Maximilian Negele

Investigating the historical longevity of institutions in order to better understand the feasibility of setting up charitable foundations that last hundreds of years.

This small grant is for Maximilian to work on a research project with Phil Trammell, who works at the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford. The project is to research the historical "longevity and decay of universities, philanthropic foundations, and catholic orders" in order to inform the feasibility of setting up charitable foundations that last for centuries.

I am optimistic about Phil Trammell's research work on patient philanthropy and think this is a relevant topic to research as part of that. Existing work relies on assumptions about being able to transfer wealth and resources into the future; understanding how likely an institution is to be able to do this will be informative for understanding whether to spend longtermist resources now or later.