Alliance president Marc Kastner and members The Kavli Foundation, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Simons Foundation, and Heising-Simons Foundation are included in this story by David Kramer.Philanthropic efforts on behalf of basic research span a range of modalities, from assistance for individual investigators to the establishment of research institutes.

Inside Philanthropy's Tate Williams writes: "While much research funding comes in the form of tightly defined, incremental project grants, HHMI’s investigators enjoy unrestricted funding for years at a time. The gig is now even sweeter, as the latest round of winners will receive support for an initial term of a whopping seven years instead of five, a…

The Open Philanthropy Project, whose primary funders are Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, "is guided by the principles of effective altruism, a philosophy and a movement that seeks to use reason and evidence to determine the best ways to do good." Read about the philanthropic organization's philosophy and practices in Stanford Social Innovation Review here.

Tate Williams reports on changes at The Kavli Foundation, which is expanding through its Kavli Institutes and Kavli Prizes, and through its support of science communication. The Kavli Foundation is a founding member of the Science Philanthropy Alliance."Hoping to provide flexible dollars—to contrast often-rigid government grants or profit-driven corporate R&D—the foundation found a unique way…

Eric Schmidt is demonstrating a keen interest in how artificial intelligence, data, and technology in general might accelerate scientific discovery and otherwise help solve the world’s problems. Read the story, written by Tate Williams, here.