The mission of Good Ventures is to help humanity thrive, and we want to take the fullest possible advantage of the opportunity we have to serve others. That’s why the goal of our giving is to do as much good as we can — in other words, to improve as many lives as possible as much as possible. We are committed to learning from our successes and shortcomings, to sharing what we’re learning with others, and to being an outstanding partner to the organizations we support.
Our Partners
Currently, Good Ventures does not employ full-time staff. Instead, we rely on the research and recommendations of two organizations with which we partner closely: Open Philanthropy and GiveWell.
Open Philanthropy advises major donors on how to maximize the impact of their giving. Its mission is to help others as much as possible with its available resources.
GiveWell finds outstanding giving opportunities and publishes the full details of its analysis to help donors decide where to give. It recommends a small number of “top charities” that deliver evidence-backed, cost-effective, and scalable programs.
Our Focus Areas
Our grantmaking in partnership with Open Philanthropy focuses on causes that stand out on three criteria: importance, neglectedness, and tractability. Current major focus areas include:
- Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness
- Farm animal welfare
- Forecasting
- Global aid policy
- Global public health policy
- Global health and development
- Global catastrophic risks capacity building
- Potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence
- Global public health policy
- Scientific research
In choosing focus areas, Open Philanthropy casts a wide net, considering a wide variety of causes and incorporating lessons from the history of philanthropy as well as the work of other major foundations today. Learn more about how Open Philanthropy chooses focus areas here.
Our grantmaking in partnership with GiveWell focuses on global health and development; we support both GiveWell’s top charities and some of the other work they fund.
Our Grantmaking
In 2023, Good Ventures funded $575 million in grants recommended by Open Philanthropy, including $155 million to GiveWell’s top charities, standout charities, and incubation grants.[1] (These grants generally appear in both the Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy grants databases.)
Good Ventures makes a small number of grants in additional areas of interest to the foundation. Such grants totaled around $4 million in 2023. Check out Our Portfolio and Grants Database to learn more about the grants we’ve made so far.
A Note to Grantseekers
Good Ventures does not accept unsolicited requests for funding. Read about the types of giving opportunities Open Philanthropy is seeking here and the types of giving opportunities GiveWell is seeking here.