If the confusion is that you expected us to have more runway, I’m not very sure what to say. I think this sector can be pretty difficult. We’re in talks for funding from one donor, which would help cover this gap, but I’d like to not depend that much on them.
We also do have a few months of reserves that we could spend in 2025 if really needed.
The surprise for me was that QURI has only been able to fundraise for ~24% of its lower-estimate CY25 funding needs. Admittedly, I don’t follow funding trends in this space, so maybe that news isn’t surprising to others. The budget seems sensible to me, by the way. Having less runway also makes sense in light of events over the past two years.
I think the confusion for me involves a perceived tension between numbers that might suggest a critical budget shortfall at present and text that seemed more optimistic in tone (e.g., talking about eagerness to expand). Knowing that there’s a possible second major funder helps me understand why that tension might be there—depending on the possible major funder’s decision, it sounds like the effect of Forum-reader funding on the margin might range from ~”keeping the lights on” to “funding some expansion”?
Yea, I’m not very sure what messaging to use. It’s definitely true that there’s a risk we won’t be able to maintain our current team for another year. At the same time, if we could get more than our baseline of funding, I think we could make good use of it (up to another 1-2 FTE, for 2025).
I’m definitely still hoping that we could eventually (next 1-5 years) either significantly grow (this could mean up to 5-7 FTE) or scale in other ways. Our situation now seems pretty minimal to me, but I still strongly prefer it to not having it.
I’d flag that the funding ecosystem feels fairly limited for our sort of work. The main options are really the SFF and the new Open Philanthropy forecasting team. I’ve heard that some related groups have also been having challenges with funding.
If the confusion is that you expected us to have more runway, I’m not very sure what to say. I think this sector can be pretty difficult. We’re in talks for funding from one donor, which would help cover this gap, but I’d like to not depend that much on them.
We also do have a few months of reserves that we could spend in 2025 if really needed.
The surprise for me was that QURI has only been able to fundraise for ~24% of its lower-estimate CY25 funding needs. Admittedly, I don’t follow funding trends in this space, so maybe that news isn’t surprising to others. The budget seems sensible to me, by the way. Having less runway also makes sense in light of events over the past two years.
I think the confusion for me involves a perceived tension between numbers that might suggest a critical budget shortfall at present and text that seemed more optimistic in tone (e.g., talking about eagerness to expand). Knowing that there’s a possible second major funder helps me understand why that tension might be there—depending on the possible major funder’s decision, it sounds like the effect of Forum-reader funding on the margin might range from ~”keeping the lights on” to “funding some expansion”?
Thanks for the clarification!
Yea, I’m not very sure what messaging to use. It’s definitely true that there’s a risk we won’t be able to maintain our current team for another year. At the same time, if we could get more than our baseline of funding, I think we could make good use of it (up to another 1-2 FTE, for 2025).
I’m definitely still hoping that we could eventually (next 1-5 years) either significantly grow (this could mean up to 5-7 FTE) or scale in other ways. Our situation now seems pretty minimal to me, but I still strongly prefer it to not having it.
I’d flag that the funding ecosystem feels fairly limited for our sort of work. The main options are really the SFF and the new Open Philanthropy forecasting team. I’ve heard that some related groups have also been having challenges with funding.