We’re committed to sharing what we learn, with detail and honesty, as we give.

We envision a world in which philanthropists increasingly document and share their research, reasoning, results, and mistakes to help each other learn more quickly and serve others more effectively.

In this space, we often cross-post items from the blog of our partner, Open Philanthropy, to give readers a fuller picture of the reasoning behind our work.

  1. 11/23/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    Does putting kids in school now put money in their pockets later? Revisiting a natural experiment in Indonesia

    Open Philanthropy’s Global Health and Wellbeing team continues to investigate potential areas for grantmaking. One of those is education in poorer countries. These countries have massively expanded schooling in the last half century. but many of their students lack minimal numeracy and literacy. To support the team’s assessment of the… Read More

    Topics: Education, Global Health & Development
  2. 09/09/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    Cause Exploration Prizes: Announcing our prizes

    We were gratified to receive over 150 good-faith submissions to Open Philanthropy’s Cause Exploration Prizes, where we invited people to suggest a new area for us to support or respond to our suggested questions. We hoped that these submissions would help us find new ways to carry out our mission —… Read More

    Topics: Global Health & Development
  3. 07/15/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    Report on Social Returns to Productivity Growth

    Historically, economic growth has had huge social benefits, lifting billions out of poverty and improving health outcomes around the world. This leads some to argue that accelerating economic growth, or at least productivity growth,[1] should be a major philanthropic and social priority going forward. Read More

    Topics:
  4. 06/16/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    How accurate are our predictions?

      When investigating a grant, Open Philanthropy staff often make probabilistic predictions about grant-related outcomes they care about, e.g. “I’m 70% confident the grantee will achieve milestone #1 within 1 year.” This allows us to learn from the success and failure of our past predictions and get better… Read More

    Topics:
  5. 05/25/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    Open Philanthropy’s Cause Exploration Prizes

    Update: We’ve now announced the recipients of these prizes. At Open Philanthropy, we aim to give as effectively as we can. To find the best opportunities, we’ve looked at many different causes, some of which have become our current focus areas. Even after a decade of research, we think… Read More

    Topics:
  6. 05/12/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    Our Progress in 2021 and Plans for 2022

    This post compares our progress with the goals we set forth a year ago, and lays out our plans for the coming year. In brief: We recommended over $400 million worth of grants in 2021. The bulk of this came from recommendations to support GiveWell’s top charities and from our… Read More

    Topics:
  7. 02/22/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    New grantmaking program: supporting the effective altruism community around Global Health and Wellbeing

    We are searching for a program officer to help us launch a new grantmaking program. The program would support projects and organizations in the effective altruism community (EA) with a focus on improving global health and wellbeing (GHW). Background We have an existing program in effective altruism community growth. Like our new… Read More

    Topics: Effective Altruism, Global Health & Development
  8. 02/11/2022 Blog: Give & Learn

    Open Philanthropy’s Regranting Challenge

    In this post, “we” refers to Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy, who work as partners. Open Philanthropy is running a $150 million Regranting Challenge, aiming to add funding to the grantmaking budgets of one to five outstanding programs at other foundations. We believe there are some excellent individual programs and whole foundations out… Read More

    Topics: Economic Empowerment, Global Health & Development
  9. 04/11/2018 Blog: Give & Learn

    Dividing Our Money Between Causes

    Note: We're experimenting with writing shorter, more accessible versions of key Open Philanthropy blog posts for the Good Ventures blog. For a more detailed version of this essay, see the original. In this post, "we" refers to Good Ventures and the Open Philanthropy Project, who work as partners. Good… Read More

    Topics:
  10. 09/13/2017 Blog: Give & Learn

    Worldview Diversification

    The Open Philanthropy Project and Good Ventures support the most promising work according to different perspectives. Read More

    Topics:
  11. 08/01/2017 Blog: Give & Learn

    Swinging for the Fences

    Swinging for the Fences

    The Open Philanthropy Project and Good Ventures try to maximize our impact by taking risks and learning from failure. Read More

    Topics:
  12. 07/03/2017 Blog: Give & Learn

    Projects, People and Processes

    Holden Karnofsky discusses project-based, people-based, and process-based approaches to delegating the task of finding giving opportunities. Read More

    Topics:
  13. 02/17/2017 Blog: Give & Learn

    Radical Empathy

    Radical Empathy

    Holden Karnofsky discusses the Open Philanthropy Project's views on empathy and moral concern. Read More

    Topics:
  14. 04/08/2016 Blog: Give & Learn

    Hits-based Giving

    Holden Karnofsky outlines the Open Philanthropy Project's giving strategy: hits-based giving. Read More

    Topics:
  15. 05/21/2015 Blog: Give & Learn

    Funder-Initiated Startups

    Unlike for-profit companies, it seems that many major nonprofits are initiated by funders. We give some examples and possible explanations. Read More

    Topics:
  16. 03/02/2015 Blog: Give & Learn

    Thoughts on the Sandler Foundation

    Holden Karnofsky examines the track record of the Sandler Foundation and whether or not its success is a product of an atypical approach to philanthropy. Read More

    Topics:
  17. 12/03/2013 Blog: Give & Learn

    Our Giving Season Plans

    Our Giving Season Plans

    Good Ventures announces its plans for the 2013 giving season, including $5 million in matching funds for GiveDirectly. Read More

    Topics:
  18. 02/01/2013 Blog: Give & Learn

    Learning Grants in Policy Advocacy

    Learning Grants in Policy Advocacy

    A blog post by Cari Tuna about Good Ventures' learning grants in policy advocacy in support of drug policy reform and marriage equality. Read More

    Topics:
  19. 08/02/2012 Blog: Give & Learn

    Notes from Key Conversations

    Notes from Key Conversations

    A blog post by Cari Tuna about increasing transparency in philanthropy by publishing notes from Good Ventures’ key conversations. Read More

    Topics: