Hello! If you are receiving this email, it is because you are a member of one of Raft Foundation’s fiscally-sponsored projects - or will be quite soon. We send out this bulletin toward the end of every month.

First-ever monthly gathering on October 8!

Our first monthly gathering of Raft project leads will take place on Wednesday, October 8 at 10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. RSVP here!

We will get to know each other, face to face - for the first time! - and then discuss ideas for how we might use the Member Fund, and this new monthly time together. Don’t forget to rsvp :)

If you have a regular conflict with this time - the second Wednesday of the month at 1pm ET - please let us know.

New projects

Please join us in welcoming our newest fiscally-sponsored projects: Vegas Open Network, PLEA, Stand Together for Higher Ed, and Emerald City Beacon! We are beyond excited to have them with us.

Project matching, fall 2025

In the summer, we randomly matched individual Raft members with one another, and while we offered a chance to opt out, many people missed it. We know that many of you still met each other, but this time we are going to try a different approach: personally matching projects with similar goals/interests/work. We will get your consent via email, before connecting you via email to another project - or projects - with whom we think you are highly aligned.

Over time, we hope to arrive at four different patterns for asynchronous community-building, one per season.

Seasonal report iteration

We are iterating on our approach to seasonal reports. In the summer, we requested that every Raft project both 1) fill out a short form with what they’ve been up to or link to a written report, and 2) set up a time with Raft to check in. But all that was a little bit too much, for everyone involved.

Now that the fall has begun, we are going to change it up. Here’s our thinking: we will look at your public materials (newsletters, website, socials) and we will write up a short overview of what you have been up to yourselves. Then we will email you the draft to see what changes you would like to make or things you would like to add. And we will use that as an opportunity, as well, to ask you - and this part would stay private - what you have coming down the pike, how we might be able to help, and assess whether it makes sense to have a short call to check in.

Sound good? Reply to this email if you have thoughts. 

We will not be sharing past seasonal reports from the summer with the whole group like we had planned, since they were quite uneven in format and detail - even if they did meet our legal needs in terms of project oversight.

Documentation updates

After last month’s major documentation upgrade, our attention was mostly focused elsewhere this month, but we did - with the help of one of you! - update our guidance on anonymity on OC to address that you could be de-anonymized if you use an OC profile that has previous activity.

Reminder: our documentation is now partially password-protected. To see member-only documentation, go to the login page and use your email address, with the password ‘themany’ and you will be prompted to create a new password. If you have any trouble just send us a message and we will help.

Attention to threats + conference attendance

We are paying close attention to the attempts by the current US administration to stop social movements and aligned nonprofits from accomplishing their goals. As part of this effort, and to stay in tune with the nonprofit sector more broadly, in November Nathan will attend the annual gathering of the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors and Aspiration’s Nonprofit Dev Summit.

Operational notes

• As of September 1, the Member Fund balance sits at $2,741.51. We will discuss the fund at the October monthly gathering (rsvp!), or you may also feel free to share ideas in the forum (join here!) 

• The four long-running projects mentioned in the last bulletin continue: 1) we continue to iterate on our effort to more tightly integrate Open Collective with Quickbooks Online; 2) we have now tested out all three Grant Program types, with some additional work still left to do on solidifying our project grantmaking processes (more info to come!); 3) we are now testing the new virtual cards system with one of our projects - starting slow; and 4) we are deep in the development of our employee handbook

• The pilot round of Float, a participatory grantmaking process for open ag-tech co-convened by Raft with 11th Hour Project (and co-led by Nathan), is now underway!

Let us know if you have any questions.

Warmly,

Nathan