When we started the group last August, we set ourselves the goal of reaching 200 members after a year. The 100 members milestone was passed in the group's 26th week, so if the trend continues, we are likely to reach that goal.

The image below shows how the group has progressed, and it illustrates what else we have to celebrate.

The red-ish colors show activities of the group curators, whereas the green colors show activities of WILDLABS members - not nescessarily group members. The weeks of 16 and 30 January show a lot of activity by WILDLABS members. This is due to Carly's sudden enthusiasm in those weeks - thank you Carly @carlybatist!  But even if we would discount for some of that, in my reading of the graph, it shows that non-curators have started to become active posters and responders, which is a very good sign for a young social medium group!

We can also celebrate the group's first event in January, which, judging by the responses from the participants, was a great webinar. Together with the Open Source Solutions group, we are currently preparing a next webinar about income and earning models for open source software and hardware organizations. We already found presenters, but are still looking for one or two more.

In terms of content, we have published a number of resources to introduce readers to the world of funding and finance. Think of an overview of funding options, a list of nature conservation grant writing courses, and a list of databases to search for funding and finance opportunities. You can find them through the group's About page. Keep an eye out for more.

Besides these, we and other community members - thank you Nyangeta @nyangetamagesa, Sara @sarahmshanga  and Elsa @elsa  - have posted a number of funding and tender possibilities that came to our attention. For all these resources goes that the WILDLABS server does not provide any viewing stats, so it is difficult for us to see how often all these resources are used. Therefore, if you visit these pages, please 'like' them if you like them, so that we know in which direction to further develop these resources. If you are missing something, then feel free to contact us, or ask a question in the group.

The last thing that I feel is worth celebrating is the range of questions and responses that members have brought up in the group and the ensuing discussions. We have been aiming to not only talk about grants, but also about finance ( i.e. money that needs to be returned, perhaps even with interest ) and business models for nature conservation projects, organizations and other undertakings. Other than opening the stage, I don't think we did a lot to achieve this, but this is clearly happening as one can see for example here, here, here, here and here. Thank you Colleen @ColleenEarthScape, Lucille @Lucille  Matt @mattrogershex, Vance@VRussell  and Damian @Mandatum 

Time to round up. To all members and posters : thank you very much for giving the Funding and Finance group such a great start! 

For the coming half year, I am looking forward to plenty more 'money talk' ! If you are not a member yet, then please join, participate in the discussions and events, and ask your funding, finance and business model questions.

.

Photo: Jitu Mondal