Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research

What problem is the Forethought Foundation working on?

Global priorities research is an academic discipline at the intersection of philosophy, economics, and the social sciences. It aims to determine how individuals and institutions should spend their limited resources in order to improve the world by as much as possible.

What does the Forethought Foundation do?

The Forethought Foundation is especially interested in the idea that the primary determinant of the value of our actions today is how those actions influence the very long-run future. It believes that by making the right decisions today, humanity has the opportunity to positively steer civilisation’s trajectory for thousands of years to come.

To this end, the Forethought Foundation is interested in supporting excellent research that:

• Defends or criticises the idea that we should primarily care about the very long-run impact of our actions.
• Works out the implications of a long-term view for our decisions today.
• Is of importance for the long-run future of civilisation, even if the research is not directly about the idea of long-term impact.

It supports such research through scholarships and fellowships to students in global priorities research, as well as research grants and prizes for established scholars.

The Forethought Foundation is a project of Effective Ventures (as is Giving What We Can — see our transparency page), and works in close collaboration with the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University.

This charity meets the requirements to be supported by Giving What We Can as an unlisted charity — read more about our inclusion criteria.

Why donate through the Giving What We Can donation platform?

Your donations through our portal are tax deductible in the UK, US, and the Netherlands. Giving What We Can does not take any fees from donors using our platform or from charities listed on our platform. We are independently funded to promote our mission of making giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm. Read more on our transparency page.