OVERVIEW: Good Ventures is the charitable foundation of Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna. The foundation supports global health and development, global security related to pathogens and AI, U.S. economic development, disease research and farm animal welfare. Newer areas of interest include the philanthropic sector and “forecasting” related to the foundation’s issue areas.
IP TAKE: Good Ventures, the philanthropic vehicle of Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna, has ramped up its giving since 2024, as IP’s Michael Kavate details. Giving is heavily influenced by rigorous research and “forecasting,” which aims to catalyze funding toward issues and areas where it is most likely to have its strongest impact. While grantees tend to be top research institutes, NGOs and policy outfits, grants support both “proven programs” and “ambitious bets on potentially transformative innovations.” Tuna and Moskovitz are still at the beginning of a long journey though, so once they have identified problems they want to tackle more thoroughly, there may be more opportunity to approach them with new ideas and strategies.
Good Ventures is not your typical megadonor foundation; while Tuna is president, the foundation has no full-time staff and functions “more like a trust.” Grantmaking is largely facilitated by the affiliated nonprofits Coefficient Giving and Give Well. And while Good Ventures does not accept proposals for funding, Coefficient and Give Well sometimes post RFPs that relate to the foundation’s newer interests and timely opportunities. Coefficient has several open RFPs/open applications, especially in AI, global catastrophic risks, farm animal welfare, effective careers/giving, Abundance & Growth literature reviews, biosecurity, science/R&D and Strep A vaccine work.
Good Ventures is preselected-only on its 990-PF and works through Coefficient Giving and GiveWell. The best route is to engage through the relevant Coefficient fund/RFP, through GiveWell’s research and charity-evaluation process if the organization is a global health/development implementer, or through warm networks of existing grantees and field leaders in the fund’s niche. The best-fit organizations will usually have one or more of these traits: exceptionally strong evidence of cost-effectiveness; credible policy, research or technical expertise; work in neglected but high-burden problem areas; ability to absorb large or strategic grants; transparency about outcomes; and connection to fields Coefficient already studies deeply. This is a highly analytical, field-shaping, issue-specific funder.
Good Ventures’ giving is Global in scope. Since its founding, it has made over $5 billion in grants and, with its strong research component, has come to be seen as a bellwether of priority issues for the philanthropic sector.
PROFILE: Good Ventures was established in 2011 by Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, his wife. Moskovitz is a cofounder of both Facebook and Asana, while Tuna is a Yale graduate and former Wall St. Journal reporter. Tuna covered enterprise and technology in the Bay Area, where she met Moskovitz. She is considered one of the most powerful women in U.S. philanthropy. Even before they were engaged, the couple collaborated to establish Good Ventures as a vehicle for their philanthropy.
Based in Palo Alto, California, their foundation aims simply “to help humanity thrive.” The foundation does not maintain a full-time staff, partnering instead with Coefficient Giving and GiveWell to make grants. This funder’s approach involves rigorous research and forecasting to determine “where […] more funding will help others most.” As a result, its grants support a blend of “proven programs” and “ambitious bets on potentially transformative innovations.”
Good Ventures frames its work around Global Health & Development; Abundance & Growth; Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness; Scientific Research & Global Health R&D; Navigating Transformative AI; Farm Animal Welfare; and Additional Areas.
Grants for Global Health and Development, Environment and Climate
The foundation’s Global Health and Development focus area provides support to both on-the-ground initiatives and policy reform to “save and improve lives in low- and middle-income countries.” This area invests in malaria control, clean water, vaccination programs, vitamin A and other evidence-backed global health interventions, plus exploratory global health/development opportunities.
- The Lead Exposure Action Fund is a collaborative effort to eliminate the risk of lead poisoning in children in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The fund’s grantees are typically organizations that aim to eliminate lead from environmental sources and commonly-used consumer products. Grants have supported Project Unleaded, UNICEF and the Pahle India Foundation.
- Air Quality is another concern, with grants supporting initiatives and policy to improve the air in the world’s most heavily-polluted areas, including many areas in South Asia. Grantees include the Air Pollution Action Group, the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative and the University of Chicago’s EPIC Air Quality Fund.
- Good Ventures funds a range of strategic initiatives related to Global Growth related to poverty alleviation. Recent areas of interest have included manufacturing, energy access, accountability related to extractive industries, “sovereign debt relief” and equitable trade and investment between poor and wealthy nations. This is a distinct Coefficient fund under the broader Good Ventures global health/development/economic-growth ecosystem, not merely a subpriority of Global Health & Development.
- The Global Health and Development giving area also earmarks funds support GiveWell-Recommended Charities that scale basic, evidence-based basic medical interventions that save lives, including vaccination programs, vitamin A supplementation and malaria prevention.
Coefficient’s current fund menu includes Global Aid Policy, and Good Ventures is listed as a partner.
- It funds efforts to increase and improve international aid from wealthy to developing countries, protect aid levels, steer aid toward cost-effective interventions, support funding for programs like the Global Fund, Gavi and CEPI, improve efficiency in aid programs, seed policy ideas, and provide technical resources to aid agencies.
- No open grantee intake is stated on the fund page; the contact shown is for donors interested in joining.
Grants for Science Research and Diseases
The foundation’s Scientific Research and Global Health R&D program overlaps with its global health focus to improve health by eliminating and preventing contagious and infectious diseases by developing new vaccines, medications and treatments. It also funds noninfectious diseases, maternal/newborn health, transformative science, implementation and market-shaping.
- Good Ventures has provided ongoing support to Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baker, a computational biochemist affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Good Ventures has supported his work to improve vaccines for influenza, malaria, hepatitis C and other diseases.
- Other major grantees of this program include the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination and Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children
- Coefficient has a Strep A Vaccine Fund, with Good Ventures listed as a partner.
Grants for Global Security and Human Rights
Security is a main priority for Good Ventures, which runs grantmaking initiatives for both Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness and issues related to Navigating Transformational Artificial Intelligence.
- Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness focuses on threats that stem from biological and engineered pathogens. Major grantees include SecureBio’s Nucleic Acid Observatory and Blueprint Biosecurity, which works in methods to prevent the spread of airborne diseases.
- Good Ventures also supports the Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund, which “works to facilitate conversations about risks from mirror bacteria.”
- This area accepts a Request for Proposals: Biosecurity for work aimed at preventing engineered biological threats and improving response if prevention fails.
- Navigating Transformative AI area is newer and of increasing importance at Good Ventures. The broad goal of this work is to help “humanity prepare for a safe transition to advanced AI.”
- Early grantees include the research and education nonprofit FAR.AI and BlueDot Impact, a nonprofit that provides “free AI safety courses to professionals across many fields.”
- The current AI RFPs accepts open applications.
Grants for Economic Development and Housing
The Abundance and Growth program focuses mainly on the U.S. and centers on economic growth with the simultaneous removal of traditional barriers to prosperity for historically marginalized people. This area also invests in innovation policy, energy abundance, clinical trials and state capacity.
- Affordable housing is an area of interest. Good Ventures has supported California YIMBY, a advocacy group that promoted the state’s SB 79, a landmark housing reform passed in 2025.
- Good Ventures has also supported the Institute for Progress, a policy group that works toward reforms to increase scientific, technological and industrial progress in the U.S., and the Institute for Replication, which works with scientific journals and publishers to increase transparency and “improve trust in social science research.”
Grants for Animal Welfare
Good Ventures supports Farm Animal Welfare movement as well as programs that aim to educate and develop awareness toward a large-scale reduction of animal consumption.
- Strategies for this grantmaking include corporate reform, the development and implementation of new farming technologies and “humane alternatives” to both factor farming and the consumption of animal products.
- Recent grantees include the Open Wing Alliance, which works to end the inhumane confinement of hens, and the Egg-Tech Prize, an initiative to “accelerate technology that determines chick gender before hatching” to end the practice of slaughtering male chicks.
Grants for Disaster and Humanitarian Relief
Coefficient has a current Global Catastrophic Risks Opportunities fund, with Good Ventures listed as a partner.
- It funds work on global catastrophic risks outside dedicated AI and biosecurity funds, including academic research, research fellowships, field-building, coordination/community support, and career development/transition support.
- It has public funding opportunities for Programs and Events, Career Development and Transition Funding, and a General Application for projects relevant to the team’s goals that do not fit the listed programs.
Important Grant Details:
In its most recent filings, Good Ventures gave 493 grants in 2024, a $115,000 median grant, and a range of $367 to $31 million.
- Grantees tend to be high-capacity NGOs, research institutions, universities, think tanks, policy/advocacy organizations, scientific consortia, incubators and field-building organizations
- This funder does not maintain a grants database, but it provides information about some of its main grantees under the focus area tabs on its Approach page.
- Good Ventures does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding. However, its grantmaking is largely facilitated by Coefficient Giving, which sometimes post RFPs in areas of emerging and timely interest.
- Contact Good Ventures via email at info@goodventures.org.
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