Jeff Kaufman and Julia Wise donations made to Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund

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)Centre for Effective Altruism
Best overview URLhttps://www.jefftk.com/giving
Facebook username jefftk
LinkedIn username jeff-kaufman-28a8bab
Websitehttps://www.jefftk.com/
Donations URLhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations
LessWrong usernamejkaufman
Effective Altruism Forum usernameJeff_Kaufman
Effective Altruism Hub usernamejeff-kaufman
GitHub usernamejeffkaufman
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 datadays
Lag with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update)months
Data entry method on Donations List WebsiteManual (no scripts used)

Brief history: Jeff Kaufman and Julia Wise have been giving since 2003 and have been practicing "earning to give" -- giving about 50% of their annual income -- every year, except years when they were financially tighter because of working at startups or pursuing graduate school. The couple has been highlighted by Peter Singer, and discussed in the mainstream media, for instance https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/books/review/strangers-drowning-by-larissa-macfarquhar.html

Brief notes on broad donor philosophy and major focus areas: The couple makes sure to donate about half of their donation budget for charities that have a direct impact in global health and development, usually based on GiveWell recommendations. See https://www.jefftk.com/p/2017-donations for the latest affirmation of this; and see https://www.jefftk.com/p/why-global-poverty for more explanation of the focus. The remaining half includes effective altruism/movement growth charities (such as the Centre for Effective Altruism) and more speculative charities.

Notes on grant decision logistics: The couple determines their charity budget by computing their adjusted gross income (AGI) with the help of their accountant and then calculating a fixed percentage (usually 50%) of that. See https://www.jefftk.com/p/what-should-income-mean-in-pledging for more details on why the AGI figure is used. They then do a 50-50 or similar split between GiveWell-recommended charities in global health and development, and other areas like effective altruism. The allocations in the GiveWell slice are informed by GiveWell recommendations, the allocations in the other slice are decided based on their own investigation. The actual pacing and modality of payments may depend on personal finances, available payment modalities, and donation matching options. As of late 2017, the couple have started using PayPal Giving Fund where possible because it can use a 2% cash-back credit card without charging either donor or donee any transaction fees, and also does a 1% matching, thus generating an extra 3% altogether. See https://www.jefftk.com/p/paypal-giving-fund and https://www.jefftk.com/p/2017-donations for more.

Notes on grant financing: The couple generally finances grants from savings, but may in some cases borrow money against future earnings to make donations. The latter is the case in 2017 as https://www.jefftk.com/p/2017-donations explains: "This does mean borrowing some money. Modeling our cash flow I think we will have it paid back in March or April. Much of my current compensation is in stock, and I will not start getting that until I will have been back at Google for a year, which will be this September."

Miscellaneous notes: It looks like the 50% of AGI became a target as a result of a compromise between Jeff and Julia: Jeff sought a little less and Julia sought a little more. In 2017, the couple targeted 30% initially, while Jeff was working at a lower-pay but potentially higher direct-impact job at money transfer company Wave. However, it went back up to 50% after he was fired from Wave and returned to Google. In 2011, the couple did not donate because Jeff was working at a startup and Julia was paying for graduate school out of pocket, see note [1] at https://www.jefftk.com/donations Also, note that donations listed in italics are not included as separate line items in the donations list on the Donations List Website; however, the ones among these that are employer matches are noted as employer matches to the corresponding donation. Consistency of totals against the totals listed on top at https://www.jefftk.com/donations was last verified on 2020-10-24.

Full donor page for donor Jeff Kaufman and Julia Wise

Basic donee information

We do not have any donee information for the donee Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund in our system.

This entity is also a donor.

Full donee page for donee Effective Altruism Funds: Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund

Donor–donee relationship

Item Value

Donor–donee donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 12 16,624 51,773 20 1,000 5,000 5,000 11,697 16,624 66,000 89,885 103,000 114,555 183,376
Effective altruism 12 16,624 51,773 20 1,000 5,000 5,000 11,697 16,624 66,000 89,885 103,000 114,555 183,376

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 Total 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017
Effective altruism (filter this donor) 12 621,272.00 200,000.00 132,252.00 115,000.00 103,020.00 71,000.00
Total 12 621,272.00 200,000.00 132,252.00 115,000.00 103,020.00 71,000.00

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

There are no documents associated with this combination of donor and donee.

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (12 donations)

Graph of all donations (with known year of donation), showing the timeframe of donations

Graph of donations and their timeframes
Amount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 12)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
16,624.0072021-12-12Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of two donations by the donor to the donee for the 2021 Giving Season. The donee was selected as the sole representative for "effective altruism" donations of $200,000, which take up about half of the donor's annual donation of $400,000 (which in turn is about half of the donor's AGI).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The total amount donated by the donor to the donee for the 2021 Giving Season ($200,000) is 50% of the donor's total donations for that Giving Season ($400,000), and the total donation amount is targeted to be around 50% of the donor's AGI ($782,158). This donation ($16,624) is the residual portion of the $200,000 after the original donation of $183,376 on Giving Tuesday.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 4.16%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This donation is timed for the 2021 Giving Season.
183,376.0012021-11-30Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donationsGiving Tuesday Facebook match Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of two donations by the donor to the donee for the 2021 Giving Season. The donee was selected as the sole representative for "effective altruism" donations of $200,000, which take up about half of the donor's annual donation of $400,000 (which in turn is about half of the donor's AGI).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The total amount donated by the donor to the donee for the 2021 Giving Season ($200,000) is 50% of the donor's total donations for that Giving Season ($400,000), and the total donation amount is targeted to be around 50% of the donor's AGI ($782,158).
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 45.84%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The donation is timed for Giving Tuesday in order to benefit from the Giving Tuesday Facebook match.

Other notes: Facebook's match amount for this donation works out to $34,081.
114,555.0022020-12-01Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donationsGiving Tuesday Facebook match Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of several donations by the donor to the donee for the 2020 Giving Season. The donee was selected as the sole representative for "effective altruism" donations, which take up about half of the donor's annual donation (which in turn is about half of the donor's AGI).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): This Giving Tuesday donation amount covers the bulk of the donor's intended donation to the donee for the year, subtracting donations already made (including some the previous day to test the Facebook interface). Only $5,000 in further donations would remain. See https://www.jefftk.com/p/giving-tuesday-2020 where the donor explains the strategy for trying to use Facebook's Giving Tuesday donation matching as much as possible. It explains: "As in previous years, they have a limit of $20k/person and $2,499/donation. More details and instructions at EA Giving Tuesday. I am planning to (nearly) max out all of my credit cards, and donate over $20k. [...] You can donate with a credit card, and Facebook is covering the processing fees. This means that you can get cash back on donations, which is 1-2% of potentially quite a lot of money."
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 43.27%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This portion of the donor's donation to the donee is timed for Giving Tuesday (Tuesday 2020-12-01) with the goal of taking advantage of Facebook's donation matching. See https://www.jefftk.com/p/giving-tuesday-2020 for more details.

Other notes: Facebook's match amount for these donations works out to $4,498. The split between 10% matching and 100% matching is not clear. Employer match: Google matched 10,000.00.
5,000.0092020-12-01Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is the last of several donations by the donor to the donee for the 2020 Giving Season. The donee was selected as the sole representative for "effective altruism" donations, which take up about half of the donor's annual donation (which in turn is about half of the donor's AGI). This final donation seems intended to reach the donor's intended target for total 2020 donations in this area.

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): This final donation seems intended to reach the donor's intended target for total 2020 donations in this area.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 1.89%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): This donation is made 15 days after Giving Tuesday, by which time the donor likely has more complete information on how many donations were successfully processed and how much more to donate to meet the intended donation target.
11,697.0082020-11-30Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donationsGiving Tuesday Facebook match testing Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of several donations by the donor to the donee for the 2020 Giving Season. The donee was selected as the sole representative for "effective altruism" donations, which take up about half of the donor's annual donation (which in turn is about half of the donor's AGI).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The total amount donated by the donor to the donee for the 2020 Giving Season is about 50% of the donor's total donations for that Giving Season, and the total donation amount is targeted to be around 50% of the donor's AGI (though in this particular year it fell short). The amount is likely determined by the goal of testing the Giving Tuesday Facebook match.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 4.42%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The donations made here, one day before Giving Tuesday, seem to be for testing the mechanics of Giving Tuesday Facebook match and making it less likely that transactions on Giving Tuesday will be declined, as https://www.jefftk.com/p/giving-tuesday-2020 explains.
1,000.00112020-11-20Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donor reason for selecting the donee: This is one of several donations by the donor to the donee for the 2020 Giving Season. The donee was selected as the sole representative for "effective altruism" donations, which take up about half of the donor's annual donation (which in turn is about half of the donor's AGI).

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The total amount donated by the donor to the donee for the 2020 Giving Season is about 50% of the donor's total donations for that Giving Season, and the total donation amount is targeted to be around 50% of the donor's AGI (though in this particular year it fell short). This particular donation is the first of several and may have been made to test specific payment methods.
Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.38%

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The donation is timed for the beginning of 2020 Giving Season; the donor generally makes their donations in this period. This first, smaller donation happens before the larger donations, a pattern seen in other years as well and usually to test payment methods before sending larger sums of money.
25,115.0062019-12-06Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donation via Facebook Fundraisers. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.68%.
89,885.0042019-12-03Effective altruismhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donation via Facebook Fundraisers. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 38.24%.
20.00122018-12-02Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donation to the EA Community Fund. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.01%.
103,000.0032018-11-11Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 49.14%.
66,000.0052017-12-27Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donation to the EA Meta Fund (known at the time as the EA Community Fund, and managed by Nick Beckstead). See https://www.jefftk.com/p/2017-donations for more background on the donation decision. The total amount donated by the couple for 2017 is $142,000, out of which 50% ($71,000) is outside GiveWell-recommended charities. $5,000 of this was already donated to the EA Community Fund earlier in the year, leaving $66,000 which is donated in this donation. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 46.50%.
5,000.0092017-06-27Effective altruism/movement growthhttps://www.jefftk.com/donations-- Donation earmarked for the Effective Altruism Community Fund managed by Nick Beckstead. Employer match: Wave matched 5,000.00.