Introduction

For any group or organization to be effective, it needs to be able to make decisions about how to allocate its resources. Especially for organizations aiming to be self-managing, participatory, or 'teal', collaborative decision-making models for allocating funds are not very developed yet. Tools such as Cobudget can make collaborative budgeting and funding process easier, but there is much more to successful budget allocation than just one tool!

The participatory proposal process

There are many ways to do collaborative funding. This guide focuses on ****one type: the participatory proposal process. In the following chapters, we will take you through the basic steps of setting up and running this type of collaborative funding round for your organization, from bringing awareness to your group culture, to onboarding, engagement, proposal making and funding.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for any organization that wants to take a first stab at collaborative funding; or, if they have implemented other types of collaborative funding before, to try out a new practice. It is has been written to support individuals and teams who are leading the design and facilitation of collaborative funding processes in their organization.

Which types of organizations? Any! What is written here is valid whether you are a company, a network, a community, a membership organization, a government or educational institution. To keep things simple, in this guide we refer to all of these as a 'group'.