The best project I tested had a cost-effectiveness of one point per $1-$2K. Excellent projects that most grantmakers were happy to fund had cost-effectivenesses of 1 / $2-$5K. Decent projects that some grantmakers funded and others didn't had cost-effectivenesses of $5-$10K, and projects that we took seriously but mostly didn't end up funding unless there were hard-to-quantify reasons in favor were usually in the range of 1 / $10-$20K. Beyond $20K was the line where the human grantmakers I observed generally didn't treat the projects as serious contenders.... (read more)