For most people, we think there's a strong case for giving through grantmaker-led philanthropic funds rather than donating to specific organizations.

Examples of public philanthropic funds include:

• GiveWell's All Grants Fund (see July 2025 report)

• EA Funds’ Animal Welfare Fund (see June 2025 report)

• Longview's Emerging Challenges Fund (see Q4 2025 Report)

If you are looking to develop a significant philanthropic portfolio, we’d recommend contributing to private funds instead. We list some more popular funds below.

This post is based on Longview's experience directing over $140M of donations through advising dozens of philanthropists and operating funds in AI safety, digital sentience, nuclear weapons policy, and global catastrophic risks.

Executive Summary

Why give to a fund? By giving to funds, you delegate your decision-making to expert grantmakers, which presents several benefits over donating directly to organizations:

1. Grantmaker-led funds have several advantages over individuals when selecting grants, thanks to their dedicated focus on grantmaking in a given area, their ability to spend time gathering and analyzing information, tracking all the details, proactively sourcing opportunities through active grantmaking, and acting quickly. 
2. Funds can solve donor coordination problems by pooling resources among [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) Executive Summary

(02:59) 1. Grantmaker-led funds have an edge over individuals when picking grants

(05:40) 2. Funds can solve donor coordination

(06:49) 3. Funds make giving easy

(07:52) 4. Why might this be wrong? When might direct giving be better?

(09:22) 5. Next Steps

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First published:

Source:

Linkpost URL:
https://www.longview.org/should-you-donate-through-funds

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