How do you go about the “pitch”? That is, how do you try to convince EA grantmakers to give you funding? EAs tend to be interested in the most effective interventions, or at least “hits-based” interventions (ideas that have high expected value after multiplying by a low probability of success).
Now, funders should maybe also be interested in community-building funding, where a grant is given not so much because a project is likely to make an outsized difference in the world, but simply because an EA (GWWC signatory?) wants to use their expertise to do good in a specific way, and they have been unable to get funding to do so through conventional channels, without there being an apparent good reason for that (i.e. the project seems worthwhile and deserving). I don’t know if there’s a standard way of thinking about this question, but I’ve had some rejections from EA orgs myself, and I suspect it’s easy for EA orgs to undervalue the EA community itself.
And of course, when it comes to African EAs in Africa, cost-effectiveness might be doubled or tripled by the low cost of living, and there is additional value to the local economy in keeping educated people in Africa rather than encouraging them to move somewhere with more grants.
Your framing of the “pitch” really resonates with me. I’ve also come to see that EA funders are usually looking for two things: either a very clear expected-value calculation (large-scale upside even if low probability), or a hits-based angle that justifies the risk. In my own applications, I have tried to emphasize both the problem framing (AMR, vaccine access, neglected pathogens) and the counterfactuals (what happens if no one funds work like this in West Africa).
Where I sometimes struggle is that the models of impact that are easiest to pitch are not always the ones that are easiest to pursue from here. For example, data generation without lab infrastructure is a huge bottleneck, and “outsourcing” samples to labs abroad doesn’t build the kind of capacity that would make Africa a real hub for cost-effective interventions in the future. So my pitch often ends up highlighting not just the potential impact of the science, but also the long-term community and capacity-building effects.
I agree with you that EA orgs may undervalue this community dimension. A grant that enables African researchers to stay in Africa and work on global health challenges doesn’t just have immediate outputs—it creates future multipliers by training students, sustaining institutions, and making EA more global in practice rather than just in aspiration.
And your point about cost-effectiveness is key. The “multiplier effect” of lower cost of living and local economic benefit is rarely factored into evaluations, yet it can make projects here 2–3x more efficient than equivalents in high-income countries.
I’d be curious—when you’ve pitched community-building or capacity-building angles, have you found particular ways of framing them that land better with funders?
Thanks for your answer; it sounds like you basically understand the game the same way I do. Unfortunately, I can’t offer useful advice, because I’m an Earning-To-Give engineer with no experience in science work, grantmaking or grant-receiving. (There’s a project I’d like funding for, but haven’t worked hard on pitches because I’m contractually “locked in” to my current job.)
How do you go about the “pitch”? That is, how do you try to convince EA grantmakers to give you funding? EAs tend to be interested in the most effective interventions, or at least “hits-based” interventions (ideas that have high expected value after multiplying by a low probability of success).
Now, funders should maybe also be interested in community-building funding, where a grant is given not so much because a project is likely to make an outsized difference in the world, but simply because an EA (GWWC signatory?) wants to use their expertise to do good in a specific way, and they have been unable to get funding to do so through conventional channels, without there being an apparent good reason for that (i.e. the project seems worthwhile and deserving). I don’t know if there’s a standard way of thinking about this question, but I’ve had some rejections from EA orgs myself, and I suspect it’s easy for EA orgs to undervalue the EA community itself.
And of course, when it comes to African EAs in Africa, cost-effectiveness might be doubled or tripled by the low cost of living, and there is additional value to the local economy in keeping educated people in Africa rather than encouraging them to move somewhere with more grants.
Thanks for this thoughtful response.
Your framing of the “pitch” really resonates with me. I’ve also come to see that EA funders are usually looking for two things: either a very clear expected-value calculation (large-scale upside even if low probability), or a hits-based angle that justifies the risk. In my own applications, I have tried to emphasize both the problem framing (AMR, vaccine access, neglected pathogens) and the counterfactuals (what happens if no one funds work like this in West Africa).
Where I sometimes struggle is that the models of impact that are easiest to pitch are not always the ones that are easiest to pursue from here. For example, data generation without lab infrastructure is a huge bottleneck, and “outsourcing” samples to labs abroad doesn’t build the kind of capacity that would make Africa a real hub for cost-effective interventions in the future. So my pitch often ends up highlighting not just the potential impact of the science, but also the long-term community and capacity-building effects.
I agree with you that EA orgs may undervalue this community dimension. A grant that enables African researchers to stay in Africa and work on global health challenges doesn’t just have immediate outputs—it creates future multipliers by training students, sustaining institutions, and making EA more global in practice rather than just in aspiration.
And your point about cost-effectiveness is key. The “multiplier effect” of lower cost of living and local economic benefit is rarely factored into evaluations, yet it can make projects here 2–3x more efficient than equivalents in high-income countries.
I’d be curious—when you’ve pitched community-building or capacity-building angles, have you found particular ways of framing them that land better with funders?
Thanks for your answer; it sounds like you basically understand the game the same way I do. Unfortunately, I can’t offer useful advice, because I’m an Earning-To-Give engineer with no experience in science work, grantmaking or grant-receiving. (There’s a project I’d like funding for, but haven’t worked hard on pitches because I’m contractually “locked in” to my current job.)