Another key reason against looking for “lego bricks” that I don’t think you addressed is that marginal thinking is much more generalizable. You’re publishing all your research work, and if I come along afterwards with £1k or £100k, a conclusion you made based on marginal thinking is much more likely to be useful to me than one tailored to your exact donation size.
My guess is that the value of your research in how it informs and influences others may even exceed the value of the £10k directly: if that’s modestly likely to be true, it seems a strong recommendation to avoid “exact fit” opportunities.
I guess strictly speaking this kind of motivation falls out of scope for your project, which aims simply to find the best way to spend the £10k. But it’s certainly a reason I’m glad you made this choice :)
Another key reason against looking for “lego bricks” that I don’t think you addressed is that marginal thinking is much more generalizable. You’re publishing all your research work, and if I come along afterwards with £1k or £100k, a conclusion you made based on marginal thinking is much more likely to be useful to me than one tailored to your exact donation size.
My guess is that the value of your research in how it informs and influences others may even exceed the value of the £10k directly: if that’s modestly likely to be true, it seems a strong recommendation to avoid “exact fit” opportunities.
I guess strictly speaking this kind of motivation falls out of scope for your project, which aims simply to find the best way to spend the £10k. But it’s certainly a reason I’m glad you made this choice :)