This is the seventh update (Week #7) as part of our quest to design and build a funding readiness framework. See initial proposal, week #1, week #2, week #3, week #4, week #5, and week #6 updates here.
What we planned to do
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Our original aim was to design, build, and test a funding readiness framework that could act as a signaling tool for sources of capital
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Our target was projects in a position to raise $50-100k that could be used to enable financial sustainability
What we did
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We designed and built the framework, but were only able to complete one round of internal testing
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We got feedback from two grant round operators
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We are still waiting for two projects to submit their answers so they can be evaluated
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We also briefly discussed next steps for the framework (software product, go-to-market strategy)
What we learned
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The separation between “funding readiness” and a typical grant round or other funding application needs to be defined and communicated clearly. Things like “What will you do with the funding?” are not part of funding readiness, but rather a grant application.
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What a project decides to include in its answer can be just as important as the substance of its answer
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Asking evaluators to agree, disagree, or neither with a statement was a big unlock. It doesn’t remove subjectivity entirely, but we think it’s better than some sort of scoring system
Challenges encountered
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We weren’t proactive enough with our testing plan. We should’ve reached out to projects much earlier.
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Speed vs. depth was difficult to balance due to time and resource constraints
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Keeping the framework “light” enough so that people would fill it out was tough. There is so much potential information to collect, but a balance is needed otherwise projects simply won’t fill it in.
Next steps
- Write an article introducing the framework. Although our final artefact is the framework (as per our proposal), but we think this final article is necessary to give background, context, and outlook on the framework and its application thereof. This will act as our final “artefact delivery” for this research quest.