Fiscal sponsorships for AI safety research

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Convergence Analysis is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing AI safety and governance research. In addition to our own programs, we act as a fiscal host for a handful of external teams. We are providing support to people doing serious work on AI safety, AI governance, and the reduction of AI x-risk.

What is a fiscal sponsorship?

Briefly, a fiscal sponsorship enables you to run a research project or program without needing to set up your own nonprofit. You, as a sponsee, make an agreement with an established nonprofit — the fiscal sponsor — to act as the receiving charity for you. The fiscal sponsor receives and holds the funds, provides contracts and enables you to pay your salaries and expenses, files returns, and oversees that the money is used for a charitable purpose.

Seeking aligned programs

Convergence offers fiscal sponsorships for charitable work that advances AI safety, AI governance, or the reduction of x-risk.

Past and present sponsees include Modeling Cooperation (Jonas Müller), Technologies for Pandemic Defense (Aman Patel), and a research partnership with a team in Oxford.

How it works

What we handle:

  • Receive and hold grants for you

  • Pay your team, and onboard and offboard contractors and employees

  • Handle the tax and regulatory filings

  • Run bookkeeping and provide regular cash balance and expenditure reports

What you handle:

  • The research

  • Procuring funding

  • Recruit and manage your team

What we’re looking for:

  • Minimum annual expenditure: $100,000

  • Programs starting within 6 months

  • Strong funding prospects

  • Research that advances AI safety, AI governance, or x-risk reduction

Our fee:

  • ~7% of program spend

Fiscal sponsee application process

  1. Introductory call: Tell us about the work, who is funding it, and when you need to start. One call is usually enough for us both to see whether it is worth going further.

  2. Assessment: We look at the charitable purpose and fit with our mission, the source and structure of the funding, and whether we have the capacity to host you well.

  3. Answer within two weeks: You get a clear yes or no within two weeks of the call, and the terms if it is a yes. We take on a limited number of programs, so a no is often about capacity.

Next steps

Send a short description of your program, who is funding it, and your timeline. We will contact you to set up an introductory call.

operations@convergenceanalysis.org

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