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

Member fund launch

We are so thrilled to finally be launching the allocation process for the Member Fund. As you will remember, 10% of our fiscal sponsorship cost allocations are set aside in the Member Fund, with a current balance of $11,384.73. The question we have been exploring over the last few months is: what is the right way for the larger group to decide about how to use these funds?

In January, we consulted with the crew of project leaders that had volunteered to work with us on this first iteration, and we have arrived at a potential process, and it begins today! The first thing we did was gather all of the ideas that came up over the course of our virtual gatherings last year and in other conversations with projects. Then, we created a survey through which projects can let us know which ideas for the funds they are most interested in. And finally, we landed on a version of conviction voting as the best way to approach the actual decision making.

The way it works is, rather than voting being a single event with a deadline - nobody needs more deadlines - voting is a stream. As time passes, and funds make their way into the member fund, they are also automatically allocated toward different proposed uses, based on the preferences of Raft’s projects. Then, once an idea reaches its budget, we move forward with bringing it to life! And, a project can change its preference anytime. Whenever they do, their contributions immediately shift to reflect that change. 

Think of it this way: every day, a little money is flowing into the bucket for the Member Fund ideas you are most excited about. But you can move your spigot somewhere else whenever you want! 

The thing we need each project to do is to set their initial preferences. To get things going, please touch base with the other members of your project and come to an agreement, and then fill out this form (pw: solidarity) with your preferred uses for the Member Fund. (We will be back next month with a reminder and some diagrams/drawings for all you visual thinkers out there. We are also still open to new ideas.)

Spring gathering

Please join us on Tuesday, April 7 at 6pm ET / 5pm CT / 4pm MT / 3pm PT for our spring virtual gathering! We will continue to get to know each other, have opportunities to seek support from each other, and touch base about some of the things going on at Raft intended to help projects thrive. RSVP here to join us.

Meet our new documentation website

We launched our new documentation website: raft.wiki! The old docs site now redirects there - although you may have to search to find the new link for the page you are looking for.

For the nerds on this email, it relies on an open-source tool called Quartz, built on top of Obsidian. It is much more stylish than the last iteration - and for those of you that have been with Raft since the early days, it has many of the aspects that made that first version so great.

In addition to a change in platform and style, there have also been plenty of content improvements and additions,

• We split up the expenses guidance for Model A and Model C projects to make them a bit easier to follow

• We added a Volunteer-Guide tag to gather pages that are relevant to volunteers for your project

• We added a revised Community section, including a page on project governance

• We added an Employment page, where we intend to add a lot more information as well

• Our cash donation guidance is now visible to everyone, but receiving cash donations still requires our approval. For those already set up to receive cash, we have expanded the form so that it can now handle multiple donation methods and donation dates at once

• You may also notice a few other small changes to how information is split across the different pages

There are still plenty of improvements we want to make in terms of content, but we feel this is a good start.

Password protection and private wiki

One additional benefit to the new docs is that they no longer require you to log in to see all of them. (Note: your old login to https://docs.raft.foundation is no longer needed for anything.) Additionally, prospective projects can now read about how things work before joining.

On the other hand, the main reason we had switched documentation platforms last year was to allow for multi-audience permissions control, where we could have public-oriented, project-oriented, and admin-team-oriented documentation all in one place. Although the platform didn’t work as well as we would have liked, sharing most of our policies transparently to the public is not a major concern, and the labor of maintaining everyone’s access (especially given the password reset didn’t work) was way too much - the juice was not worth the squeeze - there is still some information we would not want to be public. 

We have taken two actions to address this. 

1. First, we have added a Private Wiki area to RaftTalk, our online forum. Whenever information ought to be private, we will link from raft.wiki to a page in the private wiki where you can log in and see the private information

2. Second, almost all of our forms are now password-protected with the password “solidarity” (one word, lowercase, no quotation marks). And if we ever are forced to change the password, the current password will always be available on this page in the Private Wiki

The most important section to move to the Private Wiki is the Key Information page, which includes our EIN and IRS Determination Letter, along with other documents. (Can’t access the Private Wiki on RaftTalk? You might not have signed up yet. Use this link to do so.)

Operational notes

• New projects: Please join us in welcoming Midwest Human Rights Consortium, Good Neighbors, Pasadena Black Equity Project, SALT Mutual Aid Circle, and Food Not Bombs Hamco!

• New requirement: Please submit some basic info using this form every time you submit a grant application. This has been upgraded from a request to a requirement. :) 

• Donation form improvements: We made improvements to https://donate.raft.foundation to make it even smoother for donors and to allow project leads to fill it out on donors’ behalf when necessary. And, the form now flows into our systems better than ever, so that we can process your donations even more smoothly.

• Check donations: Relatedly, the check deposit form has been retired - now, just use this one to let us know about check donations that are coming in. 

• Independent audit: We are excited to be engaging in our first independent audit, which is required by law and by many funders. This will be keeping us busy from March through May, and our goal is to submit it before the standard May 15 deadline, without having to file an extension.

• Pause on accepting smaller projects: Beginning this month, we slowed our review of smaller project applications, given the growth we have seen, the audit, and the other projects that we want to focus on this spring. Read more here. 

• Address for Raft has not changed: Some asked if the address for Raft had changed, given that Nathan no longer lives in New York. So, to confirm, the address has not changed - the Albany address is still correct.

Celebrations

A new section to this newsletter! Today, we want to celebrate all of the Twin Cities projects that have been working hard to support neighbors in need during a very dark time. Wherever you are, please join me in sending gratitude-energy their way. (And, let me know who we should honor next.)

~

That’s all for now.

Warmly,

Nathan