COEFFICIENT GIVING
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP): INCUBATION
Coefficient Giving invites applications from impact-oriented incubators and accelerators, as well as individuals or teams interested in establishing new incubators, to support the creation and growth of high-impact organisations.
The initiative aims to identify promising ideas, recruit and train founders, and support new organisations through their launch and early years.
1. About the Opportunity
Coefficient Giving is particularly interested in incubators and accelerators that support highly cost-effective organisations working in its priority areas, including:
- Global health and wellbeing.
- High-impact policy.
- Farm animal welfare.
- Reducing global catastrophic risks.
- Economic growth.
- Scientific progress.
The organisation aims to scale the strongest existing incubators and accelerators while supporting the launch of new ones.
2. At a Glance
- Who Can Apply: Existing incubators and accelerators (Stream 1), and individuals or teams starting new incubators (Stream 2).
- Funding: Funding is available for existing incubators and at least one new incubator.
- Grant Duration: Expected to be two to three years.
- Application Deadline: 18 December 2026.
- Application Process: Two-stage application process.
3. What Coefficient Giving Means by an Incubator
An incubator takes a new organisation from idea to launch. The strongest incubators demonstrate four key capabilities:
- Support and Launch Cost-effective Ideas: Launch organisations around promising interventions, whether researched in-house or drawn from vetted sources.
- Select Founders: Conduct rigorous recruitment to identify people with the drive and judgement to build impactful organisations from scratch.
- Train and Support: Teach founders how to plan, measure cost-effectiveness, fundraise and operate, while providing mentorship, operational assistance and networks after launch.
- Help Secure Early Funding: Connect newly launched organisations with seed funding so that promising ideas can be implemented immediately.
The term “incubator” is used broadly. Studios, accelerators, fellowships and venture-style programmes that launch or grow high-impact organisations are also welcome to apply, even if they do not perform all four functions.
4. Why Coefficient Giving Is Funding Incubators
Coefficient Giving believes the world is short of thousands of philanthropic startups and the talent needed to run them.
Incubators help address this gap by turning well-researched ideas into well-managed organisations. They can repeatedly launch highly cost-effective organisations and help prepare for the billions of dollars in new philanthropic capital that may become available in the coming years.
5. What Coefficient Giving Hopes to Achieve
Through this Request for Proposals, Coefficient Giving hopes to:
- Scale incubators with a strong track record so they can launch more organisations.
- Help launch one or more new incubators, especially in geographies or cause areas where the model is underused.
- Share specific organisations that programme teams would like to see established, motivating incubators to build cohorts around them.
- Discover incubators and potential incubator founders not yet known to the organisation.
- Better understand funding needs and gaps across the incubation sector.
6. The Scale of Ambition
Coefficient Giving prioritises launching a few exceptional organisations over creating many average ones.
A successful organisation should become highly cost-effective at scale and deliver significant improvements to the world, potentially doing orders of magnitude more good per dollar than a typical organisation in its field.
Cost-effectiveness is a major consideration. Proposals will be assessed using the Importance, Tractability and Neglectedness (ITN) framework:
- Importance: How large are the problems that the incubated organisations would address?
- Tractability: Is there evidence supporting the proposed interventions and a credible plan to deliver them?
- Neglectedness: How likely is it that these organisations would exist without incubation, and how underfunded are their areas relative to their importance?
7. Funding Streams
Applicants are invited to apply under one of two funding streams.
Stream 1: Scaling Existing Incubators
This stream is intended for incubators, studios and accelerators that have already launched organisations and want to scale their work.
Coefficient Giving is particularly interested in incubators that could run cohorts dedicated to one or more of its priority areas.
Funding could support:
- Running an additional or larger cohort.
- Expanding into a new cause area or geography.
- Running an accelerator cohort that helps young organisations grow and become ready for further funding.
- Strengthening core functions such as cause prioritisation research, founder recruitment or post-launch support.
- Offering seed grants to newly launched organisations so they can begin operations immediately.
Stream 2: Seeding New Incubators
This stream is intended for individuals or teams interested in starting a new incubator.
Coefficient Giving is particularly interested in new incubators in geographies where many high-impact organisations could operate but few incubators currently exist.
In these regions, preference will be given to incubators that are headquartered in the country where the work will take place and predominantly staffed by local people.
The organisation is looking for applicants who:
- Have founded or managed a high-impact organisation.
- Are familiar with the proposed geography or cause area.
- Have a clear plan for identifying ideas and recruiting founders.
- Can commit to the initiative full-time for several years.
Existing organisations interested in establishing a new incubation arm are also welcome to apply.
8. Eligibility
Any organisation or team that launches, or plans to launch, new high-impact organisations can apply.
Eligible applicants include:
- Non-profit organisations.
- Venture studios.
- Fellowships.
- Existing incubators and accelerators.
- Individuals or teams planning to establish new incubators.
Incubated organisations should work in areas aligned with Coefficient Giving’s strategic priorities, including:
- Global health.
- Global aid policy.
- Economic growth.
- Scientific progress.
- Farm animal welfare.
- Global catastrophic risks.
9. Priority Areas and Organisations
Coefficient Giving’s programme teams have identified specific types of organisations they would like to see established. Applicants may propose organisations in these areas or present their own ideas, explaining why they should be prioritised.
A. Global Aid Policy and Effectiveness
Areas of interest include:
- Policy and advocacy organisations promoting more cost-effective aid, focusing on US aid, multilateral development banks or European donors.
- Think tanks and organisations developing practical policy proposals that save decision-makers time and engage key actors.
- Organisations advocating for a positive right-of-centre vision of aid.
- Organisations strategically using C4 funding.
- Independent groups assessing how effectively major global health and development funding platforms use resources.
- Benchmarking organisations that rank major global health platforms and recommend reforms.
- Organisations advising European and US donor governments on approaches to AI in development, including support for developing-country governments’ AI policies.
B. Economic Growth in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), Including AI and Development
Areas of interest include:
- Independent think tanks working on economic growth policy for large, poorer Indian states, contingent on FCRA registration.
- A growth think tank in Nigeria combining rigorous policy analysis with access to decision-makers.
- Think tanks researching how advanced AI could affect economic growth and tax policy in LMICs.
- Organisations focused on cost-effective ways to expand internet access in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Forecasting and early-warning initiatives tracking how advanced AI is changing jobs, economic growth and public finances in LMICs.
C. Science, Health R&D and Regulation
Areas of interest include:
- Research examining emerging technologies and how US regulation could adapt to them.
- Initiatives translating ideas for faster drug development into regulatory guidance.
- Patient advocacy promoting faster and more efficient clinical trials across diseases.
- Organisations helping regulators, health technology assessment bodies and procurement systems in LMICs prepare for a faster flow of new treatments.
- Initiatives reducing administrative burdens on scientists and speeding up federal grant reviews.
- Organisations strengthening research integrity through replication and fraud detection, including AI-enabled tools.
D. Lead Exposure
Areas of interest include:
- Organisations addressing specific lead-acid battery use cases, such as battery-swap-and-recycle services for e-rickshaws, particularly in South Asia, or exploring interventions for off-grid solar in Africa.
- Initiatives increasing the enforcement capacity of regulators in countries with existing but under-enforced lead limits, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria.
E. Air Quality
Areas of interest include:
- Organisations working to eliminate open waste burning in high-burden cities by addressing municipal failures such as waste collection gaps and dumpsite fires.
- Organisations reducing emissions from small-industry clusters, including re-rolling, foundries, sponge iron, brick kilns and lead smelting, through proven technology upgrades and regulatory engagement.
Preferred Geographies:
India (contingent on FCRA registration), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
F. Abundance and Growth (US / Europe)
Areas of interest include:
- Organisations reducing the cost of building major US transportation infrastructure towards international benchmarks.
- Initiatives translating permitting and transmission reforms into actual infrastructure development.
- Groups accelerating the deployment of affordable energy, including geothermal and batteries.
- Organisations helping governments reduce procedural barriers that slow down agencies.
- Initiatives increasing the supply of doctors and nurses to lower healthcare costs.
- Groups making it easier for highly skilled people to live and work where they can be most productive.
G. Meta / Field-building
Areas of interest include:
- Programmes building skills and capacity among influential individuals, such as government officials in LMICs or small teams at agencies like WHO.
- Organisations growing and professionalising the Abundance and Progress Studies communities through talent pipelines, convenings and state/local chapters.
- New think tanks and advocacy groups building the abundance policy ecosystem in Europe.
10. Funding Amount and Grant Structure
Grant sizes are expected to vary widely. Previous incubation grants have ranged from US$20,000 to US$7.5 million, with the largest being a three-year grant to scale an established incubator.
Most grants under this RFP are expected to last two to three years.
Grants for New Incubators May Cover:
- Core team costs.
- Initial research.
- Founder recruitment.
- Programme delivery.
- Potential seed grants for the first cohort, where needed.
Scaling Grants May Cover:
- Additional or dedicated cohorts.
- Core organisational functions.
- Pass-through seed grants.
Applicants will be required to provide and justify their proposed budgets, clearly explaining what each budget item will fund and how many organisations they expect to launch.
Applicants whose incubators are not yet incorporated are encouraged to decide early whether to establish a new legal entity or work with a fiscal sponsor. Associated costs, including fiscal sponsorship fees and legal costs, should be included in the proposed budget.
11. Selection Criteria and Evaluation Process
Applications will be assessed based on the following factors:
- Cost-effectiveness: The expected impact of organisations launched relative to costs, including whether those organisations would have existed without the proposed incubator.
- Team: The experience, judgement and suitability of the team. This carries the most weight for Stream 2 applicants.
- Track Record (where applicable): The number of organisations launched, their performance and how success is measured.
- Idea Generation: How ideas are identified and assessed, including research functions and the use of existing research to establish priorities.
- Founder Selection and Support: The rigour of founder selection and the support provided before and after launch.
- Fit with Priorities: Alignment with Coefficient Giving’s programme priorities or a strong case for addressing important gaps not listed.
- Scalability and Growth Potential: The potential for the incubator to grow over time, especially for Stream 2.
- Seed Funding Plan: How newly launched organisations will secure their initial funding.
12. How to Apply
The application process consists of two stages.
Stage 1: Short Application
Applicants must complete a short application designed to take approximately two to three hours.
The application will request:
- Basic information about the applicant and proposed organisation, including the funding stream being applied for.
- A summary of current or proposed activities and what Coefficient Giving funding would enable.
- An explanation of how ideas are selected and details of 3–5 specific organisations proposed for launch during the grant period.
- An explanation of how founders will be identified and selected.
- CVs or LinkedIn profiles for the core team, including why they are suitable for the proposed project.
- A preliminary budget covering grant duration, requested amount, intended expenditure, other funders and the expected number of organisations to be launched.
Additional Requirements for Stream 1:
- Track record in numbers.
- Details of the 2–3 strongest organisations expected to be launched.
Additional Requirements for Stream 2:
- Current stage of development.
- An explanation of why the proposed incubator needs to exist (approximately 150 words).
Applicants may use bullet points. Concrete numbers and honest assessments of uncertainty are encouraged.
Stage 2: Full Proposal
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed proposal tailored to their funding stream and proposed ideas.
This may include:
- Details of the portfolio of organisations launched.
- Cost-effectiveness and counterfactual estimates.
- Seed funding plans.
- Detailed plans for incubating ideas identified by Coefficient Giving’s programme teams.
Applicants may also be invited for an interview.
Important Application Notes
- Applications unrelated to this RFP or appearing to be largely AI-generated will be screened out.
- With applicants’ permission, applications may be shared with other funders interested in supporting their work.
- Applicants may opt out of this sharing arrangement in the application form.
- Due to the expected volume of applications, individual feedback will not be provided.
13. Application Timeline
| Activity | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Applications Open | 9 November 2026 |
| Application Deadline | 18 December 2026, 11:59 PM Pacific Time |
| Assessment Period | January – March 2027 |
| Grant Decisions | Expected by the end of April 2027 |
Coefficient Giving will not respond to questions about individual applications, except for urgent logistical issues. Applicants are encouraged to consult the FAQ, use their best judgement and indicate any uncertainties in their applications.
The organisation will not be fielding any questions beyond 10 December 2026.
14. Application
Interested organisations, individuals and teams are encouraged to review the full Request for Proposals and complete the Stage 1 application.
Application Deadline: 18 December 2026, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.