Note: the Open Philanthropy Project was previously known as GiveWell Labs.
As part of our work on the Open Philanthropy Project, we are exploring a set of causes under the broad heading of "policy-oriented philanthropy": philanthropy that seeks to inform and influence public policy.
Individual cause investigations within this area are included in our page on cause investigations. General updates we've posted on our work in this area include:
- Narrowing down U.S. policy areas and Potential U.S. policy focus areas (May 2014). We lay out the policy areas we see as most promising at the moment, along with our reasoning.
- Exploring policy-oriented philanthropy (October 2013). An early post introducing our interest in this area and our early key questions and investigations.
- The role of philanthropic funding in politics (October 2013). The connection between money and policy change isn’t necessarily a matter of “quid pro quo” donations for actions. The connection can be very indirect, long-term, and complex – and is perhaps most powerful when it fits this description. This post lays out multiple ways in which funders might influence policy.
- The track record of policy-oriented philanthropy (November 2013). Addresses the questions: (a) "Are there compelling cases in which a major policy change can be partially or fully credited to philanthropic efforts?" (b) "How often have philanthropic efforts succeeded in bringing about change? Often enough to imply a good “return on investment?” Answering these questions reasonably well could require an enormous, long-term effort, and our History of Philanthropy project represents some early work toward this end. This post lays out some initial reasons to believe that policy-oriented philanthropy can be cost-effective.
- How to approach policy-oriented philanthropy (November 2013). Lays out different visions of policy-oriented philanthropy and what it does best.