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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Good Ventures.md
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---
category: "Private Organization"
aliases:
- "Good Ventures Foundation"
- "Good Ventures LLC"
tags:
- Organization
- GoodVentures
@ -8,40 +11,72 @@ tags:
- EffectiveAltruism
- OpenPhilanthropy
- Philanthropy
alias:
- Good Ventures Foundation
summary: "Good Ventures is the foundation founded in 2011 by Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and the journalist Cari Tuna that, through its partnership with GiveWell and Open Philanthropy, became the dominant funder of the effective-altruism, global-health, and AI-safety grant ecosystem."
location: "San Francisco, California"
summary: "Private foundation of Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, founded in 2011 within a web of LLCs and donor-advised funds, which built GiveWell Labs into Open Philanthropy and held about 10 billion dollars in 2025."
start: 2011
location: "Palo Alto, California"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Dustin Moskovitz]]"
reverse: true
start: 2011
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Cari Tuna]]"
reverse: true
start: 2011
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Cari Tuna]]"
reverse: true
role: "president, later also board chair"
fn: 2
- type: member_of
with: "[[Divesh Makan]]"
reverse: true
role: "director"
fn: 2
- type: funded
with: "[[GiveWell]]"
start: 2011
role: "first grant, 50,000 dollars; about 60 percent of the money GiveWell had moved by 2018"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]"
role: "nearly all of its grant money"
fn: 6
created: 2026-06-20
updated: 2026-06-20
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Good Ventures is a private philanthropic foundation established in 2011 by [[Facebook]] and [[Asana]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife, the former journalist [[Cari Tuna]]. Its partnership with the charity evaluator [[GiveWell]] produced [[Open Philanthropy]] (renamed Coefficient Giving in November 2025), and the foundation supplies nearly all of that organization's grant money, making the Moskovitz and Tuna fortune the dominant and most durable financial source behind the [[Effective Altruism]] movement, evidence-based global health and development, and AI-safety research.[^1][^2]
Good Ventures is the private foundation of [[Facebook]] and [[Asana]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife [[Cari Tuna]]. When the couple became the youngest billionaires to sign the [[Giving Pledge]], in 2010, he was a 26-year-old Harvard dropout who had made his fortune in four years at Facebook as its first chief technology officer, and she was a 25-year-old Yale graduate reporting for *[[The Wall Street Journal]]* on the California economy. With Moskovitz occupied with Asana, Tuna quit journalism to manage their giving, and they founded Good Ventures in 2011. Moskovitz's net worth was estimated at about 14.3 billion dollars at the end of 2017, and the couple said they intended to give away nearly all of it in their lifetimes; he said, "Cari and I are stewards of this capital. It's pooled up around us right now, but it belongs to the world."[^1]
### The 2011 Founding
### Filings and Officers
Moskovitz, who retained roughly two percent of Facebook at its 2012 public offering and built a second fortune at the workplace-software company Asana, and Tuna, who had been a reporter at the *Wall Street Journal*, created Good Ventures in 2011 as the vehicle for giving away the bulk of their wealth. They were among the youngest signatories of the [[Giving Pledge]], the Bill Gates and [[Warren Buffett]] commitment to donate the majority of one's fortune, signing in 2014 in their late twenties and early thirties. Tuna served as president of the foundation and became the public face of the operation, articulating a "give where it does the most good" framework that delegated cause selection to a professional research staff applying cost-effectiveness analysis rather than to the donors' personal sentiment.[^1][^3]
The Good Ventures Foundation, EIN 46-1008520, received its tax exemption in March 2013 and files its returns in care of [[Apercen Partners]] LLC at 314 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto. The officers on every return since 2015 have been Tuna, president and later also board chair; Moskovitz, secretary and treasurer; and [[Divesh Makan]], director, none of them paid; the 2025 return also lists [[Tom Van Loben Sels]] as assistant secretary.[^2] Makan is the sole member of the general partner of [[ICONIQ Capital]], the [[San Francisco]] investment firm.[^3]
Almost immediately the new foundation oriented itself around GiveWell, the charity evaluator that [[Holden Karnofsky]] and [[Elie Hassenfeld]] had founded in 2007 after working as investment analysts at [[Bridgewater Associates]], the world's largest hedge fund. Good Ventures made its first grant, of 50,000 dollars, to GiveWell itself in 2011, and in the same year directed a further 1.1 million dollars to GiveWell-recommended charities. Tuna joined GiveWell's board in 2011, formalizing the relationship. In 2012 GiveWell relocated its office and five-person staff from New York to San Francisco to be closer to Tuna and other technology donors, and Good Ventures and GiveWell announced a close partnership that June.[^1][^4]
### The Structure
### GiveWell Labs and Open Philanthropy
In 2018 the *[[Stanford Social Innovation Review]]* writer [[Marc Gunther]] counted seven entities in which Tuna served as a director or major donor: the Open Philanthropy Project LLC, which recommended grants; the [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]], a 501(c)(4) "that supports nonpartisan advocacy"; the Open Philanthropy Project fund, a donor-advised fund at the [[Silicon Valley Community Foundation]]; the Good Ventures Foundation, which made grants and investments; Good Ventures, a supporting organization also at the community foundation; Good Ventures LLC, "a for-profit impact investment firm"; and [[GiveWell]]. [[Alexander Berger]] of Open Philanthropy told him that "each has a reason for being" and that "tax considerations are key." Gunther wrote that grants made through the donor-advised funds "can't be traced back to the original donors," that the entities disclosed some but not all of their investments, and that Open Philanthropy did not disclose its operating costs or the pay of its highest-paid staff. Outside these structures, Moskovitz and Tuna were investors in [[Bill Gates]]'s [[Breakthrough Energy Ventures]].[^1] The Open Philanthropy Action Fund has reported paying outside lobbyists every year from 2021 through 2026, [[Tarplin, Downs & Young]] and [[Arnold & Porter]] in 2021 and the [[Kyle House Group]] from 2023, on foreign relations, health and appropriations.[^4]
The partnership produced a joint research project called GiveWell Labs, launched in 2012 to look for giving opportunities beyond the direct-aid global-health charities that GiveWell already recommended. GiveWell Labs was renamed the Open Philanthropy Project in August 2014 and was spun off from GiveWell as a separate organization in June 2017, though the two retained overlapping boards and staff and shared office space in downtown San Francisco. The split divided two functions: GiveWell continued recommending a short list of proven, measurable charities for ordinary donors, while Open Philanthropy took on the larger, riskier, and harder-to-measure giving that Good Ventures' scale made possible, including pandemic preparedness, farm-animal welfare, scientific research, and the prevention of catastrophic risks from advanced artificial intelligence.[^1][^4]
### GiveWell and Open Philanthropy
Good Ventures supplies nearly all of Open Philanthropy's grant money, a dependence both organizations have acknowledged. The longtermist and AI-risk portion of that giving flowed to the research community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] and the [[Future of Humanity Institute]], and Open Philanthropy made a 30-million-dollar grant to [[OpenAI]] in 2017 that came with a board seat for Karnofsky, and later became an early investor in the AI company [[Anthropic]]. Karnofsky, who served as co-chief executive of Open Philanthropy, is married to Anthropic president [[Daniela Amodei]]. The [[FTX Future Fund]] of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] briefly funded the same longtermist and AI-safety field in 2022 before evaporating when FTX collapsed that November.[^2][^5]
A friend introduced Tuna to [[Holden Karnofsky]], who with [[Elie Hassenfeld]] had founded the charity evaluator GiveWell in 2007 after working at the hedge fund [[Bridgewater Associates]]. Tuna joined GiveWell's board in 2011. Good Ventures' first grant, of 50,000 dollars, went to GiveWell that year, with another 1.1 million dollars to GiveWell-recommended charities, chiefly the [[Against Malaria Foundation]] and the [[Schistosomiasis Control Initiative]]. By 2018 Good Ventures accounted for about 60 percent of the estimated 375 million dollars GiveWell had moved to its recommended charities. In 2012 GiveWell moved its office and staff of five from New York to San Francisco "to be closer to Tuna and other technology-industry donors."[^1] The joint project [[Open Philanthropy|GiveWell Labs]], launched in 2012, was renamed the Open Philanthropy Project in August 2014 and spun off from GiveWell in June 2017, keeping overlapping boards and staff and shared offices.[^1][^5] Good Ventures gave 70.4 million dollars through GiveWell in 2015, 50.4 million in 2016 and 75.1 million in 2017.[^5]
### The Dominant Funder
Open Philanthropy, renamed Coefficient Giving in November 2025, draws nearly all of its grant money from Good Ventures.[^6] Its grantees include [[OpenAI]], which received 30 million dollars in 2017 with a board seat for Karnofsky; the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]]; the [[RAND Corporation]]; the [[Center for AI Safety]]; [[Redwood Research]]; the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], which pays technology fellows placed in Congress and federal agencies; and the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], which pays journalists placed in newsrooms.[^7] It had given away about 7 billion dollars by September 2026.[^8]
By the mid-2010s Good Ventures had become by far the largest single donor channeling money through GiveWell, accounting for roughly 60 percent of the estimated 375 million dollars GiveWell had moved to its favored organizations, with annual Good Ventures grants of 70.4 million dollars in 2015, 50.4 million in 2016, and 75.1 million in 2017. As of August 2022 the foundation reported having granted more than 1.7 billion dollars across global health and development, farmed-animal welfare, global catastrophic risks, and other cause areas. By 2025 Moskovitz and Tuna had directed more than 4 billion dollars in cumulative giving since 2011, including more than 600 million dollars in 2025 alone, with Good Ventures making 493 grants in 2024 at a median grant size of about 115,000 dollars.[^1][^2][^6]
### Assets
The concentration of so much AI-safety and effective-altruism funding under a single foundation drew sustained criticism. Because Good Ventures funds much of the research community that examines the AI labs, and because Open Philanthropy was an early investor in Anthropic, observers argued that the field scrutinizing the AI companies depended financially on one donor couple who were also early backers of one of those companies. When Open Philanthropy rebranded as Coefficient Giving in November 2025 and began running multi-donor funds that other philanthropists could join, Good Ventures remained its founding and most significant ongoing partner and the source of the bulk of its capital.[^2][^7]
The foundation's assets were 27 million dollars in the fiscal year ending June 2013, 1.02 billion in 2017, 3.34 billion in 2020, 5.86 billion in 2023 and 10.11 billion in 2025. Contributions received were 1.02 billion dollars in fiscal 2020, 1.91 billion in 2023, 801 million in 2024 and 1.40 billion in 2025, when it also reported 847 million dollars from sales of assets and paid 338 million dollars in charitable disbursements.[^2] In 2026 it held 1,720,916 Class A shares of Asana, the company Moskovitz controls; Asana's proxy statement said that Moskovitz and "his spouse serve as directors on the board of Good Ventures Foundation and may be deemed to have shared voting and dispositive power" over them. The same proxy disclosed that Asana bought 1.1 million dollars of AI services from [[Anthropic]], in which Moskovitz "has a minority ownership interest."[^9] In April 2026 the *[[Washington Examiner]]* reported that in 2025 Moskovitz had transferred his Anthropic stake, "which had reportedly grown to roughly $500 million, to his charity to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interests," without naming the entity.[^10]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Giving in the Light of Reason," *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* on the 2011 founding of Good Ventures, the first 50,000-dollar grant to GiveWell, the additional 1.1 million dollars to GiveWell-recommended charities in 2011, Tuna joining the GiveWell board, the 2012 San Francisco relocation, GiveWell Labs, and the 60-percent share of GiveWell's 375 million dollars moved. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason
[^2]: "How Dependent is the Effective Altruism Movement on Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna?" EA Forum, on Good Ventures as the primary funder of Open Philanthropy. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4BJSXH9ho4eYNT73P/how-dependent-is-the-effective-altruism-movement-on-dustin
[^3]: "Cari Tuna," EA Forum topic entry on Good Ventures and the Giving Pledge. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/topics/cari-tuna
[^4]: "Our Progress," GiveWell, on GiveWell Labs launching in 2012, its August 2014 rename to the Open Philanthropy Project, and the June 2017 spin-off; annual Good Ventures grant totals of 70.4 million dollars (2015), 50.4 million (2016), and 75.1 million (2017). https://www.givewell.org/about/progress
[^5]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on Open Philanthropy as an early Anthropic funder, the 2017 OpenAI grant and board seat, and the Karnofsky-Amodei marriage. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6
[^6]: "Moskovitz & Tuna: $600M Donated in 2025, Over $4B Total Since 2011," IndexBox, on the 4-billion-dollar cumulative total, the 600 million in 2025, and the 493 grants in 2024 at a 115,000-dollar median. https://www.indexbox.io/blog/dustin-moskovitz-cari-tunas-4b-philanthropy-journey/
[^7]: "Open Philanthropy Becomes Coefficient Giving, Expanding Work With Multiple Donors," Coefficient Giving, November 2025, on the rename and the multi-donor expansion with Good Ventures as the founding partner. https://coefficientgiving.org/research/press-release-open-philanthropy-becomes-coefficient-giving-expanding-work-with-multiple-donors/
[^1]: Gunther, Marc. "Giving in the Light of Reason." *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* Summer 2018. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason
[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Good Ventures Foundation," EIN 46-1008520, Form 990-PF data for fiscal years ending June 2013 to June 2025, updated August 20, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461008520
[^3]: ICONIQ Capital, LLC, and others, Schedule 13G regarding Diameter Credit Co, November 13, 2024, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1916099/000101143824000605/form_sc13g-diameter.htm
[^4]: U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings for client "Open Philanthropy Action Fund," 2021 to 2026, retrieved September 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Open+Philanthropy+Action+Fund
[^5]: GiveWell, "Our Progress," on GiveWell Labs, the 2014 rename, the 2017 spin-off and annual Good Ventures totals. https://www.givewell.org/about/progress
[^6]: "Open Philanthropy Becomes Coefficient Giving, Expanding Work With Multiple Donors," Coefficient Giving, November 2025. https://coefficientgiving.org/research/press-release-open-philanthropy-becomes-coefficient-giving-expanding-work-with-multiple-donors/
[^7]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023, http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 ; Open Philanthropy, "OpenAI, General Support," March 2017, archived January 1, 2025, http://web.archive.org/web/20250101012608/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/ ; Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026. https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards
[^8]: Smith, Ben. "Coefficient Giving's CEO on Silicon Valley's $40 billion philanthropy boom." *Semafor,* September 3, 2026. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2026/coefficient-givings-ceo-on-silicon-valley-40-billion-philanthropy-boom
[^9]: Asana, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 20, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000162828026025998/asan-20260420.htm
[^10]: Schmad, Robert. "Documents show how a tech-connected nonprofit shaped Biden-era AI policy." *Washington Examiner,* April 17, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4532389/