This looks wonderful, congrats. Dumb question on my end - there seems to be a lot of overlap in some areas with causes that Openphil target. My impression was Openphil wasn’t funding constrained in these areas and had more money to deploy than projects to put it into (maybe that’s not accurate though)

If it is - what do you see the marginal add of the Future fund being? E.g will it have a different set of criteria from Openphil such that it funds thing Openphil has seen but wouldn’t fund, or are you expecting a different pool of candidate projects that Openphil wouldn’t be seeing?

This sounds incredibly exciting!

a philanthropic fund making grants and investments to ambitious projects in order to improve humanity's long-term prospects.

What is the reason for excluding non-human sentience? 

Suggestion: the Future Fund should take ideas on a rolling basis, and assess them in rounds. EA is the kind of community where potentially good ideas bubble up all the time, and it would be a real shame if those were wasted because the funders only listen during narrow windows. Having an open drop-box to submit ideas costs FF almost nothing, and makes a bias-towards-action and constant passive brainstorming much easier.

Context: this idea

The footer on your site says to post any questions as public comments on this post, so here goes (this is not directly related to the content of this post):

I noticed that a $470,000 grant to Charity Entrepreneurship, that was visible on your site as recently as August 31 (see http://web.archive.org/web/20220831210840/https://ftxfuturefund.org/our-grants/), is now no longer visible on your grants page. What happened to the grant?

I also noticed that https://ftxfuturefund.org/our-grants/ lists a grant to Michael Robkin, but that this grant is not listed at either https://ftxfuturefund.org/our-grants/?_funding_stream=open-call (open call grants) or https://ftxfuturefund.org/our-grants/?_funding_stream=ad-hoc (staff-led grants). My understanding was that everything in https://ftxfuturefund.org/our-grants/ should be listed either as an open call grant or a staff-led grant, but this does not seem to be the case. What might be going on?

Thank you!

Interesting to see Economic Growth as an area of interest. Generally the EA movement has preferred more targeted ways to improve the far future such as  working to reduce specific existential risks, or differential technological development. This seems to me to be a slight deviation from the norm.

Do you have a sense of the relative importance of work on economic growth vs working on a specific existential risk such as AI or biosecurity?

Are those areas of interest on your website in rough order of importance, or is the order random?

I love the format, but I also have to voice one concern.  Having to judge a potentially large number of brief proposals in a rather quick manner with a small team might entail that the eminence of the applicants ends  up being used as a significant decisive factor (e.g., well-established persons at elite institutions in the US/UK or known EA organizations having a significantly better chance).

While such a bias might partially be rational, the resulting Matthew effect ('the rich get richer')  would also have negative consequences. There are diminishing returns for funding absorbed by already well-funded institutions, perceived unfairness might discourage potentially great applicants in future funding rounds, and opportunities for spreading EA-relevant work into novel communities (which can leverage novel perspectives, talent, follow-up funding) might be lost.

I'm not sure what the consequence of this is for the particular call --perhaps you are well aware of these issues and committed to avoid them anyways-- but it would probably be good to keep it in mind.

Wonderful news. Do you have an idea of when the next open funding round will be? Or how often you will be open for applications, in general? I'm trying to determine how the upcoming March 21 deadline fits into my current plans for 2022.

Hey y'all - as it's been over 14 days since the application deadline, I think most applicants are expecting to hear back by now.

I imagine the Future Fund team was overwhelmed with applications sent in right at the deadline and is working diligently to get through all of them.

Future Fund team - would it be possible to provide a broad update (via bcc email blast, twitter post, and/or post here) on where y'all are at and when folks can expect a response of some sort? I'm sure all applicants would really appreciate it :) 

Hello! Is March 21st a hard deadline? If so do you plan on announcing other calls for proposals in the future and if so do you have any idea of when ( 3 months, 6 months, etc). Or is the plan to accept proposals/ideas on a rolling basis?

Love the well thought-trough approach and look forward to how it will unfold further into the future!

One of the questions in the application form reads: "How much $/yr could this project plausibly productively use at maximum scale down the road?"

I’m not sure how to interpret this question. Does the question for example refer to potential annual revenue of the initiative, to potential grant money the initiative would be able to effectively apply, or to a $ value to the social impact that the initiative generates?

From the "Areas of Interest" page:

We also want to enable outstanding professionals, academics, and students to step away from their current line of work or research, in order to work on issues with special relevance to protecting the long-term future. We’re excited to explore fellowships, prizes, teaching buyouts, increased compensation, start-up incubators, and any other promising mechanism for achieving this goal. 

It is unclear whether you are interested in funding organizations who set up mechanisms for funding professionals or if you are also willing to fund professionals  who submit an application directly. Could you please clarify? 

Exciting! On the application form, there is an instruction to upload a video "if you are launching a new organization." What counts as "new" for this purpose? And would you recommend erring on the side of making a video if there's some question about whether you fall under the requirement or not?

My University requires a postal address for the FTX Foundation in order to process my application. Could you please advise?

Very exciting! Is this funding specifically targeting the development of new organizations or would this also fund new academic research on this topic (e.g., antecedents and impediments to the shifting of moral values across cultures; the psychological process of moralization (as applied to EA-relevant ideas and values); barriers to longtermism thinking and interventions amongst laypeople, organizational leaders, and policymakers; etc.)? 

The application form seems to be closed. 

When/how can we submit applications for the next evaluation round?

I've received a rejection notice but I submitted two proposals and the rejection notice does not identify the proposal.   I'd like to understand whether  both proposals were rejected or whether one is still in the running.

I have a question about the budget. Are there any costs you don't allow? In our institution we usually include overheads unless they are either a) explicitly listed by the funder as an ineligible cost, or, b) the funder sets their own limit on the max overheads we can request i.e. 5 or 10% of the total project costs. it would be really helpful to know - thanks!

James Bailey @ 2022-03-04T00:12 (+5)

I had the same question, I'm guessing every professor is wondering this

ketanrama @ 2022-03-07T08:44 (+3)

Overhead costs, like other bona fide costs of your project, are eligible for funding.

Nick_Beckstead @ 2022-03-07T16:11 (+11)

Quick addition to this: For colleges and universities, indirect costs may not exceed 10% of the direct costs. On this front, Future Fund will mimic Open Philanthropy's indirect costs policy.

 

Aleksandar Bogdanoski @ 2022-03-17T16:39 (+1)

Thanks, this is very helpful, Nick!

We're planning on submitting a proposal from UC Berkeley, however, our research administration team needs some info regarding the FTX Foundation, such as its address, complete name, and charitable status in the Bahamas. Could you share direct us to where we can find this information?

Charles Tsai @ 2022-03-16T15:14 (+1)

Hi Nick, Is the 10% limit just for colleges and universities? Or does it apply to other nonprofits as well? Thanks.

Linch @ 2022-03-16T15:30 (+2)

If I read the linked post literally, it should only apply to colleges and universities.

Charles Tsai @ 2022-03-16T22:29 (+7)

It's interesting that it would only apply to colleges and universities. I wonder why.

Charles He @ 2022-03-17T01:15 (+23)

It's interesting that it would only apply to colleges and universities. I wonder why.

I'm 80% sure the following is correct:

Universities have a funding model that involves taking some percentage of money from the grants of their researchers/staff (you could characterize this as "skimming" off grants, though it's a little pejorative ^[1]). 

This "skimming" is mechanically imposed by the university on everyone, at least nominally. These skimmed fees then go to the school and don't serve the purposes of the grant/project/impact, or any EA activity.

The rates used are high, 25%-40%, or even higher, see below. 

 

However, you can get around these high rates by having the donor publicly declare a lower rate on their website. 

So Open Phil declaring a 10% rate basically defeats the much higher "standard" rates the Universities charge. You could see this as giving the "grantee leverage" to negotiate a lower rate and keep more funds for themselves/project. You could also see it as forcing the University to accept lower rates and makes EA funds more cost effective. 

 

For evidence of the above, see the following page from Stanford, and a similar page from from UBC. Note that both pages:

• Present a rhetorical name and gentle explanation ("Indirect Costs")
• Specifically give an out: "The only exceptions are...grant application form clearly states that a different indirect costs recovery rate applies to all applicants" (UBC), "Some foundations, associations, and other non-profit entities will not pay the University’s full rates...Once reviewed and approved, it will be added to the pre-approved waiver list." (Stanford).

By the way, how this de-facto system originated seems interesting and raises questions: ("Could Open Phil get away with 5%, or 0%? Could another powerful donor? Is this a new EA intervention? ", "Does this system ding unsophisticated donors, or ding specific classes of donors? Does that bias the use of money?", "This system is sort of baroque, often involving a public website/form. How did that come about?").

 

So why doesn't Open Phil's 10% fee on the website apply to business and non-profits? 

• As above, the page is specifically there to "defeat" the University rates which are otherwise rigidly imposed. For other grantees, Open Phil can other just tell them to spend money usefully.
• Another interpretation/comment is that EAs don't want, and don't think it's impactful for grantees, to have a cap of "10% on administration fees". The related frugality/cost effectiveness is addressed elsewhere.

 

1. ^{^}

   So, you can write a manifesto about how to see these rates. Universities are funded by tax dollars, serve social purposes, etc. The short summary is that it's a good to fix this at 10%, unless you think University monies could be effective in ways EA value (they generally are not). 

This is excellent! Are there any restrictions on multiple (but discrete) proposals from a single organization? Thanks. 

Hi FTX Future Fund, 

I work at UC Santa Cruz and we recently submitted a proposal for this: https://ftxfuturefund.org/apply/

 We need some information about the FTX  Foundation in order to set them up as a sponsor in our database. 

Could you please provide me with the following?  

• Some sort of verification of the Foundation's legal existence
• Complete name
• Documentation of charitable status
• Physical address

Thank you so much!

Kevin Hagedorn 
Operations Manager | Office of Sponsored Projects
(831) 459-1574 | officeofresearch.ucsc.edu
University of California, Santa Cruz

I put in an application on 21st March, but haven't yet heard back. Are some applications still being processed, or should I assume this is either a negative response or that I must have made some mistake in submitting?

Has anyone been accepted to this yet?

Gutted to learn today that we've not been selected. Good luck everyone else!

Ugh! I wrote my application the very week this was announced. Was very excited. I'm now reading these comments about getting a confirmation response and... can't find any confirmation in my inbox. Second guessing myself now if I really ended up pressing the final submit button. Would be heartbroken if I missed for that reason only. 

-quietly sobbing over here-

Hi! I submitted an application a little over 2 weeks ago and have not received any update, do let me know if there is any additional information/update that would be needed/the status of the application.

Thanks in advance!

This was succha great read and a much-needed initiative! As a non-US national and applying from outside the US, few questions here:

1) I wonder if there are  specific instructions/guidelines for projects that have international (non-US nationals) applicants submitting the application either individually or in group with US/non-US nationals? 

2) Do international applicants create hurdles for their application by the virtue of being "non-US nationals"- as in is it extra hard for international applicants because of the possibly copious paperwork involved later with funding internationally  if the project does go further ahead?

 

We're excited to share this opportunity out! 

However, at our institution, we've noticed an issue with the Google application form. When we try to access it, we receive the following message: "You can't respond to Future Fund: Application for Funding. Uploading files is not permitted when data loss prevention is enabled for your domain. Contact your domain administrator if you think this is a mistake.”

According to our IT person: "It seems this is part of an all-or-nothing situation related to Google Data Loss Prevention features, with no option to bypass or disable it. I’ve found a lot of complaints in various forums, and Google’s answer is that form creators should accept links to files rather than the files directly."

Is there a remedy to this situation that you recommend? If possible, we'd like to give our faculty the opportunity to submit using their institutional credentials, as opposed to have to use a personal account. 

I understand Future Fund's wish to minimize overhead charges on research to be performed by universities. University of California Irvine would be happy to comply; however, we have been unable to confirm the 501(c)(3) status of the FTX Foundation, which we are required to do under State tax laws and University policy. Can you kindly email your tax exempt status letter or provide a link where we may obtain that information? In the absence of such proof, we can only submit proposals using our full federally approved F&A rate. I no

Hi Nick_Beckstead and friends

Checking in to see if there is news on timeline for hearing on recommendations and regrantor applications?

Greetings

Charlie

charliegoldsmith@cgatechnologies.org.uk

Hey! I missed the mentioned last date i.e 21st March to apply for a grant. Is there anything I can do now?

Some people have been discussing updates on funding decisions on Twitter. https://mobile.twitter.com/EAheadlines/status/1511294503231049732 https://mobile.twitter.com/EAheadlines/status/1511115005533564928

Hi all!

For everyone here, I found the auto-confirmation from the google form submission in my spam with the subject "Future Fund: Application for Funding." Chech there and good luck everybody!

Hi! I submitted an application but was expecting to get a copy of the application to my email - however nothing arrived. How can I check whether my application was received? Thanks!

The submission form keeps telling me "Your response is too large. Try shortening some answers." even though the total number of characters is significantly lower than  25,000. What should I do? Would you like me to share a link to a PDF with our answers to all questions or upload a single PDF with all of that information?

When should we expect to hear back about project idea proposals?

I have an ongoing project that I'm considering applying with, but figure that, if you don't like the project idea proposal (which casts a wide net containing my actual project), you won't like the project either.

Really exciting news!

Is the FTX Foundation a private foundation or a public foundation? I ask because there are different rules concerning funding policy advocacy in the United States, where the distinction is relevant.

We are starting an non-profit organization which will function for  many years.  How many years of support should we ask for ?  I assume 1 is not enough and 10 is too many.  Can you offer guidance?

Will all funding applications be made public? If so, is it possible for ask for specific application not to be public?  No problem if actual funding will be publicized, I'm just wondering about the applications themselves. Thanks!

Great initiative. We are likely to apply for a grant, but is is possible that this research/work could lead to revenue generating opportunities. Two questions: a) would FF have any IP rights over that work that would mean it could place limits on what could be done with the IP; and b) if the situation did arise where revenue generating opportunities arose, would FF consider investing in that at that point? 

Quick question: in previous media about FTX philanthropy animal issues were mentioned, but I don't see anything animal related in these links.  Is there a separate program that includes animal issues, or has Sam/team decided not to be involved in this space at all?  Thanks!

Your twitter cards don't work. This means content won't share as well.

[comment no longer useful]

Are you willing to share a list of some or all of regranting programs that were funded in the first round of the FTX Future Fund?

Hi, 
I'm expecting to hear from 3 proposals I've submitted. Since it's been 3 weeks since submission, I'm wondering if others are in the same situation as me and if this is not an omission from their part. 
Thanks!

I’m seeing others who didn’t receive a confirmation response for the grant proposals but wanted to check in for additional details. I took a screenshot that it was submitted on the 21st. Nothing in junk mail. Today is day 14 so was curious if results are out or still in process. Thank you for such an amazing opportunity to partner and create massive impact.

I submitted two proposals and got only 1 acknowledgement in my spam response.  I know you guys are too busy to respond to each request, but could you advise if the grants will be announced via email or twitter or what and when?  Thank you so much for innovating in philanthropy.

Hi,

Really great initiative with the Future Fund! 

I have 2 questions:

1. We applied to the first open funding round before the deadline two weeks ago via the web form, but did not get any email or confirmation that the submission was received. Is that as expected? email used for submission: david.wallen@inoolabs.com
2. We have, since then, created an alternative version of the project for a similar application in Sweden, with a reduced scope (and thus lower capital requirement). Is it possible to run that proposal by the Future Fund as well?

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards,

David

I submitted my proposal on March 19th which marks today as the end of the 14 day “deadline” that was aimed for by the ftx team. I’ve been anxiously waiting and researching for the past two weeks, and I just found this forum yesterday! I really hope to hear something soon, even if it’s a rejection email— this is an incredible opportunity and I understand if the wait time is a little longer than expected. I hope someone sees this and can provide a response that may help others as well!

Hi, I submitted a proposal to the Future Fund on Sunday 20th. The Google Form said it was accepted. However, other than that, I didn’t receive a copy of my responses from the form or any other communication confirming it was sent. Can you confirm that it was received? Thank you.

We submitted our application via the google forms on Monday-- but did not receive confirmation via a copy of our responses. Is there a way to confirm receipt of our submission? Thanks!

Will grant awards to nonprofits be in dollars or crypto?

Hi! Hope all is wonderful! Just a quick question I submitted my application but never received a confirmation email. is there a way to know all was submitted safe and sound? So grateful! Rebecca Foon

I submitted a proposal on someone's behalf today. It all seemed straightforward and I really appreciate the simplicity of the process!

However, the form said that “A copy of your responses will be emailed to the address you provided” and no such email was received.  (It did not get caught in a spam filter, as far as we can tell. I'm part of a team and pasted in the email address of the designated leader.)

I got the ‘Your response has been recorded’ screen, so I am pretty sure that submission worked, but I cannot help wondering if I made some strange error entering the email address or if there was some other glitch. If there is some good way to further confirm that our application was received and is complete that would be welcome.

I'm interested in submitting an application but I would need to know precisely which entity would provide the money (for complicated reasons) Can someone indicate this as soon as possible please?

Is the March 21 deadline to be interpreted as 23.59 on 21 March Eastern Standard Time? 

I have a simple clarification question on the application form. Does your question "what's the most impressive thing you've done?" refer to the applicant's entire career or their work on the project only? I assume that it is the former but the context in which the question is asked makes it slightly ambiguous.

I have multiple project ideas that fall within the Future Fund's areas of interest. Can I submit multiple separate applications? If so, would submitting a second application significantly reduce the chances that the first application is funded even if taking on the second project would not interfere with my work on the first project? Relatedly, would being listed as a collaborator on somebody else's proposal reduce the chances that my own submission(s) get funded?

Assuming that applying for funding for multiple projects is possible, would it be better to submit a separate application for each project or to mention multiple projects in the same application?

This is really great to see and just wanted to quickly say that the website looks fantastic. Great design.

Hmm, haven't bothered to change their website yet. Doesn't it even exist?

https://ftxfuturefund.org/about/

I have the same idea, we need to make something to change the world and make this a better future for all, I have a well structured plan with a really good idea that will help us to do that, where can I send it I know this can make a change In many city's and countries all around the world, we can make this dream come true together

Amazing initiative!   

Having psychology background and MSc degree from Imperial College London's Business School,  I'm sure that if given a chance, people cooperate instead of selfishly competing. Simply because the synergy is more beneficial to everyone involved. And it is the only good future for humanity.

I'm myself creating an AI-driven social tool for the good people, which effectively democratizes collaboration and thus creates a future where people cooperate instead of fighting, launching on 22/12/2022. Otherwise, we'd see a future where the top 1% of people rule others who have nothing.

I absolutely identify with, and frankly literally love, your worldview, so I'd like to get in touch and talk. Please, contact me at herodek.honza@gmail.com  

Jan H. Herodek

 

I made a submission to the FTX future fund worldview prize a while ago through the google form provided which contained the link to my article on medium. It has not been cross-linked to EA yet as mentioned on the website. Kindly check

When will you next be open for applications?

1. What do you do to prevent wars?
2. What do you do for victims of russian aggression in Ukraine?

Do you except outside crypto donations for funding your initiatives?

Nick and Team,

RE: Effective Altruism Project Ideas (from the global SD sector)
 

Good-day,

For the past 20 years I have been training and working in global Sustainable Development (SD) and Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation around the planet, and within all 5 major sectors (e.g., public, private, IO, NGO, and academic). Your efforts, and the efforts of your group and the EA movement, were recently brought to my attention – and I am quite excited to learn more about what you are all doing and how I may play an active role in helping foster your efforts.

For some context, I started as a university professor in environment and development. I then spent a number of years working with the feds as an advisor, report and speech-writer, and consultant on Sustainable Development Strategies (SDS’s). From there I moved overseas to begin advising the multinational tech sector in SD strategies and project development. After spending a few years overseas I began my own corp focused on SD and climate change issues. This has involved working with all 5 sectors and conducting a number of successful United Nations projects directly addressing a wide variety of UN SDGs. As a result of these various projects I now speak at UN conferences somewhat regularly (still working on my public speaking skills). At the last conference I got to attend, COP26 in Glasgow, I was admittedly let down by the general veneer of goodness portrayed by the global finance sector last November. Yet, I am enthusiastic to know about the EA community and the positive impacts it continues to increasingly make.

Given my background and network in the international SD and climate worlds I have a roster of both proven projects and project ideas ripe for appropriate support and implementation. These projects cover a wide range of SD focused areas that address: urban and rural healthcare issues; circular economies; clean energy infrastructure; education access; gender equality initiatives; income disparity; governance; food security; waterways management; conflict resolution; risk management; legal policy frameworks; space law frameworks (based upon maritime law); and proven climate change adaptation & mitigation infrastructure development.

Global Sustainable Development has been the dominant theme of my entire adult life so far. It has been a remarkable collection of unique experiences, it has been humbling, it has been challenging, and it has been rewarding. At this stage of my life and career I would love the opportunity to speak directly with your team in hopes that we can work together to take SD and EA to a whole new level.

Best Regards,

Scott

-- 

Scott Phipps, PhD
scott@cdgenergy.com 
Ontario, Canada

Intriguing, passionate and timely initiatives.

I am curious how you are thinking about the psychology of the present/future (as informed by the past) in terms of EA.

For example, the future value of positively impacting how people think about the present and future could multiply the ostensibly more pragmatic use of funds, encourage individuals to think differently about risk-benefit, and lead to changes in decision-making. 

In addition to understanding the psychology and working on decision-making, the threat from distortions in the current information environment ("disinformation") and the difficulty people have in evaluating information, is likely to snowball (it already is).

Given the (formally) complex dynamics involved, working out how to interact with the system is critical. It also seems to me that large public projects may be an efficient way to get traction - I understand there has been exploration into entertainment media, and I also wonder about the arts.

There is ample and growing research on the above subjects, areas for development and application. Happy to hash it out and gratitude for your devotion.

Grant H Brenner

Is or will there be a way for me to sign up for notification when Grant Applications open up again, if they do? 

Seena Hawley

Berkeley, CA   https://www.thebbbp.org    The Berkeley Baby Book Project

I believe that with the birth of every  child unimaginable potential is born in that body's brain and it is our job to maximize that potential. Right now this is not happening for all our children. We KNOW how to do so: wealthy communities and families do it ALL THE TIME: clean water, good food, shelter, safety and then -- in line with Maslow's Hierarchy -- Books, then decent educational facilities. On these last two we are failing our less-affluent and poor children every day. (Prop 13 did not help CA in that regard!!!). Books from birth in the home are the best tools in the best place at the best time to plant and nurture the roots of later Literacy -- key to full participation in shaping the institutions, policies and practices that shape our future. We need all our children to be full participants in that future. Books from birth can help stack the odds in favor of that. And Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is the best way yet to get those books into children's hands and homes FROM BIRTH in the earliest and most impactful years. AND! It is a super Joyful Program. Books arrive addressed to the child every month to age 60 months once registered. Parents love it, and children do. Not only do our communities need ubiquitous literacy, they sure can benefit from recurring, reliable moments of Joy. And Joy  good for all of us, right here right now. Ubiquitous Literacy is good for all of us now AND in the future. 

I think You should consider funding  our efforts to make book ownership a birthright here in your backyard: Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

This is a wonderful idea. 

I have an idea that I would like to submit for a grant but when I click on apply I see that the form is no longer taking submissions. Does this mean that the grants have been paused for the moment? Are they planned to be resumed?

Thank you!

Team, noticed in your blog your disappointment on space governance proposals. Would like to connect to understand deficiencies and see if we can help. Our foundation has been working with anothe foundation for months about space governance and has even partnered with the Paris Peace Forum to either prepare grants or regrant initiatives.

Is there any way I can connect with someone to further discuss ?

Jose

Hi!

I got the following message after pressed Apply:  
"The form Future Fund: Application for Funding is no longer accepting responses.
Try contacting the owner of the form if you think this is a mistake." at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScp_pbbqS2OeecQlo_perE6Vz8mcKBivtRAfBSfKyDicZkEiQ/closedform

Is your program closed or it is an error from my side? I wanted to apply on the topic  Infrastructure to recover after catastrophes

any ideas when the next application cycle will be?

Dear team at FTX Foundation,
A few weeks ago, I submitted an application for a regranting partnership in the area of innovative ideas in education with Ashoka and Leap. Are you considering that application or was I too late?
Best,
Odin

Hello!

Just a suggestion, maybe the Fund could provide a means to for the public to contact recipients to express interest in working on their funded idea?

I imagine a lot of EAs are open to working on these project ideas, and formalising this process would also help the grant recipients find talent to work with. Y Combinator, for comparison, has ycombinator.com/jobs . I wouldn't expect the Fund's small team to build a full feature, but maybe just a contact option/list would be nice?

While I like the mission of the future fund, some of these grants seem wasteful. For example, the $150k Moncef Slaoui grant. Isn't that person already able to afford to write their own memoir? $150K could fund an actual project or fund 15 $10K projects. Perhaps evaluating whether or not the applicant is likely to be able to accomplish their proposal without future fund funding should be incorporated into the review process. Also, some of the grants seem unnecessarily large. Maybe many smaller proposals being funded initially and then doubling down on promising ones would be a better approach.

Hey FTX Future Fund, 

I am a web3 native that studied social entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley inspired by the EA community. I would love to offer my time as a volunteer to help with anything from due diligence to operations to social media and community building!

Hello! What's the best way to get a status update on a proposal that's been submitted? (I have no idea if this is the best, or even an appropriate place to ask this question, so please feel free to redirect me if this isn't the spot.) 

Thanks! 

For an applications still being considered, would an update regarding ongoing work be useful?

Hi, my name is Stephanie Beasley. I report on global philanthropy at Devex. Wondering if the foundation has a comms officer. I would love to be in touch. https://twitter.com/Steph_Beasley 

Hi, 

I work at UC Santa Cruz and we recently submitted a proposal for this: https://ftxfuturefund.org/apply/

I'm hoping that you can help me out with some information that is required to set the FTX  Foundation up as a sponsor in our sponsor database. 

Could you please provide me with the following:  

• Some sort of verification of the Foundation's legal existence
• Complete name
• Documentation of charitable status
• Physical address

You can email the info to me at ospdocs@ucsc.edu

Thank you so much!

Kevin  

Hello, curious if the application for HeliosDAO was received. I did not initially receive a confirmation email so I resubmitted the entire grant, though I did not receive any confirmation email the second time either.

I've checked my spam as well as both emails included on our form but no confirmation or any other correspondence from FTX (other than for our corporate crypto account).
(I've reviewed the comments here and searched for the precise keywords listed, however there is nothing in either the base email used to submit or the email entered on the form).

email used was team@helios.eco

any update or information would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
 

Hi there - I've submitted an application for the FTX Future Fund and now secured a key partner, which I believe really improves the project - is there any way to update my application at all? Many thanks, Michelle

Dear FTX team,

I am shocked to understand that we missed the date to submit.  I'm the founder and inventor  of 121giving.com and I am kicking myself for not knowing or being able to find this submission period link.

If you are considering delayed entries, please do let me know.  It would be an honor and I believe you'll find of tremendous value to the world and a great compliment to your portfolio for good.

I would appreciate the opportunity to submit our investor kit , upon your consideration.

With Gratitude,

Mark

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcourtney/

Patent (for the geek in all of us :) ):
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10318998B2/en?oq=14%2f452094

What is 121Giving? 
Early street interviews:
 https://vimeo.com/291993326

How it works: 

From the heart before we launched at SX in 2015:
https://vimeo.com/359399130

Hi! I also got the „Your response is too large“ error yesterday despite my word count being way below 6000. So I attached a Word Document with all the answers, made a note about it in the „Describe your project in 100 words“ question, and left all other fields in the form blank. That worked.

So it would be awesome if you could not discard seemingly blank submissions right away, but check for attachments! Thank you!

Hello, I submitted an application yesterday (by the deadline of 03/21/2022). However, in reviewing my application packet I noticed that one of my attachments did not successfully upload. The attachment provides a much more concrete sense of our past performance and general strategy, and as such I'd love for it to be included in our application.

 Is there anyway I could email this to someone involved in the administration/review of the FTX Future Fund submissions so that it could be included with the rest of my application? The attachment is an excel spreadsheet. 

Many thanks in advance for any information you can provide. 

What is the minimum amount of money a project should require?

From reading on your website, I somehow get the intuition that you are rather interested in relatively big projects, say requiring $30k+, rather more.

In particular, it does not seem to me like you are looking for applications like "Hey, could you give me 5000$ to fund my research project I plan to do the next months?". But I may be mistaken and I haven't read anything explicit about it not being possible (maybe I just overlooked it).

(And yes, I know there's the LTFF for such things, I'm just curious regardless.)

I am trying to submit a video file with my application. I have never done it before. It is on the project itself. It says on your site that it can be submitted somewhere on the application form could you please tell me where I might add my video. Thank you

Re: EA-aligned Movies and Documentaries 

I happen to know a well-established documentary filmmaker, whos areas of interest overlap with EA topics. I want to pitch him to work on a movie about x-risks. Do you have any further info about the kinds of documentaries you'd like to fund? Anything that's not obvious from the website.  

Is there a specific time of day on March 21st that the application is due, ie. 11:59pmPDT?

Are you  able to give grants to residents of Russia? Citizens of Russia? Citizens of Russia who left their country in the last 3 weeks and are not planning to return? Or are there sanctions-related legal reasons you can't do that?

what do you heavily weigh 

is it the candidates progress, background, sincerity, project idea and impact. what would make you guys say a resounding yes.

 for yc its team and market size. how do you treat solo founders

this is a wonderful initiave. One small question:where do we upload the budget file?  In the ' If you have further materials for us to read, please feel free to upload them here' section?

thanks

This is absolutely sterling! Congratulations on a much-needed initiative! 

Small request, possibly pedantic: In the Google form, could you please change the space below the question "Does this proposal fall under one of the areas in our "Areas of Interest" page?" from a "single line" to a "para"? Anything more than a few words as a response there (e.g. if there are a few areas of interest to be mentioned), reformats everything in a single, long line. 

Many thanks! 

Thanks so much for opening up this amazing opportunity.

Are there any length limits (either from FF or Google) on individual entry fields, or overall, aside from question 2 under "Your project" and question 2 under "Other"?

It's so refreshing to see such a lean approach to funding good work, thanks!
We are launching a process to build/activate innovation ecosystems, grounding them on a specific mission and fostering a community to supports top talent (fellows), which then go on to launch new impact ventures. We'll start with sustainability for the blue economy in Africa, with a strong focus on climate resilience.

Having said that, we believe the approach (assuming we make it work!) will be repurposed  to other impact missions beyond climate action, including longtermism ones. 

Would the scaling and extending of that type of program be elegible for funding?

If the project idea is eventually a for-profit organization, does the organization need to be already incorporated?