Some reasons to think we shouldn’t invest more than we currently are:
The highest-return investment opportunities may be non-financial, such as 80K, CEA, Founders Pledge, etc. Investments in the stability of the EA community can also be seen as a form of investment. This also means that we might naïvely underestimate the EA community’s current investment rate.
Most of the EA billionaires’ funding is currently being invested.
A lot of EAs are currently early in their careers and thus “investing” in their careers, with the largest payoffs to occur many years in the future.
It could be worth setting this up partly as “Open Phil insurance,” i.e., this fund could fund EA organizations and Open Phil’s most effective longtermist grants in the event that Open Phil funding dries up (e.g., Good Ventures stops collaborating with Open Phil for some reason).
To attract more funding, it could be worth setting this up in such a way that the donors have the option of retaining some amount of discretion. E.g., the donors may not fully agree with the worldview of the fund managers, and for this reason, there is currently a number of longtermist giving opportunities (specific organizations, the donor lottery, the Long-Term Future Fund, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, the EAF Fund (which is focused on s-risks)). A low-effort way of implementing this at least partly would be that the donors can “label” their donation for a particular worldview, and the fund managers then try to take this into account informally with their grantmaking by talking to the experts holding that worldview at that point in time.
Relatedly, if we look at the current EA donor landscape, it seems that most expected funding for this fund will come from a single billionaire. It’s probably worth working with them directly and custom-tailoring the fund to them.
Open Phil’s committee mechanism might be helpful for the governance of your fund.
Some quick thoughts (most are probably obvious):
Some reasons to think we shouldn’t invest more than we currently are:
The highest-return investment opportunities may be non-financial, such as 80K, CEA, Founders Pledge, etc. Investments in the stability of the EA community can also be seen as a form of investment. This also means that we might naïvely underestimate the EA community’s current investment rate.
Most of the EA billionaires’ funding is currently being invested.
A lot of EAs are currently early in their careers and thus “investing” in their careers, with the largest payoffs to occur many years in the future.
It could be worth setting this up partly as “Open Phil insurance,” i.e., this fund could fund EA organizations and Open Phil’s most effective longtermist grants in the event that Open Phil funding dries up (e.g., Good Ventures stops collaborating with Open Phil for some reason).
To attract more funding, it could be worth setting this up in such a way that the donors have the option of retaining some amount of discretion. E.g., the donors may not fully agree with the worldview of the fund managers, and for this reason, there is currently a number of longtermist giving opportunities (specific organizations, the donor lottery, the Long-Term Future Fund, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, the EAF Fund (which is focused on s-risks)). A low-effort way of implementing this at least partly would be that the donors can “label” their donation for a particular worldview, and the fund managers then try to take this into account informally with their grantmaking by talking to the experts holding that worldview at that point in time.
Relatedly, if we look at the current EA donor landscape, it seems that most expected funding for this fund will come from a single billionaire. It’s probably worth working with them directly and custom-tailoring the fund to them.
Open Phil’s committee mechanism might be helpful for the governance of your fund.