Why not document the relationships between people in EA orgs?
Itâs very common for organizations to have a conflict of interest policy where people within the org are required to disclose conflicts. For example, hereâs the top search result for âgivewell conflict of interest policyâ which includes disclosure, and I see it in the one ACE has on their site as well. [1]
Unless youâre 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 youâd lose out on most people who would do a good job at the org.
[1] I donât see public ones for the other EA orgs I tried, which isnât great. I do think they should be making their COI policies public.
[EDIT: wrote something longer about how Iâd like to see this.]
Iâm 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 wouldnât 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 doesnât 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) GiveWellâs Chief Executive Officer that pre-dated GiveWell-based relationships between same. (For example, people who were friends with GiveWellâs Chief Executive Officer prior to joining GiveWellâs Board.)
Other relationships we feel are worth disclosing.
As with most things around transparency, though, we should probably view GiveWellâs approach as being towards the upper end of where we could get the broader EA community to.
Itâs very common for organizations to have a conflict of interest policy where people within the org are required to disclose conflicts. For example, hereâs the top search result for âgivewell conflict of interest policyâ which includes disclosure, and I see it in the one ACE has on their site as well. [1]
Unless youâre 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 youâd lose out on most people who would do a good job at the org.
[1] I donât see public ones for the other EA orgs I tried, which isnât great. I do think they should be making their COI policies public.
[EDIT: wrote something longer about how Iâd like to see this.]
Iâm 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 wouldnât 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 doesnât need to explain the basic for a recusal, the answer still provides some information about Employee X.
I like GiveWellâs Relationship Disclosures page:
As with most things around transparency, though, we should probably view GiveWellâs approach as being towards the upper end of where we could get the broader EA community to.