I am sketching out my current understanding of the situation. I would appreciate any corrections. I assume I am misunderstanding some of this.
Does the following seem fair to you: They account for at least 30% of total EA funding. They account for at least 50% of meta funding.
edit: It looks like the actual number is closer to 50-66% of total EA funding. Meta funding looks around 66%.
Givewell estimates that they directed or influenced about 161 million dollars in 2018. 64 million came from Good Ventures grants. Good Ventures is the philanthropic foundation founded and funded by Dustin and Cari. It seems like the 161 million directed by Give Well represents a comfortable majority of total ‘EA’ donation. (Is this true?). To give context here are some other relevant numbers. EAs in a recent survey gave around 16.1 million. ACE estimates it influences about 9 million in donations. edit: If you add up all the grants dated in 2019 Good Ventures gave ~272 million. In 2018 Good ventures gave ~190.5 million. 2020 hs 140 million granted so far. There is some lag after grants are decided.
Meta Charities and community infrastructure seem even more dependent on Dustin and Cari. Here are some estimates of how much funding some important organizations have received from Good Ventures per year recently -
CEA − 2⁄3 of funding according to CEA
80K - ~90% of the yearly budget. Used to be part of CEA.
FHI − 13.3 million in late 2018. The list of their large donors is small
Givewell - ~50% of operating expenses. Very large cash reserves.
Open Phil—“Our main funders are Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz”
ACE - ~33% of the budget
GPI - ~3.3million in 2020. In 2018 they estimated about 45% of total funding to date had come from Open Phil.
Rethink Priorities − 48% of their budget (according to Peter Hurford)
GWWC—Part of CEA
Founders Pledge - ~5million in funding. Cannot find their total budget
I am sure some of these estimates are off. But it does seem like the community infrastructure is extremely dependent on Dustin and Cari? Here are some public sources I looked at and relevant quotes. All quotes are from the associated links:
“Our funding varies year-on-year, but approximately two-thirds of our funding comes from the Open Philanthropy Project. The rest comes mostly from a small number of major donors, though we also receive funding from other individuals and through initiatives such as EA Giving Tuesday. EA Global ticket revenues made up around 5% of our income.” (from financials)
Core Budget 2019: 5,000,000
EA Grants and EA Community Building Grants: $3.7M
Cash: 13.8M in 2018 up from 10.6M in 2017 (13 million was in cash)
CEA grants in 2018: 2.85M (mostly to organizations)
“There are a few people and organizations that have made or pledged a significant contribution to FHI’s research (> £250,000). We would like to thank them for their impact on our progress over the years.
Alexander Tamas, Amlin plc, Elon Musk, European Research Council, Future of Life Institute, Leverhulme Trust, Luke Ding, Open Philanthropy Project, Oxford Martin School”
Grants to other charities: 35,664,394 (basically people donating through GiveWell)
It looks like they got ~15m without restrictions and 35.75M with restrictions. Almost all of the ‘with restrictions’ was passed on. They had about 1.8M in management and General expenses and fundraising.
Total operating expenses: Very roughly 4.5M. Not sure how to count some things like payment processing fees. Salaries and payroll tax was about 3.5M. Full breakdown on page6 of the financials.
Large cash reserves: ~22M net assets without donor restrictions.
It is pretty complicated financially. There is an LLC and 501c(3). Also multiple orgs make their grants.
“Staff who research potential focus areas or advance academic or scientific research or education are typically employed by the Open Philanthropy Project 501(c)(3), a nonprofit organization that primarily conducts research. Staff who investigate and recommend non-research grants or investments, distribute funds to grantees, evaluate our impact, and share our learning are typically employed by the Open Philanthropy Project LLC. Good Ventures does not currently have any employees of its own and instead largely relies on the research and recommendations of staff employed by Open Philanthropy. Open Philanthropy remains independent from Good Ventures, partly because we would eventually like to play a similar advisory role for other highly aligned major donors.”
“We recommended over $200 million worth of grants in 2019. The bulk of this came from recommendations to support GiveWell’s top charities and from our major current focus areas: potential risks of advanced AI, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, criminal justice reform, farm animal welfare, scientific research, and effective altruism.”
“Outreach to external donors will remain a relatively low priority for the organization as a whole, though it may be a higher priority for particular staff.” (they have a partnership with Ben Delo, initially 5million per year)
“Our main funders are Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook and Asana.” (homepage)
“We typically recommend grants to the Open Philanthropy Project fund, a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Support for the Open Philanthropy Project fund comes primarily from Cari and Dustin, though historically other donors have contributed as well. In some cases, we make grants directly from the Open Philanthropy Project 501(c)(3) or make recommendations to Good Ventures, the Open Philanthropy Action Fund (a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization), or to other entities, including some that are not primarily funded or controlled by Dustin or Cari.”
“In GPI’s short history to date, we have been funded by grants totalling £2.5m from the Open Philanthropy Project and donations totalling £3m from other private donors.” [2018-2019]
[Question] How Dependent is the Effective Altruism Movement on Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna?
I am sketching out my current understanding of the situation. I would appreciate any corrections. I assume I am misunderstanding some of this.
Does the following seem fair to you: They account for at least 30% of total EA funding. They account for at least 50% of meta funding.
edit: It looks like the actual number is closer to 50-66% of total EA funding. Meta funding looks around 66%.
Givewell estimates that they directed or influenced about 161 million dollars in 2018. 64 million came from Good Ventures grants. Good Ventures is the philanthropic foundation founded and funded by Dustin and Cari. It seems like the 161 million directed by Give Well represents a comfortable majority of total ‘EA’ donation. (Is this true?). To give context here are some other relevant numbers. EAs in a recent survey gave around 16.1 million. ACE estimates it influences about 9 million in donations. edit: If you add up all the grants dated in 2019 Good Ventures gave ~272 million. In 2018 Good ventures gave ~190.5 million. 2020 hs 140 million granted so far. There is some lag after grants are decided.
Meta Charities and community infrastructure seem even more dependent on Dustin and Cari. Here are some estimates of how much funding some important organizations have received from Good Ventures per year recently -
CEA − 2⁄3 of funding according to CEA
80K - ~90% of the yearly budget. Used to be part of CEA.
FHI − 13.3 million in late 2018. The list of their large donors is small
Givewell - ~50% of operating expenses. Very large cash reserves.
Open Phil—“Our main funders are Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz”
ACE - ~33% of the budget
GPI - ~3.3million in 2020. In 2018 they estimated about 45% of total funding to date had come from Open Phil.
Rethink Priorities − 48% of their budget (according to Peter Hurford)
GWWC—Part of CEA
Founders Pledge - ~5million in funding. Cannot find their total budget
I am sure some of these estimates are off. But it does seem like the community infrastructure is extremely dependent on Dustin and Cari? Here are some public sources I looked at and relevant quotes. All quotes are from the associated links:
--- CEA
https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/blog/fundraising-2019/#budget-summary-and-fundraising
https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/blog/ceas-2019-annual-review/#financials
https://assets.ctfassets.net/es8pp29e1wp8/hTeWHf44wuiHZlNMaeGdV/f2d45c48481091f356d8a7be829499bf/Final_-_2018_Form_990_-_CEA_-_signed__2_.pdf
“Our funding varies year-on-year, but approximately two-thirds of our funding comes from the Open Philanthropy Project. The rest comes mostly from a small number of major donors, though we also receive funding from other individuals and through initiatives such as EA Giving Tuesday. EA Global ticket revenues made up around 5% of our income.” (from financials)
Core Budget 2019: 5,000,000
EA Grants and EA Community Building Grants: $3.7M
Cash: 13.8M in 2018 up from 10.6M in 2017 (13 million was in cash)
CEA grants in 2018: 2.85M (mostly to organizations)
--- 80K Hours
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2019
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2020
https://80000hours.org/about/credibility/evaluations/financial-accounts/
Grant: 2,893,125
Expected Budget 2020: 3,056,000
--- Future of Humanity Institute
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-10-10-%C2%A3133m-boost-oxford%E2%80%99s-future-humanity-institute#:~:text=Oxford%20University’s%20Future%20of%20Humanity,Faculty%20of%20Philosophy%20at%20Oxford.
https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/grant-announcement/
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-humanity-institute-work-on-global-catastrophic-risks
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/miscellaneous/future-of-humanity-institute-research-scholars-programme
https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/support-fhi/
Grant: 13.3 million in 2018
Budget: unknown
“There are a few people and organizations that have made or pledged a significant contribution to FHI’s research (> £250,000). We would like to thank them for their impact on our progress over the years.
Alexander Tamas, Amlin plc, Elon Musk, European Research Council, Future of Life Institute, Leverhulme Trust, Luke Ding, Open Philanthropy Project, Oxford Martin School”
--- GiveWell
https://files.givewell.org/files/ClearFund/GiveWell_TCF_2019_Audited_Financial_Statements.pdf
https://www.givewell.org/about/gw-op-relationship (expenses capped at 20%)
https://blog.givewell.org/2013/09/17/balancing-support-from-good-ventures-vs-individuals/ - reasons why its bad to depend too much on Good Ventures
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/givewell-general-support-2020 − 2,245,570
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/givewell-general-support-20181 - $2,453,548
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/givewell-general-support-2018 − 751,179
Grants to other charities: 35,664,394 (basically people donating through GiveWell)
It looks like they got ~15m without restrictions and 35.75M with restrictions. Almost all of the ‘with restrictions’ was passed on. They had about 1.8M in management and General expenses and fundraising.
Total operating expenses: Very roughly 4.5M. Not sure how to count some things like payment processing fees. Salaries and payroll tax was about 3.5M. Full breakdown on page6 of the financials.
Large cash reserves: ~22M net assets without donor restrictions.
--- Open Philanthropy
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/our-progress-2019-and-plans-2020
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/who-we-are
It is pretty complicated financially. There is an LLC and 501c(3). Also multiple orgs make their grants.
“Staff who research potential focus areas or advance academic or scientific research or education are typically employed by the Open Philanthropy Project 501(c)(3), a nonprofit organization that primarily conducts research. Staff who investigate and recommend non-research grants or investments, distribute funds to grantees, evaluate our impact, and share our learning are typically employed by the Open Philanthropy Project LLC. Good Ventures does not currently have any employees of its own and instead largely relies on the research and recommendations of staff employed by Open Philanthropy. Open Philanthropy remains independent from Good Ventures, partly because we would eventually like to play a similar advisory role for other highly aligned major donors.”
“We recommended over $200 million worth of grants in 2019. The bulk of this came from recommendations to support GiveWell’s top charities and from our major current focus areas: potential risks of advanced AI, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, criminal justice reform, farm animal welfare, scientific research, and effective altruism.”
“Outreach to external donors will remain a relatively low priority for the organization as a whole, though it may be a higher priority for particular staff.” (they have a partnership with Ben Delo, initially 5million per year)
“Our main funders are Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook and Asana.” (homepage)
“We typically recommend grants to the Open Philanthropy Project fund, a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Support for the Open Philanthropy Project fund comes primarily from Cari and Dustin, though historically other donors have contributed as well. In some cases, we make grants directly from the Open Philanthropy Project 501(c)(3) or make recommendations to Good Ventures, the Open Philanthropy Action Fund (a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization), or to other entities, including some that are not primarily funded or controlled by Dustin or Cari.”
--- Animal Charity Evaluators
https://animalcharityevaluators.org/transparency/financials/
https://animalcharityevaluators.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2019-tax-return.pdf
https://animalcharityevaluators.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2019.Audit_.Report.final_.pdf
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/animal-charity-evaluators-general-support-2019 (650K for 2019 and 2020. It seems to be dated later. But ACE had some cash on hand?)
Grants given in 2019: 3,528,266
Grant from Good Ventures: 325K/year for 2019 and 2020
Budget: 1,037,345
Cash Reserves: 1,063,659 (another ~1M with donor restrictions)
--- Global Priorities Institute
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/global-priorities-institute-general-support-2020
https://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/global-priorities-institute-general-support
“In GPI’s short history to date, we have been funded by grants totalling £2.5m from the Open Philanthropy Project and donations totalling £3m from other private donors.” [2018-2019]
Grant 2020: 3,298,715
--- Rethink Priorities
https://donations.vipulnaik.com/donee.php?donee=Rethink+Priorities
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-farm-animal-welfare-research-2020
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/rethink-priorities-farm-animal-welfare-research
https://www.rethinkpriorities.org/blog/2019/2/23/our-plans-for-2019#:~:text=We%20recently%20expanded%20to%20a,more%20information%2C%20email%20Marcus%20A.
Grant: 445K per year
~48% funded by Good ventures according to Peter Hurford (I asked directly)
--- Founders Pledge
https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/other-areas/founders-pledge-general-support-2018
Grant: $5,222,653
Budget: Not sure
--- Giving What We Can
(Part of CEA)