About Effective Ventures Operations
Effective Ventures Operations (EV Operations) enables unusually impactful organisations to achieve their goals.
Who we are
We’re a passionate and driven group of operations specialists who want to use our skills to do the most good in the world.
We strive for excellence and get things done for our customers so that they can focus on the strategic work. By providing the operational support and infrastructure, our organisations can maximise their impact in the world.
Learn more about Effective Ventures (EV).
Our activities
EV Operations provides world-class operational support and infrastructure that allows effective organisations to thrive.
Our activities include providing:
- Fiscal sponsorship
- Governance, risk, and compliance
- Finance including accounting and budgeting
- HR including hiring, visas, and payroll
- Grantmaking
- Fundraising
- Office management
- Data protection and cybersecurity support
We’ve supported and helped grow some of the most impactful organisations in the effective altruism and longtermism communities.
Teams
Executive
Our Executive team brings a laser-sharp focus to the operational and infrastructure needs of our organisations. We guide EV Operations to deliver on the details and support our organisations in achieving the most impact possible. We manage capacity, set the direction of our staff, take care of the legal and governance issues, and support the EV board.
Finance
Our Finance team tracks all the financial activity across the organisations we support, ensuring they have a clear and accurate picture of their budgets and runway. We love data analysis and providing useful business insights to organisational decision makers. The Finance team also maintains our expense and payments infrastructure.
Staff Support
Our Staff Support team supercharges staff across all organisations — by giving them access to the benefits and resources they need to do impactful work. We craft seamless onboarding experiences (including visas, contracts, and payroll) and benefits packages (including healthcare, pensions, and equipment) so that staff feel supported and empowered to do world-changing work.
Systems
Our Systems team manages grantmaking and develops CRM systems for our organisations. We aim to automate tasks and unlock valuable data that will allow organisations to track key metrics and increase the effectiveness of their programmes. The Systems team also mitigates cybersecurity risk and provides support on donor relations.
Property
Our Property team manages all of the offices, EA hubs and properties to ensure that all staff and work guests have an outstanding place to work. We ensure that our workspaces boost productivity, enable new ideas and collaborations to arise, support people’s long-term wellbeing, and are welcoming and safe environments for all.
CEOs
Rob Gledhill
CEO of EV UK
Before becoming EV UK’s CEO, Rob was the Head of Groups at the Centre for Effective Altruism — one of EV UK’s joint projects with EV US. There, he supported university groups, city groups, and CEA’s virtual programs. Prior to that, Rob worked at McKinsey in their London and Santiago offices. Rob was an early Giving What We Can member and volunteer, and was a participant in the vote to select the name “effective altruism.”
Zach Robinson
CEO of EV US
Zach was Chief of Staff at Open Philanthropy, where he managed comms and grantmaking teams, helped set org-wide policies, and worked to identify new Global Health and Wellbeing cause areas for Open Philanthropy, among other things. Prior to his work at Open Philanthropy, he was the director of product and strategy for startup Ivy Research Council and worked as a consultant at Bain and Company.
Trustees
UK Board
Lincoln Quirk
Lincoln dropped out of a Harvard Ph.D program and founded Sendwave in 2014 to lower the cost of international remittances, saving migrant workers and their families over $1B to date. In 2021 he and his co-founder sold that business and spun off a new company, Wave, to build mobile money: low-cost digital financial infrastructure in Africa. Lincoln has pledged to give 10% of his personal proceeds from his companies to charity.
Eli Rose
Eli is a Program Officer at Open Philanthropy, focusing on capacity-building for global catastrophic risks. Previously, he was Director of Engineering at Mentor Collective, a Boston educational technology company. He graduated in 2015 from Oberlin College, where he studied computer science and creative writing.
Patrick Gruban
Patrick has been Co-Director of EA Germany since 2022, and is Managing Director of a textile company he co-founded in 2012. He’s been an entrepreneur since the mid-1990s, starting his first company for online community software after finishing school. Later, he started a company that developed software for banks.
US Board
Zach Robinson
Zach is the CEO of EV US. Previously, he was Chief of Staff at Open Philanthropy, where he managed comms and grantmaking teams, helped set org-wide policies, and worked to identify new Global Health and Wellbeing cause areas for Open Philanthropy, among other things. Prior to his work at Open Philanthropy, he was the director of product and strategy for startup Ivy Research Council and worked as a consultant at Bain and Company.
Lincoln Quirk
Lincoln dropped out of a Harvard Ph.D program and founded Sendwave in 2014 to lower the cost of international remittances, saving migrant workers and their families over $1B to date. In 2021 he and his co-founder sold that business and spun off a new company, Wave, to build mobile money: low-cost digital financial infrastructure in Africa. Lincoln has pledged to give 10% of his personal proceeds from his companies to charity.
Anna Weldon
Anna is the Chief Operating Officer at the Centre for Effective Altruism. She previously served as the Director of Internal Operations at Open Philanthropy, where she built and led teams focused on People Operations, Immigration, Business Operations, and IT. Before joining Open Philanthropy, she was a senior leader at Buffalo Exchange, guiding the organisation on manager development, change management, and organisational restructuring. She serves as an executive coach to high-impact leaders.
Johnstuart Winchell
Johnstuart is the founder of Good Impressions, which provides free marketing services to effective nonprofits. Previously, he worked in strategy and operations at Google, in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group, and as a professional ballet dancer in Texas and Colorado.