--- category: AI & Effective Altruism created: 2026-09-23 relations: - fn: 2 role: co-chief executive, then chief executive start: 2021 type: head_of with: '[[Institute for Progress]]' summary: Former Progressive Policy Institute and Niskanen Center technology policy fellow who co-founded the Open Philanthropy-funded Institute for Progress in 2021 and became its sole chief executive in 2026. tags: - Person - InstituteForProgress - OpenPhilanthropy - ThinkTank - Biosecurity - PermittingReform - Immigration updated: 2026-09-23 --- Alec Stapp received a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and a master's degree in economics from George Mason University, where he was a graduate research fellow at the Mercatus Center. He was a technology policy fellow at the Niskanen Center, a research fellow at the International Center for Law and Economics and director of technology policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, and wrote for *[The Washington Post](/organizations/washington-post/)*, *The Atlantic*, *MIT Technology Review* and *[Politico](/organizations/politico/)*.[^1] ### Institute for Progress Stapp and [Caleb Watney](/people/caleb-watney/) co-founded the [Institute for Progress](/organizations/institute-for-progress/) (IFP) in 2021 and announced it on January 20, 2022, with the mission "to accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity's future," applying "a framework we like to borrow from the effective altruism community" of choosing issues "that are important, neglected, and tractable."[^2][^3] [Open Philanthropy](/organizations/open-philanthropy/) (later renamed Coefficient Giving)[^4] granted IFP 1.6 million dollars in October 2021, "to conduct research and advocacy on policies relevant to a number of our grantmaking areas," and 9 million dollars over three years in March 2023.[^5] IFP's returns report Stapp's pay as co-chief executive as 54,231 dollars for 2021, 163,125 dollars for 2022, 202,500 dollars for 2023 and 246,008 dollars for 2024.[^6] After Watney left in 2026 to become managing director of public policy at Coefficient Giving, Stapp was listed as IFP's sole chief executive.[^3][^7] His IFP writing includes "Why SpaceX Is an Underrated Strategic National Asset for the U.S." (March 2022); "The Case for High-Skilled Immigration Reform (And How to Make It Happen)" (August 2022, with Jeremy Neufeld); papers on permitting reform and environmental review with Brian Potter, Arnab Datta and Aidan Mackenzie (2022 to 2024); responses to the [Office of Science and Technology Policy](/organizations/office-of-science-and-technology-policy/) on research with dangerous pathogens (October 2023) and to the Environmental Protection Agency on far-UVC systems for pandemic prevention (December 2022); a January 2024 paper urging Congress to strengthen the Federal Select Agent Program; and "Biosecurity in the Trump Era" (November 2024).[^1] [^1]: Institute for Progress, "Alec Stapp," author biography and publications. https://ifp.org/author/alec-stapp/ [^2]: Institute for Progress, "Caleb Watney," author biography. https://ifp.org/author/caleb-watney/ [^3]: Institute for Progress, "About," and Stapp, Alec, and Caleb Watney, "Progress Is a Policy Choice," January 20, 2022. https://ifp.org/about/ ; https://ifp.org/progress-is-a-policy-choice/ [^4]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026, referring to "Coefficient Giving (formerly known as Open Philanthropy)." https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards [^5]: Open Philanthropy, "Institute for Progress, Policy Research," grant of October 2021, archived July 1, 2022, http://web.archive.org/web/20220701180156/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/institute-for-progress-policy-research/ ; "Institute for Progress, General Support (2023)," archived August 26, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20230826080214/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/institute-for-progress-general-support-2023/ [^6]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Institute For Progress," EIN 87-2449729, Form 990 filings for fiscal years 2021 through 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/872449729 [^7]: Coefficient Giving, "Introducing Our New Managing Director of Public Policy, Caleb Watney," July 9, 2026, archived July 14, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260714172124/https://coefficientgiving.org/research/introducing-our-new-managing-director-of-public-policy/