Funding opportunity from a carbon-offsetting company

How to repair in your community
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Wren—a carbon offsetting business—is looking to fund projects that prevent CO2 emissions. They’re accepting applications from projects on a rolling basis (but looking to start selecting applicants from the 15th of March).

Could be of interest to many of you, particularly groups in the global south @Purna, @Club_de_Reparadores, @Andreu (for the work in Ecuador)
https://projectwren.com/blog/request-for-projects

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Thanks James!
We’ll definitely take a look and try to apply
:wink:

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Just observing that the Fixometer can help groups estimate their immediate CO2 impact for this purpose.

But it might be worth suggesting to Wren (or others) that there is a multiplier effect from events, that events change behaviours beyond the actual event. In emerging economies, this is really interesting/impactful because it’s really about preventing the over-consumerism rampant in many other countries.

If any group would like to explore this further, please let us know.

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Thanks James for sharing this opportunity…will surely look discuss with team…Repair cafe bengaluru

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Thank u @james. Busy completing application :upside_down_face:

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Great stuff @Purna and @Jonathan_Winnaar!

I wonder whether it’s worth working together on this? It may be that a joint application may be stronger than two separate ones (especially because I’m not sure how many projects will be selected)

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Update: I’m in touch with someone from the company who is very open to the idea of a joint application and happy to answer any questions about this :+1:

@Purna, @Jonathan_Winnaar & @Club_de_Reparadores, let me know if you’d like to discuss a joint application and we can have a chat all together

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Hi!
I got in touch with Wren to ask them for the full application form, quite complicated to make a good application through typeform and not seeing all the information they ask for. Here is the link they shared with us https://www.notion.so/Wren-Request-for-Projects-Application-Questions-821287acd7bc418484d3bad61750d1d3
As well I asked on how they worked with projects and they send me this link where they added a little bit more info https://projectwren.com/blog/request-for-projects .
beso, Meli

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Wondering whether a phone call might work best? It’s not the usual project :wink:

Also wondering technical details about the payment mechanism, how best to prevent losing money in transactions. If you submitted together as a project, could Bangalore, Cape Town and BA share the $1,000-2,000 a month?

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for sure it could be easier. It might be a little difficult to manage the payment given our different nationalities.
Janet are you presenting the Restart Project?

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Hi Janet

Is this a phone between ourselves or with Wren?

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We think this kind of “off-set” only makes sense for groups like yours, not us. But it would be really beneficial (I think) for you to pitch to them to support repair groups in the global south.

Given that there are so many unknowns, before potentially wasting time on a group call, I would suggest one of the group just ring up, and float the idea, sound them out and raise important questions first?

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hi all! A joint application definetely increases our chances of elegibility, but i must admit it is challenging in the legal, financial and operational aspects. Let’s give it a try!
I already contacted them, could send the questions if you want. Or not sure if you rather continue the conversation with your contact @james.

How about something like this?
" … I am from Club de Reparadores a latinamerican community repair movement (based in Argentina with chapters in Uruguay & México) writing also on behalf of a community repair group from south africa and Repair Cafe Bengaluru (India). This excellent opportunity was shared by the Restart Project, with whom you are already in touch. We have the intention ofdoing a joint application to increase our chances of being selected to support the work we do.
We do have some general questions:

  • If we were selected, would it be possible to redeem payments to this three locations: Argentina, India, South Africa?
  • In order to legally comply to recibe the financial support, do we need to have a not for profit legal entity?
  • We understand the monthly amount would be in relation to our local monthly reports on emission reduction, could this be proportionally distributed?
  • Would it be ok to present three distintint budgets in relation to our operations locally?
  • As regards the monthly reports on activities, we could organize ourselves to share the responsability.

Can you think of any other questions or sensitive topics that are not listed?
Best,
Meli

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Great questions Meli - I agree it’s important to get some clarity on those before investing too much time in crafting an application.

Just to clarify, I’ve heard from one of the team at Wren who said they are happy to accept a join application for this :+1:

I messaged them earlier today asking some questions about how it would work in practice (including some of the ones you’ve posed above Meli). I’ll post back here when I get some answers!

But I’m more than happy for you to take the lead (in fact, I think that would probably make most sense) :slight_smile:

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Sure, thanks a lot for your help James. Let’s wait for your contact’s response to clarify some matters and we take it from there.

With that response @Jonathan_Winnaar and @Purna we can arrange a call to set the strategy and then work on the application if you are interested.

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Hi @Jonathan_Winnaar and @Purna.

I have spoken with James today and he hasn’t received any answer from the contact from wren. He wrote to him again. We’ll see.

Are you still interested in applying?

Best,
Meli

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Hi Meli (@Club_de_Reparadores), @Jonathan_Winnaar and @Purna,

I’ve heard back from Landon, my contact at Wren with some answers:

  • :white_check_mark: If you were to be selected, they would be able to make payments to three separate entities (but I’m not yet sure what type of legal entities these would need to be)
  • :white_check_mark: Completing one form for all three of you is fine.

He said that:

I would just submit a simple application, no need to make it perfect. The next steps would include a call with me, having the application first just helps create some context :slight_smile:

Sounds like this is ok to go ahead and that a basic application is fine in order to secure a more in-depth conversation about how it would work in practice (e.g. in relation to some of your more detailed questions above Meli)

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Hi Melody

Yes, I am still interested.

Thank you,

Regards,

Jonathan

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Hi James, thanks a lot for your help.
I’ll get to work in the application then. :wink:
@Jonathan_Winnaar I’ll star doing so here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CKdST_tXG2MBz5cr0u-SeEMRcc9MUSrZsAwqnGHF1_k/edit?usp=sharing
I would appreciatte if you could answer your part and then I’ll try to integrate it with our bit. I remember you said you already started, great then.
Let me know is this is ok with you.
Best,
Melina

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How did this go Meli and Jonathan?