How can we be more strategic in approach to philanthropic funding opportunities?
record leads and actions re specific funds in google sheet so others can identify opportunity for working together etc
where funding is regionally specific, share learning and past applications etc
work together on approach and applications for funding relevant to core global project e.g. better definition of the global open source “project” and the roles/infrastructure etc we are seeking funding for.
I have refreshed original “funding chart” prepared by @CynthiaReynolds and @MyriamBoure (Thanks!) to record philanthropic leads. I have added sheets for each region plus a sheet for “global” opportunities where not regionally specific.
Let’s start adding opportunities in here and providing an update of live opportunities/actions at our monthly hook-up? Suggestions re improvements to process/structure of sheet etc welcome! Remember there are multiple sheets (one for each region).
This week I am going to put in an EOI with Salesforce Foundation and also email the Sloan Foundation.
A meta question regarding Google Drive structure. Is there a global shared repository? If not, should there be one? I see that this document resides in the Norwegian folder but should really be stored in a global one.
What are your thought about document repository structuring?
I think a collaborative benefit analysis would be really useful. This could be sharing wordings on qualitative benefits and collating stats and figures from our separate instances.
Many funders (in my experience) like to know about impact and proven benefit and this is a hard one for us to make tangible as individual service providers. But if we can collate information for regional instances pertaining to their users (producers, hubs, consumers) then on an international scale we can make some pretty impressive stats. It would also open us up to sources of funding that are inaccessible otherwise, international pots.
It would be good to be able to make this data searchable by specific variables, particularly regional groupings. We could probably even automate it
Great initiative @serenity !
We definitely need to look no only for fundings for our own instances, but also for fundings for the global OFN project, as some mutualized roles need to be financed and the critical mass of users that would enable us to finance those roles collectively is not yet reached
When I talk about mutualized role, I mean for example international development (spread the word about OFN internationaly, support new instances to start, etc.) but also maybe coding of features needed by various OFN local communities, and merging the shared code.
I also agree @lin_d_hop that we need a common spreadsheet to gather some statistics on a regular basis (maybe twice a year for example). I had the case for the OuiShare Award application, I needed global statistics and I started a spreadsheet to gather information from UK and Australia about users, hubs, etc. It’s definitely needed to start a global google drive where we can put the documents regarding the global community. A parallel reflexion was started about communication tools, about sharing some of our communication tools, so that we can reuse them here and there and build on each others That global statistics spreadsheet could be one of our communication tools!
I have added some additional columns to the ‘EU’ sheet on this funding chart and updated it with the UK funding story so far. If you like my new columns please add them to your sheets!
We agreed to each write a summary of our country situation which we could all use for funding bids to help funders understand the strength of OFN internationally. Here is a start on the UK picture:
Stroudco has been trading for nearly 9 years and turns over about £1,000 per week. More detail on Stroudco here. Stroudco spent 2 years (2013-14) bringing together an international discussion group (onlinefoodhubs@googlegroups.com) to look at options for updating the Stroudco software. that is when we found OFN and then applied for funding to adapt OFN to work for Storudco. We linked up with Dean Forest Food Hub (Lynne Davis @lin_d_hop ), FIfe DIet (Mags Hall) and Tamar valley food hub (Sara Rock) who pooled their funding and we are using that to cover some of the development costs (although most of the development work in the UK is being done on a voluntary basis.
We have set up a new Community Interest Company called OFN UK and have a financial plan to cover future development and support costs through a subscription fee system.
We have a list of UK food hubs who want to use OFN and are applying for more funding to cover development, training, mentoring and support until OFN UK is self-sufficient.
I added some lines about global foundations that may fund OFN, but I want to work more on that. @serenity can you share the “bulk” link of the file, without embedding it? It’s hard to work in the embedded version That won’t be a problem anymore in a few hours, when we will have put those documents in the OFN global drive
Here is a bid which i am making to the European Union. I have specified France, Spain, Scandinavia and Netherlands (Locafora) as ‘partners’. If anyone has time to comment on the application I would appreciate your input. Thanks
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