Public Charity

BERKELEY EXISTENTIAL RISK INITIATIVE

BERKELEY EXISTENTIAL RISK INITIATIVE is a Public Charity headquartered in COVINA, CA. Financial data from the 2024 filing: $5.8M revenue, $7.6M expenses, $4.5M total assets. 35 publicly reported grants to this organization, totaling roughly $19.3M, appear in IRS filings.

EIN: 814820272 COVINA, CA Disaster Preparedness & Relief Services NTEE: M20 Latest filing: 2024
Total Revenue$5.8M
Total Expenses$7.6M
Total Assets$4.5M
Grant Records35
Funding Total$19.3M
Filing Years2020–2024

Mission

TO IMPROVE HUMAN CIVILIZATIONS LONG-TERM PROSPECTS FOR SURVIVAL AND FLOURISHING. CURRENTLY, OUR MAIN STRATEGY IS COLLABORATING WITH UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GROUPS WORKING TO REDUCE EXISTENTIAL RISK, BY PROVIDING THEM WITH FREE SERVICES AND SUPPORT.

Where $100 goes at Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative

How Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative divides every $100 it spends, from its own Form 990 filings, averaged across 7 years.

$93 Programs the work itself
$7 Management running the organization
$0 Fundraising none reported

No fundraising costs are reported. That often means fundraising runs through a separate affiliated organization that files its own return.

Inside the $93 for programs

$48
University collaborations main we collaborated with research groups at uc berkeley, mit, the university of oxford, the university of cambridge, umass amherst, stanford, and princeton, providing services free-of-charge…
52% of program spending
$42
The ml alignment theory scholars mats is an independent research and educational seminar program that connects talented scholars with top mentors in the fields of ai alignment, interpretability…
45% of program spending
$3
University collaborations trial similar to our main collaborations program, but smaller, more exploratory, and with a wider variety of academic research groups
3% of program spending
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Source: Form 990 filings with the IRS, latest fiscal year 2024. Shares are from the organization's reported expenses. Data by Imperigo; not affiliated with the IRS.

Sample Grants Received

2025
SUPPORTS THE GREENEARTH RESEARCH PROJECT TO EVALUATE THE APPEAL AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF AN AI-DRIVEN, PROSOCIAL RECOMMENDER BY BUILDING THE REQUIRED INFRASTRUCTURE AND TESTING ITS APPLICATION AMONG ACTIVE USERS AND COMMUNITIES ON AN OPEN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.
$150,000
$1,514,060
2024
FOR RECIPIENT'S EXEMPT PURPOSE
$463,490
2024
FUND CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
$371,000
2024
SUPPORT FOR COLLABORATION WITH THE CENTER FOR HUMAN-COMPATIBLE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (CHAI).
$365,000

Showing up to 5 of 35 total records — full history available with membership.

Officers & Directors

BOARD CHAIR, PRESIDENT Andrew Critch
SENIOR POLICY ANALYST Anthony Barrett
BOARD MEMBER, TREASURER Charles Jess Riedel
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Elizabeth Cooper
MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEER Ian Baker
SECRETARY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sawyer Bernath

Officer compensation and complete director data available with membership.

Top Grant Purposes

Public Safety & Disaster Relief
$13,724,760 7 grants
General Support
$2,340,668 14 grants
Education
$1,530,320 3 grants
Human & Social Services
$1,264,491 4 grants
Research & Policy
$312,054 6 grants

Financial Trends

Year Revenue Expenses Assets
2024 $5.8M $7.6M $4.5M
2023 $7.3M $7.0M $7.0M
2022 $6.9M $3.4M $6.0M
2021 $2.8M $2.4M $2.4M
2020 $2.0M $2.8M $2.1M

Between 2020 and 2024, reported annual revenue grew from $2.0M to $5.8M (+195%), with total assets most recently reported at $4.5M.

Interactive year-over-year charts and full filing details available with membership.

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