We are excited to announce the launch of our new Abundance and Growth Fund, which will spend at least $120 million over the next three years to foster economic growth and boost scientific and technological progress while lowering the cost of living.

We believe that scientific and technological progress have been the central drivers of economic growth over the past few centuries, increasing living standards and reducing poverty around the world. We also believe that the growth of (even well-intentioned) governmental regulation and institutional sclerosis more broadly is artificially creating scarcity, raising costs and slowing progress. We want to jointly accelerate scientific progress and remove these constraints to create a richer, healthier world.

Open Philanthropy is already one of the most active funders in this space. Over the past decade, we’ve played a catalytic role in funding the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement, helping to seed some of the most important groups advocating for greater housing supply to enable more people to afford life in the country’s most productive cities. Since 2021, we have also been leading funders in innovation policy, providing founding support to organizations like the Institute for Progress (IFP) that advocate for reforms to increase the pace of scientific and technological development. From New York City’s City of Yes — the largest reform to zoning in the city since 1961 — to IFP’s partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to test new funding mechanisms supporting high-risk, high-reward projects, our grantees have already achieved major policy wins to advance the cause of progress and material abundance.

We believe that now is the right time to double down. The fund will absorb and expand on our existing work in land use and innovation policy, including by investing in movement building for the nascent Abundance and Progress Studies ecosystems. It may also support efforts to promote energy abundance (including permitting reform), reform clinical trials, and limit non-competes and occupational licensing, among other policies. The Fund will nearly triple our prior funding commitments to these fields.

Read the full article about the Abundance and Growth Fund by Alexander Berger and Otis Reid at Open Philanthropy.