As an applicant who was among those that were rejected, there are a couple of points that I wanted to add:
The fundamentals of this grant program are awesome—I can’t stress this enough: a grant program of this size that is low red tape, rewards ambition, tolerates failure, and gives a quick decision is amazing. As you’re processing critical feedback, please don’t lose sight of the fact that the fundamentals of this program are awesome.
One of biggest impacts of this program might be how it influences other grant makers—I totally understand that you want to have a large impact with the money you’re giving out, but I think your biggest positive impact could end up coming from inspiring other large grant makers. So many grant programs put up huge barriers to the exact types of people that are most likely to have a large impact. In the same way you were inspired by Fast Grants, if this program inspires others to streamline their application processes that will be a huge win.
This was your first attempt at this—Your team is moving quickly with bold experiments. Of course there will be lessons learned and course corrections, but your ambition combined with your humble posture and request for feedback is commendable.
Fairness and prudence are important, but so is emotional toll on the evaluators - It would be a major disappointment if your processes, while fair and thorough, turned out to be stressful and miserable for those evaluating the applications. In order for these calls to be sustainable, it’s important that those doing the work actually enjoy it instead of dreading it. It would be a shame if this wasn’t repeated because of how stressful it was for your team. This program is important! And it’s important to consider the human side of the process. In an ideal world this would be a fun process for both the applicants and the evaluators rather than a stressful one.
This was a really important experiment, and I hope it was rewarding for your team.
As an applicant who was among those that were rejected, there are a couple of points that I wanted to add:
The fundamentals of this grant program are awesome—I can’t stress this enough: a grant program of this size that is low red tape, rewards ambition, tolerates failure, and gives a quick decision is amazing. As you’re processing critical feedback, please don’t lose sight of the fact that the fundamentals of this program are awesome.
One of biggest impacts of this program might be how it influences other grant makers—I totally understand that you want to have a large impact with the money you’re giving out, but I think your biggest positive impact could end up coming from inspiring other large grant makers. So many grant programs put up huge barriers to the exact types of people that are most likely to have a large impact. In the same way you were inspired by Fast Grants, if this program inspires others to streamline their application processes that will be a huge win.
This was your first attempt at this—Your team is moving quickly with bold experiments. Of course there will be lessons learned and course corrections, but your ambition combined with your humble posture and request for feedback is commendable.
Fairness and prudence are important, but so is emotional toll on the evaluators - It would be a major disappointment if your processes, while fair and thorough, turned out to be stressful and miserable for those evaluating the applications. In order for these calls to be sustainable, it’s important that those doing the work actually enjoy it instead of dreading it. It would be a shame if this wasn’t repeated because of how stressful it was for your team. This program is important! And it’s important to consider the human side of the process. In an ideal world this would be a fun process for both the applicants and the evaluators rather than a stressful one.
This was a really important experiment, and I hope it was rewarding for your team.