Summary

We are launching the Meta Charity Funders, a growing network of donors sharing knowledge and discussing funding opportunities in the EA meta space. Apply for funding by August 27th or join the circle as a donor. See below or visit our website to learn more!

If you are doing EA-aligned “meta” work, and have not received substantial funding for several years, you might be worried about funding. Over the past 10 years, Open Philanthropy and EA Funds comprised a large percent of total meta funding and are far from independent of each other. This lack of diversity means potentially effective projects outside their priorities often struggle to stay afloat or scale, and the beliefs of just a few grant-makers can massively shape the EA movement’s trajectory. 

It can be difficult for funders within meta as well. Individual donors often don’t know where to give if they don’t share EA Funds’ approach. Thorough vetting is scarce and expensive, with only a handful of grant-makers deploying tens of millions per year in meta grants, resulting in sub-optimal allocations.  

This is why we are launching the Meta Charity Funders, a growing network of donors sharing knowledge, discussing funding opportunities, and running joint open grant rounds in the EA meta space. We believe many charitable projects create a huge impact by working at one level removed from direct impact to instead enhance the impact of others. Often these projects cut across causes and don’t fit neatly into a box, thus being neglected by funders. Well known examples of meta organizations include charity evaluators like GiveWell, incubators like Charity Entrepreneurship, cause prioritization research organizations like Rethink Priorities, or field-building projects promoting effective giving or impactful careers.

Grantees: Apply to many HNW donors at once – 1st round closes August 27.

Apply here by August 27th to be considered for our 1st funding round. We are aiming for applications to hear back on a decision from on or around the end of October, though we cannot guarantee every application an adequate review as we rely on volunteer investigations. Applying should take under 90 minutes, and you can largely paste an existing application. We plan to process applications and pay out funds twice per year, but you can apply through our website anytime and may hear from interested donors between our funding rounds. 

We are open to funding meta work across a range of causes, organizational stages, strategies, etc. We are most interested in applications that have not already been substantially supported by similar actors such as EA Funds or Open Philanthropy, though we will still consider these. We expect most of our grants to range from $10,000 to $500,000 and consider grants to both individuals and organizations. We expect our first round to be between $500,000 and $1.5m of total funding. 

Please lean in favor of applying if you are unsure if you would be a good fit!

Donors: Join us! Find neglected opportunities, get help with ops and vetting, and give on your own terms.

Apply here anytime to become a member of our funding circle. Our group currently contains about a dozen (and growing) high-income donors, grant-makers, and philanthropic advisors each moving $100,000 or more per year to meta charities. Members meet virtually approximately once a month to discuss funding opportunities that have come through our open application form or that they have heard about. 

People who are unable to commit to regular meetings are still encouraged to apply and may be invited to our Slack and email list and gain access to our grant opportunities database. 

Meta Charity Funding Circle is a project of Charity Entrepreneurship and Impactful Grantmaking. It is organized by this post’s authors: Gage, Vilhelm Skoglund, and Joey Savoie. Our members are anonymous.