I don’t think you are actually making this argument, but this comes close to an uncharitable view of GiveWell that I strongly disagree with, which goes something like “GiveWell can’t recommend MIRI because it would look weird and be bad for their brand, even if they think that MIRI is actually the best place to donate to.” I think GiveWell / OpenPhil are fairly insensitive to considerations like this and really just want to recommend the things they actually think are best independent of public opinion. The separate branding decision seems like a clearly good idea to me, but I think that if for some reason OpenPhil were forced to have inseparable branding from GiveWell, they would be making the same recommendations.
I don’t think you are actually making this argument, but this comes close to an uncharitable view of GiveWell that I strongly disagree with, which goes something like “GiveWell can’t recommend MIRI because it would look weird and be bad for their brand, even if they think that MIRI is actually the best place to donate to.” I think GiveWell / OpenPhil are fairly insensitive to considerations like this and really just want to recommend the things they actually think are best independent of public opinion. The separate branding decision seems like a clearly good idea to me, but I think that if for some reason OpenPhil were forced to have inseparable branding from GiveWell, they would be making the same recommendations.