About the ECF
Over the next decade, emerging technologies will pose significant challenges to global security. Rapid advances in AI, for example, could lower the barriers for malicious actors to carry out large-scale biological or cyber attacks, bring democratic processes under unprecedented strain, and accelerate scientific and economic progress like never before. At present, we are neither ready to face the next deadly pandemic nor equipped to navigate escalating geopolitical tensions as global superpowers build more nuclear weapons, of more types, on more platforms.
The ECF aims to prepare the world for these challenges. We prefer to support projects that meet Longview’s usual grantmaking criteria and pass two further tests:
- Does the project have a legible theory of impact? ECF grantees must have a compelling and transparent case in favour of their impact that a range of donors will appreciate.
- Will the project benefit from diverse funding? Often, support by a large number of donors, rather than a single organisation or donor, is of particular value.
In 2024, we allocated over half of the ECF to civil society organisations invited to help draft the EU AI Act’s Code of Practice. This grant round is especially well-suited for the Fund, as (i) providing expertise to those shaping the implementation of the EU AI Act is both vitally important and legible, and (ii) it is important that these civil society organisations are funded by a diversity of sources and can remain credibly independent from any single interest group, and (iii) the Fund allowed us to make the grants quickly as they were needed urgently. We aim for this to exemplify the ECF’s grantmaking strategy—quickly supporting clear opportunities that other philanthropists overlook or are not well-suited to support.
For those seeking to invest in a safer future this fund provides unique expertise across beneficial AI, biosecurity, and nuclear weapons policy and fills critical funding gaps at organisations in need of rapid financial support and a diversity of donors.
Longview also delivers additional services for larger donations:
- Recommendations. For donors wishing to make large gifts, we offer access to grant recommendations drawn from our top opportunities. These concise analyses help donors find and fill the most critical funding gaps.
- End-to-End Effective Giving. For major donors seeking to develop significant philanthropic portfolios, we provide a bespoke end-to-end service at no cost. This includes detailed analysis, expert-led learning series, residential summits, tailored strategic planning, grant recommendations, due diligence, and impact assessment. Please get in touch with our CEO, Simran Dhaliwal, at sim@longview.org.