Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

We invite everyone interested in applying for grants and see how we can work together in smarter ways to help each other increase the amount of money we raise as a whole. 

For example, we can partner with people in different countries, or alert others to possible grants that do not apply to our own organization but that someone else could follow up on. When possible, we will use federated and interoperable technology, which means that we can maintain our own databases and information but connect it all together in order to share the information. 

CICOLAB, a collective intelligence collaboratory,  proposes that we build a coalition with the goal of increasing the number of grant applications we are able to apply to. CICOLAB doesn’t have a lot of expertise in writing and/or getting grants, but in using collective intelligence to make processes efficient and scalable.

The purpose of the coalition would not be to build an organization outside and beyond the membership with a life and aims of its own, but to work together in much smarter ways to augment the amount of funding that we are able to raise. 

For more details on our approach, please read this temporary agreement 

The key roles we’ve identified are:

  • Grant researcher- who identifies and puts the grant on the calendar
  • Grant weaver- who finds the grant on the calendar, connects the dots and puts together the partnership or components
  • Grant writer- who writes the grant
  • Grant administrator- who oversees the grant submission process, to make sure that the grant has all the boxes checked and is actually submitted.
  • Grant partner -such as a university that offers their entity

We imagine this being run by a small, organized, and responsive core team that would take charge during a time-limited and constrained period. We are most interested in working with those who are willing to try new things and quickly change our strategy with new inputs. We work best with results-oriented people who like to move quickly. 

Sounds like something you want to be a part of? Do reach out to Charles Blass at cb@cicolab.org and we will take it from there!