Low Quality Proposals

What happens when a funding categorisation is filled with low quality proposals? How can this be prevented or mitigated?

Problem

There is a risk that in any funding round that the proposals submitted into certain funding categorisations are of low quality. If proposals are of low quality this can lead to stagnating the distribution of funding to impactful initiatives or mean wasting ecosystem funding if they get voted in.

Relevance to funding categorisation

Funding categorisation is at least somewhat relevant to mitigating this problem as funding categorisations determine what proposals can be submitted in each categorisation. Funding categorisations would not prevent this problem from happening but they can help mitigate it to a certain extent. The following categorisation approaches could help mitigate the problem of the quality of proposals being submitted into categorisations:

• Broad vs specific categorisations - Broad categorisations will mean inviting more proposal types into a single categorisation which should help increase the number of proposals being submitted.

• Inclusive vs exclusive categorisations - Inclusive categorisations will mean allowing all forms of idea to be submitted into the categorisations which should help increase the number of proposals being submitted.

Potential Solutions

Broad categorisations

Broad categorisations will invite more proposal types into a single categorisation that will help to increase the number of proposals that can be submitted. This helps to increase the probability of receiving a higher number of high quality proposals which then helps to reduce the concern of other low quality proposals.

Inclusive categorisations

Inclusive categorisations will invite all forms of idea across the categorisations and help to increase the total number of ideas that can be submitted. This helps to increase the probability of receiving a higher number of high quality proposals which then helps to reduce the concern of other low quality proposals.

Proposal standards

Creating proposal standards will mean formalising exactly what structure and information should be included in a proposal and have considerations for the data and information needed for different types of proposals. Improving this structure for proposers will help to guide the creation of higher quality proposals due to better structured and highly relevant information that will be requested from proposers.

Proposal interaction and feedback data

Integrating more tools and processes for proposers to get more interaction, feedback and suggestions from the community will help with improving proposals that get submitted and start going through the funding process. This interaction and feedback could also lead to collaboration across teams or more team formation that could also help with shared knowledge and skills to increase proposal quality.

Proposal support and processes

More support structures and processes for proposers would help to prevent easy mistakes or any confusions regarding expectations or best practices for writing a quality proposal. Funding categorisation suggestions like Catalyst contributors would be a potential solution for this where full time contributors could allocate some time to helping proposers improve their proposals.