Hi everyone, I'd love to get some input on the topic of alternative funding for digital projects. I run a digital agency that historically has worked in lots of different sectors, but we would like to work with more organisations in the nature conservation and regeneration space as we feel data, and digital products and services in general, have a huge role to play.

The problem we see in this sector though is limited budgets. This is to be expected of course given the overarching funding gap. So my question is - what help is already out there, and how can we help people fund digital projects?

Things we're exploring at the moment are - 

1. Building relationships with philanthropy to connect grant-makers with projects they might not be aware of
2. Allowing organisations to spread project costs over years rather than months (the theory being a small nonprofit might not be able to afford a six figure project if it's over 3-6 months, but might be able to if it's over 2-3 years as the costs would be similar to paying a single member of staff)
3. Helping nonprofits experiment with ways to raise unrestricted donations
4. Facilitating something akin to the Wildlabs “Boring Fund” to help with “boring” technology costs like hosting and maintenance 
5. Discounts for nonprofits

I'd love to hear ideas on this and if anyone has uncovered any funding opportunities that we've not heard of or thought about!

Matt