Working at Coefficient Giving: How We Do Remote and In-Person Work

Coefficient Giving has two main offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., coworking spaces in New York and London, and staff who work remotely from around a dozen countries. Some of us are in an office most days; others come in mainly for team weeks and retreats.

We don’t think there’s one right answer on in-person vs. remote — we’ve tried to set up our policies so that both can work well, while being clear that we lean toward in-person where feasible. This post explains how we landed there, and then hands it over to a few colleagues to describe what their working lives actually look like.

In-person work

We think there are real benefits to working in person: Sitting near colleagues who work across different teams broadens and deepens context, and being in the same city as many of our grantees makes it easier to build relationships. Productive conversations often happen informally — over lunch, between meetings, or in passing — in ways that are difficult to recreate remotely. Our policies reflect this: We maintain permanent offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and support co-working offices in New York and London, cities where our collaborators tend to be based.

To encourage in-person collaboration, we offer co-location bonuses: a 10% increase to base compensation for staff who regularly work from our San Francisco or D.C. offices, and 5% for our New York office. “Regularly” means roughly twice a week for SF and D.C., and at least once a week for New York.

We also invest in making it easy to relocate. New employees moving to San Francisco or D.C. receive relocation assistance that covers relevant costs for themselves and their families, up to two months of temporary housing, and logistical support from our operations team to navigate the move.

Remote work

We also see clear advantages to supporting remote work: We can recruit from a much broader talent pool, and staff have flexibility to structure their lives in ways that work for them. We employ people across the world — including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Kenya — and we’ve invested in infrastructure to ensure a smooth and productive remote work experience. We maintain relationships with multiple employers of record to hire internationally, offer a dedicated business immigration team that supports visa and green card sponsorship for eligible roles, and work to provide equivalent benefits across jurisdictions when a particular benefit isn’t available in a given locale.

All employees receive a home office stipend for equipment like ergonomic furniture, monitors, keyboards, upgraded internet, air purifiers, and other items that makes their workspace productive and comfortable.

We’re also intentional about creating opportunities for staff to come together. We host quarterly Co-Division Weeks and organization-wide annual retreats, and many teams also host annual team-specific retreats. Coefficient covers all travel costs for these events, including flights, lodging, and meals. In between, our internal newsletter and lively Slack help fill in the gaps.

Our offices

All three of our offices provide daily lunch, a fully stocked kitchen and snack selection, ergonomic workstations, and the basics for getting work done: external monitors, docking stations, chargers, and a mix of conference rooms, phone booths, and quiet spaces for calls. Each has its own culture and character, shaped by the people who frequent it. Below, we ask a few of them to share what a typical week looks like for them.

Quincy Ponvert, Chief of Staff, Operations — D.C.

I just moved to D.C. a few months ago, and while I was a die-hard work-from-homer before that, our lovely office in Downtown D.C. has fully converted me. Now I’m there almost every weekday!

When I get into the office in the morning, my first stop is a coffee from the kitchen, then I drop my stuff at my desk. As the office fills up, I say hi to teammates across funds and focus areas, including people working on energy and housing policy, AI safety, biosecurity, global economic growth, and — the jokesters of the office — a few of our lawyers. Fun fact: Before he joined CG, Dylan Matthews was a favorite blogger of mine and the person who inspired me to donate my kidney. Now he sits at the desk right next to mine!

At lunchtime, many of us tend to congregate around the kitchen island. Conversation bounces from work talk to weekend plans to recent viral tweets (or recent viral posts in the CG Slack, my own favorite social media). We often land in some way or another on childcare anecdotes and tips, since we have so many young parents in the office. When I have kids, I’ll have at least five of my coworkers on speed-dial, since they tend to be both immensely well-informed and unusually willing to lend a hand.

One thing I really appreciate about the office is the ability to focus wholly on my work (noise-canceling earbuds blasting BRAT go a long way) while still feeling connected to the really inspiring people who work at Coefficient. A few of my favorite office rituals are going for strolls with Kate, complaining about the weather with Sam, and sharing fries with Abie. Leaving the office at the end of the day feels a bit like leaving my favorite library or cafe from back in college: saying goodbye to friends and the space itself, and looking forward to seeing them all the next day.

Rebca van de Ven, Chief of Staff, Global Health and Wellbeing — San Francisco

I moved to San Francisco about four months ago from Boston. I’d been working fully remote before, so having an office to come into has been a welcome change. I have less team time in my new role, which has made in-person touchpoints feel even more meaningful — being able to see the same friendly faces each week has helped me settle into a new city and a new routine.

I typically go in two to three days a week, depending on my meeting schedule. My routine is pretty shaped by time zones — I mostly work with people in the UK or across Central and Eastern time, so early meetings are common for me. On those days, I’ll stack calls in the morning and head in for the afternoon; on days without an 8:00 a.m. start, I’ll go in for the full day. Either way, the office feels less like a requirement and more like a reset: a place different enough from my home office that it actually changes how I work.

I typically work from the bullpen, our open floor section, where desks are arranged in pods of four. We’ll sometimes do group pomodoros in the afternoons: 25 minutes of focused work, five-minute break, repeat. I love these because I tend to hit a dip around 2:00–3:00 p.m., and they’re a helpful way to push through while adding a bit of fun to the afternoon.

When I need a change of scenery, I’ll work from rooms called Giggle or Marriage Equality. (Our offices are named after emojis on one side of the office, and philanthropic wins on the other.)  One side overlooks Salesforce Park, the other faces the water, so you’re never far from a good view. On nice days, I’ll take “walking meetings” strolling through the park or along the bay by the Ferry Building. It’s one of the perks of working in downtown San Francisco that I don’t think I’ll ever take for granted.

Margaret Andersen, Senior Program Associate, Global Aid Policy — New York

I joined Coefficient Giving in January 2026 and quickly became an avid member of the NYC coworking crew. We have a private office in a coworking building in the Financial District. About eight of us are there most days, with another five or so joining regularly.

As a recent transplant to NYC, the neighborhood alone is a perk. The Charging Bull sits directly outside our building with its rotating cast of creative tourists, One World Trade Center is a short walk away, and there’s a buzzy sense that important things are happening all around us.

Inside, the space itself is great — our office is situated within a coworking hub for mission-driven professionals, which means regular exposure to people tackling big problems via lunch-and-learns, trivia nights, and spontaneous hallway conversations. There are also plentiful snacks, ergonomic equipment, and comfortable phone booths, but it’s the people who really make it. We eat lunch together most days, discussing everything from AI timelines to the latest Broadway play. We’re never short of laughs, or creative troubleshooting.

CG pairs new team members with a more tenured colleague who serves as an informal thought partner and onboarding guide. My buddy Kirsten lives in NYC, and having her nearby has been a gift. Over coffee or walks every couple of weeks, we’ve covered everything from decoding CG’s Slack emoji meanings to what it actually means to write with calibration. As someone who works in a different city from my manager and closest teammates, the NYC crew has been instrumental to my onboarding and feeling connected to CG as a whole.

Ali Blajda, Interim Salesforce Team Lead — Remote, based in Brazil

I’m incredibly thankful for CG’s flexible location policies. I currently live in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, but next year I’ll be off to somewhere else in the world. My partner is a diplomat, so having a remote-friendly role is a necessity for me. Over the last several years, I’ve lived and worked in São Paulo, Brazil; Kampala, Uganda; and my hometown of Hadley, MA. One of the reasons I originally applied to CG was the organization’s global work policy. From the recruitment process, to my international moves, to my beautiful (and ergonomic!) home office setup, I’ve always felt fully supported by CG in my unique work situation.

While navigating time differences with colleagues around the world can be tricky, I like to think I work in the best time zone in the whole company: one to two hours ahead of the East Coast and right between Europe and the West Coast. I get a few quiet hours each morning before my U.S.-based teammates come online, and I sign off each evening in time for dinner with my family. Most of my heads-down work happens from my home office, but every Friday I spend the morning working from one of Brasilia’s lovely outdoor cafés. Occasionally I’ll meet up with other remote workers, but no matter the company, these mornings always include a cup of local coffee, toast, and fresh tropical fruit.

Remote work can be isolating, but CG builds in many thoughtful ways to stay connected. I have daily standups with the Salesforce team, get randomly paired with colleagues for social video calls, and join biweekly meetings with the whole Ops team. By far, the thing I appreciate most as a remote worker is CG’s Co-Division Weeks. A few times each year, most of the org flies in to spend a week working together out of the San Francisco office. These weeks include a low-key mix of programming, coworking, and socializing. The Salesforce team has developed our own set of traditions for these get-togethers, including grabbing morning coffee at the Ferry Building, dinner out at our favorite vegan sushi restaurant, and an ever-growing list of tiki bars we’ve worked our way through across the city. When I return to Brasilia after these in-person weeks, the remote stretch ahead feels a little easier.

Come work with us

We’re growing significantly in 2026, across grantmaking, research, operations, partnerships, and more. If you’re interested in doing work that matters and want the flexibility to do it well, we encourage you to apply.
See open roles →