Good Ancestors Policy

Good Ancestors Policy is an Australian charity founded in late 2022, dedicated to improving the long-term future of humanity by advocating for evidence-based policy measures that reduce catastrophic and existential risks. The organization operates alongside a sister entity, The Good Ancestors Project, under the shared Good Ancestors brand. The organization was founded by Greg Sadler, who serves as CEO and brings 15 years of experience in the Australian public service, including roles in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Attorney-General's Department, and the Department of Home Affairs, where he served as the senior national security adviser to the Home Affairs Minister. The team also includes COO Luke Freeman (former CEO of Giving What We Can), Operations Manager and Researcher Nathan Sherburn (CTO of Effective Altruism Australia), and Policy Officer Emily Grundy (who previously worked on MIT's AI Risk Repository). The board includes Bradley Tjandra, Harriet Farlow, and Rebecca Cutter. Good Ancestors works across four key areas: AI safety, pandemic prevention, catastrophic disaster preparedness, and systemic policy reform. In AI safety, the organization has published an AI Policy White Paper for 2025-2028, designed expert surveys for an Australian AI Safety Institute, made pre-budget submissions, and conducted AI legislation stress tests. They advocate for Australia to establish an AI Safety Institute, introduce an AI Act, and become a global leader on AI safety. In its inaugural year, Good Ancestors achieved several notable policy wins: persuading the Australian government to expand a $5 billion disaster readiness fund to include catastrophic disasters, leveraging a relationship with the Charity Minister Andrew Leigh MP to drive reforms to charity law allowing charities to better work on existential risk and animal welfare, and pressing government to take AI risks seriously in international forums and standards bodies. The organization receives funding from individual donors in Australia, charitable foundations in the US and Europe, and paid research projects for government organizations. It has been supported by Open Philanthropy with a $523,800 USD grant over two years for global catastrophic risks advocacy. Good Ancestors also engages in community-building, supporting grassroots organizations like Australians for AI Safety and the Sydney AI Safety Space.