Open Philanthropy Project
/OVERVIEW: Open Philanthropy is an umbrella LLC comprised of several affiliated philanthropic organizations funded primarily by Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz. Open Philanthropy pursues two broad giving areas: Global Health & Wellbeing and Global Catastrophic Risks. Within these programs, sub-topics include global aid policy, farm animal welfare, land use reform, biosecurity & pandemic preparedness, and risks from advanced AI.
IP TAKE: Open Philanthropy (OP) is a major global funder known for a unique funding approach that prioritizes evidence-based solutions and the tenets of effective altruism. OP seeks to maximize impact by narrowing its issue areas based on “importance, neglectedness, and tractability.” This signature formula led OP to be an early supporter of issues that later became hugely important, including pandemic preparedness and global land use strategies. As Inside Philanthropy reporter Liz Longley noted, “by catching what others are missing and basing decisions on research and reason, OP has identified [funding] areas that now seem prescient.” Open Philanthropy tends to prioritize collaborative projects and organizations that are willing to share data and results broadly via publications and reports. Its grantees include leading research universities and institutes and well-established nonprofits that use evidenced-based interventions to effect broad change.
OP is a transparent funder that publishes a grants database, although it notes that some grants are not included due to safety, impact, or privacy concerns. This funder selects the vast majority of its grantees through “proactive searching and networking,” though it does invite interested grantseekers to reach out with questions—with the notable caveat that OP “may not respond to inquiries.” Within OP’s labyrinthine global programming, there are occasional open calls for grant and scholarship opportunities, with detailed information regularly updated on OP’s “How to Apply for Funding” landing page. All told, this isn’t a particularly accessible funder, but organizations working within OP’s stated focus areas should keep astride of its evolving funding opportunities.
PROFILE: Open Philanthropy was established in 2014 as an outgrowth of a partnership between Good Ventures and the charity evaluator GiveWell, and officially became an independent limited liability corporation (LLC) in 2017. OP’s programs and grants are mainly funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his spouse, former Wall Street Journal reporter Cari Tuna. As per Open Philanthropy’s website, OP’s grantmaking is conducted via several affiliated entities, including a donor-advised fund (DAF) housed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Open Philanthropy 501(c)(3), the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, and Good Ventures.
Open Philanthropy’s mission is “to give as effectively as we can and share our findings openly so that anyone can build on our work.” It names two broad areas of grantmaking: Global Health and Development and Global Catastrophic Risks, with the former focused on practical and immediate results and the latter addressing potential threats and dangers.
These two focus areas are further subdivided into support for Effective Altruism (Global Health and Wellbeing), Farm Animal Welfare, Global Aid Policy, Global Health and Development, Global Health R&D, Innovation Policy, Land Use Reform, Scientific Research, and South Asian Air Quality—all housed under Global Health and Wellbeing, and Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness, Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building, and Potential Risks from Advanced Artificial Intelligence—nested under Global Catastrophic Risks.
Grants for Global Development
Open Philanthropy conducts global development grantmaking through its Global Health and Development, Global Aid Policy, and Macroeconomic Stabilization Policy focus areas. The health and development initiative has recently funded several large organizations that aim to eliminate hunger and poverty, improve safety and develop just economic policy around the world. Grantmaking in these areas relies heavily on quantitative data and evidence-based interventions that have the potential to effect large-scale change.
The project has supported hunger initiatives including Food Fortification and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, as well as Living Goods, an organization that works with governments to distribute health supplies and safety equipment to underserved populations in Kenya, Uganda and Myanmar.
Other grantees include Developmental Media International, an LLC that produces media campaigns and communication systems that aim to “change behaviors and improve lives,” and the Center for Global Development, a U.S.-based think tank that conducts research and develops policy “to make the world a more prosperous, just and safe place for us all.”
Global development funding also stems from Open Philanthropy’s Global Aid Policy focus area, which was created in April 2022 and supports establishing new global health programs, aid policy and advocacy development strategies, increasing the effectiveness of existing aid programs, and working to reduce debt burdens.
The project has funded Malaria No More, giving $3.4 million to their "malaria diplomacy" efforts, Center for Global Development (CGD), which received $100,000 for an internal effectiveness review, and International Rescue Committee (IRC), which was given $1.2 million to place a senior staffer at USAID.
Open Philanthropy’s Macroeconomic Stabilization Policy program seeks to promote good policy that can alleviate the humanitarian costs of economic recession and lead to better outcomes. It alternates between US and European macroeconomic policy, and currently it is focused on European macroeconomic policy. Previous grantees include Dezernat Zukunft, which received $4 million for “general support and re-granting to budding and established organizations working on monetary and fiscal policy throughout Europe” and Positive Money Europe, which was given $136,000 over two years to support its “research and advocacy on macroeconomic and monetary policy in Europe.”
Grants for Global Health
Open Philanthropy’s Global Health and Development funding area has focused on programs that improve the awareness, prevention and treatment of preventable diseases and conditions in developing nations around the world. A significant number of grants support initiatives for children’s health. Other areas of interest include malaria, schistosomiasis and the prevention of iodine deficiency.
Recent grantees include the Malaria Consortium, Sightsavers’ Deworming Programs, Helen Keller International, the Iodine Global Network, Project Healthy Children and the END Fund. In 2020, Open Philanthropy responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a $400,000 grant to the Center for Global Development for research on the effect that COVID-19 has had on mortality and health “due to suspended health services, malnutrition, and reduced economic activity.”
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
Open Philanthropy’s U.S. Policy initiative names immigration policy as a main area of interest. Grants support the development of U.S. policy to “allow more people to be able to move internationally, particularly from lower-income to higher-income countries.”
One grantee, Protect the People, helps seasonal workers from Haiti attain H-2A work visas for the U.S. Open Philanthropy has also supported research on immigration policy at the Niskanen Center and the Center for Global Development and provided operation support to the New York City-based International Refugee Assistance Project.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
Open Philanthropy’s criminal justice reform program became an independent organization under the name Just Impact in November 2021. Previously, it supported initiatives that aim to reduce the rate of incarceration in the U.S., as well as restorative justice and community safety programs. In Los Angeles, the project supported the Re-Imagine L.A. County’s campaign to support Measure J, a charter that would increase public funding for community, mental health, restorative justice and anti-recidivism programs. Another grantee, the national organization We Got Us, supports the children of incarcerated parents. Other criminal justice grantees include New Jersey’s Newark Community Street Team, the BlackRoots Alliance Prosecutor Accountability Program, the Black Strategy Fund and the restorative justice program In My Words.
Grants for Science Research
Open Philanthropy’s Scientific Research program seeks to “identify scientific research that has the potential for high impact and is under supported by other funders.” While a significant portion of the program’s funding goes to biomedical research, other areas of interest include scientific innovation, transformative basic science and scientific policy and infrastructure. The innovation sub-initiative focuses on the development of new tools and techniques used in research, including the development of microscopy, imaging and protein reading methods and devices. Transformative basic science funding focuses on underfunded research that has the potential for high impact and policy and infrastructure funding aims to improve the ways in which governments and other relevant organizations fund, regulate and share research and data. Recent grantees include Charles Gersbach, who develops epigenome editing tools at Duke University, and Ed Boyden, who received funding for his work in expansion microscopy at MIT. Other institutions and organizations that have received recent grants include Sherlock Biosciences, the University of Michigan, Kyoto University, protocols.io and Rockefeller University.
Grants for Disease Research
Open Philanthropy’s disease research funding stems mainly from its Human Health and Wellbeing and Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness sub-programs. Grantmaking sourced from the human health program supports “tractable and cost-effective research on the world’s most burdensome diseases” and has prioritized heart disease, cancers and malaria in recent years. Grants have gone to researchers at the University of California at Davis, Stanford University, Yale University and the CDC Foundation.
The biosecurity sub-program focuses on prevention and preparedness for natural and manmade pandemics. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the project had supported research, conferences and symposia at the University of Sydney, Oxford University, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security. Since the 2019 crisis, the program’s focus has shifted to COVID-19 research and response. The University of Colorado received a grant to conduct experiments on the effectiveness of personal protective equipment and the Center for Global Development received support for the development of local response guidelines. Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation also received funding to develop public information systems to limit further spread of the disease. Grant recipients that have conducted research on COVID-19 treatments and vaccinations include Stanford University, Duke University, the Soroka Medical Center in Israel, the University of Michigan, the University of California at Davis and the drug company Riboscience.
Grants for Animals and Wildlife
Through its U.S. Policy funding initiative, Open Philanthropy supports organizations involved in developing awareness and changing policy surrounding issues of farm animal welfare. Although funding stems from the U.S. Policy program, organizations in other countries have received support, including the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Eurogroup for Animals and the Brazil-based Sinergia Animal, which “works to end the worst practices of industrial animal agriculture.” In the U.S., Open Philanthropy has supported a fish welfare program at New York University and We Animals Media, which aims to document the widespread unethical treatment of farm animals and raise awareness of their plight. Other recent grantees of this sub-program include World Animal Net, VegeProject, Dharma Voices for Animals, Animal Advocacy Careers and CAF America.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
Open Philanthropy’s U.S. Policy program names land use reform as an area of interest and has supported policy development for affordable housing in and near large metropolitan areas, where limits on housing density often work to maintain high housing prices. The initiative has so far focused on areas near New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. Recent grantees include California YIMBY, Smart Growth America, the Sightline Institute and Harborlight Community Partners.
Important Grant Details:
Open Philanthropy makes hundreds of millions in grants annually. Grants generally range from $50,000 to $2 million, but have exceeded $10 million in some instances. OP’s average grant size is about $300,000.
· Grantees include leading research universities and institutes in the U.S. and abroad and large, well-established nonprofits in Open Philanthropy’s areas of interest.
· Open Philanthropy prefers to support organizations and projects that are willing to share their findings and results broadly through publications and reports.
· This funder maintains a searchable database of past grantees.
This funder does not run an open application process in most instances, but invites prospective grantees to share information about their organizations and projects with Open Philanthropy staff via email or social media.
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