Hey, I really appreciate this discussion! I wanted to jump in on one point. You note that the Founders Pledge follow-up to the original growth post (which I co-wrote) concluded that it would be too costly to continue the research to identify funding opportunities. I just wanted to note that taht was the case that because of how FP’s funding model works. FP staff don’t directly control the pledged funds—the members make the final decision over where to donate, and can take or leave the recommendations.
Since policy orgs are difficult to evaluate, I was quite worried that we would take a lot of time to conduct these evaluations and then our members wouldn’t end up donating to the recommendations. This would not be a concern for evaluators that have direct control over some funds. They can guarantee funding to organizations they’re evaluating that reach some bar, making it worth it (in expectation) for the organizations to spend some time engaging.
Hey, I really appreciate this discussion! I wanted to jump in on one point. You note that the Founders Pledge follow-up to the original growth post (which I co-wrote) concluded that it would be too costly to continue the research to identify funding opportunities. I just wanted to note that taht was the case that because of how FP’s funding model works. FP staff don’t directly control the pledged funds—the members make the final decision over where to donate, and can take or leave the recommendations.
Since policy orgs are difficult to evaluate, I was quite worried that we would take a lot of time to conduct these evaluations and then our members wouldn’t end up donating to the recommendations. This would not be a concern for evaluators that have direct control over some funds. They can guarantee funding to organizations they’re evaluating that reach some bar, making it worth it (in expectation) for the organizations to spend some time engaging.