I would imagine that some of the time saved in hiring expert grantmakers could be spent training junior grantmakers. (In my somewhat analogous experience running selection for a highly competitive program, I certainly notice that some considerations that I now think are very important were entirely missing from my early decision-making!) Should I think about your comment as coming from a hypothetical that is net or gross of that time investment?
As for improved set-ups, how about something like:
Junior grantmaker receives disproportionate training on downside considerations.
Junior grantmaker evaluates grants and rates downside risk.
Above some downside risk cut-off, if the junior grantmaker wants to give funding, the senior grantmaker checks in.
Below the cut-off, if the junior grantmaker wants to give funding, the funding is improved without further checks.
(If you think missing great grants is a bigger deal than accepting bad ones, analogously change the above.)
Intuitively, I would guess that this set-up could improve quite a bit on the waste-of-your-time and speed problems, without giving up too much on better-grants-by-your-lights. But I’m sure I’m missing helpful context.
Re: comparing to FTXFF and Manifund:
Definitely makes sense that the pitches are different. I guess I would have thought of this as part of “other hiring criteria you might have”—considerations that make it more challenging to select from the pool of people with some grantmaking experience, but for which some people tick the box.
Thank you for the helpful replies Asya.
Re: deemphasizing expertise:
I would imagine that some of the time saved in hiring expert grantmakers could be spent training junior grantmakers. (In my somewhat analogous experience running selection for a highly competitive program, I certainly notice that some considerations that I now think are very important were entirely missing from my early decision-making!) Should I think about your comment as coming from a hypothetical that is net or gross of that time investment?
As for improved set-ups, how about something like:
Junior grantmaker receives disproportionate training on downside considerations.
Junior grantmaker evaluates grants and rates downside risk.
Above some downside risk cut-off, if the junior grantmaker wants to give funding, the senior grantmaker checks in.
Below the cut-off, if the junior grantmaker wants to give funding, the funding is improved without further checks.
(If you think missing great grants is a bigger deal than accepting bad ones, analogously change the above.)
Intuitively, I would guess that this set-up could improve quite a bit on the waste-of-your-time and speed problems, without giving up too much on better-grants-by-your-lights. But I’m sure I’m missing helpful context.
Re: comparing to FTXFF and Manifund:
Definitely makes sense that the pitches are different. I guess I would have thought of this as part of “other hiring criteria you might have”—considerations that make it more challenging to select from the pool of people with some grantmaking experience, but for which some people tick the box.