The Nonlinear Library EA - Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Staff - 2023 by Alexander Berger
Dec 20, 2023
14:46
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Staff - 2023, published by Alexander Berger on December 20, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
In past years, we sometimes published
suggestions for individual donors looking for organizations to support. This post shares new suggestions from Open Philanthropy program staff who chose to provide them.
Similar caveats to previous years apply:
These are reasonably strong options in the relevant focus area, and shouldn't be taken as outright recommendations (i.e., it isn't necessarily the case that the person making a suggestion thinks that their suggestion is the best option available across all causes).
The recommendations below fall within the cause areas Open Philanthropy has chosen to focus on. While this list does not expressly include
GiveWell's top charities, we believe those organizations to be among the most cost-effective, evidence-backed giving opportunities available to donors today, and expect that some readers of this post might want to give to them.
Many of these recommendations appear here because they are particularly good fits for individual donors. This shouldn't be seen as a list of our strongest grantees overall (although of course there may be overlap).
Our explanations for why these are strong giving opportunities are very brief and informal, and we don't expect individuals to be persuaded by them unless they put a lot of weight on the judgment of the person making the suggestion.
In addition, these recommendations are made by the individual program officers or teams cited, and do not necessarily represent my (Alexander's) personal or Open Philanthropy's institutional "all things considered" view.
Global Health and Development
1Day Sooner
Recommended by
Chris Smith
What is it?
1Day Sooner was originally created during 2020 to advocate for increased use of human challenge trials in Covid vaccines, and named on the basis that making vaccines available even one day sooner would be hugely beneficial.
1DS is now expanding its work to look at other diseases where challenge trials could be safe, such as hepatitis C, where Open Philanthropy separately
has
grants developing new vaccine candidates. Open Philanthropy has supported 1DS from both our GHW and GCR portfolios.
Why I suggest it: Recently, 1DS have been working on accelerating the global rollout of vaccines beyond the increased use of challenge trials, such as their current campaign on R21. R21 is an effective malaria vaccine (developed in part by Open Philanthropy Program Officer
Katharine Collins while she was at the Jenner Institute) recommended for use by WHO in October 2023 but with plans only to distribute fewer than 20 million doses in 2024, despite the manufacturer claiming the ability to make 100 million doses available. You can read
an op-ed on this from Zacharia Kafuko, Africa Director of 1DS, in Foreign Policy.
If 1DS can diversify its funding base and find more donors, they'd have the capacity to take on other projects that could accelerate vaccine development and distribution. I've been impressed with their work on both policy and advocacy, and I plan to support them myself this year. (Also, personally, I really enjoy supporting smaller organizations as a donor; I find that this helps me "feel" the difference more than if I'd donated to a large organization.)
How to donate: You can donate
here.
Center for Global Development
Recommended by
Lauren Gilbert
What is it? The
Center for Global Development (CGD) is a Washington D.C.-based think tank. They conduct research on and promote evidence-based improvements to policies that affect the global poor.
Why I suggest it: We've supported CGD for many years and have
recommended it for individual donors in previous years. CGD has an
impressive track record, and it continues to do impac...
In past years, we sometimes published
suggestions for individual donors looking for organizations to support. This post shares new suggestions from Open Philanthropy program staff who chose to provide them.
Similar caveats to previous years apply:
These are reasonably strong options in the relevant focus area, and shouldn't be taken as outright recommendations (i.e., it isn't necessarily the case that the person making a suggestion thinks that their suggestion is the best option available across all causes).
The recommendations below fall within the cause areas Open Philanthropy has chosen to focus on. While this list does not expressly include
GiveWell's top charities, we believe those organizations to be among the most cost-effective, evidence-backed giving opportunities available to donors today, and expect that some readers of this post might want to give to them.
Many of these recommendations appear here because they are particularly good fits for individual donors. This shouldn't be seen as a list of our strongest grantees overall (although of course there may be overlap).
Our explanations for why these are strong giving opportunities are very brief and informal, and we don't expect individuals to be persuaded by them unless they put a lot of weight on the judgment of the person making the suggestion.
In addition, these recommendations are made by the individual program officers or teams cited, and do not necessarily represent my (Alexander's) personal or Open Philanthropy's institutional "all things considered" view.
Global Health and Development
1Day Sooner
Recommended by
Chris Smith
What is it?
1Day Sooner was originally created during 2020 to advocate for increased use of human challenge trials in Covid vaccines, and named on the basis that making vaccines available even one day sooner would be hugely beneficial.
1DS is now expanding its work to look at other diseases where challenge trials could be safe, such as hepatitis C, where Open Philanthropy separately
has
grants developing new vaccine candidates. Open Philanthropy has supported 1DS from both our GHW and GCR portfolios.
Why I suggest it: Recently, 1DS have been working on accelerating the global rollout of vaccines beyond the increased use of challenge trials, such as their current campaign on R21. R21 is an effective malaria vaccine (developed in part by Open Philanthropy Program Officer
Katharine Collins while she was at the Jenner Institute) recommended for use by WHO in October 2023 but with plans only to distribute fewer than 20 million doses in 2024, despite the manufacturer claiming the ability to make 100 million doses available. You can read
an op-ed on this from Zacharia Kafuko, Africa Director of 1DS, in Foreign Policy.
If 1DS can diversify its funding base and find more donors, they'd have the capacity to take on other projects that could accelerate vaccine development and distribution. I've been impressed with their work on both policy and advocacy, and I plan to support them myself this year. (Also, personally, I really enjoy supporting smaller organizations as a donor; I find that this helps me "feel" the difference more than if I'd donated to a large organization.)
How to donate: You can donate
here.
Center for Global Development
Recommended by
Lauren Gilbert
What is it? The
Center for Global Development (CGD) is a Washington D.C.-based think tank. They conduct research on and promote evidence-based improvements to policies that affect the global poor.
Why I suggest it: We've supported CGD for many years and have
recommended it for individual donors in previous years. CGD has an
impressive track record, and it continues to do impac...