We recognize that we can increase the likelihood of grant success by employing pragmatic risk assessment, risk mitigation, and risk management activities.

  1. Right-size our diligence: To ensure efficiency of operations, we right-size our processes to the scale and complexity of grants. This means that lower dollar, shorter-term, single-stakeholder investments require less intensive diligence than higher-cost, longer-term, or multi-party grants.
  2. Assess impact risk: Our impact risk assessment process is centered on two types of risk: evidence risk and execution risk.
    1. Evidence risk: (evaluated here) is the prospect that insufficient data exists to support the belief that a program will impact lifetime earnings at the depth, scale, or durability that an organization claims. We assess claims by considering grantee outcome data (if available) and level of analytical rigor, literature review generalizability, and end-user data collection systems, among other factors.
    2. Execution risk: (evaluated here) is the possibility that an organization won’t be able to achieve its goals or deliver against its plan. We assess this by considering the organization's track record and traction, its leadership team capabilities, its addressable market, and additive partnerships, among other factors.
  3. Risk Mitigation and Management Plan (RMMP)
    1. Based on the outcomes of our evaluation, we may suggest an RMMP to implement risk mitigation approaches based on the unique needs of each grant and applicant organization.
    2. For example, a high evidence risk score may prompt a Program Officer to require a proof-of-concept phase for a grant; a high execution risk score may lead to recommendations to build a key capability within the organization’s leadership team.
    3. At times we manage grant risk by structuring grants in phases, with milestone- or outcomes-based payments. For large, complex grants we often recommend a planning phase to ensure sufficient scoping, partnership development, and/or experimentation to increase the likelihood of success.
    4. EXAMPLE RMMP (to be developed in late 2024)