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Welcome to Laidir Foundation

The Laidir Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(3) private foundation dedicated to addressing critical global challenges by improving policy and supporting innovative solutions.

Our Mission

The Laidir Foundation aspires to improve the lives of others as much as possible with our limited resources. We focus on supporting ambitious and effective organizations working in areas we believe offer the greatest potential for impact.

Our Focus Areas

1. Reducing Extreme Poverty

The Laidir Foundation supports organizations with promising, innovative approaches to reducing extreme poverty. Our efforts in this area include:

  • Funding organizations that design and pilot novel interventions to address extreme poverty
  • Supporting rigorous measurement and evaluation of the impact of interventions
  • Supporting organizations’ efforts to attract public and private funding to scale effective interventions

2. Improving Governance

The Laidir Foundation is interested in strengthening important institutions’ ability to facilitate constructive problem-solving and informed decision-making. This can include interventions such as improving talent pipelines into government, so that people in key roles are highly competent and truth-seeking; reducing political polarization both in general and in connection with key issues; and supporting infrastructure for multilateral cooperation.

3. Reducing Risks from Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence capabilities have advanced rapidly in recent years, and their future trajectory is very uncertain. Our goal is to help steer the development and deployment of AI so that it is more likely to benefit humanity.

The Laidir Foundation supports organizations that:

  • Enhance policymakers’ understanding of current AI capabilities, and how these capabilities might evolve in the next few years
  • Design policies that are likely to be beneficial, or minimally harmful, across a wide range of future scenarios. Of particular interest are regulations that would reduce the risks of catastrophes from accidents or misuse if AI capabilities progress quickly, while not placing excessive burdens on low-risk uses of AI
  • Provide critical public goods, such as research and coordination, that help civil society organizations and funders collaborate to address risks associated with AI

4. Enabling Housing and Clean Energy Development

Regulations that increase the cost of building housing and energy infrastructure raise the cost of living, and hamper efforts to address climate change. Since 2015, Laidir has supported the “Yes in My Backyard” land use reform movement, which seeks to lower barriers to building housing, particularly in high-cost urban areas. Building more housing in these areas has several benefits:

  • Increasing supply lowers the price of housing
  • When rents fall, more people can afford to move to areas where they are more productive and earn higher wages
  • Increasing housing density lowers the costs of heating and cooling, and reduces the use of energy associated with transportation
  • Many of the areas with high housing costs have temperate climates, so increased migration to these areas tends to reduce energy use

5. Improving Mental and Social Health

We believe that mental and social health are critical aspects of human wellbeing. Our work in this area mirrors our work in addressing extreme poverty, by supporting organizations that develop and test promising, scalable interventions.

Further Information

More information about the foundation can be found in its public records. At this time, the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.