Good question, and I haven’t been very clear on this partially because I don’t know much about it.
That said, I do think it’s common for nonprofits to have lots of money invested in the stock market. This is what philanthropic foundations do. Examples include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($38B in assets) or the Ford Foundation ($16B). Universities are other examples of nonprofits with huge investments in the stock market (the Harvard Endowment is $53.2B).
Within EA, I think the two major foundations are Good Ventures (which funds Open Philanthropy’s recommendations) and FTX Foundation. It looks like Good Ventures had $3.4B in assets in 2020, and it was growing at around $1B a year before then, so it may be significantly higher now (I haven’t been able to find more current data). I also haven’t been able to find data on FTX since it’s so new.
Based on the information provided in the post, I would guess that Good Ventures’ existing investments are enough to engage in impactful shareholder activism.
Maybe another commenter with more knowledge about this stuff could chime in and correct any mistakes I’m making.
That’s really surprising and definitely makes me update in favor of shareholder activism as a strategy. It’s really clever to think about existing investments as a lever to have an effect.
Good question, and I haven’t been very clear on this partially because I don’t know much about it.
That said, I do think it’s common for nonprofits to have lots of money invested in the stock market. This is what philanthropic foundations do. Examples include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($38B in assets) or the Ford Foundation ($16B). Universities are other examples of nonprofits with huge investments in the stock market (the Harvard Endowment is $53.2B).
Within EA, I think the two major foundations are Good Ventures (which funds Open Philanthropy’s recommendations) and FTX Foundation. It looks like Good Ventures had $3.4B in assets in 2020, and it was growing at around $1B a year before then, so it may be significantly higher now (I haven’t been able to find more current data). I also haven’t been able to find data on FTX since it’s so new.
Based on the information provided in the post, I would guess that Good Ventures’ existing investments are enough to engage in impactful shareholder activism.
Maybe another commenter with more knowledge about this stuff could chime in and correct any mistakes I’m making.
That’s really surprising and definitely makes me update in favor of shareholder activism as a strategy. It’s really clever to think about existing investments as a lever to have an effect.