I think the grants just announced confirm your view that Nick Beckstead can typically convince Open Phil to fund the grantees that he thinks are good (though I also agree with Jeff Kaufman that this may not be true for other Open Phil program officers). To the extent that EA Funds are premised on deferring to the judgment of someone who works full time on identifying giving opportunities, the best alternative to an Open Phil employee may be someone who works on EA Grants.
Here’s one way EA Funds could be used to support EA Grants. CEA could choose multiple grant evaluators for each cause area (AI safety, biosecurity, community building, cause prioritization) and give each evaluator for a cause area the same amount of money. The evaluators could then choose which applicants to support; applicants supported by multiple evaluators would receive money from each of them (perhaps equally or perhaps weighted by the amount each one recommended). Donors would be able to see who evaluators had funded in the past and donate directly to the fund of a specific evaluator. If CEA commits to giving each evaluator for a cause area the same amount of money, then donors can be confident that their donations cause evaluators they trust more to have more money (although it’d be harder for them to be confident that they are increasing the overall amount of money spent on a cause area).
I think the grants just announced confirm your view that Nick Beckstead can typically convince Open Phil to fund the grantees that he thinks are good (though I also agree with Jeff Kaufman that this may not be true for other Open Phil program officers). To the extent that EA Funds are premised on deferring to the judgment of someone who works full time on identifying giving opportunities, the best alternative to an Open Phil employee may be someone who works on EA Grants.
Here’s one way EA Funds could be used to support EA Grants. CEA could choose multiple grant evaluators for each cause area (AI safety, biosecurity, community building, cause prioritization) and give each evaluator for a cause area the same amount of money. The evaluators could then choose which applicants to support; applicants supported by multiple evaluators would receive money from each of them (perhaps equally or perhaps weighted by the amount each one recommended). Donors would be able to see who evaluators had funded in the past and donate directly to the fund of a specific evaluator. If CEA commits to giving each evaluator for a cause area the same amount of money, then donors can be confident that their donations cause evaluators they trust more to have more money (although it’d be harder for them to be confident that they are increasing the overall amount of money spent on a cause area).