Theory of Change
Effective Ventures Foundation was the legal and operational backbone of the Effective Altruism movement. Created in 2011 as an umbrella entity for 80,000 Hours and Giving What We Can, it grew to fiscally sponsor a dozen organizations including CEA, FHI, Longview Philanthropy, Asterisk magazine, EA Funds, and the Atlas Fellowship.
EV's theory of change was entirely meta: by providing fiscal sponsorship, shared operations, and governance, it would enable the organizations that directly reduce AI risk and other catastrophic risks to launch and scale with lower friction. Open Philanthropy classified most grants to EV under "Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building."
CEA, the primary surviving entity, describes its mission as working to "promote principles of EA" and "support and grow the EA community." In Zach Robinson's words: "We continue to believe there is no other set of principles that has the same transformative potential to address the world's most pressing problems as EA principles." CEA operates EA Global conferences, the EA Forum, community groups support, Community Health, EA Funds (merging into CEA mid-2025), and communications.
CEA has explicitly chosen to remain "principles-first" rather than becoming AI-focused, despite the fact that ~88% of its Open Philanthropy funding is classified under GCR capacity building and the overwhelming majority of EA talent now works on AI safety.
EV itself is winding down. All projects are spinning out as independent legal entities. The dissolution is expected to complete by 2026.
What They Do
As fiscal sponsor (2011-2026): EV housed 80,000 Hours, CEA, Giving What We Can, FHI, Asterisk, EA Funds, Longview Philanthropy, Forethought Foundation, Atlas Fellowship, and individual researchers under one legal umbrella. This centralization created economies of scale but also correlated legal, financial, and reputational risks across all projects.
Major real estate: EV purchased Wytham Abbey (GBP 14.9M, ~$18.6M) in April 2022 as a conference venue, funded by a $23.2M Open Phil grant. It was sold in November 2025 for GBP 5.95M -- a loss of approximately $11-14.5M. Separately, a Harvard Square coworking space received ~$24M across multiple grants. Combined real estate/infrastructure grants total approximately $55M, about 31% of all OP funding to EV.
FTX crisis response: EV received $26.8M from FTX/FTX Foundation in 2022, returning 100% via settlement in December 2023. An independent investigation by Mintz found no evidence anyone at EV knew of the fraud. Legal fees for the investigation alone exceeded $750,000.
Post-FTX reforms: EV hired its first CEOs (Howie Lempel for UK, Zachary Robinson for US), achieved 100% board turnover, formalized COI policies, created a finance team, improved donor due diligence, updated whistleblowing and anti-harassment policies, and decided to wind down.
Spin-outs: 80,000 Hours completed its spin-out in May 2025. Giving What We Can is spinning out. CEA itself received a new EIN (33-3737390, ruling date March 2025). FHI closed in April 2024 due to Oxford University bureaucracy (not EV-related).
CEA programs today: EA Global conferences (biggest US event since 2022 at EAG Bay Area 2025), EA Forum, groups support in 40+ countries, Community Building Grants (transitioning to EA Funds), EA Funds (4 funds, $30M+/year grantmaking, merging into CEA). CEA reports 25% growth in engagement across all tiers in 2025: introductory tier at 58K, highly engaged at 4.9K.
Giving What We Can has facilitated $253M+ in donations through 9,000+ pledges to give 10% of income. During 2024, 203 new pledges at EA events, estimated $9.8M in lifetime donations. This is arguably the most concrete, measurable output of the entire EV ecosystem.
Key People
Zachary Robinson (CEO of EV US since Jan 2023; CEO of CEA since Feb 2024). Former Chief of Staff at Open Philanthropy. Author of the most comprehensive public post-mortem of EV's governance failures. Acknowledges holding both roles is suboptimal but no suitable replacement was found. Candid about institutional mistakes in his public writing.
Will MacAskill (co-founder of CEA, GWWC, 80K Hours; former EV UK trustee). The closest thing EA had to a figurehead. Was personally warned about SBF's unethical behavior by at least three people in 2018-2019 and dismissed concerns. Vouched for SBF to Elon Musk as "my collaborator" in 2022. Stepped down from EV board post-FTX. In podcast interviews, describes discomfort with the figurehead role and wanting EA to be "more like an intellectual current, not a special interest group." Has not published a detailed written account of his role in the SBF relationship. Now focused on post-AGI governance research.
Notable departures: Nick Beckstead (former EV trustee and FTX Foundation CEO, left both boards Aug 2023 -- dual role was the most glaring COI in EV governance). Owen Cotton-Barratt (EV UK board member, resigned Feb 2023 after sexual misconduct investigation by Herbert Smith Freehills). Max Dalton (CEA ED, stepped down 2023 due to stress from FTX). Tasha McCauley (EV UK trustee, also OpenAI board member -- flagged as potential conflict). Five EDs at CEA between 2016-2019 indicating extreme leadership instability.
Team: CEA has ~60+ staff. EV boards are small: 3 members (UK), 4 members (US), with multiple members having Open Philanthropy or GiveWell ties (Eli Rose is a current OP Program Officer; Anna Weldon is GiveWell Chief of Staff, former OP Director of Internal Ops).
Money and Incentives
Total funding: Open Philanthropy has given $177M across 43 grants (2017-2024), making it overwhelmingly the dominant funder. The largest single grant was $26M for general support (March 2022). EV also received $26.8M from FTX in 2022 (all returned).
Revenue trajectory (EVF USA 990 data):
| Year | Revenue | Expenses | Net Assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $75.0M | $65.8M | $43.2M |
| 2022 | $75.8M | $48.5M | $56.1M |
| 2021 | $17.5M | $7.5M | $38.5M |
| 2020 | $21.7M | $11.0M | $26.0M |
| 2019 | $8.4M | $9.8M | $12.3M |
Revenue grew 9x from 2019 to 2022 without commensurate growth in governance capacity. EV UK had a free reserves deficit of GBP 1.3M as of June 2024. Top compensation at EVF USA tripled from $236K (2022) to $687K (2023).
Infrastructure spending: Real estate/infrastructure grants total ~$55M, approximately 31% of all OP funding: Wytham Abbey ($23.2M, sold at ~$14.5M loss), Harvard Square coworking ($24M), Oxford office space ($2.65M), biosecurity coworking ($5.3M).
Funding concentration: Near-total dependence on a single funder. CEA's 2025 strategy explicitly names this risk: "single points of failure pose huge risks to the sustainability of the community." Open Philanthropy has initiated a 2:1 donation matching program for EA Funds to build an independent funding base. CEA cut spending by $5.9M (24%) in 2024 while maintaining program metrics.
Open Philanthropy revolving door: CEO Zachary Robinson was former OP Chief of Staff. Board member Anna Weldon was former OP Director of Internal Ops. Board member Eli Rose is a current OP Program Officer. Former board member Claire Zabel is an OP Program Officer. Former trustee Nick Beckstead went from EV to FTX Foundation. Multiple CEA staff have OP backgrounds.
Governance-funding gap: Pre-FTX, EV had only one in-house lawyer (hired July 2022, months before the collapse) and no dedicated finance team. The Charity Commission found financial policies were "not adhered to or reviewed regularly as the charity's income grew." An organization managing $75M+ per year lacked basic financial infrastructure. In 2022, some EV projects spent money promised but not yet received from FTX.
Financial losses: Wytham Abbey loss: ~$11-14.5M (purchased ~$18.6M, sold ~$7.4M). FTX settlement: $26.8M returned (not lost, but the money was unavailable during the crisis). Mintz investigation: $750K+. Total crisis costs likely in the low millions.
What Others Say
TIME (March 2023): "Effective Altruist Leaders Were Repeatedly Warned About Sam Bankman-Fried." At least three people warned MacAskill and others about SBF's dishonesty, sloppy accounting, and unethical behavior in 2018-2019. A former Alameda employee told TIME that MacAskill "basically took Sam's side" and "basically threatened Tara [Mac Aulay]." An EA insider quoted: "It's greed for access to a bunch of money, but with a philosopher twist."
TIME (February 2023): Seven women described sexual misconduct within EA, ranging from harassment to assault. EA's "overwhelming maleness, its professional incestuousness, its subculture of polyamory" create an environment where misconduct is "tolerated, excused, or rationalized away." Julia Wise acknowledged ~20 complaints/year in her role.
Fran (EA Forum, February 2026, 647 karma): A colleague wrote and circulated a sexualized account of Fran's rape to senior leaders including the CEO. No safeguarding action for 9 months. After investigation found harassment, CEA refused to bar the perpetrator from shared spaces. Fran resigned. Second investigation found CEA "failed to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment" under UK law. CEA took meaningful action only after Fran announced intent to publish. Quote: "If a prior policy update wasn't sufficient, perhaps policies aren't the problem."
"Structural Flaws in the EA Movement" (EA Forum, 2025): Most systematic structural critique. EA community lacks formal governance, power is concentrated with OP and CEA leadership, no accountability mechanisms. "The community is thus reliant on the judgement and actions of a select few to ensure the effectiveness and success of the movement."
Nathan Robinson/Emile Torres (Current Affairs): EA is "a technocratic, wealth-concentrating ideology" that uses "'effective' as a rhetorical shield." Longtermism redirects resources from present suffering to speculative risks. The movement's structure concentrates power with billionaires.
Ben Kuhn (former EA insider): EA has become "insular, self-referential, and vulnerable to groupthink."
Red Team of CEA (EA Forum, 2022): CEA has a pattern of lacking staff capacity, rare meaningful evaluations, repeated mistakes across projects, and understating mistakes publicly. "CEA's Mistakes page has been 'worse than nothing' -- routinely omitting major problems and downplaying those listed."
MacAskill himself (podcast): "I definitely felt uncomfortable about [being a figurehead]... people would lobby me a lot. And I felt a lot of pressure, in particular, to have certain beliefs or not have other beliefs." He describes wanting to question alignment work quality but feeling pressured not to.
Defenses: James Ozden argues many critiques mischaracterize EA. Breakthrough Institute: EA "isn't unworkably longtermist or anti-institutionalist." Even defenders acknowledge significant problems. Zachary Robinson's reflections post, while defensive in parts, is notably candid about institutional failures.
What's Absent
No written public account from Will MacAskill explaining his specific role in the SBF relationship. No independent community-governed investigation into EA leadership's handling of SBF (the Mintz investigation was commissioned by EV, not by the community). No public impact evaluation of CEA's core programs -- engagement metrics but not outcome metrics. No assessment from Open Philanthropy of its own role in enabling governance failures at its largest grantee. No democratic accountability mechanism for the community CEA claims to steward. No detailed public accounting of total EA movement financial losses from FTX. No data on how many AI safety researchers or policy advocates were produced through CEA's pipeline. Carl Shulman's $5M Discretionary Fund has no public outcome reporting. CEA prioritizes "transparency with funders and boardmembers rather than sharing evaluations publicly."
Recommended Reading
Zachary Robinson, "Reflections and lessons from Effective Ventures" (EA Forum, Oct 2024) -- The most candid insider post-mortem. Robinson was in the room for every major crisis and reform. He admits specific mistakes, discusses tradeoffs honestly, and identifies lessons for the ecosystem. Start here for the institutional picture.
TIME, "Effective Altruist Leaders Were Warned About SBF" (March 2023) -- Investigative journalism revealing that MacAskill, Beckstead, and others dismissed repeated warnings about SBF's unethical behavior in 2018-2019. Direct quotes from whistleblowers. The strongest case that EA leaders chose donor access over accountability.
Fran, "CEA's response to sexual harassment" (EA Forum, Feb 2026) -- The most recent institutional failure, occurring after all post-FTX reforms. A devastating account of how CEA's system failed a harassment victim, requiring public pressure to produce action. 647 karma -- the community's response speaks volumes.
Will MacAskill on Clearer Thinking podcast -- MacAskill's most candid public discussion of FTX, his role, what he knew, and the pressures of being EA's figurehead. Most revealing: his description of feeling pressured not to question alignment work quality.
"Structural Flaws in the EA Movement" (EA Forum, Jul 2025) -- The most systematic structural critique. Argues EA's lack of governance and power concentration are features, not bugs. Directly challenges CEA's self-appointed stewardship role.