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ACTs are ideas and suggestions from the community to the community. Ideas are submitted in a standardized location to encourage the community to self-organize and for the Matchstick Foundation to award grants. This is going to be an overview and a simple guide. You will learn how you can submit ideas, apply for funding, and monitor the stages of proposals (look at the 'projects' tab).

Introduction

An important concept to understand is that we separate idea submissions and rewards for good ideas, from awarding funds to people or teams who will implement those ideas. This means if you submit an idea and it is accepted, a 'request for proposal' will be written and anyone (including yourself) can then write a proposal to compete for the funding. This means it's more likely good ideas will be executed by the best talent available.

Terminology

• ACTs are 'Actions Citizens Take'. These are ideas with a tactical plan submitted by the community which can be discussed and delivered by self-organizing groups within the community.
• RFPs are a 'Request for Proposal'. These are ideas that have been approved by Ambassadors and written up into a formal brief. Its a project funding announcement for which proposals are invited. The RFP outlines the scoring process and contract terms and guides how the bid should be formatted.
• OPS are an 'Open Problem Statement'. These are created by the Council and used to prompt and focus discussion and investigation in areas of interest that The Foundation is especially interested in funding.

Overview of the Process

• 00 - Open Problem Statements (OPS). Used by the council to indicate areas we're especially interested in funding.
• 01 - Ideas. Submitted by the community as ‘issues’.
• 02 - Review. Our team presents the ideas to the ambassadors for review and a vote.
• 03 - Approve. Create and publish a 'Requests for Proposal' in 'issues' with an 'RFP' label.
• 04 - Invite Proposals. The community and our team can invite proposals. Must include a timeline and milestones for funding.
• 05 - Proposals are submitted as a ‘Pull Request’ by third parties.
• 06 - Scoring. Ambassadors score proposals based on weighting set out in the RFP. A summary of the final scores shared in the comments.
• 07 - Council Approval. The council sign-off on the projects that have been selected through scoring before funding can be released.
• 08 - Award Project Status. A proposal becomes a project and milestones are set to indicate when phases of funding are released.
• 09 - Case Studies. Successful projects end with a post-mortem to measure success and help future projects learn from previous experience.
• 10 - Closed. All ideas or issues that not taken further are visible here with feedback.

How to submit your first idea

We'll explain how to submit a suggestion through the 'issues' tab, how to keep track of where funding is being awarded and the milestones that projects have met. You should usually submit an idea by opening an issue in the 'issues' tab.

Terms and Conditions

Submitting an idea does not guarantee you will receive funding to execute it if it's approved. Our funding model separates and rewards idea submissions from awarding funding to implement ideas. If you submit an idea and it is accepted, anyone including yourself can write a proposal for funding for it.

The decision as to award funding is entirely made at the discretion of the Matchsticks' Ambassadors and requires sign off from The Council.

• By submitting an idea, application or contribution, an individual or organization agrees:
• To use any support provided solely for the project described in the funding request and to provide documentation supporting this use, if requested,
• To exercise control or coordination over the supported project,
• To be willing to disclose that The Matchsticks Foundation provided financial support,
• To meet with potential collaborators within The Matchsticks Foundation to participate in projects effort.
• To release the results as open-source under MIT license, if feasible.
• We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions, including cancelling the program at any time without notice.

Please note that you are responsible for complying with taxes and laws, and you agree to provide us with enough information, at our request, so that we can comply with all relevant laws and regulations.

Thank you for reading

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