Why not document the relationships between people in EA orgs?
It’s very common for organizations to have a conflict of interest policy where people within the org are required to disclose conflicts. For example, here’s the top search result for “givewell conflict of interest policy” which includes disclosure, and I see it in the one ACE has on their site as well. [1]
Unless you’re proposing that these be disclosed publicly, instead of internally? I doubt most prospective employees of these orgs would be comfortable with that level of visibility into their private lives, so you’d lose out on most people who would do a good job at the org.
[1] I don’t see public ones for the other EA orgs I tried, which isn’t great. I do think they should be making their COI policies public.
I’m trying to decide if I think there is a class of COIs that can be waived only publicly, or if I think that any COI of that magnitude is just non-waivable.
While I wouldn’t suggest a general publication of relationships, questions from the public about whether e.g., Employee X recuses from grant decisions about Person Y would sometimes seem appropriate (although they should be generally asked in a private manner). Although the organization doesn’t need to explain the basic for a recusal, the answer still provides some information about Employee X.
On this page, we disclose the following sorts of relationships:
Social, romantic, family or financial relationships between (a) GiveWell staff and (b) people at our top charities, former top charities, former standout charities, or other grant recipients.
Romantic, family or financial relationships between (a) GiveWell Board members and (b) GiveWell staff.
Social relationships between (a) GiveWell Board members and (b) GiveWell’s Chief Executive Officer that pre-dated GiveWell-based relationships between same. (For example, people who were friends with GiveWell’s Chief Executive Officer prior to joining GiveWell’s Board.)
Other relationships we feel are worth disclosing.
As with most things around transparency, though, we should probably view GiveWell’s approach as being towards the upper end of where we could get the broader EA community to.
It’s very common for organizations to have a conflict of interest policy where people within the org are required to disclose conflicts. For example, here’s the top search result for “givewell conflict of interest policy” which includes disclosure, and I see it in the one ACE has on their site as well. [1]
Unless you’re proposing that these be disclosed publicly, instead of internally? I doubt most prospective employees of these orgs would be comfortable with that level of visibility into their private lives, so you’d lose out on most people who would do a good job at the org.
[1] I don’t see public ones for the other EA orgs I tried, which isn’t great. I do think they should be making their COI policies public.
[EDIT: wrote something longer about how I’d like to see this.]
I’m trying to decide if I think there is a class of COIs that can be waived only publicly, or if I think that any COI of that magnitude is just non-waivable.
While I wouldn’t suggest a general publication of relationships, questions from the public about whether e.g., Employee X recuses from grant decisions about Person Y would sometimes seem appropriate (although they should be generally asked in a private manner). Although the organization doesn’t need to explain the basic for a recusal, the answer still provides some information about Employee X.
I like GiveWell’s Relationship Disclosures page:
As with most things around transparency, though, we should probably view GiveWell’s approach as being towards the upper end of where we could get the broader EA community to.