EA - Meta Charity Funders: Summary of Our First Grant Round and Path Forward by Joey

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Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Meta Charity Funders: Summary of Our First Grant Round and Path Forward, published by Joey on January 16, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.We think this post will be relevant for people who want to apply toMeta Charity Funders (MCF) in the future and people who want to better understand the EA Meta funding landscape.The post is written by the organisers of MCF (who are all authors of this post).Some of our members might not agree with everything said.SummaryMeta Charity Funders (MCF) is a new funding circle that aims to fund charitable projects working one level removed from direct impact. In our first grant round spanning Aug-Oct 2023, we received 101 applications and ultimately funded 6 projects: Future Forward, Ge Effektivt, Giving What We Can, An anonymous GCR career transition initiative, promoting Peter Singer's work, and UHNW donation advisory. In total, our members gave $686,580 to these projects. We expect our next round to give 20% to 50% more than this amount, as our first round had less donor engagement and funding capacity than we expect in the future.giving multipliers" that help grow the pie of effective donations.Our grant-making process this roundMCF waslaunched at the end of July, 2023 and applications closed a month later, at the end of August. Over two months, our funding circle convened every two weeks to collaboratively decide on funding allocations, with individual members devoting additional time for evaluation between meetings. Our active members, composed of 9 individuals, undertook this project alongside their regular commitments.From the 101 applications received, the main organizers conducted an initial review. This process was aimed at creating a short(er) list of applications for more time-constrained members, by rather quickly determining if proposals were within scope, with a relevant approach and aligned team. This first stage resulted in 38 proposals advancing for further discussion, out of which 20 applicants were interviewed for more detailed insights.As the funding decisions approached in October, it became clear that many in our circle were nearing their annual donation limits or had less time than expected, which affected our final funding capacity. Ultimately, we funded 6 projects with total allocations of $686,580. See more about the grants we madebelow.While we are generally happy with this first round and very grateful for the many great applications and donors who have joined, we think we have significant room for growth and improvement. Most concretely, we hope and expect to give out more in future rounds; there were fewer active donating members in the circle this first round and several had already made their donations for the year. We also hope and expect to form and communicate a clearer scope of our funding priorities and make final grant decisions sooner within each round.Information for the next roundThe next round will open in late February, with grants given out in May.The application form will remain open but don't expect your application to be processed before March. We were generally excited about the applications we received for this round and hope that we will get similar applications in the next round as well.If you want to join Meta Charity Funders as a donor, please fill inthis form. Note that there is an expected annual donation amount of a minimum $100,000, but you obviously do not have to donate if you do not think there are good enough opportunities, and during the first year you can mainly observe. If you have any questions, please contact us at metacharityfunders@gmail.com.Check out ourwebsite to learn more about Meta Charity Funders and stay up-to-date with the new funding round.The most common reasons for rejectionBy sharing the most common reasons for rejections, we hope...