GiveWell was started by donors, looking to accomplish as much good as possible with our donations. Our staff, Board, and supporters share a commitment to complete openness in our decision-making, to help others with their decisions and create better dialogue on the difficult question of where to give.

Full-time staff

Holden Karnofsky graduated from Harvard in 2003 with a degree in Social Studies, and spent the next several years in the hedge fund industry. He founded GiveWell in August of 2006, as a part-time collaboration between 8 friends struggling with their personal donation decisions, and left his job in mid-2007 to work on the project full-time.

Elie Hassenfeld graduated from Columbia in 2004 with a degree in Religion, and spent the next several years in the hedge fund industry. He was one of the original 8 part-time volunteer members of GiveWell, and in August of 2007 he left his job to work on it full-time.

Teel Lidow graduated from Princeton in 2007, and started his involvement with GiveWell as a volunteer. He joined the project full-time in December 2007.

Board of Directors

Bob Elliott (Chair) was one of the original 8 members of GiveWell, as well as co-founder of the national nonprofit Global Justice (not eligible for a Clear Fund grant).

Virginia Zink (Vice-Chair) is a former Head of Institutional Sales at ING Australia, and one of our project's major financial supporters.

Greg Jensen (Treasurer) is co-Chief Investment Officer at a major hedge fund, the former supervisor of both Holden and Elie, and one of our project's major financial supporters.

Tim Ogden (Secretary) is Chief Knowledge Officer of Geneva Global, a philanthropic consulting firm devoted to results-oriented grantmaking in the poorest regions of the world.

Lucy Bernholz is President and Founder of Blueprint Research and Design, author of Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets, and maintainer of the Philanthropy 2173 blog.