Meeting Overview
This was a community building call focused on establishing a new "Citizen Infrastructure Builders Club" (CIBC) to support civic tech builders with fundraising and related challenges. The meeting included Artem Zhiganov (host), Alessandro (Alex), Patrick (patcon), and Simone (briefly, with technical constraints).
Key Discussion Topics
1. Community Formation & Background
- Origin: The group emerged from discussions within the Citizen Collective community, which experienced internal conflicts over governance and direction
- Vision: Create a community of practice for citizen infrastructure builders who need fundraising support
- Scope: Connecting members from Metagov, deprecated Citizen Collective, Newspeak House, and other civic tech communities
2. Fundraising Support System
Current Challenges Identified:
- Most builders (especially open source) struggle with fundraising
- Lack of professional grant writing expertise
- Need for collective resource pooling
Proposed Solutions:
- Shared funding database: Artem has started a Notion database tracking foundations and funding opportunities
- Professional grant writer: Pool resources to hire shared grant writing support (potentially with success-based compensation)
- Knowledge sharing: Regular webinars with successful builders (e.g., Robert from Citizen Foundation Iceland)
- Working sessions: Regular co-working sessions for grant writing and applications
3. Fiscal Hosting Arrangement
- Liz from Metagov has tentatively agreed to provide fiscal hosting for the new community
- This would enable grant applications and fund distribution