Open Philanthropy Project

Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz are the sole funders and board members. Operational grantmaking decisions are delegated to co-CEOs Holden Karnofsky and Alexander Berger, who lead a team of program officers and cause-priority researchers.

The organization uses a systematic, research-driven approach called 'cause prioritization' — department heads evaluate potential focus areas based on scale, neglectedness, and tractability. This is distinct from most philanthropies and reflects the effective altruism framework inherited from GiveWell.

Open Philanthropy primarily makes grants, but it also has a Program-Related Investments (PRI) arm that can make below-market-rate loans or equity investments. As of 2023, PRI commitments were a small portion of its total deployment.

Open Philanthropy became an independent organization in June 2017, having operated as part of GiveWell since 2011. The two organizations share a common effective-altruism heritage and some research overlap, but are legally separate. Open Philanthropy funds GiveWell-recommended charities but is not a part of GiveWell.

It functions as a grantmaking foundation — not a family office. It does not manage wealth for others or generate returns. Its endowment is managed separately by the Moskovitz/Tuna family, but there is no public disclosure of that investment structure.

The organization explicitly avoids areas where it cannot measure impact or where other funders cover the space, such as US domestic arts or general humanitarian aid. It also does not fund political campaigns or for-profit ventures outside its PRI program.

Open Philanthropy sources grant applications through an open request-for-proposals process and direct outreach from researchers. Its PRI investments are sourced through existing networks and proactive scanning, not through a formal fund structure.