Holden Karnofsky money moved

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 December 2019. See the about page for more details.

Table of contents

This entity is also a donor.

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (26 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesDocument scopeNotes
Update on Partnerships with External Donors2018-05-16Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Future Justice Fund Accountable Justice Action Fund Effective Altruism Funds Accountable Justice Action Fund Effective Altruism Funds Miscellaneous commentaryThe 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 enoguh 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
Hi, I'm Holden Karnofsky. AMA about jobs at Open Philanthropy2018-03-26Holden Karnofsky Effective Altruism ForumOpen Philanthropy Project Job advertisementHolden Karnofsky opens himself up to questions about what it is like to work at the Open Philanthropy Project. This is part of a concerted push by Open Phil to increase its number of research analysts
New Job Opportunities2018-02-14Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project 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
Update on Cause Prioritization at Open Philanthropy2018-01-26Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyThis 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
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20172017-12-21Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectJaime 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 listOpen 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
Staff Members’ Personal Donations for Giving Season 20172017-12-18Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectHolden 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
The Open Philanthropy Project Is Now an Independent Organization2017-06-12Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project 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
Good Ventures and Giving Now vs. Later (2016 Update)2016-12-28Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectGood Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Deworm the World Initiative GiveDirectly Malaria Consortium Sightsavers END Fund Development Media International Food Fortification Initiative Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Iodine Global Network Living Goods Project Healthy Children Reasoning supplementExplanation 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 Philanthropy ProjectJaime 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 listOpen Philanthropy Project staff describe suggestions for best donation opportunities for individual donors in their specific areas
Worldview Diversification2016-12-13Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyThe 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
Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 20162016-12-09Natalie Crispin GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Josh Rosenberg Rebecca Raible Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Lewis Bollard Chelsea Tabart Sarah Ward Chris Somerville Ajeya Cotra Chris Smith Isabel Arjmand A political campaign GiveWell top charities International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation UPMC Center for Health Security Donor lottery EA Giving Group GiveDirectly Center for Applied Rationality Malaria Consortium Animal Charity Evaluators Northwest Health Law Advocates StrongMinds Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative The Humane Society of the United States The Humane League Mercy For Animals Humane Society International Compassion in World Farming USA The Good Food Institute Citizens for Farm Animal Protection END Fund Causa Justa Planned Parenthood International Refugee Assistance Project Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2016. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell
Potential Risks from Advanced Artificial Intelligence: The Philanthropic Opportunity2016-05-06Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Review of current state of cause areaIn 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
Suggestions for individual donors from Open Philanthropy Project staff2015-12-23Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectChloe 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 listOpen Philanthropy Project stff describe suggestions for best donation opportunities for individual donors in their specific areas. The post is originally published to the GiveWell blog
Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 20152015-12-09Elie Hassenfeld GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Sean Conley Josh Rosenberg Jake Marcus Rebecca Raible Milan Griffes Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Claire Zabel Nicole Ross Lewis Bollard GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation GiveWell GiveDirectly Wikimedia Foundation Center for Global Development Martha’s Table Country Dance and Song Society Northwest Health Law Advocates Mercy For Animals The Humane League Animal Charity Evaluators Raising for Effective Giving Humane Society of te United States Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2015. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell
Incoming Program Officer: Lewis Bollard2015-09-11Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyOpen 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
Incoming Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform: Chloe Cockburn2015-06-16Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyThe 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
Open Philanthropy Project Update: U.S. Policy2015-03-10Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyOriginally 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
Staff members’ personal donations – giving season 20142014-12-17Holden Karnofsky GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Eliza Scheffler Timothy Telleen-Lawton Josh Rosenberg Ben Rachbach Jake Marcus Rebecca Raible Milan Griffes Tyler Heishman GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Deworm the World Initiative GiveWell standout charities Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell staff describe their annual donation plans for 2014. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell
Potential U.S. Policy Focus Areas2014-05-29Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyThe 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
GiveWell Labs - Progress in 2013 and Plans for 20142014-03-05Holden Karnofsky Open Philanthropy ProjectOpen Philanthropy Project Broad donor strategyOriginally 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
Staff members’ personal donations2013-12-12Holden Karnofsky GiveWellHolden Karnofsky Elie Hassenfeld Alexander Berger Natalie Crispin Eliza Scheffler Timothy Telleen-Lawton Sean Conley Josh Rosenberg Ben Rachbach Howie Lempel Jake Marcus GiveDirectly Mercy For Animals Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Against Malaria Foundation Deworm the World Initiative The Humane Society of the United States Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell staff describe their annual donation plans for 2013. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell
GiveWell’s top charities for giving season 20132013-12-01Holden Karnofsky GiveWellGood Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Deworm the World Initiative Evaluator consolidated recommendation listAgainst Malaria Foundation not in top charities list (it was in 2013) due to room for more funding issues. Good Ventures allocations not included in this post
Our top charities for the 2012 giving season2012-11-26Holden Karnofsky GiveWell Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Evaluator consolidated recommendation listGiveDirectly promoted from standout to top charity, other two charities same as for 2011
Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI)2012-05-11Holden Karnofsky LessWrong Machine Intelligence Research Institute Evaluator review of doneePost 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
Deciding between two outstanding charities2011-12-08Holden Karnofsky GiveWell Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Reasoning supplementProvided more in-depth coverage of tradeoffs between the two top charities, supplementing the announcement post at https://blog.givewell.org/2011/11/29/top-charities-for-holiday-season-2011-against-malaria-foundation-and-schistosomiasis-control-initiative/
Top charities for holiday season 2011: Against Malaria Foundation and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative2011-11-29Holden Karnofsky GiveWell Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative GiveDirectly Innovations for Poverty Action Nyaya Health Pratham Small Enterprise Foundation Evaluator consolidated recommendation listAgainst Malaria Foundation and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative were the top charities; the others were standouts

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (1 donations)

DonorDoneeAmount (current USD)Donation dateCause areaURLNotes
Open Philanthropy ProjectCarl Shulman Discretionary Fund5,000,000.002018-03--https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-new-discretionary-fund 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. Earmark: Carl Shulman; announced: 2018-05-17.

Donation amounts by donee and year

Donee Donors influenced Cause area Metadata Total 2018
Carl Shulman Discretionary Fund Open Philanthropy Project (filter this donor) 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00
Total ---- -- 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00

Skipping spending graph as there is fewer than one year’s worth of donations.

Donation amounts by donor and year for influencer Holden Karnofsky

Donor Donees Total 2018
Open Philanthropy Project (filter this donee) Carl Shulman Discretionary Fund (filter this donee) 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00
Total -- 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00

Skipping spending graph as there is fewer than one year’s worth of donations.