# Roots of Progress Institute **Draft profile.** Nonprofit founded by **Jason Crawford** that serves as the institutional anchor of the [[Progress Studies]] movement. Crawford began blogging about the history of technological progress in **2017**; the nonprofit (formally **Roots of Progress Institute**) grew out of the blog and now runs **writing fellowships, an annual conference, and a small grants program** for "progress writers." Funded by [[Open Philanthropy]], the [[Mercatus Center]], and Silicon Valley personal donors including [[Patrick Collison]]. ## What It Does - **Blog-Building Intensive** — 10-week fellowship for aspiring "progress writers." Cohorts learn newsletter craft, audience-building, and topic selection. The fellowship is the **movement's primary talent pipeline** — alumni populate the Substack-and-think-tank layer of Progress Studies. - **Annual Progress Conference** — Convenes the movement's writers, funders, operators, and policymakers. Bay Area / DC rotating venue. - **Editorial publishing** — Crawford's long-form essays on the history of progress (electrification, agricultural revolution, industrial chemistry, aviation) are the movement's de facto canon for "case studies in how progress actually happens." - **Small grants** — Funds adjacent writers and projects via re-granting from Open Phil and other backers. ## Why It Matters in This KB ### 1. It is the de facto institutional home of Progress Studies [[Patrick Collison]] and [[Tyler Cowen]]'s 2019 *Atlantic* essay launched the movement; **Roots of Progress is what built the actual community around it.** The fellowship, the conference, and the publishing program turned "Progress Studies" from a manifesto into a functioning intellectual scene with named cohorts, regular gatherings, and downstream institutions. ### 2. It is the writer-to-policy pipeline Roots of Progress fellowship alumni reliably end up at **[[Institute for Progress]]**, [[Mercatus Center]] adjacent projects, [[Stripe Press]]-published bookshelves, and increasingly inside DC policy shops. The org functions as the **content-and-talent factory** for the broader Progress Studies institutional stack. ### 3. It receives [[Open Philanthropy]] funding Notable for this KB: Roots of Progress is one of the bridges where **EA megafunder money** ([[Dustin Moskovitz]]/Coefficient Giving via Open Phil) crosses into **Progress Studies institutional infrastructure**. That capital flow is part of the broader story documented in [[Patrick Collison]]'s 2025 co-funding of Open Phil's Abundance & Growth Fund. ## Posture Carefully **non-political** in self-presentation — Crawford's writing emphasizes craft, history, and "neglected stories" of how progress actually happens. That posture, like [[Stripe Press]]'s, is itself the point: the movement's strategic accomplishment is reaching the conclusions of [[Extropianism]] and adjacent-[[Longtermism]] without sounding like either. Critics (see [[Progress Studies]] page) read this as **TESCREAL-adjacent ideology in academic clothing**: the org's "build more, regulate less, technologists should lead" frame travels seamlessly into [[American Dynamism]] / [[Techno-Optimist Manifesto]] politics — but stays on the respectable side of the line. ## Draft Notes / To Expand - Add formal nonprofit incorporation date (501(c)(3) filing year) - Document specific Open Philanthropy grant amounts and dates - List notable Blog-Building Intensive alumni - Trace board composition and governance - Document any [[Trump 2.0]] administration personnel ties via the fellowship pipeline - Add Jason Crawford [[Jason Crawford]] ## See Also - [[Jason Crawford]] — Founder - [[Progress Studies]] — The movement Roots of Progress anchors - [[Patrick Collison]] — Movement co-founder, funder - [[Tyler Cowen]] — Movement co-founder - [[Institute for Progress]] — Sister organization on the policy side - [[Fast Grants]] — Adjacent metascience experiment - [[Arc Institute]] — Adjacent permanent metascience institution - [[Mercatus Center]] — Adjacent institutional home - [[Open Philanthropy]] — Major funder - [[Stripe Press]] — Publishing arm - [[TESCREAL]] — Adjacent ideological bundle - [[Extropianism]] — Direct ideological ancestor