Effective Institutions Project

The Effective Institutions Project (EIP) is a global working group of academics, philanthropic leaders, businesspeople, and policymakers dedicated to strengthening society's ability to tackle major global challenges by improving institutional decision-making. Founded in 2021 by Ian David Moss as the Improving Institutional Decision-Making Working Group, the organization rebranded and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2023 after initially operating under the fiscal sponsorship of the Nine Muses Foundation.

EIP's work is built on the premise that leadership at important institutions frequently misjudges risks, makes choices based on political expediency, and fails to imagine wiser alternatives on issues ranging from pandemics to climate change to artificial intelligence. The organization identifies two key facets that determine the quality of an institution's decision-making: how altruistically motivated their decisions are and their technical competence.

AI governance has been a core focus since EIP's founding and currently accounts for the majority of organizational resources. The team monitors national governments, major corporations, and multilateral bodies to identify actionable improvements in how these institutions approach AI development and deployment. EIP believes that many of the foundational laws, regulations, and norms governing AI will be forged in the coming years, creating an urgent window for intervention.

Beyond AI governance, EIP works on institutional reform related to U.S. democracy, peace and security, and global health. The organization publishes research including landscape analyses of institutional improvement opportunities, primers on AI governance, and guides for philanthropic funders. It also operates the EIP Innovation Fund, a regranting vehicle that supports initiatives expected to improve institutional behavior.

EIP has built a network spanning dozens of grantmaking foundations, philanthropic families, and civic leaders. The organization has received support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Laidir Foundation, and the EA Infrastructure Fund, among others. Key advisors include leaders from Open Philanthropy, Ploughshares Fund, Metaculus, and Anthropic.