For the counterfactual that someone unknown to me dropped ~$17.5M in the fund only a few weeks out from the payout, I think this round we would have perhaps would have given something like $3M-$4M out. This is because due diligence for larger grants takes longer than only a few weeks for us to do. However, in the round following we would look to do ~2.5-3.5X that $3-4M for something like $7M-$14M next round.
Alternatively, if, instead, we knew that 6 months in advance there would be a sum like that (~$20M), then I would imagine we would be in a much better position to significantly scale our giving and likely would have given something like ~$12M out in this round. Importantly, I think we’d push to give it to some of the outstanding bigger orgs (e.g. THL and GFI). Another way to put this would be: the Fund’s current strategy (mostly smaller orgs /​ mostly things Open Phil & other big funders aren’t funding) is constrained by applicants & our capacity (though those constraints have gotten better over time). But that doesn’t constrain total funding in the space. I think that point is worth emphasizing because I think our field as a whole could easily absorb >$20M annually (and really needs it if we’re to make major progress). Further, to the extent that the AWF were to have significantly more funds in it, then we would somewhat shift our strategy towards funding more established groups who are able to productively take on >$M per grant.
Actually, for ~$5M a few weeks out from payout or several months in advance, I think we would have given out ~$3M now.
One important factor that ties into the above; we aim to grant out all that we get in a calendar year in that same calendar year.
Another is some of the grantees from this round could certainly absorb more funding in a pretty productive fashion. To briefly gesture at some groups, my view is that Rethink Priorities still has at least several hundred k of RFMF and Global Food Partners, too.
There are some other promising grantees that we pushed to the next round in order to further evaluate them (e.g., Equalia and Good Food Fund). I think that the entire set of promising grantees from this last round that we pushed to the next round could take on ~$1M now. With further funding, we would also look to further push some promising groups, say Fish Welfare Initiative, who may not have a tonne of RFMF right now, to further develop plans for what they could do if we were to 2-3X our grant to them in this round.
Responding to your points, Michael:
I think good applicants with good proposals for implementing good project ideas and grantmaker capacity to solicit or generate new project ideas, are more our bottlenecks for the current AWF strategy (but as I mentioned above, I could see our strategy shifting towards more established groups if we were to have much more in the AWF) as opposed to grantmaker capacity to evaluate project ideas.
Thanks for your further distinctions, too.
My quickish take is: I think now there are too few applications in general on some promising ideas (hence our RFP) and the applications that we have which aren’t sufficiently high quality, are more due to the quality of the idea.
I think we have too few applications on quality ideas, because there are now too few such people interested in effective animal advocacy, to a greater extent than there are such people who are in EAA but they’re applying less often than would be ideal.
Some differences here:
For the counterfactual that someone unknown to me dropped ~$17.5M in the fund only a few weeks out from the payout, I think this round we would have perhaps would have given something like $3M-$4M out. This is because due diligence for larger grants takes longer than only a few weeks for us to do. However, in the round following we would look to do ~2.5-3.5X that $3-4M for something like $7M-$14M next round.
Alternatively, if, instead, we knew that 6 months in advance there would be a sum like that (~$20M), then I would imagine we would be in a much better position to significantly scale our giving and likely would have given something like ~$12M out in this round. Importantly, I think we’d push to give it to some of the outstanding bigger orgs (e.g. THL and GFI). Another way to put this would be: the Fund’s current strategy (mostly smaller orgs /​ mostly things Open Phil & other big funders aren’t funding) is constrained by applicants & our capacity (though those constraints have gotten better over time). But that doesn’t constrain total funding in the space. I think that point is worth emphasizing because I think our field as a whole could easily absorb >$20M annually (and really needs it if we’re to make major progress). Further, to the extent that the AWF were to have significantly more funds in it, then we would somewhat shift our strategy towards funding more established groups who are able to productively take on >$M per grant.
Actually, for ~$5M a few weeks out from payout or several months in advance, I think we would have given out ~$3M now.
One important factor that ties into the above; we aim to grant out all that we get in a calendar year in that same calendar year.
Another is some of the grantees from this round could certainly absorb more funding in a pretty productive fashion. To briefly gesture at some groups, my view is that Rethink Priorities still has at least several hundred k of RFMF and Global Food Partners, too.
There are some other promising grantees that we pushed to the next round in order to further evaluate them (e.g., Equalia and Good Food Fund). I think that the entire set of promising grantees from this last round that we pushed to the next round could take on ~$1M now. With further funding, we would also look to further push some promising groups, say Fish Welfare Initiative, who may not have a tonne of RFMF right now, to further develop plans for what they could do if we were to 2-3X our grant to them in this round.
Responding to your points, Michael:
I think good applicants with good proposals for implementing good project ideas and grantmaker capacity to solicit or generate new project ideas, are more our bottlenecks for the current AWF strategy (but as I mentioned above, I could see our strategy shifting towards more established groups if we were to have much more in the AWF) as opposed to grantmaker capacity to evaluate project ideas.
Thanks for your further distinctions, too.
My quickish take is: I think now there are too few applications in general on some promising ideas (hence our RFP) and the applications that we have which aren’t sufficiently high quality, are more due to the quality of the idea.
I think we have too few applications on quality ideas, because there are now too few such people interested in effective animal advocacy, to a greater extent than there are such people who are in EAA but they’re applying less often than would be ideal.