Most philanthropists do not like to be pitched

# Most philanthropists do not like to be pitched *A point originally made explicit from someone pretty embedded in the science philanthropy world* Many philanthropic foundations have an explicit “don’t call us, we’ll call you approach.” And individuals obviously don’t like being hit up for money. The assumption is that anything good enough bubbles to the top. The trick is bootstrapping far enough to look good. As a result, funding is very much a rich-gets-richer game: both in terms of institutions and subject areas. [[Institutions create potential wells]]. This might seem at odds with the fact that [[Pitching is a competition-driven equilibrium in precommercial scitech]]. However, in my experience, foundations and many individuals want you to pitch *even once you’re in*. Through this lens, open grant applications are pretty egalitarian. Contra [[Grants only go so far]] and [[mastroianniAllApplications2022]]. [[Grants are wasteful in part because their applications rarely involve help or feedback]] but getting a chance to shoot your shot is better than nothing.  [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Most+philanthropists+do+not+like+to+be+pitched) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Most+philanthropists+do+not+like+to+be+pitched)