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Open Philanthropy: Our Progress in 2023 and Plans for 2024
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Alexander_Berger
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3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: EA Forum
This annual report from Open Philanthropy, one of the largest funders of AI safety research, provides insight into institutional priorities, funding strategy, and resource allocation across AI safety and other cause areas as of 2023-2024.
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eaforum
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Building effective altruismCoefficient GivingOrganization updatesGood things & impact storiesPostmortems & retrospectivesAnnouncements and updates
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Importance: 52/100organizational reportprimary source
Summary
Open Philanthropy's 2023 annual report details major organizational scaling—doubling staff to ~110 and giving over $750M—while describing impact across global health, AI safety, animal welfare, and policy domains. The report candidly addresses significant challenges including a 50% asset decline, FTX Future Fund collapse fallout, and leadership transition. It provides insight into how one of EA's largest funders is prioritizing and resourcing AI safety work relative to other cause areas.
Key Points
- •Open Philanthropy nearly doubled annual giving to over $750M in 2023, expanding to five new program areas while doubling staff to ~110.
- •AI safety contributions included funding the Center for AI Safety's extinction risk statement and supporting policy awareness efforts.
- •The organization navigated a 50% asset decline and recovery, plus funding gaps left by the FTX Future Fund collapse.
- •Co-founder Holden Karnofsky departed day-to-day operations to focus personally on AI safety, signaling the cause area's growing priority.
- •Report reflects Open Philanthropy's strategic balance between near-term causes (global health, animal welfare) and long-term risks (AI safety, biosecurity).
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| FTX Collapse: Lessons for EA Funding Resilience | Concept | 78.0 |
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# Open Philanthropy: Our Progress in 2023 and Plans for 2024
By Alexander_Berger
Published: 2024-03-27
Like many organizations, Open Philanthropy has had multiple founding moments. Depending on [how](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/the-open-philanthropy-project-is-now-an-independent-organization/) [you](https://blog.givewell.org/2014/08/20/open-philanthropy-project-formerly-givewell-labs/) [count](https://blog.givewell.org/2011/09/08/announcing-givewell-labs/), we will be either seven, ten, or thirteen years old this year. Regardless of when you start the clock, it’s possible that we’ve changed more in the last two years than over our full prior history. We’ve more than doubled the size of our team (to ~110), nearly doubled our annual giving (to >$750M), and [added](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-aid-policy/) [five](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-rd/) [new](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-public-health-policy/) [program](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/innovation-policy/) [areas](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/ea-global-health-and-wellbeing/).
As our track record and volume of giving have grown, we are seeing more of our impact in the world. Across our focus areas, our funding played a (sometimes modest) role in some of 2023’s most important developments:
* We were among the supporters of the [clinical trials](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/?q=malaria+vaccine+phase+III) that led to the World Health Organization (WHO) [officially recommending](https://www.who.int/news/item/02-10-2023-who-recommends-r21-matrix-m-vaccine-for-malaria-prevention-in-updated-advice-on-immunization) the R21 malaria vaccine. This is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, which expects it to enable “sufficient vaccine supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk.” Although the late-stage clinical trial funding was Open Philanthropy’s first involvement with R21 research, that isn’t the case for our new global health R&D program officer, [Katharine Collins](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/katharine-collins/), who invented R21 as a grad student.
* Our early commitment to AI safety has contributed to increased awareness of the associated risks and to early steps to reduce them. The Center for AI Safety, [one of our AI grantees](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support-2023/), made [headlines](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/technology/ai-threat-warning.html) [across](https://www.independent.co.uk/space/rishi-sunak-san-francisco-siri-government-prime-minister-b2348994.html) the [globe](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/ai-poses-risk-of-extinction-industry-leaders-warn/articleshow/100634466.cms) with its [statement](https://www.safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk) calling for AI extinction risk to be a “global priority alongside other societal-scale risks,” signed by many
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