Overview

Weiss Asset Management (WAM) Foundation invites proposals from organizations and researchers engaging in highly cost-effective work to reduce suffering in low and lower-middle income countries.

In this funding round:

• We seek to support organizations delivering evidence-based programming, researchers generating evidence to directly inform programs or policies, and leveraged efforts to improve how governments, organizations and programs operate.

• We welcome all proposals within our mission of reducing suffering.  Our review committee has expressed particular interest in the following priority areas: road safety, mental health, and nutrition.

• We favor projects that more risk-averse funders won’t support. For example, we may support work which has a high likelihood of failure (i.e. having low or no effect), but, if successful, will have extremely large effects on reducing suffering.

We expect most grants to fall into one of two categories, both of which are time-bound (up to 3 years):

• Project-based support: work to support a specific initiative. Examples from our prior grants include (a) research with high potential for impact on policy or programs; (b) technical assistance; (c) operational innovations/experiments or unique programmatic opportunities, (d) support for proven, cost-effective programs facing funding gaps.

• General support: Operational funding for highly cost-effective organizations or programs.

We anticipate that most awards will range from ~$50,000 to ~$1.5mm, but there is no lower bound and, in exceptional circumstances, grants may exceed $1.5mm. Proposals will be judged by impact per dollar spent; we think about impact as the probability of success times the consequences if successful. We seek to enable work which otherwise would not happen, so we also weigh the likelihood that other funders would support the proposal. Grants may last for up to 3 years; applicants should not expect that support will be renewed after the funding period concludes.

We expect to receive many more excellent proposals than we can fund. If your proposal is not selected in this call, please consider applying again in a future round! Click here to sign up for our mailing list.

About WAM Foundation

WAM Foundation’s mission is to reduce human suffering globally. With an Allocation Committee comprised of development economists and practitioners, we support evidence-based, highly cost-effective operations and research which we believe will yield a high risk-adjusted social return on investment.

Examples of prior grants in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia include support for evidence-based nutrition programming for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, technical assistance for government water purification efforts, and policy-oriented research to reduce barriers to Covid-19 vaccination.

Eligibility

Applicants may be researchers, institutes, non-governmental organizations, or government entities. US and non-US entities are eligible to apply. Organizations must be secular in purpose and must not be political or lobbying entities. For-profit entities are not eligible.

For research proposals, we expect to prioritize rigorous causal identification, data science for targeting, and important monitoring or descriptive work that could lead to action; and deprioritize simple correlations or purely qualitative work. Graduate students are only eligible if partnering with a faculty PI.

Priority will be given to projects with a plausible path to scale.

We will prioritize proposals which have been referred within our networks.

WAM Foundation does not fund medical trials with the primary objective of developing new drugs or treatments, or otherwise advancing basic natural or physical science. The Foundation will consider applied research proposals which generate knowledge on health outcomes and have a substantial implementation science or program delivery element, even if advancing basic science is an ancillary benefit. For example, out-of-scope proposals would include research on how the human body metabolizes iron supplements and clinical trials of a new drug to cure malaria. On the other hand, we have funded work to increase uptake of lifesaving immunizations.

General Support

In addition to project-based funding, WAM Foundation will also consider general support proposals for organizations or ongoing initiatives within organizations. However, to be competitive, applicants will need to demonstrate that the organization’s substantive activities are, on the whole, highly cost-effective in alleviating suffering, as opposed to a narrow subset. In addition, applicants should not expect that support will be renewed after the funding period concludes, and the Foundation will consider positively those applications that articulate a forward-looking plan for continued funding beyond the grant period. Given the prior considerations, applicants should consider whether they will have a higher probability of success with a project-based proposal.

*Note: for general support grants to a specific initiative within an organization this means the cost-effectiveness of that initiative, so long as we can be confident that the proposed grant isn't fungible with less cost-effective other activities in the organization.

Evaluation criteria

Proposals should address the following elements.

• Connection between proposed activities and reduction in human suffering. Research proposals should include the intended audience, and, if applicable, a plausible pathway by which the research would contribute to policy or program improvements.

• Evidence base for proposed activities, or (for research proposals) relevant literature and plausibility of developing a rigorous evidence base for a potentially high-impact, cost-effective program.

• Explanation of the anticipated cost-effectiveness of the proposed activity. If applicable, please include how the proposed activity will influence cost-effectiveness by interacting with government policies, guidelines, or similar.

• Applicant team’s experience and ability to execute project successfully.

• Proposals will be judged on the expected return per dollar of the grant; we encourage proposals to limit the amount requested. This will increase their probability of acceptance.

• For general support applications, the committee will look favorably on proposals with a plausible path to continued funding, if necessary, after the WAM Foundation grant period.

Submission information and deadlines

• Applications are due November 22, 2024.

• Selected proposals will be reviewed by anonymous field experts.

• We expect final grant decisions to be made in mid-2025.

• All applicants will be notified of the final decision status of their application. We also expect to provide one interim status update, by January 2025. However, due to the expected number of applications, we will not be able to provide individualized feedback.

• Instructions on these pages are comprehensive. Due to our small team and significant interest we anticipate, there is no way to ask questions or otherwise contact our staff.

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