Open Philanthropy is looking for Grants Associates to help support our grantmaking across focus areas by efficiently and expertly processing grants for our grantees and program staff.
About Open Philanthropy
Open Philanthropy is a philanthropic funder and advisor. Our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We stress openness to many possibilities and have chosen our focus areas based on importance, neglectedness, and tractability.
Our current giving areas include potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence, scientific research, global public health policy, farm animal welfare, and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. In 2023, we recommended just under $800 million to high-impact causes, and we’ve recommended over $3 billion in grants since our formation.
About the Grants Team
Our Grants team processes more than 800 distinct grants each year across a range of grant types and jurisdictions. Disbursing all of these grants is a significant undertaking, and the Grants team’s expertise makes it happen as smoothly and efficiently as possible, even in complex grantmaking situations. While Grants Associates process grants across all of our focus areas, a relatively higher proportion of these (by volume) are within our Global Catastrophic Risks portfolio.
For every grant we make, a Grants Associate is responsible for:
- Determining how to structure the grant (in consultation with our legal team, if necessary)
- Conducting due diligence on the grantee, and collecting any missing information
- Tracking relevant details in our grants database (we use Salesforce)
- Keeping program staff and grantees in the loop throughout the diligence and payment process, and answering their questions
- Tracking grant payment dates and follow-ups (we also run a grantee satisfaction survey)
When we encounter new grantmaking roadblocks, we strive to break them down as quickly as possible — our aim is for bureaucracy to never get in the way of funding a grantee doing impactful work. When a challenge comes up repeatedly, we look for structural solutions (e.g., we designed an Individual Grants Program to more easily fund individuals). We always look for ways to improve our systems, remove administrative hassle, and grow our own expertise in grantmaking law so that we can solve problems more quickly.
In addition to expert grant processing, our team also owns related projects and tasks, such as:
- Supporting the set-up of new legal entities or managing logistics for complicated programs like large RFPs (example)
- Distributing and analyzing the results of our biannual grantee feedback survey
- Tracking and reconciling program budget records
- Coming up with new processes that improve clarity and efficiency
For a look at the typical workday of a Grants team member, see Anna Maybach Sullivan’s entry in our “Day in the Life” series (here).
Who we’re looking for
Our Grants team is comprised of ten people: seven Grant Associates, two managers, and our Director of Grants. This role would report to one of the two team managers, Kate Pruitt or Alessandra Peters.
We’re hoping to add ~two Grants Associates to the team and would ideally like applicants to have at least 2 years of operations-relevant experience. We don’t expect you to be familiar with grantmaking yet (we have lots of training and resources available), but past experience related to legal compliance (e.g., as a paralegal or in other legal contexts), finance, or consulting is a bonus, as is experience in a fast-moving startup environment.
You might be a great fit if you are:
- A transparent, professional, and empathetic communicator. You can break down complex information for grantees in an accessible, straightforward way (while conveying you understand their challenges and concerns).
- Unintimidated by complexity and apply sound judgment while working independently. You can own and execute projects without a clear playbook, break novel challenges down into manageable steps, and come up with creative solutions. You approach problems with empirical and logical reasoning.
- Unusually organized and conscientious. You’re motivated by the idea of keeping systems clean, accurate, and up-to-date — it’ll bother you if grant details of the grants you’re working on aren’t properly accounted for.
- Highly receptive and adaptable to feedback. You are proactive in seeking and thoughtfully incorporating feedback, and excel in crafting and delivering constructive feedback as needed.
- Excited to become an expert on US and international grantmaking law. We manage one of the most complex grant portfolios in all of philanthropy, and members of our grants team develop a uniquely wide breadth of knowledge for the field.
- Familiar with and interested in Open Philanthropy’s work. Familiarity with our causes and fields in which related work is done — such as global health policy, biosecurity, and reducing risks from advanced AI.
We expect all our staff to:
- Put our mission first, and act decisively to help us realize our ambitious goals.
- Work to model our operating values of ownership, openness, calibration, and inclusiveness.
The ideal candidate for this position will possess many of the skills and experiences described above. However, there is no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we would strongly encourage you to do so.
Role details & benefits
- Compensation: The baseline compensation for this role is $112,719.22, which (for US hires) would be distributed as a base salary of $98,016.71 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $14,702.51.
- These figures assume a remote location; there would be geographic adjustments upwards for candidates based in the San Francisco Bay Area or Washington, D.C.
- All compensation will be distributed in the form of take-home salary for internationally based hires.
- Time zones and location: You can work from anywhere. While we are not able to sponsor visas for this role, we are open to hires outside the US willing to consistently overlap with US business hours for 5-6 hours of the day.
- Start date: We’d like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer — ideally no later than December, but the sooner the better. We expect to make an offer by early November.
- Benefits: Our benefits package includes:
- Excellent health insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any eligible dependents) and an employer-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangement for certain other personal health expenses.
- Dental, vision, and life insurance for you and your family.
- Four weeks of PTO recommended per year.
- Four months of fully paid family leave.
- A generous and flexible expense policy — we encourage staff to expense the ergonomic equipment, software, and other services that they need to stay healthy and productive.
- A continual learning policy that encourages staff to spend time on professional development with related expenses covered.
- Support for remote work — we’ll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you need one, or connect you with an Open Phil coworking hub in your city.
- Note: We can’t always provide every benefit we offer US staff to international hires, but we’re working on it (and will usually provide cash equivalents of any benefits we can’t offer in your country).
- Note: US-based operations staff are typically employed by Open Philanthropy Project LLC, which is not a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. As such, this role is unlikely to be eligible for public service loan forgiveness programs.
Please apply by Friday, 23 August 11:59 PM (Pacific Time) to be considered.
We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who share our passion for accomplishing as much good as we can. We are committed to creating an environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed, and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.