Call for Proposals

Programs and Research to Reduce Suffering

Thank you for your interest! The deadline for this Call for Proposals has passed.

[Archived] Application submission link: WAM Foundation 2023 Call for Proposals

 

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. While we are sector-agnostic, we expect to prioritize high-impact sectors which are underfunded by major donors, including health, education, agriculture, social protection, and livelihoods. We favor projects that more risk-averse funders won’t support.

We expect most grants to fall into one of two categories:

  • Operational funding: time-bound support for proven, cost-effective programs facing funding gaps;

  • Catalytic funding: (a) research with high potential for impact on policy or programs; (b) capacity building; (c) operational innovations/experiments or unique programmatic opportunities

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. Grants may last for up to 2 years.

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. 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.

 

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.

 

Submission information and deadlines

  • Please submit a brief initial application via this link [link archived July 2025]. Please limit responses to 1-2 paragraphs, and no more than 1,000 characters, per question.

  • After an initial review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a detailed, comprehensive proposal.

  • We expect final grant decisions to be made by early 2024.

  • All applicants will be notified of the final decision status of their application. We also expect to provide one interim status update, by November 2023. However, due to the expected number of applications, we will not be able to provide individualized feedback.

 

All submissions are due by 11:59 PM PDT on September 8, 2023.