9.Fundraising

This chapter describes the types and sources of financial support, the strategies for fundraising efforts and resources allocation between the network members, guidelines for proposals and reports. It also includes general rules and guidelines related to fundraising and the relationship with donors.  

MapBiomas requires resources to operate the network as a whole and to implement initiatives and products in each country. The fundraising efforts, therefore, may be:

• Collective efforts (for the entire global network)

• Efforts for a country or region or theme

• Internal fundraising efforts (within each country)

This section lists the possible sources of monetary resources and other types of support to the MapBiomas Network.

MapBiomas fundraising  may get two kinds of support:

a. Finance Resources from donations, which come from:

i. Philanthropic Resources - private foundations and institutions that provide grants both project based or general support. Usually those grants are the result of a connection with some of the members of the network.

ii. International Cooperation - in general this comes from the government of international organizations and are typically the result of a call for projects or services. It’s rare but in some cases it is possible to present proposals by spontaneous demand.

iii. Donation from Users -  users voluntarily making grants for MapBiomas - for specific users or not.

iv. Awards - contribution in funding resulting from a prize or award (ex. Skoll Foundation Award, Audacious Project)

b. Non monetary (“In-kind”) support , such as:

i. Volunteering – Contribution of time and skills by individuals to support MapBiomas activities without financial compensation.

ii. Human resources – Allocation of staff or expert personnel from partner institutions to strengthen MapBiomas’ operations and projects.

iii. Infrastructure (hardware, physical facilities) – Provision of equipment, office space, laboratories, or other physical resources necessary for project execution.

iv. Provision of cloud space and virtual machines – Donation of cloud storage, processing capacity, and computing infrastructure to support large-scale data analysis and mapping.

The support from those different sources may arrive from direct proposals or bidding processes (call from proposals from funders).

Mapbiomas does not sell any product, service or licence and it does not charge for any data, tool, codes or reports accessed by any user. 

This section presents general recommendations related to funders, their demands, their participation in the network and use of resources.

• In general MapBiomas Network avoids providing specific products or services required by funding institutions in order to avoid conflict of interest or limiting data production. 

• Funders should not interfere with the dynamics of production and/or publication of the MapBiomas collections. Also, funders do not participate in any MapBiomas governance or decisions groups.

• When we receive donations from users, especially private companies, they will not have any privileged access to data, service or licence. This will always be free for all users.

• When fundraising is done in the name of all MapBiomas Network funds are generally channeled through our fiscal sponsor in Avina Foundation.

• In the network we value the direct connection between funders and local institutions - creating opportunities of funding that don’t need to pass through our global fiscal sponsor (Avina Foundations). On the other hand, we expect in the network to know when funds received for local initiatives are granted. This helps us to be consistent in our contacts with Funders avoiding to have double-fundraising.

• We publicize the name of our funders on our website without any distinction related to the value of the contribution. 

This section addresses the allocation of financial resources between countries and initiatives when those funds are granted to the global network.

The funds to be used globally are managed by our fiscal sponsor partner Avina Foundation that executes the directions of the Finance Committee formed by the General Coordination of MapBIomas Network and the Secretariat of the Network.

The allocation is based on a year cycle with the following steps:

• Countries prepare a proposal for the deliverables and budget for the next year. The Secretariat prepares a budget for the new initiatives and for the activities that are collective (ex. annual meeting of Network, Meeting of Scientific Committee, Trainings)  or new frontiers (ex. new countries). [Sept/Oct]

• The finance committee analyzes each proposal and the aggregate demand.  [November]

• The General Coordination consult with each country to make any necessary adjustments in the proposals [December]

• Contracts for the year are signed and first disbursement executed {January]

• Mid Term Reports are prepared including requests for any adjustments in the deliverables and budget [June/July]

The circumstances and characteristics of the network, territory, initiatives and products imply that the cost structure is very different between countries and initiatives. Therefore, the financing process is designed by country, even with regard to collective funding. The aim is not to distribute resources equally between countries, but rather to ensure that countries have the necessary resources to move forward with their respective initiatives and products.

When making the allocation some general principles are observed:

• Each country has different circumstances and structure of costs which are impacted by exchange rate, costs of salaries, goods and services, number of products and initiatives to be implemented, number of organizations in the local network;

• Countries are expected to have a counterpart in the finance of the initiative which could be based on its own fundraising efforts (national or international) and in kind contributions. As a reference we suggest at least 40% of counterpart;

• It is understood that fundraising is easier in some countries than others. In some cases, especially in the beginning of the network in a country, the level of funds coming from the collective pool tends to be higher.