The Open Philanthropy Action Fund (OPAF) is the political arm of the Open Philanthropy Project (OPP), a grantmaking foundation that gives to numerous left-of-center organizations concerned with criminal justice policy. The OPP began as a project of GiveWell, a group which seeks to improve philanthropy, and Good Ventures , the private grantmaking foundation of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna. Nearly all of OPP’s funding comes from Moskovitz and Tuna. ¹ The OPP also has a donor-advised fund, the Open Philanthropy Project Fund (OPPF). Combined, the three organizations have given almost $1.2 billion in grants since their founding. ²

Grants given by these organizations go to four focus areas: global health and development, scientific research, catastrophic risk, and domestic policy, which includes organizations that support left-of-center criminal justice and expansionist immigration policies. OPAF handles a minority of donations, which go primarily towards left-of-center criminal justice reform advocacy groups.

History

In 2007, GiveWell was founded to analyze and evaluate charitable work in the United States. ³ Elie Hassenfeld, Holden Karnofsky, and the other six co-founders are affiliated with the “effective altruism” movement. ⁴

In 2011, Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna founded Good Ventures as a grantmaking foundation to give away their fortune throughout their lifetimes. Tuna became the organization’s president and met with many other charitable leaders for advice, including the founders of GiveWell. ⁵

In 2014, GiveWell and Good Ventures collaborated to form the Open Philanthropy Project to engage in a deliberative process of identifying areas of greatest impact for grantmaking. In 2017, the OPP, OPPF and OPAF spun off as independent nonprofit organizations. ⁶

Grants

As of September 2020, the Open Philanthropy Project, Open Philanthropy Project Fund, and Open Philanthropy Action Fund have given 998 grants worth $1,171,866,584. Most of these grants have been distributed through OPAF and OPPF rather than the central organization. ⁷ In 2018, OPAF disbursed $12 million in grants. ⁸

As the political arm of OPP, the OPAF donates primarily to left-of-center PACs concerning criminal justice policy. In 2020, OPAF gave $100,000 to the Texas Organizing Project PAC. The OPAF has given four grants to the Real Justice PAC from 2018-2019 totaling $2 million. ⁹

In 2018, OPAF gave $850,000 to California YIMBY, $100,000 to the Center for Popular Democracy, $266,000 to Citizen Action of New York, $750,000 to Floridians for a Fair Democracy, $800,000 to Reform LA Jails, and over $2 million to the Tides Foundation. ¹⁰

From 2018-2020, OPAF gave $500,000 to Southerners on New Ground. ¹¹

In 2017, OPAF gave $1.2 million to Color of Change and the Color of Change PAC. ¹²

In 2015, OPAF gave $375,000 to MoveOn Civic Action. ¹³

Lobbying

In 2021, it was reported that for the first time ever, the Open Philanthropy Project Action Fund hired lobbyists. ¹⁴ Lobbying disclosures show that during 2021 the organization paid lobbying firm Tarplin, Downs, & Young $110,000 for lobbying related to increased government spending on pandemic prevention, and lobbying firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, for lobbying related to rapid COVID-19 antigen, or immunity, testing. ^{15 16 17}

Effective Altruism

The Open Philanthropy Project is part of the “effective altruism movement” established in the late 2000s and early 2010s by two organizations, 80,000 Hours and Giving What We Can. Effective altruism seeks to maximize the value and efficiency of charitable donations, particularly in preventing alleged existential threats to humanity such as climate change and rogue artificial intelligence. The movement tends to encourage donations to non-Western purposes which have a higher impact, and to long-term problems rather than short term alleviation. ¹⁸

In 2019, the Open Philanthropy Project Fund gave $1 million to the Effective Altruism Foundation, a research organization dedicated to exploring effective altruism ideas. ¹⁹ In 2020, the OPP gave an additional $15,000. ²⁰ GiveWell senior research analysts James Snowden and Marinella Capriati were formerly employed by the Effective Altruism Foundation. GiveWell board member Julia Wise is the organization’s liaison to the Foundation. ²¹ 80,000 Hours, another effective altruism organization, has received almost $10 million from the OPPF since 2017. ²²

As of October 2020, OPP is seeking a program associate to increase grantmaking related to effective altruism. ²³

Leadership

Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna

Dustin Moskovitz is a co-founder of the Open Philanthropy Project and sits on the organization’s board of directors. ²⁴ He is also the co-founder, secretary, and treasurer of Good Ventures. ²⁵ Moskovitz was one of five co-founders of Facebook in 2004. Four years later he left the company but retained his ownership shares. He then co-founded Asana, a company that designs software to track workflow within organizations. In 2011, Moskovitz was added to the Forbes billionaire list as the youngest billionaire in the world with a net worth of $2.7 billion from his 6% ownership of Facebook. ²⁶

As of October 2020, Moskovitz has a net worth of $15.7 billion. ²⁷

Cari Tuna is the co-founder and president of OPP, the Open Philanthropy Project Fund, and the Open Philanthropy Action Fund, and the co-founder and president of Good Ventures. ²⁸ She was previously a Wall Street Journal reporter. ²⁹

Moskovitz and Tuna are notable supporters of Democratic candidates. Before the 2016 election, Moskovitz had only donated about $10,000 to Congressional candidate Sean Eldridge (D-NY), husband of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. ³⁰ In 2016, Moskovitz wrote an article for Medium condemning Donald Trump and endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Moskovitz and Tuna then promised to donate $20 million to Democratic PACs, including $5 million each to the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund and Our Future PAC, and lesser sums to the Hillary Victory Fund, Moveon.org Political Action, Color of Change PAC, and several other organizations. ³¹ The donations made Moskovitz and Tuna the third-largest donors in the 2016 election cycle. ³²

Since 2016, Moskovitz and Tuna have continued to contribute to Democratic-aligned PACs. In 2017, Tuna gave $200,000 to Color of Change and just over $650,000 to Real Justice PAC. In 2018, Moskovitz gave $3 million to MoveOn.org Political Action, $2 million to the Senate Majority PAC, and $430,000 to Civic Innovation USA. In the same year, Tuna gave $1.2 million more to Real Justice PAC. ³³

In 2010, Moskovitz and Tuna became the youngest individuals to sign Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge” to give their fortunes to charity throughout their lifetimes. ³⁴

Chloe Cockburn

In 2015, Chloe Cockburn joined the Open Philanthropy Project as the criminal justice program officer. Since 2015, the Open Philanthropy Action Fund has made 322 grants worth $128,121,016 towards criminal justice reform organizations. ³⁵

On June 2, 2020, Cockburn wrote a Twitter thread with a list of organizations that she considered to be the most efficient recipients of donations for left-progressive criminal justice policy. She later rewrote the list as a memo to potential donors, and Vox wrote an article on Cockburn entitled, “A criminal justice expert’s guide to donating effectively right now.” ³⁶ The list consisted of 25 left-of-center and far left organizations, many of which are connected to Black Lives Matter. The listed organizations were:³⁷

• Black Lives Matter chapters of Chicago
• Black Lives Matter chapter of Los Angeles
• Black Lives Matter chapter of Louisville
• Movement for Black Lives
• Color of Change
• The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
• Highlander Research and Education Center
• Floyd Journalism Fund for Black Newspapers
• Showing up for Racial Justice
• Real Justice PAC
• Citizen Action of New York
• Michigan Liberation
• Justice LA
• Bread and Roses Community Fund
• Voice of the Experienced
• Transformation Fund
• Life Comes from It
• Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation
• Project Nia
• Essie Justice Group
• National Bail Fund Network
• Equity and Transformation
• Mutual Aid and Restorative Justice
• Texas Organizing Project
• Survived and Punished

As of October 2020, the OPP has donated to 11 of these organizations: Color of Change, The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Real Justice PAC, Citizen Action of New York, Michigan Liberation, Justice LA, Voice of the Experienced, Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation, Project Nia, Essie Justice Group, Equity and Transformation, and the Texas Organizing Project. ³⁸

Cockburn is also the director and a board member of the Bia-Echo Foundation, a left-of-center grantmaking foundation. The organization focuses on three areas: abortion advocacy, environmental protection, and criminal justice reform. ³⁹

Cockburn is the granddaughter of Claud Cockburn, a leading communist in the British government and possibly an agent for the Soviet Union. ⁴⁰ Her father, Andrew Cockburn, is a filmmaker, author, and the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. ⁴¹ Chloe’s uncle, Alexander Cockburn, was a journalist who edited Newspunch and wrote for The Nation and The Week. He was an open Marxist and socialist, and later identified as an anarchist. ⁴² Another uncle, Patrick Cockburn, is also a journalist. He has worked for The Independent and the Financial Times and is best known for his reporting on the Iraq War. ⁴³ One of Chloe’s sister is actress and director Olivia Wilde. ⁴⁴

1. “Who We Are.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/who-we-are.
2. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
3. “Our Story.” GiveWell. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.givewell.org/about/story.
4. “Our People.” GiveWell. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.givewell.org/about/people.
5. “Who We Are.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/who-we-are.
6. “Who We Are.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/who-we-are.
7. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
8. “Open Philanthropy Action Fund 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/812644663/01_2020_prefixes_81-81%2F812644663_201812_990O_2020012717071957.
9. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
10. “Open Philanthropy Action Fund 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/812644663/01_2020_prefixes_81-81%2F812644663_201812_990O_2020012717071957.
11. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
12. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
13. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
14. Schleifer, Teddy. “Can Zuckerberg’s Old Roommate Strong-Arm Washington?” ConvertKit. Accessed August 18, 2021. https://ckarchive.com/b/qdu8h7h9vmll.

15. “2 Disclosure Form.” LD. Accessed August 18, 2021. https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/e95682d8-d82a-4398-a476-a947d624969d/print/. 
16. “2 Disclosure Form.” LD. Accessed August 18, 2021. https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/44c61f53-cb50-41d9-ac3c-91c9967887cc/print/. 
17. “2 Disclosure Form.” LD. Accessed August 18, 2021. https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/a2c540cf-38e6-4bf7-9563-d487a27729c6/print/.
18. Matthews, Dylan. “You have $8 billion. You want to do as much good as possible. What do you do?” Vox. October 16, 2018. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.vox.com/2015/4/24/8457895/givewell-open-philanthropy-charity.
19. “Effective Altruism Foundation – Research and Operations.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants/effective-altruism-foundation-research-operations.
20. “Effective Altruism Foundation – European Policy Research.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-health-and-development/miscellaneous/effective-altruism-foundation-european-policy-research.
21. “Our People.” GiveWell. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.givewell.org/about/people.
22. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
23. “Effective Altruism Program Associate.” Open Philanthropy Project. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/get-involved/jobs/effective-altruism-program-associate.
24. “Who We Are.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/who-we-are.
25. “Learn about our structure and leadership.” Good Ventures. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.goodventures.org/about-us/governance.
26. Fox, Zoe. “Forbes’s Youngest Billionaire: Facebook Co-Founder Dustin Moskovitz Edges Out Zuckerberg.” Time. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/10/forbess-youngest-billionaire-facebook-co-founder-dustin-moskovitz-edges-out-mark-zuckerberg/.
27. “#101” Bloomberg. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/dustin-a-moskovitz/.
28. “Learn about our structure and leadership.” Good Ventures. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.goodventures.org/about-us/governance.
29. “Cari Tuna.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/cari-tuna.
30. Confessore, Nicholas. “Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook Co-Founder, Pledges $20 Million to Aid Democrats.” New York Times. September 9, 2016. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/us/politics/facebook-trump-dustin-moskovitz.html.
31. Moskovitz, Dustin. “Compelled to Act.” September 6, 2016. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://medium.com/@moskov/compelled-to-act-1413930041ee#.idquozq7d.
32. Schleifer, Theodore. “Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz commits $20 million to help beat Trump.” CNN. September 9, 2016. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/09/politics/facebook-cofounder-gift-democrats.
33. “Tuna, Cari: Donor Detail.” Open Secrets. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/donor_detail.php?cycle=2018&id=U0000004592&type=I&super=N&name=Tuna%2C+Cari.
34. Cha, Ariana Eunjung “Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz: Young Silicon Valley Billionaires Pioneer New Approach to Philanthropy.” Washington Post. December 26, 2014. Accessed October 3, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/billionaire-couple-give-plenty-to-charity-but-they-do-quite-a-bit-of-homework/2014/12/26/19fae34c-86d6-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html.
35. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
36. Matthews, Dylan. A criminal justice expert’s guide to donating effectively right now.” Vox. June 9, 2020. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/6/9/21281538/how-to-donate-to-black-lives-matter-charity.
37. “Chloe Cockburn thread.” Twitter. June 20, 2020. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://twitter.com/chloecockburn/status/1267895984895467521
38. “Grants Database.” Open Philanthropy. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/giving/grants.
39. “Chloe Cockburn.” Bio-Echa Foundation. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://biaecho.org/project/cloe-cockburn/.
40. “Claud Cockburn.” Spartacus Educational. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://spartacus-educational.com/SPcockburn.htm.
41. “Andrew Cockburn.” Prabook. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://prabook.com/web/andrew.cockburn/3757349.
42. “Five Days that Shook the World: Seattle and Beyond.” C-SPAN. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://www.c-span.org/video/?161120-1/five-days-shook-world-seattle-beyond.
43. “Patrick Cockburn.” Independent. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://www.independent.co.uk/author/patrick-cockburn.
44. “Olivia Wilde’s son is ‘hard’ on his younger sister.” AP News. June 15, 2017. Accessed October 4, 2020. https://apnews.com/article/20068bf24e354960ac39da3d21d82a5f.