Thanks for sharing this! I’m on the meta fund team and open to feedback.
First I want to quickly flag that we no longer do community building grants due to their complexity and instead intend to fund CEA CBG. Community building projects are very hard to properly evaluate, track and support and I applaud CEAs team for working so hard at this. However, at each round CBG sends us a proposal on what additional funding can achieve in terms of fulfilling existing commitments and new applications, to help inform our funding decision to them (if any).
Addressing the sourcing-through-networks point, I just went through our early stage grants in the last year quickly and it looks like the majority were people we met through our various funding processes as opposed to people we knew already. Late stage grants we did of course have connections to already but I think that’s to be expected, and these organisations are quite well known in any case.
We could say that people don’t apply because they haven’t heard of us, that could be true. Thanks for the idea to share to FB groups and newsletter, we will try that and see if it affects application quality. We are very keen for more applications and any suggestions most welcome.
There’s a separate question of secondary network effects like people getting better talent, better mentoring and stronger referrals based on geographical networks. I won’t address that here now but can have a go if interesting.
I can only speak for myself but I think we already have a slightly lower bar for funding project proposals in further flung locations and I’m not convinced it would be worth it to lower it further.
I could imagine a scenario where it became clear we were missing lots of really strong opportunities further afield but I’d be surprised we weren’t seeing more signs of it already with many strong projects appearing just through the application forms and intros. The very very early stage work of getting local groups going and that sort of thing falls outside of what the Meta Fund can realistically include within its remit. We also don’t have so much funding that funding projects without clear merit for the sake of stimulating growth in a region would make sense any time soon.
I do think ideally we would have a Bay Area based committee member. Peter M was there until earlier this year and we are all fairly well connected there.
I am confused by this. I consider it a key responsibility of the meta fund to independently fund community building grants, and this is a major update downwards on the value of the meta fund for me.
I would strongly urge you to consider investing more into evaluating and vetting community-building grants. I don’t think it’s healthy for CEA to be the only funder in this space.
I’m wondering if there’s confusion around what’s meant by “community building grants.” I’m imagining that Alex means something like “If EA Macedonia wants funding, we’re going to refer them to CEA’s CBG program because they specialize in local and national groups. But if someone wants to do something like mental health resources for the community, the Meta Fund would still consider that our remit.” Is that right?
Yes that’s right, thanks Julia and apologies for any confusion. I use the term differently to how the OP has used it. We are still looking at anything that falls outside of the remit of CBG but are unable to offer the level of vetting and direct support that we think is necessary to fund local groups well and so are funding that via CBG. We have still been looking at special projects by local groups that fall outside of the remit of CBG also.
First I want to quickly flag that we no longer do community building grants due to their complexity and instead intend to fund CEA CBG.
Wait, given Nicole’s recent post, does this mean that both the Meta Fund & CEA are moving away from making community grants?
(From Nicole’s post: “At this stage, I think it is fairly likely that EA Grants won’t continue in its current form, and that we will instead encourage individuals to apply to EA Funds.”)
Thanks for engaging and providing this helpful info Alex!
Addressing the sourcing-through-networks point, I just went through our early stage grants in the last year quickly and it looks like the majority were people we met through our various funding processes as opposed to people we knew already. Late stage grants we did of course have connections to already but I think that’s to be expected, and these organisations are quite well known in any case.
Using Open Phil’s framework of categorizing grantmaking methods as people-based, process-based, or project-based, how would you classify the “various funding processes” meta fund managers use in their other grantmaking? To the extent managers are using people-based methods, I think that would exacerbate some of the concerns I’ve raised, while if they’re sourcing ideas through process or project based methods that would mitigate my concerns on the margins.
Thanks for sharing this! I’m on the meta fund team and open to feedback.
First I want to quickly flag that we no longer do community building grants due to their complexity and instead intend to fund CEA CBG. Community building projects are very hard to properly evaluate, track and support and I applaud CEAs team for working so hard at this. However, at each round CBG sends us a proposal on what additional funding can achieve in terms of fulfilling existing commitments and new applications, to help inform our funding decision to them (if any).
Addressing the sourcing-through-networks point, I just went through our early stage grants in the last year quickly and it looks like the majority were people we met through our various funding processes as opposed to people we knew already. Late stage grants we did of course have connections to already but I think that’s to be expected, and these organisations are quite well known in any case.
We could say that people don’t apply because they haven’t heard of us, that could be true. Thanks for the idea to share to FB groups and newsletter, we will try that and see if it affects application quality. We are very keen for more applications and any suggestions most welcome.
There’s a separate question of secondary network effects like people getting better talent, better mentoring and stronger referrals based on geographical networks. I won’t address that here now but can have a go if interesting.
I can only speak for myself but I think we already have a slightly lower bar for funding project proposals in further flung locations and I’m not convinced it would be worth it to lower it further.
I could imagine a scenario where it became clear we were missing lots of really strong opportunities further afield but I’d be surprised we weren’t seeing more signs of it already with many strong projects appearing just through the application forms and intros. The very very early stage work of getting local groups going and that sort of thing falls outside of what the Meta Fund can realistically include within its remit. We also don’t have so much funding that funding projects without clear merit for the sake of stimulating growth in a region would make sense any time soon.
I do think ideally we would have a Bay Area based committee member. Peter M was there until earlier this year and we are all fairly well connected there.
Thanks again
I am confused by this. I consider it a key responsibility of the meta fund to independently fund community building grants, and this is a major update downwards on the value of the meta fund for me.
I would strongly urge you to consider investing more into evaluating and vetting community-building grants. I don’t think it’s healthy for CEA to be the only funder in this space.
I’m wondering if there’s confusion around what’s meant by “community building grants.” I’m imagining that Alex means something like “If EA Macedonia wants funding, we’re going to refer them to CEA’s CBG program because they specialize in local and national groups. But if someone wants to do something like mental health resources for the community, the Meta Fund would still consider that our remit.” Is that right?
Yes that’s right, thanks Julia and apologies for any confusion. I use the term differently to how the OP has used it. We are still looking at anything that falls outside of the remit of CBG but are unable to offer the level of vetting and direct support that we think is necessary to fund local groups well and so are funding that via CBG. We have still been looking at special projects by local groups that fall outside of the remit of CBG also.
Wait, given Nicole’s recent post, does this mean that both the Meta Fund & CEA are moving away from making community grants?
(From Nicole’s post: “At this stage, I think it is fairly likely that EA Grants won’t continue in its current form, and that we will instead encourage individuals to apply to EA Funds.”)
CEA’s Community Building Grants Program is planning to continue. You can see our most recent update about it here.
Oh right, thanks!
Also just saw this good comment on the same topic.
Thanks for engaging and providing this helpful info Alex!
Using Open Phil’s framework of categorizing grantmaking methods as people-based, process-based, or project-based, how would you classify the “various funding processes” meta fund managers use in their other grantmaking? To the extent managers are using people-based methods, I think that would exacerbate some of the concerns I’ve raised, while if they’re sourcing ideas through process or project based methods that would mitigate my concerns on the margins.