Our History

We’ve evolved from a small collaboration between GiveWell and Good Ventures into a funder and advisor supporting multiple major donors. Through each stage, we’ve tried to refine our approach, learn from others, and improve our ability to maximize impact. 

GiveWell Labs (2011-2014)

Our story began in 2011 when Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz were launching their foundation, Good Ventures, and looking for guidance on how to be good stewards of their resources. They met with GiveWell, an organization dedicated to identifying the most effective charities through in-depth research.

That meeting led to the creation of GiveWell Labs, a collaboration to explore a big question: if someone has millions or even billions of dollars to give, what should they fund in order to have the greatest impact?  

While GiveWell continued to recommend proven, evidence-backed global health charities for individual donors, GiveWell Labs took a broader approach: investigating any cause, anywhere in the world, that seemed unusually promising. 

From the beginning, our goal wasn’t just to maximize the impact of Cari and Dustin’s giving, but to build a model that could eventually help others do the same. We’ve long thought that too little attention is given to the question of choosing which problems to work on, even though this is arguably the most important decision a philanthropist makes. This led us to develop criteria for cause selection, focusing on problems that were especially important, neglected by others, and tractable enough to allow for meaningful progress. 

In 2013, we began to move beyond GiveWell’s traditional focus on global health, exploring topics like global catastrophic risks and scientific research that would later become major focus areas for us. 

Open Philanthropy (2014-2025)

In 2014, GiveWell Labs became the Open Philanthropy Project, reflecting the growing scope of our work. The name signaled openness to many different causes and a commitment to sharing our reasoning publicly.

In 2017, we became fully independent from GiveWell, operating as Open Philanthropy Project LLC. This structure gave us flexibility to pursue giving opportunities beyond grants to 501(c)(3) organizations, including a wider range of international work. Over time, our work expanded to include areas such as farm animal welfare, scientific research, pandemic preparedness, and global aid policy. 

In late 2019, we simplified our name from “Open Philanthropy Project” to “Open Philanthropy.” By then, we had dozens of staff and a growing portfolio across multiple cause areas, and had directed nearly $1 billion in grants.

Over the next several years, our grantmaking increased dramatically. By mid-2025, we’d directed over $4 billion in total.

Coefficient Giving (2025-)

Over the past decade, we’ve grown from a funder primarily supporting one foundation to a philanthropic partner to multiple major donors. 

This shift accelerated in 2024–2025 with the launch of the Lead Exposure Action Fund and the Abundance & Growth Fund, which brought in significant support from donors beyond Good Ventures. We began a formal Partnerships function and started developing custom grant portfolios for other donors interested in some of the areas where we work.

In November 2025, we became Coefficient Giving, a name that reflects both our broader mission and our focus on amplifying impact through research and partnerships. Though our reach and our partnerships have grown, our mission, core values, and the principles that guide our day-to-day work remain unchanged. 

Today, Coefficient Giving has more than 150 staff around the world. While we continue to deepen our partnership with Good Ventures, we’re increasingly supporting a growing network of donors committed to high-impact giving.