previous grant page. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2017-09-01.
Grassroots Leadership, Inc.275,000.004752016-12Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/grassroots-leadership-texas-advocates-for-justice-projectChloe Cockburn Grant over two years to support the Texas Advocates for Justice Project (TAJ). TAJ offers intensive community organizing and communications trainings for formerly incarcerated people, who then lead and participate in local policy-change campaigns in cities across Texas. TAJ intends to use this grant to expand its staff and launch chapters in six additional cities by 2019, including San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-01-19.
PICO Action Fund50,000.007772016-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-action-fund-general-support-cosechaChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee intends to use these funds to support Cosecha’s community organizing and advocacy work, which may include lobbying activities. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. See also the related grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-national-network-general-support-cosecha to the PICO National Network. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
PICO National Network50,000.007772016-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-national-network-general-support-cosechaChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant for general support. Grantee intends to use these funds to support Cosecha’s community organizing and advocacy work, including hiring full time organizers for a Detention Defense Campaign in several communities across 12 states. See also the related grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-action-fund-general-support-cosecha to the PICO Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
AI Impacts32,000.008502016-12AI safety/strategyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/ai-impacts-general-support-2016/-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "AI Impacts plans to use this grant to work on strategic questions related to potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Renewals in 2018 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ai-impacts-general-support-2018 and 2020 https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ai-impacts-general-support-2020 suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2017-02-02.
Innovative Genomics Institute63,000.007602016-12Scientific research/plant pathologyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/uc-berkeley-plant-pathology-workshop-- Money for a plant pathology workshop. Grantee housed at the University of California, Berkeley. Announced: 2017-03-27.
National Association of Community and Restorative Justice50,000.007772016-11Criminal justice reform/restorative justicehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/national-association-community-and-restorative-justice-restorative-justice-conveningChloe Cockburn Grant was for the Restorative Justice Conference. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-01-10.
Citizens for Juvenile Justice65,000.007562016-11Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/citizens-for-juvenile-justice-general-support-2016Chloe Cockburn Discretionary grant, made in two parts. One part of the grant was made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Grantee campaign aims to promote healthier outcomes and less recidivism among 18- to 25-year-olds involved in the criminal justice system including: (1) restructuring the juvenile justice system to include 18- to 20-year-olds to prevent them from long-term entanglement in the adult justice system; and (2) improving recidivism outcomes for 21- to 24-year-olds in the adult justice system by creating targeted, developmentally appropriate changes designed to better engage and rehabilitate emerging adults. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
Green Monday226,000.005292016-11Animal welfare/factory farming/Chinahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/green-monday-promoting-work-chinaLewis Bollard Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09). Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-01-10.
The Humane Society of the United States1,000,000.002002016-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-united-states-new-broiler-welfare-corporate-campaignsLewis Bollard Part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See also https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-12-15.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (Earmark: Peter Eckersley)199,000.005712016-11AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/electronic-frontier-foundation-ai-social-- Grant funded work by Peter Eckersley, whom the Open Philanthropy Project believed in. Followup conversation with Peter Eckersley and Jeremy Gillula of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Peter_Eckersley_Jeremy_Gillula_05-26-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-05-26. Announced: 2016-12-15.
The Humane League1,000,000.002002016-11Animal welfarehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: No details are provided for this grant, but it likely builds on past vetting of the organization for the earlier cage-free campaign grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-international-cage-free-advocacy

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grantee plans to use the money to expand and invest in its staff and to increase its buffer of unrestricted funding.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not discuss reasons, but reasons are likely similar to those for the earlier cage-free campaign grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-international-cage-free-advocacy

Donor retrospective of the donation: The general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support-2018 in 2018 renews this grant among others.

Other notes: This and other grants from Open Philanthropy Project to The Humane League are discussed in https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason as part of an overview of the Open Philanthropy Project grantmaking strategy. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-12-15.
Mercy For Animals1,000,000.002002016-11Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/broiler chicken/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-broiler-chicken-welfare-corporate-campaignsLewis Bollard Donation process: A budget proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/Final_MFA_Broiler_Welfare_Campaign_Proposal_for_the_Open_Philanthropy_Project.pdf was sought. The grant page lacks further detail.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support corporate campaigns to promote the welfare of broiler chickens."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken for more.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget proposal gives total annual campaign costs of $500,000 / year for two years. The breakdown is as follows: six broiler welfare corporate outreach staff positions ($300,000), broiler welfare corporate campaign expenses ($150,000), public relations to secure media coverage on broiler welfare issues and campaigns ($25,000), and campaign volunteer recruitment to increase number of active broiler welfare campaign volunteers ($25,000).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is part of a strategy focus on broiler chicken welfare in late 2016, though no overarching document on this has been posted. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/search/?query=broiler%20chicken for more.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants from Open Phil to Mercy For Animals suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Canada; announced: 2017-01-10.
Center for International Security and Cooperation643,415.002682016-10Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/center-international-security-and-cooperation-biosecurity-research-- In support of research by Megan Palmer. Her policy research is focused on developing ways to improve the governance of biological science and technology. One of the projects she intends to focus on in the next few years is a study of past, current and future iGEM competitions to better understand how to motivate young scientists and engineers to take biosafety and biosecurity seriously and how to instill those values in a way that lasts throughout their careers. Announced: 2016-11-03.
Just Liberty530,000.003022016-10Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2016Chloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund because the money is being used for lobbying

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: " The funds were intended to primarily cover expenses related to piloting and potentially expanding a digital media campaign—including the creation and maintenance of a statewide email list devoted to criminal justice issues—as well as staffing support for traditional grassroots organizing and outreach activities."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Just Liberty’s constituency includes center-right voters concerned about criminal justice reform, whose voices are likely to be impactful on Republican lawmakers."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup Janaury 2018 renewal grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/just-liberty-general-support-2018 suggests that the grant was considered a success

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2018-01-19.
New Virginia Majority Education Fund50,000.007772016-10Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/new-virginia-majority-formerly-incarcerated-organizersChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Virginia; announced: 2017-01-17.
Texas Fair Defense Project63,000.007602016-10Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-fair-defense-project-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; announced: 2016-12-05.
Justice Strategies200,000.005442016-10Criminal justice reform/unclassifiedhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justice-strategies-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-12-15.
Youth First Initiative250,000.004922016-10Criminal justice reform/decriminaliationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/youth-first-initiative-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-12-05.
Essie Justice Group600,000.002772016-10Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/essie-justice-group-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-12-05.
Safety and Justice Action Fund300,000.004472016-10Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/safety-and-justice-action-fund-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for prosecutorial reform in Oregon. Funds intended to primarily cover costs related to program staffing, contracting fees, and polling activities to be used for future lobbying efforts. Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Oregon; announced: 2017-12-28.
Million Voters Project Action Fund400,000.003942016-10Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/million-voters-project-action-fund-proposition-57Chloe Cockburn Grant for lobbying and field operations work related to the passing of California Proposition 57. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
Color of Change229,100.005282016-10Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-change-studying-voter-activity-prosecutorial-electionsChloe Cockburn Grant to support research on voter behavior in prosecutorial elections. This work is intended to help learn whether criminal justice reform messages are effective in increasing turnout in prosecutorial elections, and whether messages about prosecutorial elections increase overall voter turnout in general election years. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-19.
Yes on Prop. 57200,000.005442016-10Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/yes-on-prop-57-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant to the Yes on Prop. 57, Californians and Governor Brown for Public Safety and Rehabilitation committee (“Yes on Prop. 57”) for general support. Proposition 57 was a 2016 California ballot measure which passed with 64% of the vote. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2018-04-19.
Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund31,500.008522016-10Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-october-2016Alexander Berger Donation process: Discretionary grant made via the Open Philanthropy Action Fund; this complements grants made by Open Philanthropy directly to the Center for Popular Democracy (the associated 501(c)(3)) such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016 (2015-12).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the “Fed Up” campaign. The campaign aims to encourage more accommodative monetary policies and greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve, and specifically in the selection of regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents and leaders. [...] CPD Action expects to use this funding primarily for lobbying activities associated with the campaign."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We have written in more detail about our rationale for supporting this campaign on our 2014, 2015, and 2016 grant pages to the Center for Popular Democracy, a 501(c)(3) affiliated with CPD Action." The rationale for the most recent grant to CPD as of that time is provided at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Case_for_this_grant and includes details on why Open Phil thinks the Fed is too focused on the risk of inflation and not enough on unemployment, and that the campaign being funded can help shift the balance.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): No specific reasons are given for the amount; for context, it is only about 2% of the corresponding grant to CPD ($1,429,000) and likely reflects the expected costs of lobbying activities to properly complement the campaign. Note that since the grant is made late in te year compared to the CPD grant, it likely only covers 4 months of the year, so after normalizing for time it is about 6% of the CPD grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is likely partly determined by the timing of the Fed Up campaign, but the campaign is ongoing so this doesn't really help narrow down the timing much.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 4

Donor retrospective of the donation: Larger followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2017 (2017-02) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-action-fund-fed-campaign-2018 (2018-02) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/FrHyHKPNy-M the grant announcement was delayed till Open Philanthropy was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
Protect the People50,000.007772016-10Migration policy/labor mobility/seasonal migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-exit-grantAlexander Berger Donation process: This exit grant came out of the evaluation process for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti (2016-02) including a conversation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Sarah_Williamson_09-09-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-09-09).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant is an exit grant to "to close out [Open Philanthropy's] support of its program helping workers from Haiti to access seasonal work in the U.S." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti more specifically says it was to "ensure a safe return to Haiti for the workers whose travel they had facilitated, and to continue pursuing funding from other sources."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti gives more background on the reasons for the original grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti (2016-02) and the grant outcomes. The original grant write-up already indicated plans to not renew if fewer than 75 workers participated in 2016, and only 58 participated, explaining the "exit" part. The reason the grant was made at all despite the reduced participation was due to unexpected costs incurred by the grantee running the program, and Open Phil's desire to help the grantee smoothly continue the 2016 program.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The relatively small amount was likely chosen to be enough to support the intended uses of funds to close out the program and seek additional funding.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant timing is near the end of 2016, by which time the performance of the original grant is known, and the need for additional funds to facilitate the safe return of workers is also known.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: This is an exit grant so there are no plans for further donations.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The October 2017 update https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Updates_since_deciding_not_to_renew mentions that two of the farms participating in the 2016 program ended up using 59 Haitian H-2As in 2017, suggesting a possibility that the work done in 2016 had already created a small sustainable flow, something that they had not expected when deciding to exit. Open Phil says: "We hope to monitor the flow of Haitian workers to U.S. farms in future years, and we acknowledge that we may turn out to have been mistaken in withdrawing funding at the point when we did."

Other notes: The program funded by the grant would be covered by The Economist in https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2017/01/26/visas-as-aid (January 2017). Unfortunately for the long-term prospects in terms of creating sustainable flows, Haiti was removed from the Eligible Countries List for H-2A visas by the United States government on 2018-01-18. See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-01-18/pdf/2018-00812.pdf and https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/dhs-countries-eligible-h2-visas.aspx for more details. Affected countries: United States|Haiti; announced: 2017-10-20.
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal100,000.006652016-10Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/forum-nacional-de-protecao-e-defesa-animal-international-cage-free-advocacyLewis Bollard Donation process: The grantee submitted a grant proposal, available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FNDPA/FNPDA_Grant_proposal_edited_Jul_16.pdf

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to support [grantee's] work to end the confinement of hens in battery cages." The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FNDPA/FNPDA_Grant_proposal_edited_Jul_16.pdf says: "In 2016, we plan to launch various campaigns targeting – one by one – the largest food retailers in Brazil. We will carry out investigations and these campaigns will have online petitions, ongoing efforts to get media attention, direct outreach to the senior leadership and a direct action in front of one of their stores, creating a good photo opportunity for media attention."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No reasons specific to the grantee are listed, but https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms lists several reasons for the general focus on cage-free reforms, and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d describes the reasons for the internationalization phase.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing matches the timing of other grants in this second phase (internationalization) of corporate cage-free campaign spending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/forum-nacional-de-protecao-e-defesa-animal-crate-and-cage-free-campaigning-in-brazil and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/forum-nacional-de-protecao-e-defesa-animal-crate-and-cage-free-campaigning-in-brazil-2020 suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee. The first of these says of the grantee's progress: "FNPDA has played a role in securing crate-free pledges from Brazil’s four largest pork producers and cage-free pledges from 26 Brazilian food companies"

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil; announced: 2016-11-07.
World Animal Protection544,607.002982016-10Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support work on farm animal welfare advocacy in China.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup February 2019 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/world-animal-protection-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2019 suggests that this grant would be considered a success.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2016-10-26.
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security2,744,000.00832016-10Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/upmc-center-health-security-emerging-leaders-biosecurity-initiativeJaime Yassif Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the continuation of the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI). For the first five years of its program, ELBI was funded by the Department of Defense (DoD). The grant page says: "Our understanding is that, for reasons unrelated to the quality of the program, DoD is not planning to renew support for it this year, and that the possibility of future DoD funding for the program is uncertain."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "Our highly positive impression of ELBI is based in part on the opinion of Jaime Yassif (our Program Officer for Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness), in part on our observation that the program has a strong reputation throughout the field, and in part on our favorable view of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which runs the program. Jaime is a 2012 alumna of ELBI."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Likely to be based on the cost of the program

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant page says: "Our understanding is that, for reasons unrelated to the quality of the program, DoD is not planning to renew support for it this year, and that the possibility of future DoD funding for the program is uncertain."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Other notes: The recipient was housed at the time at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and called the UPMC Center for Health Security. The grant was made to fully support the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI) for the next three years. The grant was based partly on the positive impression of the program by Jaime Yassif, program officer in the area who was an alumnus from 2012. Announced: 2016-10-12.
Brighter Green99,360.007112016-09Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-chinaLewis Bollard Donation process: The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Brighter_Green/OPP_Brighter_Green_China_grassroots__budget_proposal_Sept116.pdf was submitted 2016-07-25 and revised 2016-09-01.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "support a roadtrip, workshops, and trainings about factory farming, and sustainable, equitable, and humane food and food systems in China." The grant proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Brighter_Green/OPP_Brighter_Green_China_grassroots__budget_proposal_Sept116.pdf has more details.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant is part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is determined by the China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor retrospective of the donation: Further grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-china-2018 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/brighter-green-farm-animal-welfare-advocacy-2020 from Open Philanthropy to Brighter Green suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2016-10-11.
The Good Food Institute1,000,000.002002016-09Animal welfare/meat alternativeshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: The Good Food Institute submitted three proposals: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Good_Food_Institute/GFI_Corporate_Engagement_Proposal_9-9-16.pdf (corporate engagement), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Good_Food_Institute/GFI_Innovation_Proposal_9-9-16.pdf (innovation), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Good_Food_Institute/GFI_Science_%26_Tech_Proposal_9-9-16.pdf (science and technology).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "The Good Food Institute plans to use this grant to expand its work promoting alternatives to animal products. It may also hire additional staff and create an operating reserve." It also links to three proposals: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Good_Food_Institute/GFI_Corporate_Engagement_Proposal_9-9-16.pdf (corporate engagement), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Good_Food_Institute/GFI_Innovation_Proposal_9-9-16.pdf (innovation), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Good_Food_Institute/GFI_Science_%26_Tech_Proposal_9-9-16.pdf (science and technology).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant proposals include requests for the following amounts annually: $210,000 for corporate engagement, $200,000 for innovation, and $325,000 for science and technology. The total amount of $1,000,000 covers expenses for about 1.5 years at these rates.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-general-support-2017 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/good-food-institute-international-work suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2016-10-25.
WildAid700,000.002592016-09Animal welfare/diet changehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wildaid-reducing-meat-consumption-chinaLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [WildAid's] campaign to support government efforts to reduce meat consumption in China. WildAid plans to expand its public service announcement (PSA) campaigns aimed at slowing the growth of meat consumption to four new major Chinese cities."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Part of a China focus strategy announced by Lewis Bollard at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism/permalink/656583861179155/ (2016-10-25) and explained in depth in a document https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/grants-support-farm-animal-welfare-work-china announced at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/ngrjni1iKLg (2017-08-09).

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/wildaid-reducing-meat-consumption-china-2018 (2018-03) references this grant and suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: China; announced: 2016-10-25.
Future of Humanity Institute115,652.006472016-09Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/future-humanity-institute-biosecurity-and-pandemic-preparedness-- Conceptually part of a larger grant to the recipient, whose primary work area is AI risk reduction. More details in writeup for larger grant at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-humanity-institute-general-support. Announced: 2017-03-06.
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund404,800.003902016-09Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/brooklyn-community-bail-fund-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant accompanies identification of bail reform as a highly impactful area of policy change to reduce incarceration. Grant to CBF is to organize existing bail funds around the country into a national network and support that network through coordination staffing, and develop a plan for strategic bail fund expansion connected to advocacy around reducing incarceration. No detailed writeup. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2016-09-16.
Faith in Texas637,000.002692016-09Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/faith-texas-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant intended to support work to build grassroots support for criminal justice reform among members of white evangelical, black, and Hispanic faith communities in Texas, especially in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; affected cities: Dallas|Fort Worth; announced: 2016-10-06.
Color of Change678,772.002662016-09Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-prosecutor-accountabilityChloe Cockburn Grant to support prosecutorial reform and accountability work. Grant is intended to consist largely of movement coordination activities for advocates of reform, such as facilitating conversations, hosting convenings, developing strategy, tracking activities, as well as civic education and engagement campaigns related to prosecutorial accountability. An accompanying grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-education-fund-prosecutor-accountability is made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-12-28.
CDC Foundation1,214,437.001742016-09Scientific research/malaria/mosquito cryopreservationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/cdc-foundation-malaria-control-research-- Supplement to grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/target-malaria-general-support to Target Malaria; see writeup for latter to understand grant reasoning. Announced: 2017-05-17.
Founders Pledge1,032,947.001962016-09Effective altruism/donor pledgeshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/founders-pledge-general-support-- Grant made over two years, via the Centre for Effective Altruism, to enable expansion to Germany, France, and Sweden, and hire a developer. Affected countries: Germany|France|Sweden; announced: 2016-10-31.
University of Cape Town (Earmark: Trevor Gaunt)493,425.003542016-09Global catastrophic risks/geomagnetic currents and power systemshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/university-cape-town-geomagnetics-research-- Grant over three years to Professor Trevor Gaunt, Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, to research the potential risks that geomagnetic storms could pose to the electric power system. Announced: 2016-10-06.
Project Peanut Butter724,929.002562016-09Global health/nutritionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/project-peanut-butter-ready-use-therapeutic-food-rct-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support a three-year randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effect on cognitive development of reformulated ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) with additional omega-3 fatty acids and decreased omega-6 fatty acids, compared to conventional RUTF

Donor reason for selecting the donee: RUTF is primarily used to treat young children in the developing world with severe acute malnutrition. The grant is based on our belief that there is a reasonable chance that increasing the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in RUTF will have a positive effect on the cognitive development of treated children, and that a clear result in a large randomized trial would be fairly likely to make use of the lipid-rebalanced RUTF standard practice.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Likely the estimated cost of running the RCT. No specific amount-related considerations are discussed

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; announced: 2016-10-26.
Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense1,300,000.001682016-08Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support-- Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support#Our_process "Jaime Yassif, our Program Officer for Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness, had three phone conversations with Study Panel staff, reviewed the Study Panel’s 2015 report, and evaluated the policy impact of the Study Panel’s phase-1 activities using materials provided by its staff."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant of $1,300,000 via Potomac Institute for Policy Studies to enable it to continue its efforts started with a $300,000 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-grant in April2015 through the end of 2017.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support#Case_for_the_grant (a) This grant hopefully influences the US government, which is the biggest biodefense policy spender. (b) The Study Panel's track record to date gives some confidence that the next phase of its work will be effective.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support#Budget "The Study Panel’s phase-1 work had a budget of $600,000. The budget for its second phase has grown due to an increase in project length and scaled-up efforts in this second phase."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by the completion of Phase 1, which cost $600,000 and was partly funded by the $300,000 grant by the Open Philanthropy Project
Intended funding timeframe in months: 16

Donor retrospective of the donation: The January 2017 top-up grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support-2017 suggests that the Open Philanthropy Project was happy with the progress of the grant, but wanted to top up the amount.

Other notes: Grant via Potomac Institute of Policy Studies. Announced: 2016-11-10.
Mijente255,000.004892016-08Criminal justice reform/unclassifiedhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/mijente-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant via Puente Arizona. No detailed writeup. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Arizona; announced: 2016-09-02.
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition48,000.008212016-08Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/florida-rights-restoration-coalition-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Florida; announced: 2016-10-06.
Color of Change Education Fund321,228.004372016-08Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-education-fund-prosecutor-accountabilityChloe Cockburn Grant to support prosecutorial reform and accountability work. Supplements the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/color-of-change-prosecutor-accountability Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-12-28.
Voters Organized to Educate222,500.005312016-08Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/voters-organized-to-educate-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant to support development of evidence-based voter engagement strategies for formerly incarcerated people and families throughout Louisiana. Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Louisiana; announced: 2017-12-28.
Voice of the Educated325,500.004352016-08Criminal justice reform/formerly incarcerated peoplehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/voice-of-the-experienced-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant to support the development of a rigorously constructed organizing and voter engagement system for formerly incarcerated people and their families. An accompanying grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/voters-organized-to-educate-general-support is made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Louisiana; announced: 2017-12-28.
PICO National Network1,394,250.001612016-08Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-national-network-live-free-campaignChloe Cockburn Grant to support the Live Free Campaign. See also the related grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-action-fund-live-free-campaign to the PICO Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
PICO Action Fund816,188.002382016-08Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-action-fund-live-free-campaignChloe Cockburn Grant to support the Live Free Campaign. Money is intended to primarily be used for voter education and engagement campaigns related to accountability measures for district attorneys and sheriffs. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pico-national-network-live-free-campaign for the corresponding grant to the PICO National Network. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-01-19.
Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice64,500.007582016-08Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/katal-center-health-equity-and-justice-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support, and part of the effort to close the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaign-2016 for more detail. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2018-01-19.
Texas Organizing Project124,400.006342016-08Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-organizing-project-criminal-justice-reform-2016Chloe Cockburn Grant to support criminal justice reform work in Houstin, in particular community organizing and civic engagement activities. Grant made by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Texas; affected cities: Houston; announced: 2018-04-19.
Humane Society International1,000,000.002002016-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-international-international-cage-free-outreachLewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support [grantee's] work to end the confinement of hens in battery cages. [..] The present funding, part of a new series of grants focusing on international cage-free advocacy, will support Humane Society International’s work in Latin America and Asia."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The linked blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms lists several reasons for the general focus on cage-free reforms, and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d describes the reasons for the internationalization phase.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing matches the timing of other grants in this second phase (internationalization) of corporate cage-free campaign spending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Further grants to the grantee suggest continued satisfactioon with the outcome of this grant.

Other notes: Affected countries: Latin America|Asia; announced: 2016-10-03.
People for Animals89,392.007182016-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaign/international/Indiahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/people-animals-international-cage-free-advocacyLewis Bollard Second phase (focused on internationalization) of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for description of overall cage-free effort and see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d for description of internationalization phase. Followup conversation with Gauri Mulekhi of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Gauri_Maulekhi_02-06-17_%28public%29.pdf on 2017-02-06. Affected countries: India; announced: 2016-10-03.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute500,000.003142016-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-- Donation process: The grant page describes the process in Section 1. Background and Process. "Open Philanthropy Project staff have been engaging in informal conversations with MIRI for a number of years. These conversations contributed to our decision to investigate potential risks from advanced AI and eventually make it one of our focus areas. [...] We attempted to assess MIRI’s research primarily through detailed reviews of individual technical papers. MIRI sent us five papers/results which it considered particularly noteworthy from the last 18 months: [...] This selection was somewhat biased in favor of newer staff, at our request; we felt this would allow us to better assess whether a marginal new staff member would make valuable contributions. [...] All of the papers/results fell under a category MIRI calls “highly reliable agent design”.[...] Papers 1-4 were each reviewed in detail by two of four technical advisors (Paul Christiano, Jacob Steinhardt, Christopher Olah, and Dario Amodei). We also commissioned seven computer science professors and one graduate student with relevant expertise as external reviewers. Papers 2, 3, and 4 were reviewed by two external reviewers, while Paper 1 was reviewed by one external reviewer, as it was particularly difficult to find someone with the right background to evaluate it. [...] A consolidated document containing all public reviews can be found here." The link is to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/MIRI/consolidated_public_reviews.pdf "In addition to these technical reviews, Daniel Dewey independently spent approximately 100 hours attempting to understand MIRI’s research agenda, in particular its relevance to the goals of creating safer and more reliable advanced AI. He had many conversations with MIRI staff members as a part of this process. Once all the reviews were conducted, Nick, Daniel, Holden, and our technical advisors held a day-long meeting to discuss their impressions of the quality and relevance of MIRI’s research. In addition to this review of MIRI’s research, Nick Beckstead spoke with MIRI staff about MIRI’s management practices, staffing, and budget needs.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page, Section 3.1 Budget and room for more funding, says: "MIRI operates on a budget of approximately $2 million per year. At the time of our investigation, it had between $2.4 and $2.6 million in reserve. In 2015, MIRI’s expenses were $1.65 million, while its income was slightly lower, at $1.6 million. Its projected expenses for 2016 were $1.8-2 million. MIRI expected to receive $1.6-2 million in revenue for 2016, excluding our support. Nate Soares, the Executive Director of MIRI, said that if MIRI were able to operate on a budget of $3-4 million per year and had two years of reserves, he would not spend additional time on fundraising. A budget of that size would pay for 9 core researchers, 4-8 supporting researchers, and staff for operations, fundraising, and security. Any additional money MIRI receives beyond that level of funding would be put into prizes for open technical questions in AI safety. MIRI has told us it would like to put $5 million into such prizes."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page, Section 3.2 Case for the grant, gives five reasons: (1) Uncertainty about technical assessment (i.e., despite negative technical assessment, there is a chance that MIRI's work is high-potential), (2) Increasing research supply and diversity in the important-but-neglected AI safety space, (3) Potential for improvement of MIRI's research program, (4) Recognition of MIRI's early articulation of the value alignment problem, (5) Other considerations: (a) role in starting CFAR and running SPARC, (b) alignment with effective altruist values, (c) shovel-readiness, (d) "participation grant" for time spent in evaluation process, (e) grant in advance of potential need for significant help from MIRI for consulting on AI safety

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The maximal funding that Open Phil would give MIRI would be $1.5 million per year. However, Open Phil recommended a partial amount, due to some reservations, described on the grant page, Section 2 Our impression of MIRI’s Agent Foundations research: (1) Assessment that it is not likely relevant to reducing risks from advanced AI, especially to the risks from transformative AI in the next 20 years, (2) MIRI has not made much progress toward its agenda, with internal and external reviewers describing their work as technically nontrivial, but unimpressive, and compared with what an unsupervised graduate student could do in 1 to 3 years. Section 3.4 says: "We ultimately settled on a figure that we feel will most accurately signal our attitude toward MIRI. We feel $500,000 per year is consistent with seeing substantial value in MIRI while not endorsing it to the point of meeting its full funding needs."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No specific timing-related considerations are discussed
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Section 4 Plans for follow-up says: "As of now, there is a strong chance that we will renew this grant next year. We believe that most of our important open questions and concerns are best assessed on a longer time frame, and we believe that recurring support will help MIRI plan for the future. Two years from now, we are likely to do a more in-depth reassessment. In order to renew the grant at that point, we will likely need to see a stronger and easier-to-evaluate case for the relevance of the research we discuss above, and/or impressive results from the newer, machine learning-focused agenda, and/or new positive impact along some other dimension."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Although there is no explicit retrospective of this grant, the two most relevant followups are Daniel Dewey's blog post https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SEL9PW8jozrvLnkb4/my-current-thoughts-on-miri-s-highly-reliable-agent-design (GW, IR) (not an official MIRI statement, but Dewey works on AI safety grants for Open Phil) and the three-year $1.25 million/year grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/machine-intelligence-research-institute-general-support-2017 made in October 2017 (about a year after this grant). The more-than-doubling of the grant amount and the three-year commitment are both more positive for MIRI than the expectations at the time of the original grant

Other notes: The grant page links to commissioned reviews at http://files.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/MIRI/consolidated_public_reviews.pdf The grant is also announced on the MIRI website at https://intelligence.org/2016/08/05/miri-strategy-update-2016/. Announced: 2016-09-06.
Center for Human-Compatible AI5,555,550.00362016-08AI safety/technical researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-- Donation process: The grant page section https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai#Our_process says: "We have discussed the possibility of a grant to support Professor Russell’s work several times with him in the past. Following our decision earlier this year to make this focus area a major priority for 2016, we began to discuss supporting a new academic center at UC Berkeley in more concrete terms."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding says: "Professor Russell estimates that the Center could, if funded fully, spend between $1.5 million and $2 million in its first year and later increase its budget to roughly $7 million per year." The funding from Open Phil will be used toward this budget. An earlier section of the grant page says that the Center's research topics will include value alignment, value functions defined by partially observable and partially defined terms, the structure of human value systems, and conceptual questions including the properties of ideal value systems.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page gives these reasons: (1) "We expect the existence of the Center to make it much easier for researchers interested in exploring AI safety to discuss and learn about the topic, and potentially consider focusing their careers on it." (2) "The Center may allow researchers already focused on AI safety to dedicate more of their time to the topic and produce higher-quality research." (3) "We hope that the existence of a well-funded academic center at a major university will solidify the place of this work as part of the larger fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence." Also, counterfactual impact: "Professor Russell would not plan to announce a new Center of this kind without substantial additional funding. [...] We are not aware of other potential [substantial] funders, and we believe that having long-term support in place is likely to make it easier for Professor Russell to recruit for the Center."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is based on budget estimates in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding "Professor Russell estimates that the Center could, if funded fully, spend between $1.5 million and $2 million in its first year and later increase its budget to roughly $7 million per year."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing seems to have been determined by the time it took to work out the details of the new center after Open Phil decided to make AI safety a major priority in 2016. According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai#Our_process "We have discussed the possibility of a grant to support Professor Russell’s work several times with him in the past. Following our decision earlier this year to make this focus area a major priority for 2016, we began to discuss supporting a new academic center at UC Berkeley in more concrete terms."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-2019 in November 2019, five-year renewal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/uc-berkeley-center-human-compatible-ai-2021 in January 2021, as well as many grants to Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (BERI) to collaborate with the grantee, suggest that Open Phil would continue to think highly of the grantee, and stand by its reasoning.

Other notes: Note that the grant recipient in the Open Phil database has been listed as UC Berkeley, but we have written it as the name of the center for easier cross-referencing. Announced: 2016-08-29.
Mercy For Animals1,000,000.002002016-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-international-cage-free-advocacyLewis Bollard Donation process: The donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more background. For this specific grant, a budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/MFA_Budget_International_Cage-Free_Campaigns_Expansion_8-1-16.pdf was obtained from the grantee.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to "end the confinement of hens in battery cages. [...] [The grant will] support Mercy For Animals’ work in Latin America and Asia." A simplified budget ($500,000/year) is at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Mercy_For_Animals/MFA_Budget_International_Cage-Free_Campaigns_Expansion_8-1-16.pdf with breakdown of $212,500 for Brazil, $192,500 for Mexico, $40,000 for Asia, and $55,000 for international campaign coordination from the United States.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No reasons specific to the grantee are listed, but https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms lists several reasons for the general focus on cage-free reforms, and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d describes the reasons for the internationalization phase.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing matches the timing of other grants in this second phase (internationalization) of corporate cage-free campaign spending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several further grants from Open Philanthropy to Mercy For Animals suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Brazil|Mexico; announced: 2016-10-03.
Animal Equality500,000.003142016-08Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-equality-international-cage-free-advocacyLewis Bollard Donation process: The donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more background.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support international advocacy to end the confinement of hens in battery cages." "The present funding, part of a new series of grants focusing on international cage-free advocacy, will support Animal Equality’s work in Latin America, Europe, and Asia."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: No reasons specific to the grantee are listed, but https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms lists several reasons for the general focus on cage-free reforms, and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d describes the reasons for the internationalization phase.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing matches the timing of other grants in this second phase (internationalization) of corporate cage-free campaign spending.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several further grants from Open Philanthropy to Animal Equality, with continued endorsement of the work, suggest satisfaction by Open Philanthropy with the grant.

Other notes: Announced: 2016-10-03.
Research Institute of Industrial Economics500,000.003142016-08Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/research-institute-of-industrial-economics-genomic-research-methods-- Grant to the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) to support the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC). IFN is a private, non-profit research institute in Stockholm, Sweden, with around 40 researchers. Previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-southern-california-genomic-research-methods (2016-04) to the University of Southern California also supported SSGAC. Donor notes: "Our understanding is that SSGAC has received substantially less funding to date than comparable consortia (such as in psychiatric genetics), but still produces high-quality, replicable research and serves as a model of careful public communication". Announced: 2018-04-19.
Foundation for the National Institutes of Health1,228,845.001722016-07Scientific research/malaria/gene drive testinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/foundation-national-institutes-health-working-group-- Grant to support ~20 experts recommending a consensus on field testing gene drives to fight malaria. This recommendation will include guidelines on how to safely field test gene drives for population modification and population suppression of vector mosquitoes in order to determine whether they could safely and ethically be deployed widely. FNIH and Gates Foundation have been the two big players in this area so far. Announced: 2016-08-01.
Center for Applied Rationality1,035,000.001952016-07Epistemic institutions/effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-supportNick Beckstead Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support#Our_process "While investigating this grant, we had several conversations with Anna Salamon, as well as with various other contacts of ours in the EA community. Nick Beckstead was the primary investigator for this grant."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "$915,000 of this grant will support CFAR workshops and organizational improvements. $120,000 of this grant will fund a pilot version of EuroSPARC, an eight-day summer program in Europe run by CFAR for mathematically gifted high school students, modeled on the San Francisco-based Summer Program in Applied Rationality and Cognition (SPARC), which CFAR has helped run for the past three years."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Stated reasons for the grant include value-alignment, success attracting and cultivating talented people to work on effective altruist causes, and funding being a substantial constraint at present

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount tied to a budget proposed by CFAR, described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding first year: $360,000 for organizational improvements, $100,000 for scholarships for CFAR workshops, $120,000 for EuroSPARC 2016, $47,500 for half the salary and benefits of a new staff member splitting time between CFAR operations and SPARC; second year: 360,000 for organizational improvements, $47,500 for half the salary and benefits of a new staff member

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support#Key_questions_for_follow-up lists key follow-up questions

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant page for a followup January 2018 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-general-support-2018 would say: "Since our 2016 funding recommendation, CFAR has largely met its milestones for organizational improvement." The statement, along with the fact that the followup grant would have a comparable size of $1,000,000, suggests that Open Phil would be satisfied with the results of the grant

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; announced: 2016-09-06.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities425,000.003822016-07Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project-2016Alexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Full Employment Project. It renews the original grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project made in 2014. Open Philanthropy describes two main areas supported by these grants: (1) "Preparing for the next U.S. recession, which we would guess is likely to occur before interest rates return to “normal” levels." (2) "Making the case for the importance of continued focus on reducing unemployment and against premature monetary tightening today." The grant page also says: "Our understanding is that our marginal funding will support CBPP to undertake a project commissioning outside macroeconomists to develop their own estimates of potential output of the U.S. economy, based on the possibility that the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate may be too low."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "It is also one in a series of grants attempting to build up the capacity of progressive think tanks on macroeconomic policy issues we see as important. [...] Our key uncertainty for this grant, along with our other grants to think tanks for work on macroeconomic policy, is whether work by think tanks on these issues is likely to sway decisionmakers at the Fed or in Congress. We would guess that the work we support is relatively unlikely to affect policy, but that if it did our support would be justified many times over, and we see that as a bet worth taking."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No explicit reasons for timing are given, but it looks like CBPP has found opportunities to expand the scope of the Full Employment Project around the end of its original 28-month duration.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project-2018 (2018-07) is an exit grant, where Open Philanthropy writes: "We continue to think the Project’s work is important but do not have a clear sense of how much of a difference marginal funding makes in driving that work forward."

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-10-25.
Ayni Institute40,000.008312016-07Criminal justice reform/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-momentum-trainingChloe Cockburn Donation process: Discretionary grant decided by Chloe Cockburn, the Program Officer for criminal justice reform

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support a “Momentum” training session for black organizers, including from the Movement for Black Lives. This buids on a March 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-training

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Likely same as for the March 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-training

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Likely based on the budget for running the training, but no explicit reason or budget details provided

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Given that this grant happens about four months after the first grant to develop movement ecology, this likely reflects the amount of time it took for the Ayni Institute to use the money from the first grant to make enough progress to be ready to run a workshop

Donor retrospective of the donation: Further donations to the Ayni Institute, such as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-and-metrics (December 2016), suggest that the grant was considered successful, but there is no explicit retrospective of the grant

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-08-01.
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children70,000.007462016-07Criminal justice reform/prison life qualityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/legal-services-prisoners-children-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-08-01.
Center for Court Innovation160,000.005882016-07Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/center-court-innovation-new-thinking-about-criminal-justice-responsesChloe Cockburn Grant intended to promote new thinking about criminal justice responses in Cook County. No detailed writeup. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Illinois; affected cities: Chicago; announced: 2016-09-02.
ReFrame Mentorship37,000.008452016-07Criminal justice reform/conservative advocacyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/reframe-mentorship-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant (called a "no-process" grant at the time) decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-09-02.
Harvard University Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management783,000.002432016-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/harvard-university-program-criminal-justice-policy-and-managementChloe Cockburn Program receiving funds housed at the Harvard Kennedy School. Grant supports work on reforms impacting young adults convicted of crimes. Grant intended to support staff, travel, and incidental costs for work of Senior Fellow Vincent Schiraldi providing though leadership, technical support, and strategic advice for state-level reforms to treatment of young adults (ages 18 to 25) in the criminal justice system. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-07-22.
Vera Institute of Justice100,000.006652016-07Criminal justice reform/bail reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vera-institute-justice-new-orleans-user-funded-justice-systemChloe Cockburn Grant supports the New Orleans office for research into and cost-benefit analysis of the New Orleans user-funded justice system. Specifically: impposition of financial bail as a condition of pretrial release, the assessment of fines and fees at sentencing, and the relationship between these practices and the number of people in jail. Disclosure: Open Philanthropy Project Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform, Chloe Cockburn, had worked at the Vera Institute New Orleans office for a year earlier. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New Orleans; announced: 2016-09-20.
The Ordinary People Society125,000.006292016-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ordinary-peoples-society-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant was support Pastor Kenneth Glasgow in launching the Prodigal Child Project, which will train and organize pastors in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia as advocates for reducing incarceration. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Alabama|Mississippi|Florida|Georgia; announced: 2016-09-09.
JustLeadershipUSA40,000.008312016-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support, and part of suport for the campaign to close the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2017-12-28.
VOCAL-NY Action Fund40,000.008312016-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant for general support, and part of suport for the campaign to close the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. Grant by the Open Philanthropy Action Fund. As explained at https://groups.google.com/a/openphilanthropy.org/forum/#!topic/newly.published/F-AE_gVn6Zg the grant announcement was delayed till the Open Philanthropy Project was completely separate from GiveWell. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2017-12-28.
The Humane League1,000,000.002002016-07Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-international-cage-free-advocacyLewis Bollard Donation process: No details are provided for this grant, but it likely builds on past vetting of the organization for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns and general interest in cage-free campaigns described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support international advocacy to end the confinement of hens in battery cages, complementing a similar grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns focused on the United States.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not discuss reasons, but reasons are likely similar to those for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns (both for the donee as an organization and for cage-free campaigns).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): No timing-related reasons are discussed, but the timing is likely a result of the Open Philanthropy Project's general push for cage-free campaigning, and promise shown by the first round of cage-free campaign grants made earlier in the year.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The general support grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support-2018 in 2018 renews this grant among others.

Other notes: Part of a second phase (focused on internationalization) of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for description of overall cage-free effort and see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chickens-animal-abuse-video_us_57fac5c5e4b0e655eab5485d for description of internationalization phase. This and other grants from Open Philanthropy Project to The Humane League are discussed in https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason as part of an overview of Open Philanthropy's grantmaking strategy. Announced: 2016-10-03.
George Mason University (Earmark: Robin Hanson)277,435.004732016-06AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/george-mason-university-research-future-artificial-intelligence-scenarios-- Earmarked for Robin Hanson research. Grant page references https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence for background. Original amount $264,525. Increased to $277,435 through the addition of $12,910 in July 2017 to cover an increase in George Mason University’s instructional release costs (teaching buyouts). Announced: 2016-07-07.
California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund300,000.004472016-06Land use reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/land-use-reform/california-renters-legal-advocacy-and-education-fund-general-supportAlexander 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.
Economic Policy Institute500,000.003142016-06Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-researchAlexander Berger Donation process: The grantee submitted a proposal available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/EPI/EPI_Open_Phil.pdf that includes proposed research investigations and activities.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page describes two main areas supported by the grant: (1) "Preparing for the next U.S. recession, which we would guess is likely to occur before interest rates return to “normal” levels." (2) "Making the case for the importance of continued focus on reducing unemployment and against premature monetary tightening today." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/EPI/EPI_Open_Phil.pdf has more details on proposed activities.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2018 (2018-07) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/economic-policy-institute-macroeconomic-policy-research-2020 (2020-08) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-10-25.
Roosevelt Institute200,000.005442016-06Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/roosevelt-institute-macroeconomic-policy-researchAlexander Berger Donation process: Roosevelt Institute submitted a concept paper https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Roosevelt_Institute/Roosevelt_Concept_Paper_Mar_2016-final.pdf for the grant in March 2016.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page identifies two main areas supported by the grants: (1) "Preparing for the next U.S. recession, which we would guess is likely to occur before interest rates return to “normal” levels." (2) "Making the case for the importance of continued focus on reducing unemployment and against premature monetary tightening today." It continues: "Our funding will allow existing Roosevelt staff to focus on these issues, as well as supporting the hiring of an additional staff economist and part-time research assistant. These researchers plan to undertake two projects on the topics listed above: one to build out the monetary policy toolkit available to the Fed (“Monetary Policy Toolkit”), and one to investigate the potential for continued recovery from the Great Recession (“Anti-Hysteresis”). More about these projects is laid out in Roosevelt’s concept paper https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Roosevelt_Institute/Roosevelt_Concept_Paper_Mar_2016-final.pdf for this grant."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "This is one in a series of grants attempting to build up the capacity of progressive think tanks on macroeconomic policy issues we see as important. [...] Our key uncertainty for this grant, along with our other grants to think tanks for work on macroeconomic policy, is whether work by think tanks on these issues is likely to sway decisionmakers at the Fed or in Congress. We would guess that the work we support is relatively unlikely to affect policy, but that if it did our support would be justified many times over, and we see that as a bet worth taking."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing may have been determined by the timing of the submission of the Roosevelt Institute's concept paper https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Roosevelt_Institute/Roosevelt_Concept_Paper_Mar_2016-final.pdf (March 2016).

Donor retrospective of the donation: As of late 2021, Open Philanthropy has not made any further grants to Roosevelt Institute in the cause area.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-10-25.
Alliance for Safety and Justice3,000,000.00682016-06Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support-2Chloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-01-10.
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition61,600.007622016-06Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/colorado-criminal-justice-reform-coalition-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Colorado; announced: 2016-06-28.
Vera Institute of Justice8,000.009082016-06Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vera-institute-justice-common-justice-2Chloe Cockburn Grant to support Brooklyn-based project Common Justice. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. This is a followup grant to a much larger grant (200000 USD) made in 2016-02 for the same purpose; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vera-institute-justice-common-justice. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2016-07-01.
Prison Policy Initiative50,000.007772016-06Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/prison-policy-initiative-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-07-01.
International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation520,000.003062016-05Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/igem-synthetic-biology-safety-and-security-- Grant for iGEM (the recipient) to grow staff devoted to safety and security and support a pilot workshop on safety and security. Detailed writeup available. Announced: 2016-05-24.
Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment76,234.007342016-05Climate change/geoengineering/solar radiation managementhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment-- Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment#Our_process says: "We first had contact with FCEA in mid-2015, while working on our shallow investigation of SRMGI. Dr. Nicholson approached us in early 2016 to ask us to consider funding this convening." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FCEA/Open_Philanthropy_LOI.pdf has the letter of inquiry, though that letter is about the first convening in March 2016, whereas the eventual funding is for the third convening in early 2017.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says: "This grant is intended to fund a third meeting, which FCEA plans to hold in early 2017." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment#Proposed_activities says: "FCEA plans for its 2017 working group meeting to focus on discovering potential lessons from the governance of other emerging technologies that could be applied to climate engineering. Dr. Simon Nicholson (FCEA’s Co-Executive Director) told us that the main fields that FCEA would like to have represented at the conference are biotechnology, artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and nanotechnology." The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FCEA/Open_Philanthropy_Budget_FINAL_redacted.xlsx provides a spending breakdown for the second convening in September 2016, even though the grant is for the third convening in early 2017.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment#Goals_for_the_grant says: "One role that we believe philanthropy is particularly well-suited to play is helping to position groups and individuals to examine problems and discuss potential solutions before those problems become urgent. We hope that this FCEA convening will serve as part of a gradual process by which discussing and considering climate engineering becomes more accepted, making it more likely that the global community will have an in-depth understanding of technological options and risks in the event that climate engineering is seriously considered as an approach to reducing harms from climate change at some point in the future. In concrete terms, we hope to support a well-run conference on the topic of governance of emerging technologies. We hope that FCEA will share any ideas or conclusions that the conference produces in some form."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The budget https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FCEA/Open_Philanthropy_Budget_FINAL_redacted.xlsx provides a breakdown of expected spending for the second convening in September 2016, even though the grant is for the third convening in early 2017. The implicit assumption sees to be that the expected spending will be roughly similar.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment#Our_process suggests that the timing is determined by the timing of Open Philanthropy being reached out to for funding the conference: "Dr. Nicholson approached us in early 2016 to ask us to consider funding this convening." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/FCEA/Open_Philanthropy_LOI.pdf has the letter of inquiry.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 1

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment#Follow-up_expectations says: "We expect to have a conversation with FCEA staff after the 2017 conference, with public notes if the conversation warrants it. We also plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance (based in part on our own impressions of the conference, if we are able to attend)."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Notes from a followup conversation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Conversations/Simon_Nicholson_03-10-17_(public).pdf (2017-03-10) are available.

Other notes: Grant made via American University. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/american-university-forum-climate-engineering-assessment#Risks_and_reservations lists risks and reservations, including technological lock-in into geoengineering even if it may be harmful, and distraction from other climate change mitigation efforts. Announced: 2016-05-27.
American Conservative Union Foundation200,000.005442016-05Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/american-conservative-union-center-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant was to support the work of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform led by Pat Nolan. Detailed writeup available. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-06-02.
Promise of Justice Initiative81,000.007242016-05Criminal justice reform/unclassifiedhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/promise-justice-initiative-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. No detailed writeup. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-05-11.
Center for Applied Rationality304,000.004452016-05Epistemic institutions/effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparcNick Beckstead Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparc#Our_process "Nick Beckstead, our Program Officer for Scientific Research, spoke with members of SPARC’s staff regarding its program, finances, and future plans."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant of $137,000 in 2016 and $167,000 in 2017 to support the Summer Program on Applied Rationality and Cognition (SPARC). "SPARC is a two-week summer program for high school students. Students selected to participate in the program typically show exceptional ability in mathematics, with many scoring highly among US participants in national or international math competitions."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparc#Case_for_the_grant "we believe the program is strong, with the potential to have a substantial impact. [...] SPARC attracts unusually talented students. [...] we think very highly of several of the instructors who work at SPARC, some of whom also show strong interest in effective altruism."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparc#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding "SPARC’s total budget was approximately $90,000 in 2015. This grant will allow it to cover alumni events, travel reimbursement, unexpected contingencies, and some of the expenses associated with hiring a full-time logistics manager, as well as half of the salary and benefits for the new logistics manager, with the other half paid out of CFAR’s general budget. Our understanding is that the two years of support provided by this grant will be sufficient to enable SPARC to hire the new logistics manager and that a third year of support would not materially affect SPARC’s planning."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Grant made shortly before SPARC 2016, and timing likely chosen so that the grant could be used for SPARC 2016
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page section https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-applied-rationality-sparc#Key_questions_for_follow-up lists follow-up questions that Open Phil is interested in understanding better for the future

Other notes: Announced: 2016-07-07.
International Refugee Assistance Project (Earmark: Becca Heller)700,000.002592016-05Migration policy/refugee migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-supportAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support#Our_process says: "After meeting with Becca Heller, we investigated IRAP’s track record by talking to one of their funders, several other organizations that work with them on refugee issues, and by reviewing documents about their historical role in increasing the number of SIVs. We then requested a proposal for how IRAP would use additional funds for advocacy and decided to contribute unrestricted funds instead." The proposal is at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/IRAP/International_Refugee_Assistance_Project_Proposal_Open_Philanthropy_2016.pdf

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support#Proposed_activities says: "IRAP plans to hire two new policy staff and one communications person. Focus areas for the policy hires will likely include: (1) Expanding its advocacy for eligible refugees to receive Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) (2) Creating new resettlement processes and pipelines to ensure that existing visas are effectively distributed [...] (3) Advocating for private refugee resettlement. IRAP does not plan to focus on advocating for higher refugee resettlement commitments from the United States [...]. Instead, IRAP believes its comparative advantage lies in identifying and fixing visa and refugee admission processes that might otherwise prevent current resettlement targets from being met." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/IRAP/International_Refugee_Assistance_Project_Proposal_Open_Philanthropy_2016.pdf has more details.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support#Case_for_the_grant cites IRAP's "fairly strong track record of getting more refugees admitted and resettled with fairly limited staff capacity." It attributes a causal role to IRAP in "expanding access to SIVs for tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans who worked with the U.S. military (and their families). These visas do not count against the U.S.’s annual cap on refugee admissions." It mentions being impressed with IRAP's impact in the policy sphere, and in particular with its director Becca Heller; this grant is partly a bet on her.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The funding proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/IRAP/International_Refugee_Assistance_Project_Proposal_Open_Philanthropy_2016.pdf includes a request for $267,250; however, the amount actually granted is substantially higher ($700,000).

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversations with Becca Heller, director of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_05-09-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-05-09), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_07-06-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-07-06), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_10-05-17_%28public%29.pdf (2017-10-05), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Becca_Heller_03-15-18_%28public%29.pdf (2018-03-15). The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2018 (2019-01) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2020 (2020-11) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-06-16.
Free Migration Project (Earmark: David Bennion)24,000.008732016-05Migration policy/humanitarian migration/free migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/free-migration-project-planning-grantAlexander Berger Donation process: The grantee was introduced to Alexander Berger of Open Philanthropy via an email from Vipul Naik. After that, a funding proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Free_Migration_Project/Free_Migration_Project_funding_proposal_(OPP)_final.pdf was submitted by David Bennion, the founder of the grantee organization being started up.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant is a planning grant for the Free Migration Project, a nonprofit organization formed on May 7, 2016 by David Bennion. The funding proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Free_Migration_Project/Free_Migration_Project_funding_proposal_(OPP)_final.pdf says the grant is "to engage in a planning and visioning process during Free Migration Project’s start-up phase. This process will involve soliciting feedback from immigrant rights organizers and migration policy thinkers, identifying and analyzing potential obstacles to the organization’s mission, and formulating broad-stroke strategies based on that feedback and analysis." The proposed timeframe of the planning process is May 15, 2016, to November 15, 2016.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is as requested in https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Free_Migration_Project/Free_Migration_Project_funding_proposal_(OPP)_final.pdf (the funding proposal).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The funding happens shortly after the organization is started, and its timing is influenced by the organization's start time.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 6

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Open Philanthropy does not publicly outline its thoughts on followup donations, but the funding proposal https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Free_Migration_Project/Free_Migration_Project_funding_proposal_(OPP)_final.pdf (submitted by the grantee) says: "This planning process will [...] help the Open Philanthropy Project determine whether additional funding would further its own objectives."

Donor retrospective of the donation: No followup grants are made by Open Philanthropy, despite the possibility of followup grants being mentioned in the funding proposal. A conversation https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/David_Bennion_11-07-16_%28public%29.pdf is conducted between Open Philanthropy and David Bennion on 2016-11-07, around the end of the timeframe for the planning. No explicit retrospective is published by Open Philanthropy.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2017-01-10.
Better Boulder37,000.008452016-04Land use reformhttps://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.
Peterson Institute for International Economics250,000.004922016-04Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/peterson-institute-international-economics-macroeconomic-stabilizationAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support work on macroeconomic stabilization

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We are considering making a larger grant to support PIIE to do substantially more work in this area (which is a focus area of ours), and are thinking of the present funding as an opportunity to try working with the organization while we (and they) think more about potential future engagement."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant is a relatively small one and is intended to kickstart a relationship with the donee, to decide on whether to make a bigger grant later.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "We are considering making a larger grant to support PIIE to do substantially more work in this area (which is a focus area of ours), and are thinking of the present funding as an opportunity to try working with the organization while we (and they) think more about potential future engagement."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/peterson-institute-international-economics-macroeconomic-projects (2019-01) for $400,000 suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-04-29.
Accountable Justice Project350,000.004142016-04Criminal justice reform/prosecutorial reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/accountable-justice-project-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant was made to the Proteus Fund to support the launch of the Accountable Justice Project. Majority of grant to be used to hire staff to conduct nationwide research on misconduct by elected prosecutors and to share this information with a wide audience through media engagement. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-05-24.
Correctional Association of New York50,000.007772016-04Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/correctional-association-new-york-general-supportChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant decided by program office Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; announced: 2016-04-28.
Compassion in World Farming USA550,000.002942016-04Animal welfare/factory farming/welfarism/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Our_process says: "We previously considered making a grant to CIWF USA for work on cage-free campaigns. We decided not to make that grant because CIWF USA’s work did not neatly fit into the specific framework of cage-free campaigns, and because we were concerned about its history of also working on less cost-effective campaigns. A few months later, we re-considered CIWF USA for a one-off general support grant. Based on conversations with Ms. Garces and a number of animal advocates, we decided to move forward."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Proposed_activities says: "CIWF USA’s proposed budget calls for hiring two additional corporate engagement managers, an operational support staffer, and a public engagement manager. The need for a larger staff is primarily a result of CIWF USA’s approach to corporate outreach, which is more labor-intensive than that of other farm animal welfare groups with which we are familiar. CIWF USA is focused both on cage-free egg campaigns and broiler chicken welfare. It plans to run campaigns focusing on both producers and retailers. Campaigns with retailers will seek to persuade target companies to commit to sourcing their chicken from producers raising breeds with higher welfare traits in less cruel conditions."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Case_for_the_grant says: "We see this grant as an opportunity to expand our support for organizations working to improve the living conditions of animals on U.S. factory farms beyond our early grants on cage-free corporate campaigns. CIWF USA broadly shares our approach to farm animal welfare and is in the early stages of expanding the scope of its work to include broiler chickens, which we (and as far as we know, the vast majority of animal advocates) consider an underserved population of farm animals. We are reasonably confident in CIWF USA’s track record and ability to implement its model at scale."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "CIWF USA has an annual budget of roughly $450,000, while CIWF UK has an annual budget of £6,477,213 (about $9.4 million). [...] CIWF USA plans on using the $275,000 per year provided by this grant to hire two new corporate engagement staff, one operations staff member, and a public engagement manager. Absent our funding, we are reasonably confident that CIWF USA would not expand significantly in the near future. CIWF USA has a history of steady but slow revenue growth and few obvious alternative funding sources."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Our_process gives a hint as to timing: "A few months later, we re-considered CIWF USA for a one-off general support grant. Based on conversations with Ms. Garces and a number of animal advocates, we decided to move forward."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists some goals, expectations, and internal forecasts but does not talk about a followup grant. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Our_process suggests that this grant is a "one-off general support grant" with no specific renewal plans.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Leah Garces (Executive Director) and Dawn Rotheram (Development Director) at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Leah_Garces_Dawn_Rotheram_11-08-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-11-08. Followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Compassion in World Farming USA, despite no specific plans to follow up, suggest continued satisfaction from Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: The grant page has a number of sources https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Sources mostly documents from mthe grantee. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-07-06.
Global Animal Partnership500,000.003142016-04Animal welfare/factory farming/welfarism/rating system/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support#Our_process says: "A philanthropist whom we respect, who has ties to GAP, first recommended to us that we make a grant to GAP. We considered GAP as one of three one-time general support grants. Lewis Bollard, our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, investigated the grant through online research and conversations with Anne Malleau, Suzanne McMillan, GAP board members Wayne Pacelle and Leah Garces, and two other advocates. We then asked Malleau for budget proposals of different sizes to help us determine how large a grant to recommend."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the improvement and expansion of its 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating program (used by Whole Foods)." The budget includes $235,000 for business development, including going beyond Whole Foods, $137,000 for product resources, benchmarking, and improved oversight, and $128,000 for standards development and launch, and scientific advisory board.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support#Case_for_the_grant lists three ways Open Phil considers GAP to stand out among certification schemes: large scale (achieved through contracts with Tyson and Perdue Farms and Whole Foods Market), focus on continuous improvement (through a 5-step scale with standards being revised upward, rather than a binary classification), and strong leadership (Anne Malleau). Other certification schemes compared to GAP include American Humane Certified, American Welfare Approved, and Certified Humane.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support#Proposed_activities says: "After several initial conversations with GAP, we asked Anne Malleau, GAP’s Executive Director, to prepare budget proposals outlining how GAP would use an additional $300,000, $500,000, or $1 million over two years. After reviewing these proposals, we decided that the $500,000 budget made the most sense to us overall, but that it included a few line items for tasks that appeared to us unlikely to be high-impact." This led to a revised budget that Open Phil approved.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/global-animal-partnership-general-support#Follow-up_expectations says: "We expect to have a conversation with Anne Malleau and staff every 3-6 months for the next two years, with public notes if the conversation warrants it. Toward the end of the grant, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Several followup grants suggest continued satisfaction by Open Philanthropy in Global Animal Partnership.

Other notes: Unlike most Open Phil grants at the time, the grant would not be announced on the mailing list. Intended funding timeframe in months: 24; affected countries: United States.
Future of Research300,000.004472016-04Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/future-research-general-support-- Grantee is a new nonprofit with a stated mission “to improve the scientific research enterprise.” Grant is a preliminary one and Open Phil plans to revisit the organization after 2 years of progress. Announced: 2016-04-29.
University of Southern California1,738,500.001362016-04Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/university-southern-california-genomic-research-methods-- Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium and the Behavioral and Health

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page notes that Open Phil hopes the grant will advance scientific tools and techniques, by: (1) devekoping cross-cuttingly useful advances in analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), (2) combining data from multiple sources and developing polygenic sources that can be distributed freely as public goods

Donor retrospective of the donation: Open Phil would make a followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/research-institute-of-industrial-economics-genomic-research-methods to the Research Institute of Industral Economics, also to support the SSGAC, and a later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/Social-Science-Genetic-Association-Consortium-general-support to USC to again support SSGAC

Other notes: Announced: 2018-04-19.
MIT Synthetic Neurobiology Group2,970,000.00782016-03Scientific research/neurobiologyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/massachusetts-institute-technology-synthetic-neurobiology-group-- Grant is to expand research at MIT Media Lab’s Center for Extreme Bionics. Among other things, the grantee is working on developing new methods and techniques for mapping the brain. Announced: 2016-05-09.
University of Pennsylvania500,000.003142016-03Epistemic institutions/forecastinghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/university-pennsylvania-philip-tetlock-forecasting-- Grant supports new work by Tetlock. He finished The Good Judgment Project and grant funds two new projects called called “Adversarial Collaboration Tournaments” and the “Alpha Pundit Challenge.”. Announced: 2016-04-14.
Ayni Institute110,000.006512016-03Criminal justice reform/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-trainingChloe Cockburn Donation process: Grant investigator Chloe Cockburn has participated in an Ayni Institute training, and has also spoken at some length with others who have participated in trainings, in all cases run by the same people who will be responsible for the training funded by this grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the Ayni Institute's work on movement ecology. Ayni plans to formulate this analysis into a training, and to recruit as participants for this training leaders from the criminal justice field, two other major social reform fields, and others. The goal is for the criminal justice participants to come away with a shared language that enables them to deeply collaborate and build more advanced strategies together. Including participants from other movements in the training is intended to provide outside perspectives and new ideas. The Ayni Institute intends to provide additional training and support beyond the initial convening with the aim of sustaining and deepening connections between the participants and continuing to improve the analysis developed at the workshop.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Grant investigator Chloe Cockburn, also the Open Phil Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform, believes that "the lack of shared language and coordination between groups seeking criminal justice reform will limit the reach and impact of reforms." She is "impressed by Ayni’s rigorous training development process, sophisticated pedagogy, and rich analysis. She believes this training has a high probability of being very beneficial to at least some participants." Risks are reservations are also noted on the grant page, but not considered serious enough to prevent making the grant

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount seems to be determined based on a budget submitted by the Ayni Institute, available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/Ayni_Institute/Ayni_proposal_outline.pdf

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-momentum-training to support Momentum training and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ayni-institute-movement-ecology-and-metrics to continue developing movement ecology suggest that the Open Philanthropy Project considered the grant successful

Other notes: Grant was made via Centre Presente, on the recommendation of program officer Chloe Cockburn. It was intended to sponsor the development and running of a training on the topic of movement ecology. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-04-19.
Institute of the Black World50,000.007772016-03Criminal justice reform/unclassifiedhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/institute-black-world-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Discretionary grant (called a "no-process" grant at the time) decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-03-15.
The Ordinary People Society50,000.007772016-03Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/ordinary-people-society-criminal-justice-reformChloe Cockburn Grant to support work on criminal justice reform only. Discretionary grant (called a "no-process" grant at the time) decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-03-15.
Center for American Progress500,000.003142016-03Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-american-progress-macroeconomic-stabilizationAlexander Berger Donation process: The grant page's "Our Process" section says: "Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute had mentioned CAP to us in 2014 as an organization to consider supporting for macroeconomic policy work, but we had not prioritized a conversation because of CAP’s limited work in the area to date. However, when we first spoke with Marc Jarsulic in 2015, he expressed interest in hiring someone to work on macroeconomic stabilization and told us that lack of resources had been the main barrier to prioritizing work in the area. After several subsequent conversations, we decided to recommend a grant of $500,000 over two years." Linked sources include https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CAP/OPP_Monetary_Policy_Plan.pdf (CAP's monetary policy plan) and https://files.givewell.org/files/conversations/Konczal%201-23-14%20(public).pdf (2014-01-23 conversation with Mike Konczal).

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: CAP's plans include: "(1) Hold convenings to better understand the field (2) Produce research reports documenting important factors in macroeconomic stabilization (e.g. the impact of the Taylor rule on income distribution) (3) Produce policy proposals (4) Use its network and outreach capacity to share its research and proposals with the media, Congress, presidential administration, and Federal Reserve."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "CAP provided us with a list of proposed research topics, all of which struck us as potentially worthwhile. Our primary goal for this grant is to increase progressive capacity and attention around macroeconomic policy and business cycle issues. Our impression is that, while there are many labor economists working at progressive think tanks, significantly less attention has been devoted to monetary policy and other macroeconomic stability issues, and that CAP plays a particularly prominent role in setting, and reflecting, the progressive agenda."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems to be determined by the evolution of conversatioons between Open Phil and CAP. The grant page's "Our Process" section says: "Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute had mentioned CAP to us in 2014 as an organization to consider supporting for macroeconomic policy work, but we had not prioritized a conversation because of CAP’s limited work in the area to date. However, when we first spoke with Marc Jarsulic in 2015, he expressed interest in hiring someone to work on macroeconomic stabilization and told us that lack of resources had been the main barrier to prioritizing work in the area. After several subsequent conversations, we decided to recommend a grant of $500,000 over two years."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Further grants are not explicitly discussed; the grant page says: "To follow up on this grant, we expect to have a conversation with CAP staff every 6-12 months for the next two years, with public notes if the conversation warrants it. Towards the end of the grant, we plan to attempt a written update about how we see the grant overall."

Donor retrospective of the donation: As of late 2021, there are no further grants from Open Phil to the grantee in this area.

Other notes: The grant page lists three main reservations: (1) "Our basic theory of the case could be wrong for any number of reasons [...]" (2) "CAP could be the wrong partner. [...] macroeconomic stabilization policy could turn out to be a bad fit for the organization." (3) "As always within this area, we could be mistaken about which sorts of policy changes would be beneficial.". Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-04-19.
Future of Life Institute100,000.006652016-03Global catastrophic risks/general researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support-- Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support#Our_process "Following our collaboration last year, we kept in touch with FLI regarding its funding situation and plans for future activities."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Main planned activities for 2016 include: news operation, nuclear weapons campaign, AI safety conference, and AI conference travel.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support#The_case_for_the_grant says: "In organizing its 2015 [Puerto Rico] AI safety conference (which we attended), FLI demonstrated a combination of network, ability to execute, and values that impressed us. We felt that the conference was well-organized, attracted the attention of high-profile individuals who had not previously demonstrated an interest in AI safety, and seemed to lead many of those individuals to take the issue more seriously." There is more detail in the grant page, as well as a list of reservations about the grant.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Open Phil needed enough time to evaluate the results of its first Future of Life Institute grant that was focused on AI safety, and to see the effects of the Puerto Rico 2015 AI safety conference. Timing also likely determined by FLI explicitly seeking more money to meet its budget.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-life-institute-general-support#Key_questions_for_follow-up "We expect to have a conversation with FLI staff every 3-6 months for the next 12 months. After that, we plan to consider renewal." A list of questions is included.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grants in 2017, 2018, and 2019, for similar or larger amounts, suggest that Open Phil would continue to stand by its assessment of the grantee.

Other notes: Announced: 2016-03-18.
Center for Global Development3,000,000.00682016-02Global health and developmenthttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016Alexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016#Our_process says: "In mid-2014 [...] we told CGD that we were interested in funding more policy outreach work. In October 2014, CGD sent us a proposal for a $2.3 million grant to create a “Do Fund”, which would support policy outreach work for three years. In follow-up conversations, CGD told us that it would prefer unrestricted funding, and we shifted to considering that. [...] CGD sent us an outline of some hypothetical activities that it might undertake with different levels of additional unrestricted funding [...]. Before reaching a decision, we investigated the case studies summarized above to improve our understanding of CGD’s track record."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The funding is unrestricted, but as part of the grant proposal, the grantee, CGD, shared a list of activities it may use the funds for: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016#Grant_timeline_and_proposed_activities The activities include various forms of additional research, hiring people (consultants, associates, researchers) and expanding a fellowship exchange program

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016#Considerations_in_favor_of_and_against_the_grant says: "We see our unrestricted grant to CGD as a way to support an organization with values closely aligned with ours. We think it is likely that CGD has produced a great deal more value for the global poor than it has spent as an organization, and the potential future activities that CGD has shared to date generally strike us as promising, so we see further unrestricted funding as an attractive grant opportunity. As is fairly typical of our policy grants, our modal guess is that this grant will have limited, if any, humanitarian impact, but that there is a sufficient probability of a very large positive impact to justify the grant." Earlier sections in the grant page discuss proposed activities and track record

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): Amount of $3 million (which is to be distributed in three annual installments of $1 million each) determined based on what CGD requested (initially, $2.3 million), as well as what Open Phil considers an appropriate level of fundings

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined partly by the completion of the timeframe for the previous grant, and also by the time it took Open Phil and CGD to work out the case for the grant
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Todd Moss and Kathy Smith of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Todd_Moss_Kathy_Smith_06-21-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-06-21. The grant would be renewed at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2019 in June 2019 for the same amount ($3 million over 3 years) for the same reasons. This suggests that Open Phil would continue to endorse the reasoning behind the grant

Other notes: Announced: 2016-02-24.
Seattle for Everyone50,000.007772016-02Land use reformhttps://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.
Protect the People550,000.002942016-02Migration policy/labor mobility/seasonal migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haitiAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Process refers to a previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Case_for_this_grant (2014-07) to support seasonal migration from Haiti. The idea for the current grant arose from discussions with the current grantee, Protect the People, that had provideed support on the project funded by the previous grant. The grant page says: "We negotiated the grant structure described above to ensure that PTP would have adequate funds to attempt the project but to limit our downside in case PTP faces barriers and is unable to reach the desired number of participants." https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/ptp_gv_qa.pdf has a Q&A with Protect the People about the program. $50,000 of the grant was made personally by Cari Tuna due to urgency.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Grant_structure says the grant is "to continue to try to facilitate Haitian access to the H-2A program for another year. [...] The grant is structured conditionally, such that if the project enables more than 75 Haitian workers to use H-2A visas to work in the U.S., we will provide PTP with additional funding to cover costs for the additional workers. This support will scale up proportionally with the number of workers participating in the project, up to a maximum grant total of $1,000,000 for 2016. PTP currently projects that around 150 Haitian workers will be able to participate in the program in 2016, though our best guess is that the total is likely to be lower (because we anticipate that some of the problems previously encountered in the visa process may recur)."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Case_for_the_grant says: "We estimate that each Haitian worker in the U.S. earns about $5,000 for about 3 months of work. Since agricultural workers in Haiti earn around $1,000 per year, this increase in income is substantial. Although the pilot project failed to enable many Haitians to work in the U.S., we think that this could have been due to bad luck more than fundamental problems in the program design." The section further details challenges with the earlier grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti (2014-07) and updates the potential upside estimate from $50 million to $25 million.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is about 1/3 the amount of the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti (2014-07), with the reduction reflective of the desire to take a more cautious approach after the previous grant underperformed.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant happens after sufficient evaluation time has passed for the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti (2014-07), and after discussions between Open Philanthropy and Protect the People on the grant structure.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up says that further funding is unlikely if the grant enables fewer than 75 workers to participate. Future funding is uncertain if the grant enables between 75 and 150 workers. Future funding is highy likely if more than 150 workers participate, with a goal of transition to sustainability without philanthropic support.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Sarah Williamson at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Sarah_Williamson_09-09-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-09-09). 58 workers would participate in the program in 2016, leading Open Philanthropy to provide a $50,000 exit grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-exit-grant (2016-10). https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/october-2017-update-protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti has a detailed retrospective of the whole effort.

Other notes: The program funded by the grant would be covered by The Economist in https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2017/01/26/visas-as-aid (January 2017). Unfortunately for the long-term prospects in terms of creating sustainable flows, Haiti was removed from the Eligible Countries List for H-2A visas by the United States government on 2018-01-18. See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-01-18/pdf/2018-00812.pdf and https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/dhs-countries-eligible-h2-visas.aspx for more details. Affected countries: United States|Haiti; announced: 2016-02-29.
Alliance for Safety and Justice1,750,000.001352016-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-supportChloe Cockburn Grant for general support. Goal is to build off and scale up Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ) to partner with state-based advocates across different states of the United States. Detailed writeup available. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California|others; announced: 2016-02-26.
Voice of the Ex-Offender40,000.008312016-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/voice-ex-offender-southern-regional-conveningChloe Cockburn Grant for a Southern strategy meeting on building capacity to end mass incarceration in the South. Discretionary grant (called "no-process grant" at the time) decided by program officer Chloe Cockburn. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Alabama|Mississippi|Florida|Georgia; announced: 2016-02-19.
Vera Institute of Justice200,000.005442016-02Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vera-institute-justice-common-justiceChloe Cockburn Grant is for Common Justice, a Brooklyn-based initiative. Grant intended to scale up space and staff for Common Justice to 1) increase outreach and promotion of its ideas, 2) scale up its intervention program so that its effectiveness can be studies more robustly. Detailed writeup available. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2016-04-07.
Vote Safe250,000.004922016-02Criminal justice reform/politicshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/vote-safe-criminal-justice-reform-policy-advocacyChloe Cockburn Grant personally by Cari Tuna. Grantee is affiliated with Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ), an advocacy and policy reform organization that developed the first statewide network for crime victims supporting justice reform. Vote Safe crafted and ran the successful campaign for Proposition 47, a 2014 California ballot measure that reduced incarceration by changing several low-level felonies to misdemeanors, and reallocating the prison cost savings to prevention and treatment. Related separate grant to the Alliance for Safety and Justice that is trying to replicate similar strategies on a national level: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/alliance-safety-and-justice-general-support. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; announced: 2018-06-28.
The Humane League1,000,000.002002016-02Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaignsLewis Bollard Donation process: The donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more background. The specific process for The Humane League is not discussed in detail; see https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Our_process

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support corporate cage-free campaigns. The grant page says: "THL plans to use this grant to roughly triple the size of its corporate campaign team by hiring eight new staff, including: three campaign coordinators, a corporate outreach specialist, a lawyer, an in-house designer, a website developer, and a media specialist. THL plans to use this extra capacity to launch more and larger campaigns, especially targeting the grocery sector (which has so far largely resisted pressure to go cage-free). THL has shared its plans with us for reaching out to the nation’s 400 largest food buyers (ranging from fast food restaurants to regional grocery chains) and launching campaigns against them if necessary."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The donor's positive assessment of the donee as a corporate campaigner is described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#The_organization The donor's positive assessment of cage-free campaigns is described at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#The_cause and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms The donor believes the donee's effectiveness will increase with scale; this is part of the reason for the grant, explained more at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Case_for_the_grant

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): From https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Budget_and_room_for_more_funding (Section 2.2): "THL shared two potential two-year budgets for its corporate campaign expansion with us: for an additional $250,000/year, or $500,000/year. We have decided to fund THL’s full corporate campaign expansion budget of $500,000/year for the next two years."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is part of a push by the Open Philanthropy Project to fund corporate cage-free campaigning, explained in more detail at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms The timing is therefore controlled by the timing of that push.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Next donation is not directly discussed, but follow-up plans are described in Section 2.4 "Follow-up expectations": a followup with THL staff every 3-6 months, an update at the one-year mark, and a holistic evaluation at the end of the grant period.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/The_Humane_League_08-22-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-08-22. There are many followup grants for international expansion and general support, suggesting that the grant is considered a success. A renewal and expansion grant is made in August 2018: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-league-general-support-2018

Other notes: This and other grants from Open Philanthropy to The Humane League are discussed in https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason as part of an overview of Open Philanthropy's grantmaking strategy. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-02-24.
Mercy For Animals1,000,000.002002016-02Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free/corporate campaignhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaignsLewis Bollard Donation process: This donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more. The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Our_process says: "As MFA is one of the main organizations running corporate animal welfare campaigns, we contacted MFA to discuss the possibility of funding the organization for corporate cage-free campaigns."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Proposed_activities says: "MFA will use this grant to build a corporate cage-free egg campaigning team. Now that advocates have gotten almost all major fast food and food service chains to go cage-free, MFA’s goal is to get the rest of the grocery industry to go cage-free as well."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Case_for_the_grant says: "We believe corporate cage-free egg campaigns are a particularly cost-effective approach for reducing farm animal suffering [...] [MFA] seems well-positioned to campaign for corporate cage-free reforms, particularly given its past experience with campaigns in the grocery sector. [...] more than two million Facebook followers, 200,000+ member email list, celebrity contacts, network news connections, top investigations unit, and grassroots network [...] We believe the most likely outcome [...] slightly worse than the estimate of 120 hens spared per dollar that we gave previously. [...] Even if returns are sublinear, we believe cage-free egg campaigns would still be relatively cost-effective; if, for example, our $1 million grant to MFA only generates one major grocer victory over two years [...] 25 hens spared per dollar."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This donation is part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/mercy-animals-corporate-cage-free-campaigns#Follow-up_expectations says: "We expect to have a conversation with MFA staff every 3-6 months for the next two years, with public notes if the conversation warrants it. At the one-year mark, we expect to provide an update on this grant, either by publishing public notes or by producing a brief write-up. Towards the end of the grant, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup conversation with Nick Cooney of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Nick_Cooney_08-01-16_%28public%29.pdf would happen on 2016-08-01. Several followup grants from Open Phil to MFA suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-03-10.
The Humane Society of the United States500,000.003142016-02Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-free campaign/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/humane-society-united-states-corporate-cage-free-campaignsLewis Bollard Part of a bunch of corporate cage-free campaign spending. See https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/initial-grants-support-corporate-cage-free-reforms for more. Followup conversation with Paul Shapiro of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Paul_Shapiro_07-20-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-07-20. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-03-10.
Rescuing Biomedical Research299,112.004632016-01Scientific researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/scientific-research/miscellaneous/princeton-university-rescuing-biomedical-research-- Grantee is a project based in Princeton University. Goal is to establish a more “predictable and stable” federal budget for research, and to improve grant funding so that trainees are funded by dedicated training grants. Followup conversation with Shirley Tilghman of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Shirley_Tilghman_05-19-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-05-19 and with Christopher Pickett of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Christopher_Pickett_11-16-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-11-16. Announced: 2016-01-27.
JustLeadershipUSA900,000.002322015-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/justleadershipusa-close-rikers-campaignChloe Cockburn Grant to support campaign to close Rikers Island. Affected countries: United States; affected states: New York; affected cities: New York City; announced: 2016-02-19.
Center for Popular Democracy1,429,000.001602015-12Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016Alexander Berger Donation process: The grant page says: "We monitored the campaign throughout 2015 and had conversations with Ady Barkan of CPD about the campaign’s plans and progress. We followed the media surrounding Fed Up and its interactions with policymakers. Karl Smith, who worked with us in 2015 as a consultant, attended the Jackson Hole Symposium and reviewed some of the campaign’s 2015 activities with us." Elsewhere, it says: "The initial 2016 budget given to us by Fed Up was for $4 million, but we also requested budgets for $2 million and $3 million"

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant supports about half the cost of the Fed Up campaign for 2016. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Budget_and_proposed_activities says: "We expect Fed Up would spend a $3 million budget approximately as follows: $1.5 million regranted to local partners, $650,000 for national staff, $250,000 to national partners, $600,000 for other costs, including events, polling, lobbying, and overhead."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Case_for_this_grant describes reasons for the grant, centered mostly around the Federal Reserve's heavy focus on reducing inflation in the inflation-unemployment tradeoff, and the desire to shift to having it care more about unemployment. It also talks about the benefits of increasing transparency and accountability in the regional Federal Reserve Banks, one of the other areas the Fed Up campaign focuses on.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is about half of the planned $3 million budget for the campaign in 2016. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Budget_and_proposed_activities says: "The initial 2016 budget given to us by Fed Up was for $4 million, but we also requested budgets for $2 million and $3 million. Each of these budgets would be a substantial increase from 2015. [...] After discussion with CPD, we don’t believe the support from these funders is likely to dramatically increase in the near future."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015 was for the 2015 year, so with the end of the year, funds are needed for 2016's Fed Up campaign.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists follow-up questions, and says: "When the next recession occurs, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance. We may check the transcripts of 2016 FOMC meetings after they are released in 2022 to see whether any of the FOMC members discuss meetings with workers that inform their perspectives on policy."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversations with Ady Barkan and Shawn Sebastian of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Fed_Up_07-14-16_and_08_31_16_and_09_02_16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-07-14, 2016-08-31, and 2016-09-02. A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2017 (2017) and further grants in later years suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee, though these followup grant writeups reflect more reservations as a result of further improvements in labor market conditions.

Other notes: Conversation with Ady Barkman of grantee organization around the time of the grant allocation at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Ady_Barkan_12-8-15_%28public%29.pdf on 2015-12-08. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-04-06.
ImmigrationWorks Foundation150,000.005962015-12Migration policy/low-skilled migration promotionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016Alexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#Our_process says: "We began discussing the possibility of renewing our support of ImmigrationWorks as the previous grant period drew to a close. Tamar Jacoby spoke with us about potential activities for ImmigrationWorks over the next 18 months, and about ImmigrationWorks’ current funding situation."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: A list of proposed activities is submitted by the granteee at https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/IW-2015-2017-memo.pdf (2015-10-23) and summarized at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#footnoteref6_elw4mih including activities such as: mobilize a donor collaborative, develop a strategy for future Congressional advocacy, advance a worker-visa pilot program, develop a communications strategy, and colllaboration with the Niskanen Center.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#Case_for_the_new_grant says: "We see IW as a small organization which shares the Open Philanthropy Project’s goal of increasing lower-skill immigration, an aspect of immigration policy that does not receive much other support. IW is experiencing a funding shortfall while focus has shifted away from immigration reform in Congress, and we believe that this grant could play a significant role in keeping IW operating at its current capacity. In particular, we believe that our grant will allow IW to continue to do more work on immigration, rather than shift resources partially or entirely to Opportunity America (or close down)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount was chosen to meet the limited goal of continuing to keep ImmigrationWorks running during a lean time when prospects for immigration reform in Congress are limited. It is about half the size of the pre vious one-year grant. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#Case_for_the_new_grant says: "[W]we believe that this grant could play a significant role in keeping IW operating at its current capacity. In particular, we believe that our grant will allow IW to continue to do more work on immigration, rather than shift resources partially or entirely to Opportunity America (or close down). [...] [W]e are hopeful that our grant will allow IW to continue operations and maintain good relationships with policymakers and others so that it can be present and involved when the issue of CIR is raised again in Congress (likely in 2017)"

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is based on the end of the timeframe for the previous grant and the progress of conversations with the grantee, as https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#Our_process explains.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 18

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up includes details on expectations from the grant and plans for a more holistic evaluation.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Tamar_Jacoby_03-31-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-03-31) has a followup conversation with Tamar Jacoby of the grantee organization. No followup grants are made as of 2021.

Other notes: The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016 has several sections including a section reviewing the previous grant and a section on risks. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-12-14.
Sightline Institute400,000.003942015-10Land 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.
Niskanen Center360,000.004132015-10Migration policy/politicshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigrationAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration#Our_review_process says: "We approached Niskanen in June 2015 to discuss funding opportunities relating to advocacy for lower-skill immigration, and a series of conversations about its work culminated in a request for funding. We solicited background feedback about the Center from a few other sources prior to making a decision about funding it." The immigration policy counsel proposal https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/Niskanen-Immigration-Policy-Counsel-Proposal.pdf is what the grant would ultimately fund; the Sources section includes links to that and to many conversations in the "series of conversations" mentioned.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration#Budget_and_proposed_activities says: "Niskanen asked us for $360,000 over two years, which would be enough to pay for an additional full-time Immigration Policy Counsel along with associated costs." https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/Niskanen-Immigration-Policy-Counsel-Proposal.pdf is the full Immigration Policy Counsel Proposal.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration#Case_for_the_grant says: "Our conversations with staff from the Niskanen Center gave us the sense that they share our goal of allowing significantly more migration, including by lower-skilled people and those from low-income countries. [...] The Niskanen Center’s strategy is to try to get information, arguments, and new policy ideas directly into the hands of key decision-makers, rather than building long-term interest group alignment or changing public opinion. [...] We can imagine a scenario in which Niskanen is able to popularize a proposal that ends up as part of comprehensive immigration reform package in 2017, or is able to provide information that leads to a tweak in enacted legislation, and believe that the grant is likely to be very worthwhile in such a case. Our impression is that the Niskanen Center is plausibly well-positioned to execute this strategy successfully [...]."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is as requested in the immigration policy counsel proposal https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/Niskanen-Immigration-Policy-Counsel-Proposal.pdf that also includes a breakdown.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration#Our_review_process gives a hint about the timing by giving the start of investigation and the process: "We approached Niskanen in June 2015 to discuss funding opportunities [...] We solicited background feedback about the Center from a few other sources prior to making a decision about funding it."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up includes goals for learning and follow-up, key folllow-up questions, and follow-up expectations. It ends with: "We expect to provide an update on this grant after one year either by publishing public notes or by producing a brief writeup. After the grant is spent down, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance. However, we may abandon either or both of these follow-up expectations or perform more follow-up than planned if the circumstances call for it."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversations with the grantee include: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/David_Bier_12-14-2015_%28public%29.pdf (David Bier, 2015-12-14), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Niskanen_Center_07-22-16_%28public%29.pdf (many people, 2016-07-22), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Conversations/Niskanen_Center_02-14-17_(public).pdf (many people, 2017-02-14), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Niskanen_Center_06-22-17_%28public%29.pdf (Kristie De Peña and Matthew La Corte, 2017-06-22). Followup grants would be made: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-immigration-2018 (2018-01) and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/niskanen-center-research-on-immigration-policy-2020 (2020-01) with the latter being an exit grant.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-10-29.
MoveOn.org Civic Action375,000.004042015-10Migration policy/refugee migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/moveon-civic-action-syrian-refugee-advocacyAlexander Berger Donation process: Grant recommended to be made personally by Cari Tuna. The grantee is a 501(c)(4) organization focused on nonpartisan education and advocacy.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grantee "used these funds to advocate to Congress against reductions in the number of Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "In the past, our immigration policy work has not focused much on refugee resettlement, which we had assumed would be more crowded than other aspects of immigration policy with funders aimed at supporting increased opportunities for people to move to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons. While we continue to believe that is directionally correct, our increased interest in supporting advocacy around refugee resettlement is partially based on learning more about the fairly limited foundation funding for advocacy around refugee resettlement." The grant page was published three years after the grant, and this text is similar to that for the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/international-refugee-assistance-project-general-support-2019 (2019-01).

Other notes: Affected countries: United States|Syria; announced: 2018-06-09.
Human Impact Partners60,990.007632015-10Criminal justice reform/decriminalizationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/human-impact-partners-conveningChloe Cockburn Grant supported a convening intended to advance a public health approach to criminal justice policy. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-11-06.
Urban Institute97,865.007122015-09Land use reformhttps://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.
New York University (Earmark: Yaw Nyarko|Suresh Naidu|Shing-Yi Wang)30,000.008552015-08Migration policy/labor mobility/RCThttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/new-york-university-support-labor-mobility-rctAlexander Berger Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the collection of baseline data for the study, “Estimating the Comprehensive Returns to Indian Migration to the United Arab Emirates.” [...] The project is currently in the participant recruitment and baseline survey phase. [...] The study now has a time-sensitive need for an additional $30,000 to conduct baseline data collection for the second half of the study population, which will be recruited beginning in August 2015. Without additional funding, the authors expect that they would be able to finish recruiting participants for the study, but that they would be unable to collect baseline data for the full sample."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We believe that this grant fills a time-sensitive need for funds and may lead us to a better understanding of the effects of international labor migration. The grant allows Nyarko, Naidu, and Wang to complete the recruitment and baseline survey of their study population, without which the power of the study would be seriously reduced. As far as we are aware, this is the first large-scale RCT measuring outcomes of temporary international labor migration on well-being." The grant page also references https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/cause-reports/policy/labor-mobility (Open Philanthropy's labor mobility cause report).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is based on what te researchers need to complete the collection of the second half of baseline data, and matches the collection cost of the first half. The grant page says: "The study now has a time-sensitive need for an additional $30,000 to conduct baseline data collection for the second half of the study population, which will be recruited beginning in August 2015."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing is determined by the immediate need for funds to begin the second phase of recruitment and baseline data collection.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Open Philanthropy does not plan to fund the remainder of the study; the grantee is submitting a proposal https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/IGC_Project_Proposal.pdf to the International Growth Centre for 100,000 GBP to fund extensive follow-up data collection. Open Philanthropy does plan to continue monitoring: "We plan to follow the progress of the study in the coming years to see whether it is preregistered, whether it raises sufficient funds to collect follow-up data, and to observe its results."

Other notes: The paper https://www.yawnyarko.com/assets/publications/01.01_MonopsonyPower.pdf (see https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.725.7184&rep=rep1&type=pdf for a draft version from August 2015) titled "Monopsony Power in Migrant Labor Markets: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates" seems to be related to this research, but the timeline and paper contents suggest that it's not the output of the data collection funded by Open Philanthropy, but of earlier work. The paper that should have been produced from this research could not be found in a search in October 2021. Affected countries: India|United Arab Emirates; announced: 2015-09-23.
ARNOVA2,000.009202015-08History of philanthropyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/history-of-philanthropy/arnova-history-philanthropy-prize-- Grant to ARNOVA (Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action) to support a prize on the history of philanthropy in memory of Peter Dobkin Hall, a leading historian of philanthropy. Announced: 2015-08-11.
Waitlist Zero200,000.005442015-08Organ donation/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/waitlist-zero-general-support-- Grant over two years for policies that advocate for living kidney donation, following up on a planning grant in 2014. Conflict of interest due to relationships with Alexander Berger. Followup conversation with Josh Morrison of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Josh_Morrison_02-05-2016_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-02-05 and again at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Josh_Morrison_04-25-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-04-25. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-08-14.
Georgetown University250,000.004922015-08Drug policy/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/georgetown-university-public-health-and-cannabis-legalization-- Grant funds proposal developed by Graham Boyd with O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-09-04.
Future of Life Institute1,186,000.001792015-08AI safetyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/future-life-institute-artificial-intelligence-risk-reduction-- Grant accompanied a grant by Elon Musk to FLI for the same purpose. See also the March 2015 blog post https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/open-philanthropy-project-update-global-catastrophic-risks that describes strategy and developments prior to the grant. An update on the grant was posted in 2017-04 at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/update-fli-grant discussing impressions of Howie Lempel and Daniel Dewey of the grant and of the effect on and role of Open Phil. Announced: 2015-08-26.
The Degrees Initiative500,000.003142015-07Climate change/geoengineering/solar radiation managementhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support-- Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Our_process says: "We came across SRMGI while investigating SRM governance as a cause, as part of our research into geoengineering more broadly. The Open Philanthropy Project spoke with Andy Parker several times, and with a number of other geoengineering scholars, both to learn about the cause as a whole, and to learn more about SRMGI as an organization." There are links to public notes of several followup conversations.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Proposed_use_of_funds gives the breakdown: "$230,000: Support staff from the Environmental Defense Fund, TWAS, and/or the Royal Society, including consultants; $145,000: Hold seven meetings in six different regions of the world (the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, South East Asia, South America, South Asia (two meetings), and the Middle East and North Africa.); $90,000: Fund follow-ups to regional meetings, perhaps including the support of the Pan-African Working Group, and/or a Global Forum Meeting, and/or an annual alumni summer school; $35,000: Outreach, including at UN negotiations, publishing regular articles and reports, and a revamped website."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Case_for_the_grant says: "We consider this grant to be an opportunity to build up a sparse field. Our impression that SRMGI is well-connected in the field, has a neutral stance regarding what sorts of SRM research ought to be done, and acts as a facilitator of conversation, leads us to believe it is well-suited to helping us better understand SRM. We are inclined to agree with SRMGI’s case for increasing the engagement of experts in the developing world with SRM governance issues, based on the arguments that people in developing countries will be most affected by environmental change, that SRM governance must include the perspectives of people in developing countries, and that this inclusion must happen earlier rather than later in the research and governance process."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Proposed_use_of_funds gives the breakdown: "$230,000: Support staff from the Environmental Defense Fund, TWAS, and/or the Royal Society, including consultants; $145,000: Hold seven meetings in six different regions of the world (the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, South East Asia, South America, South Asia (two meetings), and the Middle East and North Africa.); $90,000: Fund follow-ups to regional meetings, perhaps including the support of the Pan-African Working Group, and/or a Global Forum Meeting, and/or an annual alumni summer school; $35,000: Outreach, including at UN negotiations, publishing regular articles and reports, and a revamped website."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing was likely determined by the time it took to vet the cause area and the grantee through a series of conversations. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Our_process gives dates for the conversations leading up to the grant starting May 22, 2012 and ending March 25, 2014.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Follow_up_expectations says: "The extent to which we follow up on this grant will depend on how much capacity we have to devote to causes outside our top priorities within global catastrophic risks. In following this grant, we would hope to learn more about the field of SRM governance and about how developing world engagement affects governance."

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support-2017 (September 2017) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: Grant via the Environmental Defense Fund. At the time, the grantee is called the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/solar-radiation-management-governance-initiative-general-support#Risks_to_the_success_of_the_grant lists potential risks to the success of the grant. Followup conversation with grantee team at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/SRMGI_09-02-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-09-02. Announced: 2016-02-10.
Smart Growth America275,000.004752015-07Land use reformhttps://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.
Brookings Institution100,000.006652015-06International relationshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/brookings-institution-work-china-and-india-- Grant supports work on India and China. Open Phil has historically focused on policy in the United States, so it also hopes that through this grant it will learn more about policy in other countries. That learning will be through non-public conversations, though some reflections from Open Phil may be shared in the future. See also a similar grant to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2015-03. Followup conversation with Paul Haenle of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Paul_Haenle_1-26-2016_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-01-26. Affected countries: India|China; announced: 2015-07-27.
New York University80,000.007262015-04Criminal justice reform/prison length reductionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/new-york-university-work-swift-and-certain-sanctions-- The grant supported the work of Mark Kleiman on swift-and-certain sanctions. It followed up on a previous grant to the Washington Office of Latin America that supported earlier work by Mark Kleiman, available at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/research-crime-incarceration-and-cannabis-regulation. Affected countries: United States.
Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense300,000.004472015-04Biosecurity and pandemic preparednesshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-grant-- Donation process: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-grant#Our_process "We learned about this funding opportunity from Bruce Altevogt, who at the time was a senior program officer at the Institute of Medicine. Our investigation process for this grant included speaking with Dr. Robert Kadlec and other Study Panel staff about the Study Panel’s proposed activities and strategy, speaking with other potential funders about their thoughts on this opportunity, and having Open Philanthropy Project Program Officer Howie Lempel attend three of the Study Panel’s panel sessions."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-grant#Budget "The Study Panel’s total expected budget is about $570K. About 70% of its costs come from three major line items: (1) Honoraria (~$8-10K per person per event): $196K (2) Study Panel and administrative staff salaries: $102.5K (3) Funding for public relations firms to support outreach activities, a press conference launch event, and related publicity activities: $104K.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: According to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-grant#Case_for_this_grant (1) The grant has a reasonable chance of influencing US biosecurity policy. (2) There is too little philanthropic funding for biosecurity policy design. (3) This grant may help clarify Open Philanthropy Project's biosecurity and pandemics grantmaking strategy. (4) Open Phil has a positive impression of the grantee.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The total budget for the work that is being funded by the grant is $570K. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-grant#Room_for_more_funding explains how, in light of the funding already secured, $300K is enough to fully fund the work, and that is the amount the Open Philanthropy Project is funding

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by the current state of progress of the work and the funding situation

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant page for the August 2016 grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/biosecurity/blue-ribbon-study-panel-biodefense-general-support cites the success of this grant.

Other notes: The Panel convened four meetings and intended to release a report in October 2015 using this grant. The Open Philanthropy Project published a detailed writeup justifying the grant. Announced: 2015-10-27.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace100,000.006652015-03International relationshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/carnegie-endowment-international-peace-work-india-and-china-- Grant supports work on India and China. Open Phil has historically focused on policy in the United States, so it also hopes that through this grant it will learn more about policy in other countries. That learning will be through non-public conversations, though some reflections from Open Phil may be shared in the future. See also a similar grant to the Brookings Institition. Affected countries: India|China.
Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley10,000.009052015-02Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/asuc-effective-altruists-berkeley-decal-university-course-- Grant is for the Effective Altruists of Berkeley “DeCal” University Course to be held in Spring 2015. See http://files.givewell.org/files/conversations/Ajeya_Cotra_6-19-2015_(public).pdf for a followup conversation with Ajeya Cotra and Oliver Habryka (course architects), Rohin Shah and Davis Foote (Effective Altruists of Berkeley members), and Helen Toner and Catherine Hollander of the Open Philanthropy Project. Affected countries: United States; affected states: California; affected cities: Berkeley.
Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice100,000.006652015-02Criminal justice reform/unclassifiedhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/florida-state-university-project-accountable-justice-general-support-- The recipient aims to "advance public safety through evidence-based practices and policies in Florida and beyond.". Affected countries: United States; affected states: Florida; announced: 2015-03-03.
Center for Popular Democracy750,000.002502015-01Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015Alexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Our_process refers to the previous grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-popular-democracy-federal-reserve-campaign that helped the Fed Up campaign get started. It says: "Prior to deciding about this grant, we had a number of further conversations with Ady Barkan of CPD about the campaign’s plans, followed the initial progress of the campaign in drawing press attention, and looked more deeply into research on monetary policy." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Process_for_forming_and_vetting_views_on_monetary_policy includes some of the influences in Open Phil's formation of views on monetary policy.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant for the "campaign (“Fed Up”) that aims to prevent premature tightening of monetary policy and encourage greater transparency and public engagement in the governance of the Federal Reserve." It supports 75% of the campaign's 1-year $1 million budget.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Case_for_this_grant gives three parts to the case for the grant: (1) "A slim probability of moving monetary policy in a marginally more dovish (i.e., lower unemployment, higher inflation) direction." (2) "A reasonable chance of achieving some of the campaign’s procedural goals, including raising the level of transparency around how regional Fed presidents and board member are selected." (3) "Enabling CPD to experiment with an advocacy campaign in this area, potentially laying the groundwork for future advocacy efforts in the area, and testing our hypothesis that advocacy around macroeconomic policy is a promising and relatively neglected philanthropic area." The first consideration dominates the decision to make the grant.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "We anticipate that this grant will make up roughly 75% of the campaign’s overall funding for the year." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Room_for_more_funding_and_fungibility says: "The initial budget we saw projected expenses of around $1.5 million, and we decided to contribute roughly half that amount. [...] We take the fact that the budget was revised downward [to $1 million] after our commitment to support the notion that CPD wouldn’t be able to find the amount of funding that we’ve contributed from other sources, and that accordingly our contribution is largely non-fungible.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems largely determined by the initial seed funding grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/center-popular-democracy-federal-reserve-campaign running out and the need to finance the continuation of the campaign.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists follow-up questions and says: "Towards the end of the duration of the grant, we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance, aiming to answer the questions above. As mentioned above, we may check the transcripts of 2015 FOMC meetings after they are released in 2021 to see whether any of the FOMC members discuss meetings with workers that inform their perspectives on policy."

Donor retrospective of the donation: Continued funding by Open Phil of the Fed Up campaign in the later years, starting with https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2016 (2015-12) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: The grant page says: "Unlike much of our other output, the complexity of the debates in this area has made it impractical for other GiveWell staff to construct and check a complete trail of evidence and counterarguments for each claim in this review." It also lists https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Process_for_forming_and_vetting_views_on_monetary_policy lists the following economists whose blogs influenced Open Phil's initial impressions on the issue: Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, Tim Duy, Scott Sumner, and Tyler Cowen. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2015-02-27.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities335,000.004272014-09Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-projectAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project#Our_review_process says: "CBPP approached us for support for the project after we had a general conversation about their history and track record and expressed interest in potentially funding advocacy around macroeconomic policy. We shared a draft version of this page with CBPP staff prior to the grant being finalized." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project#Grant_documents lists a bunch of grant documents submitted.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant is for the Full Employment Project, with a total budget of $1,0005,000. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project#Grant_documents lists goals of the project, including: getting to full employment, setting a policy agenda for the next recession, and repairing ongoing damage from the Great Recession. Several anticipated activities include commissioning papers, developing options for strengthening automatic stabilizers, assessing and developing policy proposals, and making the case for "full employment" as a day-to-day goal. https://files.givewell.org/files/labs/macroeconomic-policy/CBPP%20Full%20Employment%20Project%20Proposal.pdf has more details.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project#Case_for_this_grant lists reasons: (1) "CBPP’s proposed projects comport well with our provisional take on important topics for research and advocacy in macroeconomic policy." (2) "Because of the above point, we are comfortable with the potential fungibility of this grant." (3) "Beyond direct impact, there are notable benefits to making some early grants in a cause we are exploring (as is the case with macroeconomic policy)."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount recommended for the grant, $335,000, is one-third of the total budget of $1,005,000 for the funded project (the Full Employment Project). The grant page says this is "[b]ased in part on the fact that CBPP was planning to approach three funders for this project".

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems determined by the timing of CBPP approaching Open Philanthropy with the idea of the grant, and also by Open Philanthropy starting to explore grantmaking in the area.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 28

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: Since this fully funds one-third of the cost of the Full Employment Project, that is for a limited duration, it doesn't look like Open Philanthropy plans to provide follow-up funding for the project. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists some questions and plans for follow-up.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Jared Bernstein and Ben Spielberg of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Jared_Bernstein_and_Ben_Spielberg_10-21-15_%28public%29.pdf on 2015-10-21. A followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-budget-and-policy-priorities-full-employment-project-2016 for the Full Employment Project suggests continued satisfaction with the project.

Other notes: Grant in two tranches. The grant page says: "Since we see support for this project as largely fungible with CBPP general support, we expect to make the grant formally unrestricted.". Affected countries: United States; announced: 2014-09-19.
Waitlist Zero50,000.007772014-09Organ donationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/waitlist-zero-planning-grant-- Planning grant. Organ donation not a focus area but identified as an area with potentially outstanding room for more philanthropy. Senior Research Analyst knows founders Thomas Kelly and Josh Morrison and vouched for them. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2014-09-25.
Rockefeller Archive Center25,000.008622014-08History of philanthropyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/history-of-philanthropy/rockefeller-archive-center-workshop-history-philanthropy-- Grant to support a workshop of scholars interested in the history of philanthropy.
RAND Corporation103,000.006602014-08Drug policy/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/rand-corporation-research-vermont-- Grant to enable researchers affiliated with the RAND Drug Policy Research Center to conduct a study about the consequences of legalizing marijuana in Vermont, on behalf of the State of Vermont. Affected countries: United States; affected states: Vermont.
Center for Popular Democracy100,000.006652014-08Macroeconomic stabilization policyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-federal-reserve-campaignAlexander Berger Donation process: Grantee submitted a proposal at https://files.givewell.org/files/labs/macroeconomic-policy/CPD%20Federal%20Reserve%20Campaign%20Paper%20v2.pdf for the Fed Up Campaign, and Open Philanthropy reviewed it and ultimately decided to provide funds to help kickstart the campaign.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to launch a campaign to educate the public about monetary policy and encourage the Federal Reserve to give more attention to the full employment portion of its mandate." The campaign would later become known as the Fed Up campaign. The stated rimary goals of the campaign are: (1) Ensure that monetary policy contributes to sustained growth and prosperity. (2) Engage Fed officials in a discussion of the meaning of its “dual mandate.” (3) Ensure that the American public is properly represented on the Boards of Directors of the regional Feds.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page gives reasons for supporting a shift toward focus on unemployment, also called a "dovish" stance compared to the "hawkish" stance of caring primarily about inflation. It gives two reasons: (a) this stance is better suited to the state of the economy, and (b) current advocacy influencing the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is significantly hawkish since it comes mostly from corporations and the financial industry. The grant page also is more in favor of the third primary goal of more representation of the American public: "there seems to be a strong procedural presumption in favor of a more credible, transparent selection process for regional Federal Reserve Bank board members and, in turn, presidents." The grant is also viewed as a learning grant for Open Philanthropy's exploration of macroeconomic stabilization policy.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant amount seems to have been chosen on the low end ($100,000) and the grant page says "We’re unusually uncertain about this grant" suggesting that this uncertainty was a reason for not making a larger upfront commitment to the campaign.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems to have been determined by a mix of the grantee shopping the grant proposal around and Open Phil becoming interested in grantmaking in the macroeconomic stabilization policy space.

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: The grant page says: "we’re planning to investigate the considerations above in more depth in the coming months (conditional on retaining macroeconomic policy as a high-priority cause) to reach a decision about whether to contribute a more significant portion of the campaign’s overall budget."

Donor retrospective of the donation: A followup conversation https://files.givewell.org/files/conversations/Brian%20Kettenring%2010-16-14%20(public).pdf is published with Brian Kettenring of the grantee organization. Open Phil ultimately decides to fund the Fed Up Campaign at a much larger level starting 2015 with https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015 (2015-01, $750,000) and writes at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/macroeconomic-policy/center-popular-democracy-fed-campaign-2015#Campaign_progress_to_date about the campaign progress. Open Phil continues with this funding for several years.

Other notes: The grant was made and the grant page published before the launch of the Open Philanthropy website, and was originally written on the GiveWell website. It includes extensive discussion of the grant and links to several sources that informed the thinking behind the grant. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2014-09-25.
U.S. Association for International Migration1,310,483.001662014-07Migration policy/labor mobility/seasonal migrationhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haitiAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Our_process says: "We approached Michael Clemens of CGD looking for funding opportunities in labor mobility in November 2013. He suggested we speak with IOM Haiti staff about a migration facilitation mechanism and we began to do so starting in December 2013. After a few more conversations with IOM staff and feedback on an earlier draft, a final proposal was submitted in June 2014. We shared a draft version of this page with IOM and CGD staff, and incorporated some of their suggestions, prior to the grant being finalized."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Proposal_summary links to a project proposal http://www.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/USAIM.IOM%20Haiti_H2A%20Visa%20Project%20_Narrative.pdf and a budget http://givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/USAIM.IOM%20Haiti_H2A%20Visa%20Project_Budget.xls (Excel). The goal is to increase the use of U.S. H-2A visas by Haitians; Haiti recently became eligible for H-2A. The proposed work is a collaboration between five groups: the grantee, the International Organization for Migration, the Center for Global Development, Protect the People, and Haiti's National Office for Migration.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Case_for_this_grant talks about high gains per Haitian who uses the program, with an estimate of $1 million in gains in one year if the project succeeds. It also discusses upside from creating a sustainabe flow of Haitians if usage can be expanded and overstaying and abuse can be limited, with a BOTEC of $50 million in income gains over a period of ten years.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): http://givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/USAIM.IOM%20Haiti_H2A%20Visa%20Project_Budget.xls (Excel) has the budget. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Proposal_summary gives the two main pieces: $450,655 to cover the preparation phase of work, estimated to take 4 months and $1,039,849 for the seasonal migration and follow up work, estimated to take 10 months.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Our_process hints at timing by providing the back story: "We approached Michael Clemens of CGD looking for funding opportunities in labor mobility in November 2013. He suggested we speak with IOM Haiti staff about a migration facilitation mechanism and we began to do so starting in December 2013. After a few more conversations with IOM staff and feedback on an earlier draft, a final proposal was submitted in June 2014."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 14

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up includes follow-up questions and expectations. The second tranche of funding is conditional to success of the first tranche. Further grants are not explicitly discussed.

Donor retrospective of the donation: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti#Updates links to several updates including https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/usaim-seasonal-migration-haiti/december-2014-update-iom-haiti-grant (2014-12) and http://givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/IOM%20Haiti%20-%20LM0257%20-%20H2A%20Visa%20Program%20-%201st%20Interim%20Report%20Redacted.doc (2015-03). The later grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/protect-people-seasonal-migration-haiti (2016-02) to Protect the People expresses the view that this grant did not deliver the expected magnitude of results.

Other notes: The grant page says: "On November 1, 2018, the grant amount on the website was reduced from the original of $1,490,505 to an updated value $1,310,483, with a note: (May 2016 note: $180,022 in unspent funds were returned to us.)". Affected countries: United States|Haiti.
ImmigrationWorks Foundation285,000.004682014-07Migration policy/low-skilled migration promotionhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-supportAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Our_process says: "GiveWell approached IW in March 2014 to discuss funding opportunities relating to advocacy for lower-skill immigration and learned that IW was seeking philanthropic funding. A series of conversations about IW’s work culminated in a request for funding. We shared a draft version of this page with IW staff prior to the grant being finalized."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grantee prepared funding options at https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/IW%20menu%20of%20funding%20options.pdf and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Proposed_activities provides a summary: $55,000 funding gap for 2014 (funded), $40,000 for a grassroots coordinator in Washington (funded), $180,000 for campaigns in the states (not funded), $150,000 for public opinion research (funded), and $40,000 for building consensus around policy (funded). The funding is unrestricted even though the intended use funds specific programs.

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Case_for_the_grant links to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/cause-reports/policy/labor-mobility#What_is_the_problem for the importance of funding low-skilled immigration, the focus of ImmigrationWorks and not a focus of most organizations. Also: "One positive feature of the public opinion research may be that it is less time-sensitive than the advocacy work: messages that are found to work today may continue to be helpful if immigration reform appears on the national agenda again in a few years." A learning goal is also cited: "In addition to the potential for impact, we also see this grant as a good way to learn more about advocacy opportunities around immigration reform in the U.S."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is the total of activities that Open Philanthropy chose to fund oof https://files.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/IW%20menu%20of%20funding%20options.pdf at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Proposed_activities namely $55,000 funding gap for 2014, $40,000 for a grassroots coordinator in Washington, $150,000 for public opinion research, and $40,000 for building consensus around policy.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The timing seems to be a result of when Open Philanthropy started the process and how long the due diligence took. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Our_process says: "says: "GiveWell approached IW in March 2014 to discuss funding opportunities [...] A series of conversations about IW’s work culminated in a request for funding."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 12

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up has details on questions that Open Philanthropy will continue investigating, and plans for continued conversations with Tamar Jacoby every 2-3 months over the course of the year-long grant.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The renewal grant write-up https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-general-support-2016#Previous_grant has a detailed evaluation of the outcome of the grant. The grant was mostly to maintain existing expenses rather than expand significantly; one form of impact is described: "Jacoby has considered shifting focus away from immigration policy to prioritize her work with Opportunity America, and we believe there is a reasonable probability that Open Philanthropy’s grant played a role in keeping Jacoby active in the area of immigration."

Other notes: The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/immigrationworks-foundation-general-support#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up is fairly detailed; in particular, it includes details on ImmigrationWorks' past track record and has a section on risks to the success of the grant. Affected countries: United States.
Alliance for Open Society International500,000.003142014-07Public services improvement and transparency/Albaniahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/alliance-open-society-international-albanian-renaissance-- Grant to support the Open Society Foundation for Albania’s project “Albanian Renaissance,” a group of initiatives designed to upgrade public services, bring transparency to public life, and help position the country for European integration. Part of our effort to learn from other major foundations by co-funding projects with them, the major foundation in this case being Open Society Foundations (OSF). Affected countries: Albania.
Pew Public Safety Performance Project3,000,000.00682014-07Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/pew-public-safety-performance-project-- PSPP has engaged in the following activities: (1) Research and public education, (2) Engaging nontraditional allies of criminal justice reform, (3) Providing technical assistance to individual states. The grant would support and expand this work. Affected countries: United States.
Cochrane Collaboration300,000.004472014-06Biomedical research/meta-researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/cochrane-collaboration-general-support-- Grant over three years to promote evidence-informed healthcare by producing high-quality, relevant, accessible systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence.
Pepperdine University150,000.005962014-06Drug policy/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/december-2015-updates-angela-hawken-- Grant in support of Washington THC monitoring by Angela Hawken. Grant made for time-sensitive experiment where Hawken expected NSF funding based on a grant application (but the funding would come too late). Only 120000 of the 150000 was spent and enough data was collected for a conclusion. Affected countries: United States.
International Development Association500,000.003142014-03Global health/measurementhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/service-delivery-indicators-project-- Grant supports work on the Service Delivery Indicators Program (SDI). Estimated budget is $27 million.
Center for Global Development (Earmark: Michael Clemens)1,184,720.001802014-03Migration policy/labor mobilityhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-researchAlexander Berger Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research#Our_process says: "The Center for Global Development submitted a proposal for this grant to Good Ventures in January 2014, following several conversations between GiveWell and Good Ventures staff and CGD Senior Fellow Michael Clemens about philanthropic opportunities related to labor mobility. We shared a draft version of this page with Center for Global Development staff prior to the grant being finalized."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research#Grant_documents links to various grant documents: https://www.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/CGD%20Proposal%20to%20Good%20Ventures_General%20Support%20and%20Migration%20Policy%20Research_2.6.14.pdf (concept note), https://www.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/CGD%20Migration%20Budget_Good%20Ventures%20Proposal%20Final.xlsx (budget proposal), and https://www.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/CGD%20Projected%20Statement%20of%20Expenditures%20and%20Good%20Ventures%20for%202014.xlsx (overall CGD budget).

Donor reason for selecting the donee: Listed reasons include: (1) priority for the cause cf. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/cause-reports/policy/labor-mobility and its selection for learning grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/givewell-labs-update (2) being impressed with the past work of Michael Clemens, (3) room for more funding -- the past work was funded by the MacArthur Foundation and there is no ongoing support for the full portfolio of work Clemens plans to do.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount is based on the budget proposal https://www.givewell.org/files/shallow/international-migration/grants/CGD%20Migration%20Budget_Good%20Ventures%20Proposal%20Final.xlsx submitted by Michael Clemens.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research#Our_process indicates that the timing was based on the timing of the grant proposal and the due diligence that followed: "The Center for Global Development submitted a proposal for this grant to Good Ventures in January 2014, following several conversations between GiveWell and Good Ventures staff and CGD Senior Fellow Michael Clemens about philanthropic opportunities related to labor mobility."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 36

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists key follow-up questions and expectations. It says: "Towards the end of the duration of the grant (i.e. in the third year), we plan to attempt a more holistic and detailed evaluation of the grant’s performance, aiming to answer the questions above. We may abandon either or both of these follow-up expectations if labor mobility ceases to be a focus area, or perform more follow-up than planned if this work becomes a key part of our priorities."

Donor retrospective of the donation: There are three published followup conversations between this grant and the next. The writeup for the followup grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-migration-program (2017-03) includes a positive assessment of the outcome of the grant, saying "the team has taken on some promising research projects" and "Our expectation is that this type of work may take a fairly long time to have noticeable effects, so even without concrete evidence of impact at this stage, extending our support seems to us like a worthwhile bet, and the immediate projects that Dr. Clemens’ team has proposed seem reasonable and potentially promising to us, though it is difficult for us to assess the value of the projects individually."

Other notes: The grant page https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/immigration-policy/center-global-development-labor-mobility-research#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up has several more details including an extensive discussion of room for more funding and fungibility, and a section on risks. Followup grants: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/dr-michael-clemens-senior-fellow-center-global-development-cgd-and-cynthia-rathinasamy-program (2015-12-15), https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Michael_Clemens_Cynthia_Rathinasamy_06-21-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-06-21), and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Center_for_Global_Development_11-22-16_%28public%29.pdf (2016-11-22).
BetaGov200,000.005442013-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/betagov-- Grant made to Pepperdine University to support the work of Angela Hawken on BetaGov. BetaGov aims to generate knowledge about what works in the public sector (in areas including but not limited to criminal justice) by serving as a repository for practitioners’ ideas to be tested, serving as a database of results to facilitate learning across studies, and providing a toolkit (including web-based training, webinars, assessment tools, and an RCT call-in hotline) so that practitioners can conduct their own RCTs. Affected countries: United States.
Washington Office on Latin America245,000.005142013-12Criminal justice reformhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/research-crime-incarceration-and-cannabis-regulation-- Grant made to support research projects on crime, incarceration and cannabis regulation led by Mark Kleiman. Affected countries: United States.
Center for Global Development300,000.004472013-07Global health and developmenthttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-supportAlexander Berger Donation process: This grant was made by Good Ventures with input from GiveWell, before the Open Philanthropy Project was a clear and distinct entity.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: The grant page says the grant is "to the Center for Global Development (CGD) in July 2013 for general operating support. The grant will support CGD’s research on topics related to global poverty and inequality."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page says: "We’ve found CGD to be a valuable resource as we explore potential future focus areas for Good Ventures. Learn more about our rationale for awarding this grant and how CGD is informing our work. This award is a “learning grant,” meaning that it’s designed to help us learn more about an organization or cause we find promising. This grant is unrestricted so that the organization can decide for itself how best to translate the funds into impact." The linked blog post with the rationale is https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/grant-center-global-development-cgd

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Todd Moss and Kathy Smith of grantee organization at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Todd_Moss_and_Kathy_Smith_12-15-2015_%28public%29.pdf on 2015-12-15. Followup grants https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2016 and https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/center-global-development-general-support-2019 suggest that the grant would be considered a success and Open Phil would continue to endorse its reasoning

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36.
Center for Global Development50,000.007772013-06History of philanthropyhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/history-of-philanthropy/update-millions-saved-project-- Grant for an update to the Millions Saved project.
Population Services International1,000,000.002002012-08Global health/malaria/resistancehttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/containment-artemisinin-resistance-eastern-myanmar-- Grant made by Good Ventures before Open Phil formally came into being. Grant is a co-funding with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and supports work to prevent the spread of artemisinin resistance in Myanmar. Good Ventures hoped to use the grant opportunity to learn how big players like the Gates Foundation effect progress in global health. Affected countries: Myanmar.
US Cochrane Center100,000.006652012-07Biomedical research/meta-researchhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/us-cochrane-center-general-support-- Unrestricted grant met urgent short-term need to maintain uninterrupted minimal staffing. Grant is a “learning grant,” meaning that it’s designed to help us learn more about an organization or cause we find promising. Affected countries: United States.

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