Proposal Framework Tool - AIM

Why is it important?

TIme is scarce and people are generally short of time and resources. SMART ideas and solutions are needed to solve global and local problems. Help for entrepreneurial Catalyst proposers and voters is needed.

Goals for a better world for all have been collaboratively set from efforts across Governments, multi-lateral organisations, NGOs and civil society and have been organised into frameworks of understanding to help guide priority actions.

Funds are scarce and global finance flows must be unlocked and redirected to help entrepreneurs and change agents solve global and local problems by implementing solutions at scale for maximum impact. A lack of experience and knowledge should not be an insurmountable obstacle to solving wicked problems.

Existing Catalyst funded projects tend to lack explicitly clear, measurable targets that connect with goals and frameworks seeking to solve wicked problems that may be external to Catalyst or the Cardano ecosystem, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The competition and pressure to secure scarce funds is increasing, and has led to a systemic absence within proposals in allocating a portion of secured funds dedicated to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for instance, and integrating measurable targets and goals derived from existing international, multilateral frameworks and target priority action areas.

How to greater ensure that sustainable impact and a positive return on investment and intention is made?

To plan, propose and deliver a project that has measurable impact and accelerates progress in delivering solutions to problems, you need to understand your impacts.

The proposal framework tool CARE © (Catalysing Ambitious Rising Entrepreneurs) will help you to structure your Catalyst Proposal and business plan by connecting users to a world of frameworks at their fingertips.

CARE © aims to be a tool that will not only help people develop ideas and proposals for Project Catalyst but also develop documentation for proposals on the global stage. As entrepreneurs planning projects using standards and frameworks from a global menu of options, CARE © enables and empowers users to maximise their reach of impact and chances of securing the funds to do so.

With a few clicks CARE © facilitates the integration of chosen frameworks, monitoring and evaluation principles and project design practices into your proposal project plan and documentation.

Whether at the outset of a project's inception or during existing projects, users will be able to integrate the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of a project's impacts. This will allow users of CARE © to better measure and understand their impacts.

By integrating M&E and connecting projects to KPIs, metrics and indicators from a global menu across the social, economic and environmental spheres of our interconnected world, Project Catalyst Proposals will be better equipped to target funds not just within Catalyst, but also be steps closer to the world of global finance and capital, venture capital and seed funding rounds etc.

Project Catalyst projects will be facilitated in their journey of internal auditing processes, and better prepared for external auditing, contributing to elevating the standards of proposals proposed, project implementation and tracking in the Cardano ecosystem.

Understanding a project's impacts in relation to goals external to Catalyst and the Cardano ecosystem will greatly enhance the potential scale of impact for each proposal, and open the door to a world of opportunities for collaboration and synergy.

With CARE © your project team can seamlessly create a bespoke proposal that integrates the relevant framework components of your choice, helping to structure and connect your ideas and proposed solution to known existing challenges and problems and those yet to be realised.

The problems of today and tomorrow running across social, economic and environmental spheres require change agents to have access to impactful frameworks of understanding, in a simple, intuitive and accessible tool.

CARE © seeks to be one such solution to help equip change agents with the tools to help build and contribute to an impact driven movement of disruptive innovation, measured and communicated for all to benefit in an open-access and transparent fashion.

Key Metrics to measure:

• Number of users, using the framework tool - using social media metrics, downloads, feedback forms
• Difference in proposal review score of applicants using the toolbox and those not using the tools - comparative analysis

Gaps that are filled in the entrepreneurial skills base of project teams from the start of ideation through project delivery - using the tool and feedback into input forms the user journey is captured

Sustainability of venture plans beyond the scope of Catalyst development project-

• With the help of the tool, proposer/s learn of new frameworks and platforms to seek funding
• Use their tool facilitated documentation to seek/secure funds external to Catalyst

Relevant connections and links:

• In talks with Positive Blockchain, an organisation building an open access global database of projects within the blockchain space that have social impact - https://positiveblockchain.io/
• Member of The Commonwealth Informal Network for closing the Digital Divide
• Member of Global Insights Panel - MIT Technology Review
• Connections to social entrepreneurs, seed funding stakeholders and incubators

Example of a simplified User Journey:

Step 1:" I have…"

¬A) A proposal

¬B) An idea but haven't started writing a proposal

¬C) No set ideas but looking for inspiration (signposted to Catalyst School, Discord Channels, Telegram Channels, Catalyst Onboarding tutorial etc)

Step 2: Answers A and B arrives at: "My idea concerns…"

¬People

¬Planet

¬Environment

¬Economics

¬Society

¬(Tick all categories that apply)

Step 3:

"Here are some frameworks and indexes that may be helpful in developing and connecting your ideas and proposals to measurable goals and outcome.

This can help you in creating a proposal that is robust and implementing actions that will have measurable impact.

You can use these indicators to integrate into the M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation) of your project to measure and communicate the impact of your project to all stakeholders, be it the Cardano community, the Catalyst community, your funders, beneficiaries or Governmental agencies."

Step 4:

"Explore the following frameworks and indexes." User can click to highlight, copy and paste the relevant text from an array of frameworks and indexes. Sustainable Development Goals is planned to be functional in the MVP.

For a more detailed version look at slides attached

Technical Specs:

The proposal framework tool CARE © development consists in three main parts:

Frontend, the part with which the end users will interact, will be developed as a SPA (Single Page Application) based on the JavaScript framework Vue.js and it will be published as a static website. The frontend will interact with a centralized API.

API: this part will contain the database of the frameworks integrated in the tool (e.g. collection of problem statements, metrics, categorizations, etc.) and all the information that will be consumed by the frontend. This is the part responsible also for the authentication of the users that will be able to save their progress.

The API is developed with the Laravel framework and hosted on a web server.

Backend: an administration panel that allows to maintain the database of the frameworks included in the tool

Budget and Roadmap: Total request = $14000

CARE © Proposal Framework Tool MVP Development :

Frontend/UX design: $1500 (~ 30 hours)

Frontend development: $4000 (~ 80 hours)

API development: $3250 (~ 65 hours)

Backend: $1000 (~20 hours)

Total: $9750

General admin and social media promotion: $250

Research: $4000 (November 2021 - March 2022)

Research carried out during public testing of CARE © Proposal Framework Tool during Fund 7 to investigate the impacts of having such a tool accessible to a proposer.

Tracking all proposals that use the tool in Fund 7 and those that go on to be successfully funded (November 2021 - March 2022):

Using mixed research methods (qualitative and quantitative). Analysing the application of frameworks and datasets (Sustainable Development Goals in the first instance), interviews with Catalyst proposers connecting them to the Sustainable Development Goals Framework, surveys, tracking their proposal journey and project progress until Fund 7 Winners' announcement.

Collating all into an article/paper for public benefit ready for publication in March 2022.

MVP of the CARE © Proposal Framework Tool with one embedded framework (SDGs) for use in structuring and making a proposal. 

Ready for public testing in Fund 7, and helping proposers for use and planning for Fund 8.

Affiliated proposals:

Title: Research in Applying Frameworks-AIM

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Research-in-Applying-Frameworks-AIM/369294-48088

Research carried out as a result of this proposal will feed into the development and expansion of the MVP Framework Tool.

Team:

Cardano AIM (Assembly Inspiring Masses) is currently made up Lucio, Victor, Phil, Razali and a number of supporters. We are all active Catalyst Community members and currently design and build tools that support the community. These include the popular voter-tool (https://cardanocataly.st/voter-tool/#/), the Community Advisor Tools (CA and vCA-tools) (https://cardanocataly.st/ca-tool/#/ & https://cardanocataly.st/vca-tool/#/)) as well as the community landing page (https://cardanocataly.st/)

Razali is an Educator, Editor, Digital Economy, Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher, Social Entrepreneur, Catalyst Proposal Mentor, Wada UN SDG and Education Coordinator, Co-Founder of Sustainable ADA & Catalyst School Core Member https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin/

Victor is an active Catalyst Member, Community Advisor and Proposal Mentor, member of the 1st Catalyst Circle, leader of the Catalyst School, core member of the Catalyst Swarm, and has a strong professional and academic background in Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science and Machine Learning.

Lucio is a developer with 9+ years of experience (mainly focused on web/mobile. Languages and frameworks: PHP, Javascript, Typescript, Python, Ruby - Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Wordpress, Angular.js, Vue.js, Node.js). CA and vCA, co-creator of the Community Tools (Proposer/CA/vCA/Voter Tools).

Phil has experience as an accountant, UI/UX frontend and graphic design and business advisor amongst numerous other pursuits. He currently has a lead position in the development and direction of Cardano AIM and is co-creator of the Community Tools.