(separate comment for agree/disagree voting purposes)
While much has been rightly said about the job insecurity created by small grant-dependent organizations, that model does provide some job security advantages. If your independent organization has two employees, a grant for this year, and six month’s runaway after that . . . you have a decent bit of job security until mid-2024. The independent organization is constrained to use its funding to accomplish the organization’s mission as stated in its bylaws, so you don’t have much job insecurity from someone deciding the mission isn’t that great anymore.
In contrast, if your org becomes a BigOrg project, you run the risk that BigOrg decides its mission isn’t good anymore (and that you’re not worth moving to another project), Even if funding is legally locked to your project, the restriction can be removed with the donor’s consent. Thus, it seems likely that some additional protections for employees, such as employment contracts vs. at-will employment, would be necessary to avoid creating greater job insecurity than already exists.
I’m not sure that bigger orgs would lead to less job security.
Living grant-to-grant certainly can feel pretty scary. Sure, you can feel confident about ~12-16 months at the very start of getting grants, but those last 3-8 months can be stressful.
Of the people I know at OP/EV/RP, I can’t think of many who got laid off.
If I were working in a larger organization on an uncertain initiative, I could imagine, and would hope for, organizations that we could trust with clear things, even if they aren’t legal. For example, if my superior clearly states in writing that my project will get 1-2 years of funding, and I know a fair bit about the history and track record of that person, I might well trust them.
I think the crux here may be how the consolidated/bigger org would be funded and budgeted. If the funding that would be going to projects of the bigger org consists largely of the same short-term / specific-purpose grants that were going to the smaller orgs, it’s probably going to be difficult for the bigger org to commit to longer-term funding for a project.
I have some concerns about switching from many small orgs to fewer bigger orgs without simultaneously changing the funding model for this work from the current style of grants to (quoting Peter’s comment) “the enduring multi-year funding commitments that are necessary to sustain a large org.” Trying to run a bigger org on small-org style funding arrangements feels like it could be the worst of both worlds.
(separate comment for agree/disagree voting purposes)
While much has been rightly said about the job insecurity created by small grant-dependent organizations, that model does provide some job security advantages. If your independent organization has two employees, a grant for this year, and six month’s runaway after that . . . you have a decent bit of job security until mid-2024. The independent organization is constrained to use its funding to accomplish the organization’s mission as stated in its bylaws, so you don’t have much job insecurity from someone deciding the mission isn’t that great anymore.
In contrast, if your org becomes a BigOrg project, you run the risk that BigOrg decides its mission isn’t good anymore (and that you’re not worth moving to another project), Even if funding is legally locked to your project, the restriction can be removed with the donor’s consent. Thus, it seems likely that some additional protections for employees, such as employment contracts vs. at-will employment, would be necessary to avoid creating greater job insecurity than already exists.
I’m not sure that bigger orgs would lead to less job security.
Living grant-to-grant certainly can feel pretty scary. Sure, you can feel confident about ~12-16 months at the very start of getting grants, but those last 3-8 months can be stressful.
Of the people I know at OP/EV/RP, I can’t think of many who got laid off.
If I were working in a larger organization on an uncertain initiative, I could imagine, and would hope for, organizations that we could trust with clear things, even if they aren’t legal. For example, if my superior clearly states in writing that my project will get 1-2 years of funding, and I know a fair bit about the history and track record of that person, I might well trust them.
I think the crux here may be how the consolidated/bigger org would be funded and budgeted. If the funding that would be going to projects of the bigger org consists largely of the same short-term / specific-purpose grants that were going to the smaller orgs, it’s probably going to be difficult for the bigger org to commit to longer-term funding for a project.
I have some concerns about switching from many small orgs to fewer bigger orgs without simultaneously changing the funding model for this work from the current style of grants to (quoting Peter’s comment) “the enduring multi-year funding commitments that are necessary to sustain a large org.” Trying to run a bigger org on small-org style funding arrangements feels like it could be the worst of both worlds.