econet | Econet / SurvivalAndFlourishingFundApplication

SFF Funding Rolling Application

Jaan Tallinn's philanthropic goals maintain and improve humanity’s ability to exist and enjoy existing. at present, this necessitates a major effort to reduce extinction risk from artificial intelligence. This includes:

Collective Intelligence: In lieu of superintelligent machines replacing humanity, I’d like to see humanity itself becoming collectively superintelligent as a species. Interoperable AI networks should be developed that assist humans in reaching positive-sum agreements. Today’s language models can be deployed as tools to accelerate this process. Even AI governance decisions can benefit from interoperable AI models that assist and mediate group decision-making. For an inspiring vision in this area, see this TED Talk by Divya Siddarth at the Collective Intelligence Project.
Protective moralities: I want to support morally motivated initiatives that, by symmetry, might increase humanity’s chances of being treated well by advanced AI even if we no longer directly control it. Examples include freedom and sovereignty for individuals and territories (example), mercy toward other species (example), fair allocation of resources (example), cooperativity (see collective intelligence above), and caring and caretaking toward others (see AI healthtech above). These are abstract moral objectives that, should they end up applying to AI systems, might be somewhat protective of humanity as a special case.

Survival and Flourishing Fund Application

SFF S-Process Grant Round you'd prefer to evaluate your application Here you can indicate a preference as to whether you'd like us evaluate this application during the current SFF S-Process Grant Round (i.e., the round most recently announced at http://survivalandflourishing.fund/), or treat it as an early application to the next (not yet announced) round. Note that if your application to the current round is late, it will not be eligible for consideration by our evaluators and we will consider it for the next round instead, so your preference here is not "binding" in any sense. (In that case, the application will still be considered eligible for a Speculation Grant) Finally, there is a good chance your Speculation Grant Application will be considered more favorably if this Rolling Application is submitted early to whichever SFF funding round we evaluate it in; see https://survivalandflourishing.fund/speculation-grants for more details on Speculation Grants. All that said, what round would you like to evaluate your application?

Does your proposal specifically pursue the value of freedom, as defined here? If you replied “yes” to the above question, please describe how your proposal specifically pursues the value of freedom (Maximum 500 characters).

What type of legal entity would receive this grant? This question is important, because the rest of this application will solicit different information from you depending on what sort of legal entity will receive a grant:

If you select "Non-profit / charity -- 501(c)(3) or equivalent", the form will take you to section 2 (Non-Profit / Charity Application), and after that section the form will take you to section 4 (Funding Request).
If you select "For-profit company" or "Social welfare organization -- 501(c)(4) or equivalent", the form will take you to section 3 (For-Profit Company Application), and after that section the form will take you to section 4 (Funding Request).
Projects that are fiscally sponsored by a non-profit should select "Non-profit / charity".

If you're not sure, or you think none of these are applicable, please email sff-contact@googlegroups.com

Non-profit / charity -- 501(c)(3) or equivalent
For-profit company
Social welfare organization -- 501(c)(4) or equivalent

Non-profit

This template is used to create Long Form Application Attachments for funding from the Survival and Flourishing Fund (SFF), which includes and expands on information in the rolling application. For more information on our latest funding round, visit http://survivalandflourishing.fund/.

Your application may be viewed by SFF's Fund Advisors, our affiliates, or anyone we choose to enlist in evaluating your application. We will not post your application publicly on the internet.

Basics

What amount of funding is being requested, and for what period of time? (Feel free to write down a range of funding).

Remember that you can only submit one application per organization (not counting speculation grant requests). For the organization that you are submitting this application to fund, please provide:

Your name (the person who filled out this application):

The name of the organization for which you are requesting funding:

An org chart (or brief written description), including the Board (if applicable) for the organization:

A 1-2 sentence description of the organization’s general activities:

Our application requires that the entity receiving funding on behalf of your organization must be a 501(c)(3) charity or equivalent. Please provide here:

The official name of the receiving charity

The EIN, or foreign equivalent tax ID number of the receiving charity:

Track record summary

Impact track record

What have been your organization’s highest impact contributions to the reduction of existential risk, or other efforts to improve humanity’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing, so far? Please provide 2 to 10 written documents, presentations, interviews, or event records demonstrating these (if part of a collaboration, please describe the extent to which your organization was responsible for each).
If you have other important evidence of, or arguments for, the impact of your organization‘s activities that you would like to share, please include here. For newer organizations, it may be useful to present the strongest arguments for the general type of work you are planning to do.

Spending track record

There is no need to be particularly detailed in the upcoming spending and funding questions. If you have prepared documents for other uses, please feel free to include them as your response; it’s likely they’ll suffice for our purpose. We’ll follow-up if we need more detailed information.

Roughly how has your organization spent funding over the last year? If you have information for a longer time-period, you may include that as well. (Please indicate if the previous year is not representative).

If you’ve raised money from the S-process or SFF before, please elaborate on how the money was spent. Also be sure to elaborate on any ways that your activities ended up being different from the plans laid out in your previous application(s).

Activities in need of funding

For the bulleted questions below, feel free to include multiple scenarios, if relevant, based on the amount of funding received from SFF. It’s often helpful to us if you lay out what you would do if you received 25%, 50%, and 75% of the total amount you are requesting from SFF. Please include in this document a budget showing your expected spending over the next year (or longer), including the activities that you hope to use SFF funding to support. This can be the same as the budget you provide on your short-form application. Please break down the budget to include details such as:

Staff Compensation. E.g., “4 Project Managers - $240k”. There is no need to include the names of individuals in the compensation plan.
Overhead costs. E.g., “office rent - $30k” (we understand the importance of supporting an organization’s core activities, so it is OK if this seems high).
Program activity costs. E.g., conference: food, space rental, travel subsidies, speaker fees, and other and supplies - $50k” (we should be able to have a better sense of what your object-level activities are from looking at your budget).
If you are seeking general support (unrestricted) funding, please tell us how you would allocate spending from SFF versus all other sources of funding, going forward. (If this is already fully indicated in the budget, feel free to skip this question.)
If you are seeking funding to cover specific activities, please tell us what activities and expenses you are proposing to cover, and who would work on these activities. You may also include evidence relevant to the impact of these activities here. (If this is already fully indicated in the budget, feel free to skip this question.)

Plan for impact

What is your organization’s plan for improving humanity’s long term prospects for survival and flourishing, via actions you will take over the next few years? How does your requested funding and resulting activities fit into that plan?

Organization Information

Organization name

Organization website

Organization country

Link to latest org chart

Please provide a viewable-by-anyone link to an up-to-date organization chart, using arrows to depict the structure of responsibility and reporting within your organization.

Compensation information

Please provide a list of anonymized compensation amounts for all staff at your organization that this fundraise might be used to compensate. For a list of example methods to use for anonymizing and listing the compensation amounts, see here: Methods for sharing anonymizing compensation

Plan for impact

Please describe, in 1-3 sentences, your organization's plan for improving humanity’s long term prospects for survival and flourishing, via actions you will take over the next few years. Include mention of how your requested funding and resulting activities fit into that plan. There is a 1000 character limit, but it's fine to give a very short explanation if you think that will be enough to make sense.

Receiving Charity Information

For your application to be considered, the receiving charity must already have 501(c)(3) status in the US from the IRS, or be able to demonstrate that it is the foreign equivalent of a 501(c)(3) public charity. If neither of these is the case, there is a good chance your application will be rejected because the grant will be difficult to make.

Tax ID of the receiving charity

Please provide the Tax ID (EIN in the United States) of the charity that would receive and administer these funds for your organization. If your organization is a company with its own charity status, here you will provide your organization's own Tax ID. If your organization has a parent organization that receives and administers funding for it, please provide the parent organization's Tax ID. If your organization receives funds from the US via an intermediary organization (e.g. "Americans for Oxford"), provide that organization's Tax ID.

Name of receiving charity

Country of the receiving charity

In what country is the receiving charity located? If in the US, the receiving charity must already be tax-exempt in the United States (see https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/). If in the UK, the receiving charity must be already registered with the UK Charity Commission (see https://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/). If outside the US and UK, please indicate the country. Note that it may be more difficult for us to make grants outside the US and UK.

US
UK
Other:

Link verifying charity status

Please provide a viewable-by-anyone link verifying the charity status of the receiving charity.

This may be in the form of a link to a screenshot of the IRS charity search tool: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ Please take a full screenshot of the webpage: you must include the name of the organization, the URL, and the EIN in the screenshot.

For UK charities, provide a link to the UK Charity Commission listing, e.g..

Otherwise, provide a link to another official document or source evidencing the charity status of the receiving charity.

Confirmation of agreement with receiving charity

Have you already reached an agreement with the receiving charity to administer grants for you in a manner compatible with your plans described in this application?

Yes; my organization is the receiving charity, so no agreement is necessary.
Yes; the receiving charity has already agreed to receive and administer grants for my organization, and the agreement is compatible with the plans in this application.
Maybe; the receiving charity has agreed to receive grants for my organization before, but I can't tell if the plans in this application are compatible with that agreement.
No; we do not have an existing agreement with the receiving charity to receive grants for our organization.
Unknown; I do not know if my organization has an agreement with the receiving charity to receive grants in a manner compatible with this application.

Overhead reduction policy

For large charities with many projects, it is common to charge an overhead or "indirect" expenditure rate in grant applications. When the charity involved has 100 employees or more, we ask that the indirect rate included in your budget is as most 15% of the total funding requested. Is that alright with you?

Yes; my receiving charity has fewer than 100 employees, so this doesn't apply to me.
Yes; my receiving charity will agree to an indirect rate of 15% or less.
Yes; my receiving charity doesn't charge an indirect rate to grants received.
Unknown; I do not know if my receiving charity will deduct an indirect rate from my requested funding.

Business

This application attachment is for US, UK, Canada, or Austrailia- based for-profits seeking non-dilutive grant funding. Non-profits should seek charity status or fiscal sponsorship, and apply with this attachment instead.

Your application may be viewed by SFF's Fund Advisors, our affiliates, or anyone we choose to enlist in evaluating your application. We will not post your application publicly on the internet. Basics What amount of funding is being requested, and for what period of time? (Feel free to write down a range of funding). (answer in black)

Remember that you can only submit one application per organization (not counting speculation grant requests). For the organization that you are submitting this application to fund, please provide:

Your name (the person who filled out this application): (answer in black)

The name of the organization for which you are requesting funding: (answer in black)

An org chart (or brief written description), including the Board (if applicable) for the organization: (answer in black)

A 1-2 sentence description of the organization’s general activities: (answer in black)

This attachment is for for-profit companies receiving non-dilutive grant funding. Please provide:

The official name of the company receiving the grant: (answer in black)

The EIN, or foreign equivalent tax ID number of the receiving company: (answer in black)

Track record summary Impact track record

What have been your organization’s highest impact contributions to the reduction of existential risk, or other efforts to improve humanity’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing, so far? Please provide 2 to 10 written documents, presentations, interviews, or event records demonstrating these (if part of a collaboration, please describe the extent to which your organization was responsible for each).

If you have other important evidence of, or arguments for, the impact of your organization‘s activities that you would like to share, please include here. For newer organizations, it may be useful to present the strongest arguments for the general type of work you are planning to do.

Spending track record There is no need to be particularly detailed in the upcoming spending and funding questions. If you have prepared documents for other uses, please feel free to include them as your response; it’s likely they’ll suffice for our purpose. We’ll follow-up if we need more detailed information.

Activities in need of funding For the bulleted questions below, feel free to include multiple scenarios, if relevant, based on the amount of funding received from SFF. It’s often helpful to us if you lay out what you would do if you received 25%, 50%, and 75% of the total amount you are requesting from SFF.

Please include in this document a budget showing your expected spending over the next year (or longer), including the activities that you hope to use SFF funding to support. This can be the same as the budget you provide on your short-form application. Please break down the budget to include details such as: Staff Compensation. E.g., “4 Project Managers - $240k”. There is no need to include the names of individuals in the compensation plan. Overhead costs. E.g., “office rent - $30k” (we understand the importance of supporting an organization’s core activities, so it is OK if this seems high). Program activity costs. E.g., conference: food, space rental, travel subsidies, speaker fees, and other and supplies - $50k” (we should be able to have a better sense of what your object-level activities are from looking at your budget).

	(answer in black)

If you are seeking general support (unrestricted) funding, please tell us how you would allocate spending from SFF versus all other sources of funding, going forward. (If this is already fully indicated in the budget, feel free to skip this question.)

(answer in black)

If you are seeking funding to cover specific activities, please tell us what activities and expenses you are proposing to cover, and who would work on these activities. You may also include evidence relevant to the impact of these activities here. (If this is already fully indicated in the budget, feel free to skip this question.)

(answer in black)

Plan for impact What is your organization’s plan for improving humanity’s long term prospects for survival and flourishing, via actions you will take over the next few years? How does your requested funding and resulting activities fit into that plan?

(answer in black)

How will your company make money? Since you are a for-profit company, we expect you to have thought through some way to sustain your activities on revenue eventually. Can you say more about that, and how it will interact with your plans for positive impact? Will there be any perverse incentives you need to avoid?

(answer in black)

How will your company spend money? What do you think will be the largest expenses you’ll incur in running your business? How much money will that be, within an order of magnitude or so?

(answer in black)

Will your company raise, or has it raised, investments? If so, from what sort of investor(s)? Vague descriptions like “Silicon Valley VCs” or “Former plastic manufacturers” are fine. Will there be any perverse incentives you need to avoid when raising investments, versus pursuing a your impact plan?

(answer in black)

Thanks!

For-Profit Company Application

For-Profit Company Application Long-Form Application Attachment (for-profit version) This long form application attachment helps application reviewers to understand the history of your company and how your plans relate to our mission. To fill it out, make a copy of the following Google Doc template, and complete the document with answers about your company before proceeding with the rest of this short form application:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDRpJzmlBeYONNXO-87RqN4X6o6lcvuqJHSt_Yvaa64/

If you have submitted this long-form application to SFF before, you can just make a copy of your previously used long-form attachment, make a few updates to make sure it's still accurate, and submit the updated document here. If you have never submitted a long-form application to SFF before, you will need to do that for this round. Link to long-form application attachment (for-profit)

Please provide a viewable-by-anyone link to your long-form application attachment here. COMPANY INFORMATION This section is for basic information about the company seeking non-dilutive grant funding. Full legal name of your company

Company website

Link to latest org chart (for-profit)

Please provide a viewable-by-anyone link to an up-to-date company org chart, using arrows to depict the structure of responsibility and reporting within your company, including its Board of Directors. Compensation information (for-profit)

Please provide a list of anonymized compensation amounts for all staff at your company that this fundraise might be used to compensate. For a list of example methods to use for anonymizing and listing the compensation amounts, see here: Methods for sharing anonymizing compensation Positive impact plan (for-profit)

Please describe, in 1-3 sentences, your company's plan for improving humanity’s long term prospects for survival and flourishing, via actions you will take over the next few years. Include mention of how your requested non-dilutive grant and resulting activities fit into that plan. There is a 1000 character limit, but it's fine to give a very short explanation if you think that will be enough to make sense. Incentive alignment plan

What incentives will your company face in years to come, and how do you plan to deal with those incentives while fulfilling your positive impact plan? Please answer in 1-3 sentences. There is a 1000 character limit, but it's fine to give a very short explanation if you think that will be enough to make sense. CORPORATE DOCUMENTS For your application to be considered, certain corporate documents must be prepared and provided. Incorporation Jurisdiction

Please specify the country, and if applicable the state, of your company's incorporation. E.g, "USA, Delaware" Certificate of Incorporation

Please upload a PDF of your complete incorporation document(s) after they have been fully executed and stamped as filed by your incorporation jurisdiction. Upload 1 supported file: PDF. Max 10 MB. Bylaws

Please upload a PDF of your complete company bylaws. Upload 1 supported file: PDF. Max 10 MB. Tax ID (EIN)

Please provide your company's tax ID (EIN in the United States). Grant purpose (≤200 characters)

Our template grant letter says "The purpose of this grant is for [INSERT PURPOSE]." Please write a short gerund phrase that would be appropriate to fill in for the "[PURPOSE]" section of the letter. For example "making bread for homeless people in Santa Monica" is a gerund phrase, because it starts with an 'ing' verb ("making").

STATE OF FINANCING These questions help us develop our mental picture of how you've spent money so far. Total raised to date

How much USD-equivalent funding has your company raised in total thus far? Include only investments or grants that have actually fully transacted (i.e., the money has landed in your bank account(s)). Remaining funds

How much funding does your company have remaining in its accounts? How you've spent funds so far.

Please explain how you have spent funds so far, very roughly speaking. (Maximum 500 characters.) Total committed but not yet raised

If one or more investors or philanthropists have committed to invest or grant specific amounts in/to your company, but have not yet transferred the amounts, please indicate the total amount of such funding commitments that have not yet landed in your account(s).

Request Amounts

We'll be asking you to provide up to four different request amounts:

1. Base request (required) This is an amount of funding that you're relatively confident your organization will use, and for which you have a relatively stable plan for using. We'll ask you to provide a spending plan for this amount.

2. Minimum grant amount to consider (required) This is the minimum amount of funding you're willing to accept. No explanation required.

3. Ambitious request (optional) This is an amount of funding that would let your organization pursue a larger version of your basic plan, take on different or expanded challenges, or unlock a phase change in your approach and/or mission. If you specify a number here, we'll ask you to provide a spending plan for this amount.

4. Maximum grant amount to consider (optional) This is the maximum amount of funding you think your organization could make use of. No explanation required.

BASIC FUNDING REQUEST Start date of funding period

In this and the next question, please specify a period of time, at least 1 year in duration, over which you plan to use the requested funding. We will use this information to infer that, absent major changes at your organization, if we grant the entirety of your requested funding then you will not request further funding from us to cover your organization during that period of time. It's fine if you plan to approach us again as the end of the funding period draws closer, to request funds for a future funding period. Date End date of funding period

Date Base request amount

Please specify a "base amount" requested, measured in USD, which you are relatively confident your organization will use, and for which you have a relatively stable plan for using. Note that if we choose to fund your org, we might not offer the exact base amount, because trade-offs with funding other orgs might lead us to offer you a smaller grant amount instead. Please be sure to account for this potential unpredictability in your other fundraising efforts. Currency of base request (optional) If you would prefer the grant to be made with a USD-equivalent-amount of foreign currency, please name the currency. BASIC SPENDING PLAN (for basic funding request) These questions help us develop our mental picture of how you plan to spend money. Budget

Please provide a viewable-by-anyone link to an approximate budget which summarizes in 1 page or less how you would use the base amount over the course of the funding period, if granted in full. If you wish, the budget can be for a larger amount, if you are counting on fundraising from other sources for the given funding period. For instance, if you are planning to raise a total of $100k for the funding period described, but are only requesting a $30k base amount from us because you are reasonably confident you will raise the remaining $70k from other sources, you may find it easier to describe a plan for how you expect to spend the full $100k instead of having to figure out how the $30k specifically from us will be spent. Confidence in your basic spending plan

Please provide a short statement describing how confident you are that your base amount would be used in accordance with your basic spending plan. Where possible, try to be quantitative about your uncertainty, e.g., "I'm 60% sure that <X>, and 80% sure that <Y>". (Maximum 500 characters.) Available funds

Very roughly*, how much USD-equivalent funding does your organization have available, in total, that could be used for this spending plan?

Context on available funds (optional) If for some reason you wish to provide additional information about the available funds, you may do so here. (Maximum 500 characters.) MINIMUM AMOUNT Minimum grant amount to consider

What is the minimum total amount our funders should consider granting to you, measured in USD? E.g., if you enter $10k here, and our process only allocates $5k of funding to you, instead of recommending the $5k go to you we'll pass it on to other applicants. Partial fulfillment impact

Please provide a brief statement indicating how your plans would change from those in your basic spending plan, if we granted considerably less than the "amount of base request" you specified earlier (say, 50% of the base amount, or the minimum grant amount if that's a more informative number). (Maximum: 1000 characters.) Other comments on min amount (optional) If you like, you can leave additional comments here regarding the min amounts you specified above. (Maximum: 1000 characters.) AMBITIOUS REQUEST (optional) If you wish, you may also describe a request for a larger amount than the base amount, and a plan for how you would spend it over the same funding period. Ambitious request amount (optional) Please specify the total amount of the ambitious request. E.g., if your base request was for $30k, and you wish to describe some ambitious but less certain plans for how you would use an additional $20k, then write $50k for the amount of the ambitious request. Spending plan for your ambitious request (optional) Provide a viewable-by-anyone link to a 1-page budget describing how you use this ambitious amount, similar to how you described a plan for the base amount. Confidence in your ambitious request spending plan (optional) Please provide a short statement describing how confident you are that your ambitious request amount would be used in accordance with your ambitious spending plan. Where possible, try to be quantitative about your uncertainty, e.g., "I'm 60% sure that <X>, and 80% sure that <Y>". (Maximum 500 characters.) MAXIMUM AMOUNT Maximum grant amount to consider (optional) What is the maximum total amount our funders should consider granting to you? E.g., if you enter $1MM here, and our process allocates $1.2MM of funding to you, we'll truncate the amount to $1MM and pass the remaining $200k on to other applicants. Other comments on max amount (optional) If you like, you can leave additional comments here regarding the max amount you specified above. (Maximum: 1000 characters.)

Other Funding

Other Funding These questions help us learn more about the funding landscape around your organization, and how our funding might fit into that landscape. Public Fundraising Page If you've already created a public fundraising page with progress bars indicating progress toward your fundraising goal(s), please include a viewable-by-anyone link here. Having a public fundraising page is optional, but encouraged. Concurrent fundraising

What other sources of funding are you currently seeking (or planning to seek) for your basic spending plan? It would help if you can also give some sense of how likely you think it is that these other fundraising efforts will be successful. (Maximum: 1000 characters.) Recent significant funding sources

What money have you received that has had a significant impact on your organization? The word “significant” here definitely includes any funding that is more than 25% of your organization's funding received in the past year, or accounts for more than 20% of your funds in reserve. You may also use this space to include other funding sources that are not limited to the above definition. In particular, please include information about any other grants you have received from SFF (S-Process, Speculation Grants, Initiative Committee). (Maximum 1000 characters). Unsuccessful fundraising attempts

Are there other sources of funding that you have previously approached for funding these or similar activities, but that declined your request? And, can you guess at why your attempts were unsuccessful? A short summary is sufficient. (Maximum: 1000 characters.) Conspicuously absent funding sources (optional) Are there funders who have supported your organization’s previous activities who are not supporting, or have limited their support for, the activities described above? If so, it would help for us to know about this, so that we are not surprised to find less future funding support for your organization than expected. It also helps if you are able to tell us why they changed or reduced their support for your org, but please respect their privacy wherever it should apply. (Maximum: 1000 characters.) MATCHING PLEDGE REQUEST Starting with this round, we're offering to structure part or all of any grant recommendation we may make as a Matching Pledge. At a high level, for example, if we offer you a Matching Pledge of $30,000 at a rate of 2x, you can claim $2 of matching funds for every $1 you receive from other donors, up to a total of $30,000 of funds for $15,000 of outside donations.

Applicants who opt in to receiving a Matching Pledge will be given more weight by our recommendation algorithm, since from the perspective of our funders a Matching Pledge has higher leverage than a standard grant. A Matching Pledge can also be a powerful tool for you to raise more money overall, since prospective donors are often more motivated when they know their gift will be matched.

See https://survivalandflourishing.fund/matching-pledges for more details on our Matching Pledge Program. Do you want to request a Matching Pledge?

If you select "yes", you must also answer all of the matching questions directly below. These values cannot be renegotiated after your grant or pledge is awarded. No, I don't want to request a Matching Pledge (simpler) Yes, I am requesting a Matching Pledge (more complicated) Proposed matching rate (required for matching requests) What matching rate would you like to use?

You should choose this rate by making a tradeoff between the amount of fundraising required and degree of matching leverage:

A rate of 0.25x means $0.25 from the S-Process for each $1 you raise. A rate less than 1 will make it somewhat harder to fundraise enough from other donors to claim an entire Matching Pledge, but the pledge will have higher leverage. Higher leverage means more extra weight for your proposal in the S-Process algorithm, and more total outside funding attributable to the Matching Pledge.

A rate of 1x means $1 from the S-Process for each $1 you raise. This is a balanced approach between the amount of fundraising from other donors that's required and the degree of matching leverage. This could be thought of as the “default” if you don’t have a strong reason to choose a different ratio.

A rate of 4x means $4 from the S-Process for each $1 you raise. A rate greater than 1 will make it somewhat easier to fundraise enough from other donors to claim an entire Matching Pledge, but the pledge will have lower leverage. Lower leverage means less extra weight for your proposal in the S-Process algorithm, and less total outside funding attributable to the Matching Pledge.

0.25x (highest leverage) 0.5x 0.75x 1x ("default") 1.5x 2x 3x 4x (easiest fundraising) Baseline standard grant amount (required for matching requests) What baseline amount of funding would you like to request as a standard grant?

This is the amount of funding you’d like to receive in the form of a standard grant, before being offered a recommendation in the form of a Matching Pledge.

If you set this amount to a value of $0, then any recommended funding you get (up to the maximum matching amount based on your matching rate and target donations amount) will come as a Matching Pledge. If you set this amount to a very high value, then it might be greater than the total recommendation you receive, in which case all of the funding would come as a standard grant.

Target amount of outside donations that you'd like to have matched (required for matching requests) How much external funding do you believe you can raise, given a Matching Pledge from our funders?

Keep in mind that the amount of outside donations you decide to target, multiplied by the matching rate you choose, gives the maximum amount of Matching Pledge funding you’ll be offered.

For example, if you set a target of raising $100,000 of outside donations, and your matching rate is 0.5x, then the maximum Matching Pledge you'll be offered is $50,000.

If you receive a grant recommendation, we'll structure it as follows, where $S is the baseline standard grant amount you request, and $M is the maximum Matching Pledge you'll be offered:

The first $S will be a standard grant

The next $M will be a Matching Pledge

Any amount above $S+$M will be a standard grant

Proposed deadline for raising outside donations (required for matching requests) When would you like your matching deadline to be?

You should choose this deadline based on the timeframe during which you want to be raising outside donations.

Having an earlier deadline can provide more urgency for potential donors, while having a later deadline gives you more time to raise enough to meet your target. You may also want to choose a date that lines up with other external deadlines, such as the end of the year.

(Note that for the 2025 S-Process round, the earliest deadline available is December 31st, since we expect recommendations and Matching Pledges to be announced by the end of September. In future rounds, we may provide different deadline options.)

December 31st of the current year (i.e. the year when your Matching Pledge is announced) March 31st of the following year June 30th of the following year September 30th of the following year Donation sources to exclude (optional) Are there any donors (either individuals or organizations) whose donations you would like to exclude from the Matching Pledge?

For instance, if you get regular funding from a particular large donor, but you want to use the Matching Pledge to help expand your donor base, then you can list them here as an excluded source. If you get a Matching Pledge, then donations from the large donor won’t be eligible for matching, and you’ll need to get donations from other sources to claim the matching funds.

Other comments on your Matching Pledge Request (optional) If you like, you can leave additional comments here regarding the matching rate, baseline standard grant amount, target amount of outside donations, matching deadline, or excluded sources you specified above. (Maximum: 1000 characters.)

Links of Interest

Untitled Section LINKS OF INTEREST (optional) Please include up to three viewable-by-anyone links to webpages or documents that you think will be legibly impressive and interesting to the SFF Advisors and their affiliates. (Link descriptions are limited to 500 characters.) Link #1 Link #1 description Link #2 Link #2 description Link #3 Link #3 description

Speculation Grant Request

Completing this application will automatically submit a Speculation Grant Request on your behalf. Only organizations that receive Speculation Grants will have guaranteed eligibility for consideration in SFF S-Process Grant Rounds. For further information about Speculation Grants, please see: https://survivalandflourishing.fund/speculation-grants

Required Acknowledgements

These acknowledgements are in place to help SFF's Fund Advisors ('SFF Advisors') to develop a shared understanding with your organization about what we are likely to do with your application. Variance in funding amount (required)

Please acknowledge: "I understand that SFF might choose to offer my organization or company a gift of funding or a non-dilutive investment} that is considerably different from the amount(s) requested in this application. It is my organization's responsibility to account for this potential uncertainty in our other fundraising efforts." Yes, I acknowledge. Full application disclosure to reviewers (required)

Please acknowledge: "I grant permission to SFF Advisors to share my full application with anyone the SFF advisors choose to enlist in reviewing the application. In particular, SFF Advisors may also choose to share this application with other funders that they believe might be interested in funding my organization." Yes; I acknowledge and grant this sharing permission to the SFF Advisors. Anonymized numerical evaluation disclosure to anyone (required)

Please acknowledge: "I grant permission to SFF Advisors, and anyone they enlist to help evaluate my application for funding, to publicly share in anonymized form (i.e., without information referencing me or my organization or project) their numerical evaluations of my application." We require this because using the evaluation numbers in anonymized form helps us produce data analytics explaining to outsiders how our process works. Yes; I acknowledge and grant this sharing permission to the SFF Advisors and those they enlist for help No; I do not grant this permission. Functional link confirmation (required)

Please acknowledge: "I confirm that every link I’ve provided in this application is viewable by any person without having to request sharing permission. I acknowledge that if my links require additional sharing permissions they will likely be discarded from my application. Yes; I acknowledge and confirm every link I've provided is functional, properly shared, and if not they will be discarded from my application Matching Pledge documentation (required)

If you are opting into the Matching Pledge Program, please acknowledge: "I confirm that I have read the description of the Matching Pledge Program at https://survivalandflourishing.fund/matching-pledges. I agree that if I am offered a Matching Pledge, I will need to provide documentation as proof of external donations raised (e.g., donation receipts), to the satisfaction of SFF's Fund Advisors and their affiliates, before any matching funds are released." Yes; I confirm that I have read the description of the Matching Pledge Program at https://survivalandflourishing.fund/matching-pledges. I agree that if I am offered a matching pledge, I will need to provide documentation or proof of external donations raised (e.g., donation receipts), to the satisfaction of SFF's Fund Advisors and their affiliates, before any matching funds are released. N/A; I am NOT opting in to the Matching Pledge Program OPTIONAL DISCLOSURE PERMISSIONS FOR REVIEWERS Some application reviewers might consider your application more favorably if you grant broader disclosure permissions with it, because of the additional opportunities for external fact-checking this will create. Other reviewers might be very sympathetic to limited sharing permissions. Fact of application disclosure (optional)

Please consider acknowledging: "I grant permission to application reviewers in this and future SFF S-Process Grant Rounds to share, with anyone, the fact that an application was submitted to this grant round on behalf of the organization I have listed on this form under 'Organization name' or 'Full legal name of your company'. This permission does not cover the sharing of details from my application or evaluations of my application." Yes; I acknowledge and grant this sharing permission to the application reviewers. No; I do not grant this permission. Basic funding request disclosure (optional)

Please consider acknowledging: "I grant permission to SFF affiliated application reviewers, with anyone, the information I've entered under the BASIC FUNDING REQUEST heading of this form." Yes; I acknowledge and grant this sharing permission to the SFF Advisors. No; I do not grant this permission. Numerical evaluation disclosure (optional)

Each application we review will receive a composite numerical evaluation consisting of one or more numbers, from each application reviewer who chooses to evaluate that application. Please consider acknowledging: "I hereby grant permission for SFF affiliated application reviewers to publicly share their numerical evaluation of this application, and other numbers indicating the total amount of funding they recommended to my organization in this grant round. This permission *does not* extend to permit the sharing of publicly written opinions about my application, publicly written explanations of the numerical evaluation, or publicly written references to my application materials." Yes; I acknowledge and grant this sharing permission to the application reviewers. No; I do not grant this permission. Written evaluation disclosure (optional)

Some application reviewers may choose to write notes about some of the applications they review, including recommendations for or against funding the applicant organization. Please consider acknowledging: "I hereby grant permission for the evaluators reviewing my application to publicly share their written evaluation of this application. This permission *does not* extend to permit the sharing of my application contents, in part or in full." Yes; I acknowledge and grant this sharing permission to the application reviewers. No; I do not grant this permission. THANK YOU! We really appreciate the time you've taken to compress and organize your team's information into a form that is easy for us to digest and compare alongside other organizations.

Thanks for your efforts to support the survival and flourishing of humanity! Feedback (optional) If there's any feedback you'd be willing to give on this application process, please do so here. (Maximum 1000 characters.) Anything else? If there's anything else you'd like to share that didn't fit into the application, please do so here. (Maximum 1000 characters.)

Upon submitting this form, a message will automatically be sent to SFF's Speculation Grantors which says:

"I, {your_name} <{your_email}>, hereby request a Speculation Grant on behalf of {your_organization}:"

followed by your answers from this section, along with PDF copies of your full form submission and long-form attachment, with SFF's instructions for the Speculation Grantors to evaluate it. If they reply to discuss your application, they represent their own views, not those of SFF.

Multiple people ("Speculation Grantors") with separate budgets and their own decision criteria might reach out to you to consider making a grant; it's up to you if you want to respond to any or all of them.

If you need to reach SFF, you can send an email to sff-contact@googlegroups.com.

Speculation Grant questions Permission to discuss

Do you grant permission for SFF's Speculation Grantors to review and discuss your application with you and their trusted advisors, for the purpose of helping them decide whether to recommend a grant to you from one of our affiliated funders? You must answer “yes” to be eligible for a Speculation Grant. Yes What you do

In one or two sentences, what is or will be the primary activity of the organization or project for which you are seeking funding via this SFF S-Process Grant Round application? (Maximum 500 characters.) Speculation Grant amount

In USD, what grant amount are you requesting to receive right away in the form of a Speculation Grant (i.e., an expedited grant that happens before the close of the SFF S-Process Grant Round)? Note that you can still receive more than this amount after the close of the SFF S-Process Grant Round when our primary (non-speculator) application reviewers read your application. Reason for expedition (optional) Speculation Grants serve two purposes: expediting portions of the grants we recommend before the close of an SFF S-Process Grant Round, and determining eligibility to be considered in an SFF S-Process Grant Round. If you have a reason(s) that your organization needs expedited funds, please explain here. (If you don’t have any particular reason(s) that your organization needs expedited funds, you can leave this question blank.) (Maximum 500 characters.)

Ways to reach you Aside from the email address you're using to submit this form, are there other ways that members of the sff-speculation-grants Google group can reach out to you to discuss your grant request? Give as many reliable contact options as you’d like to offer. Remember: multiple Speculation Grantors with separate budgets and their own decision criteria might reach out to you to consider making a grant; it's up to you if you want to respond to any or all of them. (Maximum 500 characters.) Encouragement Did a Speculation Grantor encourage you to submit an SFF application? If so, who?