They’d get retroactive funding for the rest, yes. When you say it seems very bad, do you mean because then LTFF (for example) has less money to spend on other things, compared to the case where they just gave the founder a (normal, non-retroactive) grant for the estimated cost of the project?
Yes. Rather than spending $1 on a project worth $10, the funder is spending $10 on the project — so the funder’s goals aren’t advanced. (Modulo that the retroactive-funding-recipients might donate their money in ways that advance the funder’s goals.)
Related, not sure: maybe it’s OK if the funder retroactively gives something like cost ÷ ex-ante-P(success). What eliminates the surplus is if the funder retroactively gives ex-post-value.
Edit: no, this mechanism doesn’t work. See this comment.
They’d get retroactive funding for the rest, yes. When you say it seems very bad, do you mean because then LTFF (for example) has less money to spend on other things, compared to the case where they just gave the founder a (normal, non-retroactive) grant for the estimated cost of the project?
Yes. Rather than spending $1 on a project worth $10, the funder is spending $10 on the project — so the funder’s goals aren’t advanced. (Modulo that the retroactive-funding-recipients might donate their money in ways that advance the funder’s goals.)
Related, not sure: maybe it’s OK if the funder retroactively gives something like cost ÷ ex-ante-P(success). What eliminates the surplus is if the funder retroactively gives ex-post-value.
Edit: no, this mechanism doesn’t work. See this comment.