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We publish blog posts to explain our general philosophy on giving, reflect on our progress thus far, announce our plans for the future, and more.

Blogs

Key Questions about Philanthropy, Part 1: What is the Role of a Funder?

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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June 23, 2015

Editor’s note: Coefficient Giving was formerly a part of GiveWell under the name “GiveWell Labs,” and later operated as Open Philanthropy. This post originally appeared on the GiveWell Blog; uses of “we” and “our” in the below post may refer to GiveWell. Some content may be outdated; you can see...
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Funder-Initiated Startups

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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May 14, 2015

We’ve come across many cases where a funder took a leading role in creating a now-major nonprofit. This has been surprising to us: it intuitively seems that the people best suited to initiate new organizations are the people who can work full-time on conceiving an organization, fundraising for it, and doing the legwork to create it.
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Breakthrough Fundamental Science

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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April 14, 2015

Many of the conversations we’ve had, as I’ve interpreted them, have stressed the difficulty of securing support for attempts at breakthrough fundamental science in the current system.
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The Path to Biomedical Progress

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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February 27, 2015

Most useful new technologies are the product of many different lines of research, which progress in different ways and on different time frames. I think that when most people think about scientific research, they tend to instinctively picture only a subset of it.
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Expert Philanthropy vs. Broad Philanthropy

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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October 16, 2014

Editor’s note: Coefficient Giving was formerly a part of GiveWell under the name “GiveWell Labs,” and later operated as Open Philanthropy. This post originally appeared on the GiveWell Blog; uses of “we” and “our” in the below post may refer to GiveWell. Some content may be outdated; you can see...
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Challenges of Transparency

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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September 11, 2014

Editor’s note: Coefficient Giving was formerly a part of GiveWell under the name “GiveWell Labs,” and later operated as Open Philanthropy. This post originally appeared on the GiveWell Blog; uses of “we” and “our” in the below post may refer to GiveWell. Some content may be outdated; you can see...
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The Importance of Committing to Causes

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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May 14, 2014

Note: Before the launch of the Open Philanthropy Project Blog, this post appeared on the GiveWell Blog. Uses of “we” and “our” in the below post may refer to the Open Philanthropy Project or to GiveWell as an organization. Additional comments may be available at the original post. In our...
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The Track Record of Policy-Oriented Philanthropy

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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November 6, 2013

Note: Before the launch of the Open Philanthropy Project Blog, this post appeared on the GiveWell Blog. Uses of “we” and “our” in the below post may refer to the Open Philanthropy Project or to GiveWell as an organization. Additional comments may be available at the original post. As noted...
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Challenges of Passive Funding

By

Holden Karnofsky

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Reflections

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April 18, 2013

Editor’s note: Coefficient Giving was formerly a part of GiveWell under the name “GiveWell Labs,” and later operated as Open Philanthropy. This post originally appeared on the GiveWell Blog; uses of “we” and “our” in the below post may refer to GiveWell. Some content may be outdated; you can see...
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