Nice! Here’s my own strategy for grant making. Context: I gave away ~$120k to AI safety stuff in 2021. My source of funding is somewhat sporadic, so for example I don’t expect to give much this year, but do think it’s likely that in 2023 I’ll have a similar or larger opportunity to make grants.
I’m focused on hits. So I’m willing to donate to stuff that might not succeed because the hits matter.
Another way to say this is I think of grants as investments rather than purchases.
I looked for opportunities that seem especially illegible or hard to fund or early stage and uncertain.
I think of this as angle-grating.
To that end, I also don’t intend to make a lot of follow up donations. Either I got a hit and something takes off (and is able to get funding elsewhere to continue) or it flops and we move on the the next thing and try again.
That said, I can still provide mentorship, etc. if that’s helpful to grantees beyond money. And I’d be happy to grant to the same person again for something sufficiently new and different.
Another way I think of it: I’m trying to scrape up the potential hits that aren’t good enough risks for larger granting orgs to take on who have larger reputational risks.
Hopefully seeing how I’m approaching roughly the same problem is helpful in devising your own strategy.
Nice! Here’s my own strategy for grant making. Context: I gave away ~$120k to AI safety stuff in 2021. My source of funding is somewhat sporadic, so for example I don’t expect to give much this year, but do think it’s likely that in 2023 I’ll have a similar or larger opportunity to make grants.
I’m focused on hits. So I’m willing to donate to stuff that might not succeed because the hits matter.
Another way to say this is I think of grants as investments rather than purchases.
I looked for opportunities that seem especially illegible or hard to fund or early stage and uncertain.
I think of this as angle-grating.
To that end, I also don’t intend to make a lot of follow up donations. Either I got a hit and something takes off (and is able to get funding elsewhere to continue) or it flops and we move on the the next thing and try again.
That said, I can still provide mentorship, etc. if that’s helpful to grantees beyond money. And I’d be happy to grant to the same person again for something sufficiently new and different.
Another way I think of it: I’m trying to scrape up the potential hits that aren’t good enough risks for larger granting orgs to take on who have larger reputational risks.
Hopefully seeing how I’m approaching roughly the same problem is helpful in devising your own strategy.
A lot of that makes sense, other than I don’t understand the angle-grating part?
Lol, double typo. “angel granting”