“Some Ways I Think About Evaluating Grant Applications” by sarahconstantin

Rider-Waite Tarot, 6 of Pentacles I’ve done enough grant evaluations so far (for ACX grants and SFF) and been involved in philanthropy in various other contexts, at work and informally, that I have developed some idea of how my opinions and intuitions differ from other people's. I thought it might be interesting to share some of my “tastes”. Not everybody has to have the same tastes or funding philosophy, but these are mine. #1: It's The Donor's Money In my worldview, charitable donation is optional. Generally praiseworthy, but optional. And the purpose of donation is to buy outcomes that the donor wants to see in the world. You donate to make the world more like the one you want to live in. Generally, a reasonable person's values go beyond strictly personal consumption; one also cares about what kind of a society one lives in, what other people's lives are like, what sorts of institutions exist, what sorts of things humanity has created or discovered, and so on. As an agent doing research or evaluation on behalf of a donor, I try to find opportunities that fit in the intersection between my own values and the donor's. If there [...] --- Outline: (00:41) #1: It's The Donor's Money (02:02) #2: Importance, Neglectedness, Tractability (03:23) #3: Yay Community Infrastructure (04:51) #4: Yay Niche Topics (05:37) #5: Yay "Technical" Work (07:03) #6: Yay Straightforward Public Information Resources (08:00) #7: Yay "Cool Shit" (08:41) #8: Two Cheers for Meta (11:27) #9: Gumption Counts (12:33) #10: Yay Personal Relationships (13:46) #11: Check For Ideological Orientation (14:43) #12: Filter Slop Aggressively (15:54) #13: Yay Outcomes (16:38) #14: Why Donate Rather Than Invest? The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: August 13th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CuNtKAuLDGxNeanBi/some-ways-i-think-about-evaluating-grant-applications --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.