Caroline Ellison, the former head of Alameda Research, has begun working at the nonprofit grant platform Manifund. Co-founder Austin Chen made the news public on September 11, 2026, explaining that Ellison will help improve the organization’s funding tools and study better ways to steer philanthropic money toward high-impact causes.
She started a trial period on July 13 and moved into a full-time position on August 10.
For the first two months she posted updates and assisted users under the name “Carol.”
Manifund is a 501(c)(3) charity focused on effective altruism and artificial intelligence safety.
It runs open grant proposals, fiscal sponsorship, and regranting programs.
Ellison’s day-to-day work involves technical infrastructure, operations, customer support, and research on grantmaking methods rather than deciding which projects receive money.
Chen said he first noticed Ellison through her writing and invited her to an event where she asked about joining the team.
He also mentioned a personal sense of obligation: the FTX Future Fund had earlier provided seed support that helped launch related projects and drew him into the effective-altruism community.
While he remains uneasy about FTX’s collapse and the damage it caused users and the broader movement, he argued that Ellison had admitted her mistakes, helped recover funds for creditors, and completed her sentence.
In his view, that record justified offering her a chance to contribute again.
Manifund needs capable staff, Chen wrote, because large problems such as advanced AI risks, poverty, disease, and animal suffering remain urgent.
Ellison’s experience in finance and systems management has already been useful.
She built a reconciliation tool that flagged several incorrectly recorded transactions in the five- to six-figure range.
Chen described her as hardworking, modest, and aligned with the group’s priorities, including a shared interest in flexible funding structures.
He apologized for the temporary use of a pseudonym, calling it a limited departure from Manifund’s usual transparency.
He pointed readers to the organization’s public source code, financial records, and Ellison’s own code commits so outsiders can evaluate the work directly.
Ellison, for her part, restated her regret for her role at Alameda and FTX and said she understood why some people might hesitate to work with her.
She thanked Chen for judging her on current performance and said she feels fortunate to be at an organization whose mission she supports.
She plans to keep improving the platform’s technical systems and sharing updates through the group’s newsletter.
The hiring has revived debate about second chances after the 2022 FTX failure. Ellison pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges, cooperated with prosecutors, and testified against Sam Bankman-Fried.
She began a two-year sentence in November 2024 and was released early in January 2026. Critics have questioned the reputational cost to Manifund and related organizations; supporters have framed the decision as a practical use of available talent.