Why we’re doing this: The CAT mini grant programme provides a way to direct financial support to promising initiatives that CATs are working on for the benefit of the community. It also gives others a reason to fund CAT via Open Collective.

How do I apply?

You can apply through this google form.

Which projects are eligible for a grant?

• Must have an output (e.g. blog post, event summary, research paper)

• Must enable people working together (must be cross-company / good to be distributed across the globe)

• Must be aligned with our Theory of change

  • Creating identity | Enabling connections | Developing shared understanding

  • Helping tech workers understand their levers for change, green their craft, speak up, advocate & influence

Projects that will likely not get funded

Projects that use tech to solve climate problems likely won't get funded. Examples for this would be a food waste app or a podcast or website about communicating climate science.

Projects we funded in the past

• GreenOps survey: Purpose was to see whether the bold climate action claims by leading tech giants are reflected in the reality of how IT professional are building and consuming their services

• CAT Hackathon in Zurich: Purpose was to foster knowledge, community, and ideas around Green IT and Digital Sustainability in Switzerland

• CAT GenAI Exploratorium: Purpose was to explore the intersection of climate action in tech and generative AI through open discussions in an online event series

Ideas for projects we would fund

Community events (more guidance in here)

• CAT Food: Covering the food bill of the 9th person showing up to a local, in-person CAT dinner

• CAT Unconference: Using the unconference format to get people in the tech sector talking and sharing about climate (like OMG Climate where some of the seeds of the Green Software Foundation were planted)

• Climate Justice Squads: Creating self-led learning groups for CATs to talk about climate justice and understand how it relates to their work

Work that provides guidance or puts pressure on tech to do better

• Principles for Sustainable Service Design: Principles put together by a group of cross-company folks & focussed on changing companies from within in the service design industry

• AWS letter: This was used by organisations to get AWS reps to share energy / carbon information that they were not making available before - as a customer, the threat of publicly signing it provided extra leverage for organisations to be able disclose their own footprint

• Sample guidance and policies on employee activism: Like the kind Wholegrain Digital created, but expanded to be applicable for more companies

How much money do we give per grant?

We’re currently capping our grant money at ~500£€$ per grant. When a grant is awarded it is paid to a ‘Grant Recipient’.

It will be the responsibility of the Grant Recipient to account for any tax obligations to their local or domestic or other relevant authority for any tax, government insurance or other statutory payment arising as a result of the grant award.

What should the budget be used for?

• Paying folks who document knowledge (e.g. after an event)

• Paying speakers

• Creating open licensed, reusable learning resources (e.g. guides, manuals, workshop templates)

  • Draft contracts with more sustainable defaults (e.g. for procurement)

  • Sample sustainability policies to use as a starting point for orgs taking their first steps

  • 1 pagers to argue for X to your boss

• Tools or assets (e.g. an online platform or collaboration tool, photos)

Process

From application to project completion

• Form is always open.

• At the end of every quarter (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec) we collect all applications and evaluate them.

• At the beginning of the next quarter (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) we'll announce the projects being funded. All successfully funded projects are published on our blog, newsletter and announcements.

• Completed projects and lessons learned are also published on our blog, newsletter and announcements.

Evaluation criteria

We evaluate each application using the rubric below

CAT oversight & payment process

Grant Recipients are required to submit their invoices to the CAT organizers and follow the taxation laws for their country*. Grant Recipients can choose to:

• Submit 2 invoices (receiving 1/4 of the money at the start and 3/4 of the money upon project completion) or

• Submit 1 invoice (receiving the full amount upon project completion)

*The Grant Recipient is to account for any tax obligations to their local or domestic or other relevant authority for any tax, government insurance or other statutory payment arising as a result of the grant award.

Applicants are invited to a Slack channel where they are expected to post updates. CAT organisers or volunteers use the same channel to check-in and coordinate payment (through CAT open collective). The following check-points are based on the project timeline that was stated in the application or later amended by the applicant:

• At the beginning - check-in and (if invoice is submitted) payment of 1/4 of the money

• Half-way point - check-in

• End of the project timeline - check-in and

  • If project is completed, payment of 3/4 or all of the money (depending on whether invoice was sent in the beginning)

  • If project isn’t completed, applicant can extend the timeline but won’t be receiving the money until the project is completed

To do

• Impact: What impact is the program having?

  • Can we see who is picking up the research?

  • Are there ways to publish?

  • ⭐TO DO: We can track linkbacks, follow up with grantees after, does anyone in the organizer/volunteer group have experience with marketing who can advise on getting the word out about the impact of our grants?

• Terms & conditions - so that there’s a clear formal agreement between CAT & the mini grant receiver

Resources

The CAT google drive folder for mini grants (restricted)

Examples of other micro grant funding programmes

Below are a number of other programmes that inspired the creation of the CAT mini grant programme.

https://www.awesomefoundation.org

https://www.heliumgrant.org/

Powershift network: https://form.jotform.com/212926278602054