Request for Proposals for Non-profit Grants

Looking to help fund smaller U.S. non-profits for science acceleration, voting reform, government transparency, criminal justice reform, direct aid, and mainstreaming critical thinking.

For the last five years our family has been giving grants to a handful of U.S. non-profits using the following criteria. We are planning to slowly expand this effort and I’m putting this post out there in hope that more orgs, especially newish ones, find us over time.

Funding criteria

• $25-200K annual grants

• U.S. non-profit within a target area (see below)

• Ideally founded in last 5 years with <$1M budget, which is in service of trying to increase the probability our limited grant budget is impactful

• Can use grant(s) to level up impact, for example hire a new team member, start/expand a project, or unlock new funding sources

Target Areas and Request for Proposals (RFPs)

Science Acceleration

• Example grant: PubPeer

• RFP: Raise the U.S. science budget

Voting Reform

• Example grant: Rank The Vote

• RFP: Citizen-led amendment path

• RFP: Enlarge the House of Representatives

• RFP: Multi-member, proportional House districts

Government Transparency

• Example grants: Free Law Project, Fix The Court

• RFP: FOIA for the Judicial branch

Criminal Justice Reform

• Example grant: Public Accountability

• RFP: Similar appellate impact litigation

Direct Aid

• Example grants: GiveWell Top Charities Fund, DonorsChoose

• RFP: Coordination for starting more bail funds

Mainstreaming Critical Thinking

• Example grant: School of Thought

• RFP: Help people reason about complex topics

If you’re wondering where is privacy as a target area, it is covered by the independent DuckDuckGo donations, which you can learn about more in this Duck Tales episode.