Change in Policy

In our original application package, we pledged to notify applicants of our funding decisions within six weeks of the time when the application was received. As we posted the application package in January and set the deadline for October 1, this meant we would be making decisions on a rolling basis -- accepting or rejecting proposals without knowing what future applications might arrive.

We are now changing that pledge to allow a third option. We will continue to review all applications within six weeks. We will fund or partially fund those proposals that meet with the task force's unanimous enthusiasm, and reject those that we feel do not meet our criteria. But applications that do not fall into either category will be set aside until all applications are in. Decisions on those proposals will be announced by November 1. All applicants will be notified of their proposal's status within six weeks of our receipt of the application.

Q: What motivated the change?

A: Perhaps due to the recession, we have less money to distribute and will be approving fewer grants than we originally anticipated. We do not want to distribute all of our available money before the final proposals arrive, and we do not want to reject applications-in-hand simply to save money for applications that may or may not arrive later. While recognizing the inconvenience of delayed decisions, we believe that the new policy will allow us to make fairer decisions and to better keep faith with our contributors.