Grantmaking Process

The first stage of our grant process is the investigation, where an Open Philanthropy investigator (often the program officer for the relevant focus area) works with a potential grantee to explore and develop a funding proposal by discussing items like the proposed activities, budget, anticipated challenges, and desired outcomes of a project.¹

A typical investigation takes approximately 1-3 months and requires a time investment of approximately 2-10 hours from a potential grantee. However, investigation timelines vary substantially depending on the project. For instance, if a grant is for a small amount, is funding a time-sensitive project, or is to an organization that we know well, an investigation can be as quick as a week or less, while investigations for larger or more complicated projects can take 6-9+ months.

If an investigator concludes that the case for funding a grant is strong,² they seek “conditional approval.”

“Conditional approval” is when Open Philanthropy decides whether or not to recommend funding for a grant. To seek conditional approval, an Open Philanthropy investigator writes up and submits a write-up to our internal decision makers explaining the case for the project. Senior leadership and the investigator then discuss and decide whether or not to conditionally approve funding the grant. This stage is generally quick, often concluding within 1-2 weeks, and typically requires no time or input from the potential grantee.³ If Open Philanthropy declines to recommend funding for a project after a potential grantee invested significant time into an investigation, we may decide to recommend an “investigation grant” to recognize the time the potential grantee spent during the investigation, in accordance with our grant investigation policy.

Once a grant has been conditionally approved, the investigator will send the potential grantee a notification and connect them to our internal grants team, who will request the basic details required to process the funding recommendation and ensure compliance with our approach to openness, research transparency guidelines, or any legal restrictions that might be placed on the funding. For simple grants, reviewing and responding to the logistics email typically takes the grantee about an hour and can be completed within a week. For university and international grants, it may take a few weeks to coordinate and confirm all the grant details. Once this is completed, we formally recommend the grant to one of our external funding partners.

The Open Philanthropy Project, LLC (the organization that employs most Open Philanthropy staff) generally does not pay grants directly, but instead submits formal recommendations to one of our external funding partners, such as the Silicon Valley Community Foundation or the Good Ventures Foundation, who will then conduct legal due diligence and a formal approval process to determine whether or not to fund the grant. Legally we cannot guarantee that a grant will be made until the formal approval process has been completed by our external funding partners; historically, however, almost all of the grants that have been conditionally approved have ultimately received funding. For example, of the ~200 grants that Open Philanthropy conditionally approved in 2016, over 98% were made. In 2016, a small number of grants were conditionally approved but did not receive funding. However, these grants were canceled or postponed by grantee request, such as a grantee deciding to pursue an alternative project for the time being. That said, all Open Philanthropy grants must complete legal due diligence and the formal approval process of our external funding partners in order to be made.

For a standard grant to a US 501(c)(3) organization, our external partner’s approval process can take a few weeks to finalize and require 1-2 hours of a potential grantee’s time, while grants that involve lobbying, have an unusual structure, or are funding universities or international organizations might take a few months to process and require more involvement from a grantee. So, altogether this formal approval stage typically takes around a month but occasionally takes more like 3-6+ months for especially complicated grants (see chart below for average payment times in 2020).

Once this stage is completed, the grant is finalized, funds are transferred, and work on the project can begin.

Below is a chart showing median payment timelines (from Stage 3 to payment) by grantee type during calendar year 2022. While each situation is different, we hope these figures will provide a rough guide for what grantees should expect upon reaching Stage 3.

Once a grant has been paid, the grantee will receive more information on our public communication preferences and grant page publishing process. Additionally, the grantee’s investigator will reach out periodically (commonly at six-month intervals) to request status updates on the work, either with a check-in phone call or by requesting the grantee complete a form. These check-ins will focus on project progress, challenges encountered, and addressing any open questions that were raised during the conditional approval process. For most grants, these informal check-ins will take the place of a formal reporting process; however, occasionally for legal reasons our external funding partners may request additional reporting. If additional reporting applies to your grant, you will be informed of this during the formal approval process.

When a grant has reached the close date, if it’s eligible for renewal, another grant investigation will be conducted. The renewal investigation will be similar to the original investigation but will focus more on the progress and updates since the prior grant and an evaluation of the case for another round of funding. Depending on the project, renewal investigations can sometimes be faster and simpler than the initial investigation.