Funding to Impact
For funders. Draft 0.1, looking for its first funders.
Help builders understand what funders want to support, before they spend time applying.
FtI is a file format funders publish on their own website, so people and agents can read their priorities and opportunities before anyone applies. It's inspired by the lightweight approach of llms.txt and built on CommonGrants, instead of adding another competing schema.
For funders, the intended benefit is clearer communication and fewer unsuitable applications. For builders, it's less time lost on scattered, outdated or ambiguous information. These are intended benefits, not measured results.
What a funder explains
- Priorities
- the problems, communities and kinds of work it wants to support, including explicit exclusions.
- Eligibility
- whether individuals, informal groups, organisations or fiscally sponsored projects can apply, and under which geographic or other restrictions.
- Support
- type, typical amount and currency, duration, eligible costs and material conditions.
- Availability
- whether a specific opportunity is open, rolling, invitation-only, forecasted, closed or withdrawn.
- Process
- the official route, required materials, deadlines with time zones, decision timing and reporting expectations.
- Evidence
- what applicants should show, including whether exploratory work without prior outcomes can be supported.
- Authority and freshness
- the publisher, authoritative links, review and update information, and any expiry or withdrawal.
Three connected parts
The file format
A funder publishes fti-manifest.json on its own website, linked to its official programme pages. Each opportunity is a CommonGrants record inside it, and general priorities stay separate from actual calls. Draft 0.1 has executable schemas and a validator. A funder doesn't need to run a server or join a new portal.
The MCP server
A read-only server that lets agents find funders and opportunities from these files, with four tools: find_funders, search_opportunities, get_entry and registry_info. It runs locally over prepared snapshots; there is no hosted service yet. ItF is one intended client among others, never a gateway or an eligibility authority.
Import adapters
Planned: bring in funding information from sources that don't publish the file. Importing a listing won't mean its funder has adopted FtI.
Ground rules
- Funding interests are not automatically open calls.
- Previous awards are not evidence that applications are open now.
- Missing eligibility information is unknown, not permission to apply.
Where it stands
FtI is at draft 0.1. The file format is published here under CC0, with a schema and a validator. The MCP server runs locally and has been tested with fictional data. Import adapters are planned. No funder has adopted FtI yet, and there is no hosted service. We're looking for the first funders to publish with it.
If you fund work and want to publish with FtI, write to hello@citizeninfra.org.