Previously:
Ran my own impact consultancy organization, PathNav
Led the AI grantmaking program at Astralis Foundation
Co-founded Impact Academy (now SteadRise)
Led the Meta Charity Funders
In an earlier life, I worked with machine learning/software engineering in venture capital/finance.
Fun fact: I won the grand prize (100 000 SEK) on the Swedish quiz show “Muren” which I donated through geeffektivt.se
Toby wrote this post, which touches on many of the questions you asked. I think it’s been significantly under-hyped!
Ah, sorry that makes a lot more sense haha!
All decisions are made by funders individually, so I can’t speak for everyone, but overall I don’t think it has influenced people much so far.
Of course, if we thought applicants had bad reasons for wanting to remain anonymous then that would be a red flag.
Applicants’ wishes are usually aligned with our assessments, so far we haven’t deviated from the wishes of the applicants we ultimately choose to fund.
Unfortunately, we can’t share much. In some cases, applicants have a preference for anonymity, for one reason or another and we have to respect their wishes to maintain trust and integrity in our application process.
This understanding is correct. All funding decisions are made by individual members and decisions don’t necessarily reflect the aggregate view of the circle.
To add on this, I’m confused by your choice to grow these teams quite abruptly as opposed to incrementally. What’s your underlying reasoning?
This article is primarily aimed at donors, not grantees.
FWIW, I also think it’s valuable information for grantmakers who want to understand the types of applications others are excited about funding.
Thank you for the write-up!
This line:
“Note (23 November 2022): It was announced that FTX.com, Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange, is facing a severe financial crisis.”
Makes it seem that the announcement and article are from November 23rd and not November 8th, which I fear slightly less attentive people might miss.
Agreed! The series has been valuable for my personal thinking around this (I quoted the post I linked above as late as yesterday.) Imo, more people should be paying attention to this.