| Elie Hassenfeld, Co-Founder and Executive Director of GiveWell, Joins Denver Frederick |
2019-05-04 |
Denver Frederick |
The Business of Giving |
GiveWell |
Elie Hassenfeld |
Job experience |
Charity evaluator |
Elie Hassenfeld, co-founder and Executive Director (ED) of GiveWell, discusses GiveWell's work with Denver Frederick. While most of the discussion is around GiveWell's work as a charity evaluator, there is some discussion of company culture. Hassenfeld says that GiveWell values openness, but also places importance on kindness toward one another. He mentions the existence of a Slack channel for people to post their mistakes. There is also discussion of GiveWell putting board meeting audio online. |
| Why did three GiveWell board members resign in April 2019? |
2019-04-03 |
Milan Griffes |
Effective Altruism Forum |
GiveWell |
Rob Reich, Brigid Slipka, Tom Rutledge, Elie Hassenfeld |
Board member departure |
Charity evaluator |
Milan Griffes asks people what they know about the reasons for the departure of three board members from GiveWell announced at [8] The comments and answers discuss the resignation letters posted by Rob Reich and Brigid Slipka at [9] and [10] respectively, and also the response of GiveWell Executive Director (ED) Elie Hassenfeld at [11] Griffes also links to and pastes questions by him and answers from Catherine Hollander of GiveWell in the GiveWell open thread [12] |
| Elie Hassenfeld Board Letter |
2019-04-01 |
Elie Hassenfeld |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
Rob Reich, Brigid Slipka, Elie Hassenfeld |
Board member departure |
Charity evaluator |
Elie Hassenfeld, GiveWell Executive Director (ED) responds to concerns raised by resigning board members Rob Reich and Brigid Slipka that they express in their respective resignation letters [9] and [10] Hassenfeld says "I understand their concerns and agree with them that it is crucial that GiveWell has a board that plays a serious role in its governance." However, he says that a smaller, focused, and engaged board is the way the board could best participate actively in governance, and that he came to this decision after discussion with staff, board members, and leaders at similar nonprofits. He also expresses gratitude to resigning board members Rob, Brigid, and Tom Rutledge for their support of and service to GiveWell both as board members and outside of that. |
| Brigid Slipka Board Resignation Letter |
2019-03-05 |
Brigid Slipka |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
Brigid Slipka, Elie Hassenfeld |
Board member departure |
Charity evaluator |
Brigid Slipka resigns from the GiveWell board. In the letter, she explains her reasons and giving some parting advice to GiveWell. She resigns in response to Elie Hassenfeld writing to her about a desire to reduce the Board to five people, which he does after Rob Reich offers his resignation at [9] and reduces the board size from 8 to 7. Slipka begins by sharing her understanding of the stages of nonprofits and the relationship between the board and the Executive Director (ED) at each stage. The stages she lists are start-up, adolescent, mature, and stagnant. With this backdrop, she praises GiveWell for moving toward maturity and sustainability, and highlights: expanding the number of recommended charities, adding a Director of Operations and a Director of Outreach, diversifying stakeholders by restricting operating support of any one donor to 20%, and splitting off the Open Philanthropy Project so as not to dilute its core mission. However, she says she is "unsettled by the decision to reduce the Board down to a hand-picked group of five, two of whom are the co-founders and another of whom is the primary funder (in addition to also funding Holden at Open Philanthropy)." She considers this a regressive change. She offers three suggestions to GiveWell to improve matters: (1) create a Nominating Committee chaired by a non-Board member, (2) increase the board to to include experts and representatives of beneficiaries, (3) adjust staff's relationship with the board. Elie Hassenfeld responds briefly at [11] and all the letters are listed at [8] |
| Rob Reich Board Resignation Letter |
2019-02-04 |
Rob Reich |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
Rob Reich, Elie Hassenfeld |
Board member departure |
Charity evaluator |
Rob Reich resigns from the GiveWell board, citing three reasons: (1) He is taking on a new set of professional responsibilities and needs to free up time for those, (2) He believes that service on a nonprofit board should not be ongoing, and his five-year stint has been long enough. (3) He has continuing concerns that GiveWell leadership does not take the board's role seriously, and that board meetings are held mainly to meet legal obligations. Although he has communicated this to GiveWell leadership and they have taken some steps to address his concerns, he thinks the steps are not adequate in achieving his goal of a professionalized board. Reich concludes by requesting that his letter be included on the GiveWell site and linked from [13] -- this is granted, with [8] as an intermediate page. Reich's resignation would be followed by the resignation of Brigid Slipka and Tom Rutledge after GiveWell leadership decides to contract the board. Slipka explains her resignation at [10] |
| GiveWell is hiring! |
2018-01-25 |
Elie Hassenfeld |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
|
Hiring-related notice |
Charity evaluator |
Elie Hassenfeld announces that GiveWell is hiring for a number of positions. Positions listed include Director of Operations, Head of Growth, Research Analyst, Senior Research Analyst, and Summer Research Analyst. |
| We’re hiring a Director of Operations |
2016-05-24 |
Elie Hassenfeld |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
|
Hiring-related notice |
Charity evaluator |
Elie Hassenfeld, GiveWell's Executive Director (ED) announces that GiveWell is looking to hire a Director of Operations to head the Operations team that "is responsible for all finance, accounting, HR, legal and tech functions at GiveWell and the Open Philanthropy Project." He also links to the job posting page [14] The role would eventually be filled by Sarah Ward starting July 2016 (at the time of Hassenfeld's blog post, Ward is already at GiveWell as a Research Analyst). After Ward's departure in February 2018, GiveWell hires Whitney Shinkle as Director of Operations starting April 2018. |
| GiveWell is hiring |
2014-03-12 |
Elie Hassenfeld |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
|
Hiring-related notice |
Charity evaluator |
Elie Hassenfeld announces that GiveWell is hiring because they believe they are capacity-constrained. He announces open positions for Research Analyst, Summer Research Analyst, Administrative Assistant, and Conversation Notes Writer. |
| GiveWell is hiring |
2013-02-20 |
Elie Hassenfeld |
GiveWell |
GiveWell |
|
Hiring-related notice |
Charity evaluator |
Elie Hassenfeld announces that GiveWell is looking for outstanding people to join its team, specifically the Research Analyst and Research Associate positions. He says that GiveWell is hiring for both full-time positions and paid summer internships. |