RE 5d chess—I think I’ve experienced this a few times at organizations I’ve worked with (e.g. multiple funders saying, “we think its likely someone else will fund this, so are not/only partially funding it, though we want the entire thing funded,” and then the project ends up not fully funded, and the org has to go back with a new ask/figure things out. This is the sort of interaction I’m thinking of here. It seems costly for organizations and funders. But I’ve got like an n=2 here, so it might just be chance (though one person at a different organization has messaged me since I posted this and said this point resonated with their experiences). I don’t think this is intentional on funders part!
RE timelines—I agree with everything here. I think this is a tricky problem to navigate in general, because funders can have good reasons to not want to fund projects for extended periods.
RE vocabulary—cultural differences make sense as a good explanation too. I can think of one instance where I felt like this was especially noticeable—I encouraged a non-EA project I thought was promising to apply for funding, and they didn’t get it. I pitched the funder on the project personally, and they changed their mind. There are obviously other factors at play here (e.g. maybe the funder trusted my judgement?), but I felt like looking at their application, it seemed like they just didn’t express things in “EA terms” despite being pretty cool, and their application wasn’t overly sensational or something.
RE brain drain—I agree with everything here. I think I’m more concerned about less prestigious but really promising organizations losing their best people, and that grantmaking in particular is a big draw for folks (though maybe there is a lot of need for talented grantmakers so this isn’t a bad thing!).
Thanks for the response!
RE 5d chess—I think I’ve experienced this a few times at organizations I’ve worked with (e.g. multiple funders saying, “we think its likely someone else will fund this, so are not/only partially funding it, though we want the entire thing funded,” and then the project ends up not fully funded, and the org has to go back with a new ask/figure things out. This is the sort of interaction I’m thinking of here. It seems costly for organizations and funders. But I’ve got like an n=2 here, so it might just be chance (though one person at a different organization has messaged me since I posted this and said this point resonated with their experiences). I don’t think this is intentional on funders part!
RE timelines—I agree with everything here. I think this is a tricky problem to navigate in general, because funders can have good reasons to not want to fund projects for extended periods.
RE vocabulary—cultural differences make sense as a good explanation too. I can think of one instance where I felt like this was especially noticeable—I encouraged a non-EA project I thought was promising to apply for funding, and they didn’t get it. I pitched the funder on the project personally, and they changed their mind. There are obviously other factors at play here (e.g. maybe the funder trusted my judgement?), but I felt like looking at their application, it seemed like they just didn’t express things in “EA terms” despite being pretty cool, and their application wasn’t overly sensational or something.
RE brain drain—I agree with everything here. I think I’m more concerned about less prestigious but really promising organizations losing their best people, and that grantmaking in particular is a big draw for folks (though maybe there is a lot of need for talented grantmakers so this isn’t a bad thing!).
I found this helpful and I feel like it resolved some cruxes for me. Thank you for taking the time to respond!