Funding Criteria

Mission Alignment & Unmet Need

The organization’s work and services align to Overdeck Family Foundation’s mission and a specific portfolio. Based on context, timing, and landscape, the organization or program addresses an area of market opportunity, failure, or inefficiency.

Testable Theory of Impact

The organization is willing to gather and analyze data to demonstrate its impact and make evidence-informed and cost-effective decisions to improve. When funding early stage initiatives, we place an emphasis on innovation and validating evidence to demonstrate impact, especially as an organization grows. For growth or late stage organizations, we emphasize a program’s ability to reach more program participants in a cost-effective way that does not sacrifice impact.

Potential to Scale

The organization aims to sustainably scale programs, practices, or models that are evidence-based, and is willing to build a strong evidence base before engaging in a growth plan. Early stage organizations should show evidence of their potential to have significant reach and increasing impact, while growth or late stage organizations should be ready for scale when they apply for funding.

Leadership Strength

The organization is led by a strong leadership team with a track record of success across programmatic and operational areas. We believe the leadership of an organization can have a profound impact on success and encourage organizations to have a diverse leadership team and Board that represents their target populations.

Financial Health & Sustainability

The organization displays a history of a stable or healthy financial position, skilled fiscal management, a diverse funder base, and a deliberate path to long-term sustainability. Some financial expertise is present at a leadership or Board level.

Influence Potential

The organization or research team has a desire to influence the field and contribute insights by developing new evidence, engaging in thought leadership, and/or publishing research.

Overdeck Family Foundation limits indirect costs to 10% of the annual direct costs. For research grants, indirect costs are limited to 15% for independent research organizations and 10% for universities.

Grantees receiving funds for research studies commit to complying with the following requirements to the extent applicable:

Data & Other Materials: Subject to privacy and other legal exceptions, all data and data-related materials (such as survey instruments) created in whole or in part with Overdeck Family Foundation funding should be made publicly and permanently available to the maximum extent that is legally permitted and logistically possible.
Pre-registration: Any empirical study that involves statistical inference should be pre-registered before the start of intervention or data collection. Pre-registration should occur via the study’s Open Science Framework (OSF) page. Studies can be registered elsewhere if another registry is preferred (e.g., SocialScienceRegistry.org, REES).
Pre-Analysis Plan: Grantees should submit to the Foundation a pre-analysis plan within the first two months of the grant period for approval. After publicly posting, any changes to the pre-analysis plan will need to be reviewed and approved by the Foundation. The pre-registration should publicly reflect all changes and edits to the original pre-analysis plan.
Open Publication of Results: All research results from Foundation-funded research (including articles, reports, etc.) must be openly and publicly available for free. In the event of a published article, this requirement may be satisfied by posting the final published version, the accepted author manuscript, or a near-final working paper or preprint. It is the responsibility of the grantee to retain sufficient rights to post articles as required by this policy. In the event of a research finding that is not formally published, the grantee should nonetheless write up the finding and post it on OSF as a working paper or preprint.

Funding Criteria