GiveWell is a research organization that identifies and funds cost-effective giving opportunities focusing on global health and well-being. Our work is funded by tens of thousands of donors who rely on our research to inform their giving. Weve grown from directing $1.5 million in 2010 to directing nearly $400 million in 2024.

The role

Were hiring an Office and Events Manager to own the management of our Oakland office develop and manage in-person events and support the employee experience. Youll be a member of our People team reporting to our Head of People and work out of our Oakland office (3 days per week minimum).

Why is GiveWell hiring for this position now

GiveWells work aims to save and improve the lives of people around the world. We couldnt do that without a high-performing team. Its important that each person on our team is supported productive and aligned with GiveWells goals and that we create a culture that is inviting for new team members. Our team has grown substantially in the last few years and we want to invest in improving our in-person events engagement team-building and more. This role which is an expanded version of our previous Operations Assistant role will have a tangible impact on our ability to create a high-trust employee-centric and inclusive environment. Were excited to welcome someone whos passionate about helping us develop a strong integrated team!

The job will include the following types of activities:

• Managing our Oakland office which is our headquarters and host location for semi-annual Visit Weeks. Youll ensure that the Oakland office is in great shape and that it provides a seamless experience to our in-office employees and guests. Youll also manage vendor relationships and support employees working from our smaller coworking spaces in New York City and London and potentially others as needs arise.
• Planning and managing our in-person events including location and venue selection vendor management travel/logistics coordination and on-site support. We may also ask you to occasionally support in-person donor events. Our current staff events include:
• Twice-yearly all-staff Visit Weeks at our Oakland office (youll fully plan these)
• Annual retreats for our Operations Research Outreach and senior leadership teams (youll lead planning for these working closely with departmental leadership)
• Several small subteam retreats (youll provide responsive support for these but wont be responsible for full planning)
• Building engagement in a remote-first work environment. Approximately 20% of our employees are based in the Bay Area and work from our office at least once per week. We also have around 15 employees who work out of our Brooklyn office and around 5 employees who work out of our London office. The remainder (just over 50% of GiveWell staff) work fully remotely. Wed like you to build team cohesion and social connection in ways that make sense for our team both by developing new rituals and by managing existing rituals like All-Staff meetings Brown Bag Lunches (employee-led conversations or discussions around hobbies or interests) and Round Tables (educational discussions focused on our work).
• Recognizing employees. Youll find ways to recognize the positive contributions of our team members praise and incentivize excellent performance and celebrate big wins and employee milestones.
• Carrying GiveWells culture. Youll support a strong culture by modeling transparency truthseeking and candid feedback. Youre a welcoming presence for all new staff and support them in acclimating to GiveWell throughout their onboarding

About you

Were looking for candidates with three or more years of experience with office management and event planning. Prior experience in employee engagement in operations or as an executive assistant is also a plus!

We also think the following characteristics will lead to success in the role. If youd describe yourself using many of the sentences belowor if your colleagues and friends would describe you that waywe encourage you to submit an application!

• You own your work. Youve independently carried out projects from start to finish. You loop in the right stakeholders at the right time and keep the big picture in mind while moving projects across the finish line.
• Youre conscientious. You have strong attention to detail and you dont cut corners. You have high output. You can capably juggle multiple projects with differing priorities and are always looking for new ways to add value.
• Youre creative. Youve created systems from scratch and you enjoyed doing it. Youre constantly on the lookout for new ways to bring teams together and improve our shared spaces.
• Youre aligned with GiveWells mission and values. Youre passionate about GiveWells work and impact and you personally resonate with our values. We think this is very important both for your professional success at GiveWell and for your day-to-day enjoyment of our culture.
• Youre a realist. You understand that culture management and employee experience is complex that its impossible to perfectly satisfy every stakeholder and that hard tradeoffs are sometimes required. Youve developed good judgment about how to navigate challenging situations.
• You communicate candidly. You share information proactively youre receptive to feedback and you give feedback to others. Youre an effective verbal and written communicator.
• You meet the physical requirements of the position. This job requires the ability to lift and move up to 45 pounds as well as other physical abilities for actively participating in office management.

Details

• Team: Youll report to our Head of People.
• Compensation: $105000/year
• Location: This position is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. You will be expected to go into our Oakland office at least 3 days per week (and occasionally more).
• Benefits: Our benefits include:
• Fully funded health dental vision and life insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any dependents)
• Four weeks of paid time off per year
• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave
• Ergonomic home workstations or coworking space memberships
• 403(b) retirement plan
• Travel: This role is expected to own all in-person events and will be expected to fully plan and be present at two Visit Weeks each year in our Oakland office three department retreats per year and select donor events. You would also be expected to support the coordination and logistics of an annual department head retreat and several sub-team retreats.
• Start date: Wed like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer but well offer flexibility for candidates whose personal or professional circumstances require them to moderately delay their start date.
• Application deadline: We dont currently have an application deadline. If that changes well update the posting. Were reviewing applications on a rolling basis so we recommend applying as soon as possible.

Key questions and information

We expect you might want to know the answers to the following questions before you apply.

What is the Oakland office like
We have just over 20 employees in the San Francisco Bay Area including our CEO Chief of Staff General Counsel Head of Philanthropy and Head of Business Operations. Most weekdays 3 to 5 employees work from the office and on Tuesdays when we offer a catered lunch we regularly have 12 to 15 (the person in this role coordinates the lunches). We also host our bi-annual Visit Weeks in the office which has a capacity of about 40.

What is the in-office requirement for this role
On a typical week wed like you to go into the office 3 days (Tuesdays are required). However from time to time youll need to be in more frequentlyfor example to run special events greet guests or handle facility needs.

What are the goals of Visit Weeks
For many years GiveWell has held regular Visit Weeks to bring together staff working in many locations and we have iterated on them over time. Theyve been an important part of the GiveWell employee experience as weve increased our remote employee base. Our formal goals for Visit Weeks are to:

• Build community/connection with colleagues
• Improve collaboration and work output

We hope this role will help evolve how we approach and think about Visit Weeks especially as we continue to grow.

What is GiveWells culture like
GiveWell has a distinct and unique culture thats influenced by our values of maximizing global well-being transparency truth-seeking and emphasizing considerateness. Here are a few examples of our values in action:

• Change Our Mind. In 2022 we ran the Change Our Mind contest to solicit criticism of our work from external sources. We paid large cash prizes to the best entries and small participation awards to all good-faith submissions.
• I Was Wrong. In the early days of GiveWell some staff made a T-shirt that said I Was Wrong. The shirt lived at the office and people occasionally wore it when they made a prediction that turned out to be inaccurate. The T-shirt was a lighthearted reminder that its ok to be wrong. The important thing is to be clear with yourself and others about whats true.
• Transparency. We maintain a prominent public log of our mistakes and have done so since the beginning of GiveWell. We also publish our board meeting materials and information about our operational finances.

What is the hiring process like
Our basic plan for the hiring process is listed below. If you move to step 2 youll be in touch with a member of our recruiting team who will quickly answer any questions about logistics and timelines.

1. Submit your application below. You dont need to write a cover letterwe deliberately turned off the cover letter upload field; we only need you to answer our application questions.
2. 30-minute introductory conversation with our Talent Acquisition Team
3. 75-minute interview with Head of People and Talent Acquisition Manager
4. Onsite Interview
5. Values Interview
6. 30-minute final conversation with Head of People
7. Reference checks
8. Offer

Please note that we could choose not to move forward at any stage of the process described above and we do not share individualized evaluative feedback with applicants.

We plan to devote substantial time to reviewing applications and we will respond to everyone who applies. Well review applications on a rolling basis so its better to apply sooner. If we decide to close the application by a specific deadline well update this page at least one week in advance.

About GiveWell

GiveWell is dedicated to finding and funding outstanding giving opportunities in global health and development sharing the full details of our analysis with everyone for free. Our giving funds enable donors to contribute to the most impactful and cost-effective programs our researchers identify.

Since 2007 weve directed over $2.6 billion to cost-effective programs and the last two years weve made more than $500 million in grants. GiveWell is one of the worlds largest private funders of global development efforts and we estimate that the funding weve directed will save more than 340000 lives.

GiveWell is most well-known for recommending a small number of Top Charities which currently support seasonal malaria chemoprevention antimalarial nets vaccine incentivization and vitamin A supplementation. However most of our research capacity is devoted to finding cost-effective opportunities outside of those programs.

GiveWell grants have:

• Helped governments to implement high-impact health programs like in-line chlorination of drinking water in India and HIV/syphilis screening and treatment for pregnant people in Zambia and Cameroon.
• Funded program delivery alongside strengthened monitoring and evaluation as in our grants to support treatment of clubfoot and to evaluate the program.
• Sought to scope and scale promising interventions that dont have clear existing implementers. We are supporting the Clinton Health Access Initiatives Incubator and Evidence Actions Accelerator to identify potentially cost-effective interventions and create programs that we would be excited to support in the future. For example we funded a program to provide diarrhea treatment to children in Nigeria that we co-designed with CHAI through the Incubator program.
• Tested our assumptions through further research including studies on the effect of water chlorination on mortality the impact of a tree-planting program on farmers income and the effects of combining the RTSS malaria vaccine and perennial malaria chemoprevention.

We never take for granted that GiveWells work is good for the world. We make our reasoning public and transparent so others can challenge it (sometimes we even pay people to point out our errors). We go to unusual lengths to check our assumptions and assess our impact including funding research and external analysis to address our uncertainties and insisting that our grantees conduct rigorous monitoring and evaluation. We change our minds when the evidence demands it.

Additional information

We dont want to miss candidates that could do great things at GiveWell. Practically that means a GiveWell staff member reviews every application carefully considering the whole picture of your background and potential. If youre on the fence about applying because you meet some but not 100% of our preferred qualifications (some studies suggest this hesitation is especially common for women and people of color) we encourage you to apply anyway.

GiveWell is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer by choice. At minimum this means that we comply with all federal state and local EEO and employment laws. Beyond the requirements of those laws we value our teams diversity in all respects and we desire to maintain a work environment free of harassment or discriminationwe want our team members to thrive at GiveWell. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability contact us at We will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

By submitting an application you acknowledge that you have read and consent to GiveWells Privacy Statement for Applicants. By completing an application exercise you acknowledge and assent to GiveWells Work Trial Policy.