Collaborative Funding

At Enspiral, we are using facilitated cobudget rounds to decide on how to distribute money and fund projects within the network.

Anyone in the network can propose a project (we call it "bucket") to be funded and anyone in the network can choose to participate in distributing the funds allocated for the cobudget round.

Here's a short video (2m37) with the overview of the cobudget round.

General funding round process

  1. The board decides on having the cobudget round and allocates funds (eg. 20k NZD)
  2. Facilitator(s) rise their hands to facilitate the process, scope the details and communicate them to the network via Loomio (eg. focus of the round, key dates, important links etc). The round is setup inside Enspiral Foundation Cobudget (private link) - make sure you get admin access t setup the round.
  3. Facilitator(s) invite people in the network to rise their hands to distribute allocated money. The allocated money is divided equally between all participants.
  4. Anyone in the network can propose a bucket to get funded, within the scope of the round. Bucket holders provide description of their bucket and requested amount to fund it directly in cobudget.
  5. When the funding round starts all participants distribute their chunk of funds as they desire. It is possible to allocate money to your own project and it is possible not to allocate any money at all and return it to the Enspiral Fundation.
  6. When the funding process is finished facilitators check in with bucket holders - if the bucket is funded do they accept the money and if the bucket is not funded do they accept partial funding.
  7. Bucket holders that accepted the funding or partial funding deliver their project and submit an invoice to Enspiral Foundation on delivery.

How to get paid for a Cobudget Bucket

Once you've completed a bucket send an invoice to Enspiral Foundation via foundation@enspiral.com

In your invoice include:

  • the total amount for the bucket in NZD (remember, the amounts in Cobudget are GST-exclusive)
  • bucket name and URL
  • a clear indication of whether GST is included in your invoice
  • bank account number

More Info

  • Financial Agreement
  • More context about cobudget rounds on Loomio (Enspiral only)
  • Thriving Nodes Supercharge - cobudget round February 2024 on Loomio (Enspiral only)
  • Growing a thriving network of Enspiral nodes - cobudget round October 2023 on [Loomio](https://www.loomio.com/d/m2bAPO8h/you-are-invited-to-a-round-of-participatory-budgeting-growing-a-thriving-network-of-enspiral-nodes-