One of the world’s most influential philanthropies is changing its name.

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One of the world’s most influential philanthropic organizations, Open Philanthropy, is undergoing a significant transformation as it rebrands to Coefficient Giving, marking a strategic pivot from its origins as primarily the giving vehicle for Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna’s Good Ventures foundation to a broader collaborative model aimed at multiplying impact. Over the past decade, this entity has directed more than $4 billion with a rigorous, evidence-based approach, saving an estimated 100,000 lives through global health initiatives, catalyzing the YIMBY movement to address housing shortages in California, improving conditions for billions of farmed animals, and supporting research that later earned a Nobel Prize—demonstrating a rare blend of scale and analytical precision in the philanthropic world.The shift to Coefficient Giving isn’t merely cosmetic; it reflects an evolution in operational philosophy, moving internal programs like the $125 million Lead Exposure Action Fund and the $120 million Abundance and Growth Fund into multi-donor structures that allow other philanthropists to co-invest, thereby amplifying resource deployment beyond a single anchor donor. In 2024, the organization directed over $100 million from external donors, a figure that has already more than doubled in 2025, signaling growing traction for its collaborative ethos.CEO Alexander Berger elucidates the new name’s symbolism: “coefficient” combines “co-” for collaboration and “efficient” for cost-effectiveness, embodying a multiplier effect where pooled expertise and capital aim to maximize every dollar’s humanitarian return. This transition occurs against a backdrop of volatile public funding—such as cuts to global health budgets and USAID—and surging private tech wealth, positioning philanthropy to fill gaps where market incentives or government priorities fall short, particularly in neglected areas like disease research for low-income populations or long-term risks like AI safety.Berger, a pragmatic optimist, emphasizes that Coefficient’s mission remains rooted in the “importance, tractability, neglectedness” framework, though lessons from the past decade have led to downweighting tractability in favor of bolder bets on high-impact, overlooked causes. The organization’s risk tolerance is evident in its early backing of AI safety research and scientific ventures like protein design for vaccines, which recently yielded a Nobel Prize, illustrating how philanthropic capital can seed fields that later achieve monumental breakthroughs.Yet, this expansion raises nuanced questions: How will multi-donor funds navigate potential disagreements? Berger notes that, so far, partners have trusted Coefficient’s allocation decisions within defined areas, avoiding governance gridlock while fostering a coalition of aligned givers. The rebrand also subtly distances the organization from the effective altruism movement, with which it’s often conflated; Berger stresses that while analytical rigor is shared, Coefficient aims to appeal broadly, including those unfamiliar with or disinterested in EA’s specific community dynamics.As Coefficient Giving embarks on its second decade, it faces the challenge of scaling collaboration without diluting focus—balancing immediate, high-confidence interventions in global health against frontier risks like AI governance, all while championing transparency through detailed public explanations of successes and failures. This evolution mirrors a broader trend in philanthropy toward pooled funding vehicles, yet Coefficient’s distinctive blend of empirical rigor and entrepreneurial risk-taking sets a precedent for how modern giving can adapt to an era of complex global problems, proving that strategic philanthropy isn’t just about writing checks but about building ecosystems where impact compounds through shared purpose and relentless optimization.

#Coefficient Giving

#philanthropy rebrand

#effective altruism

#housing reform

#global health

#AI safety

#lead exposure

#featured