ACX grant evaluator shares donor-first funding framework and ITN tastes

In a candid essay titled 'Some Ways I Think About Evaluating Grant Applications,' an experienced grant evaluator—who has worked on ACX grants, SFF (Science Fiction & Fantasy) grants, and various other philanthropic contexts—shares their personal 'tastes' for assessing proposals. The author emphasizes that charitable donation is optional and should buy outcomes the donor wants to see in the world, not what the public peanut gallery dictates. They explicitly reject a uniform utilitarian framework, arguing that donors and evaluators must find overlap in values.

The evaluator embraces the classic ITN framework—Importance, Tractability, Neglectedness—but uses it verbally rather than numerically, since 'goodness' can't be reduced to a single scale. They reframe each term intuitively: importance is how much one would care if the project fully succeeded; tractability is the likelihood of success; neglectedness is whether the donation makes the difference between the project happening or not. Finally, the author admits a personal fondness for 'community infrastructure' projects like coworking spaces and events that serve a community the donor belongs to, noting this taste is somewhat subjective. The essay offers a rare, practice-based window into how influential grant decisions are made in the effective-altruism and AI-safety ecosystem.