IMAGINE
This is a work in progress. Leave your comments on what we are beginning to imagine.
Open Collective can work very well for exactly what you’re describing: a transparent, community-governed crowdfunding layer that helps fund digital public infrastructure (DPI) projects while also sustaining the shared “institutional backbone” of your 501(c)(3) — in your case, Broadband Institute Foundation — via an automatic 2.9% infrastructure contribution on all funds raised.
Below is a practical blueprint you can implement, including how to structure funds, how the 2.9% can be handled cleanly, and how a leaderboard + category filters can become a “community signal” system that motivates participation.
1) The Core Model: “Fiscal Host + Projects + 2.9% Infrastructure Support”
✅ Recommended structure
Broadband Institute Foundation becomes the fiscal host Collective, and each project becomes either:
- a separate Collective under your umbrella, or
- a project within a larger Collective, depending on how independent you want each initiative to be.
How the 2.9% works
You have two workable approaches:
Option A — “Host Fee” Model (cleanest, built-in)
Open Collective supports Host Fees.
You can set your fiscal host fee to 2.9%. That means:
- Every contribution to every project automatically allocates 2.9% to Broadband Institute Foundation
- The remaining 97.1% stays with the project
This is the most straightforward model and is easiest to explain publicly as:
“2.9% supports shared nonprofit infrastructure: compliance, operations, and platform stewardship.”
Option B — “Platform Contribution” Model (community framing)
If you’d rather not call it a host fee, you can use messaging like:
- “Infrastructure Support Contribution”
- “Commons Stewardship Fee”
- “Digital Equity Backbone Fund”
You’d still implement it as a host fee under the hood, but your public narrative is stronger:
it communicates this isn’t overhead — it’s regenerative support for the commons.
2) The DPI Project Marketplace: Make Projects Feel Like “Public Goods”
To support digital public infrastructure, the most powerful move is to treat each project page like a public service profile, with:
Project essentials (make these consistent)
- Mission & community benefit
- Who it serves
- What success looks like
- Roadmap / milestones
- Budget transparency
- Governance & accountability
- Ways to contribute (money, skills, partnerships)
This transforms crowdfunding into something closer to commons-based peer production (CBPP):
people aren’t just donating — they’re co-building.
3) Funds Flow + Compliance: Keep It Simple & Trustworthy
When Broadband Institute Foundation is the fiscal host, Open Collective helps you:
- accept contributions (credit card, bank transfer, etc.)
- provide receipts (including tax-deductible where applicable)
- pay expenses transparently
- publish budgets and financial reports
- maintain a clean line between project spending and host infrastructure
Important: clarify to contributors
Add a short statement everywhere:
“2.9% goes to Broadband Institute Foundation to support the operations and infrastructure needed to administer and sustain these DPI projects.”
This prevents confusion and builds trust.
4) The Leaderboard Concept: Turn Funding Into a Community Feedback Loop
A leaderboard can become a powerful “coordination mechanism”:
- highlights momentum
- inspires new projects
- helps contributors find impact
- encourages friendly competition
- signals what the community values
Recommended leaderboard metrics
Instead of only ranking by money raised, include multiple views:
Primary metrics
- Total raised
- Number of contributors
- New contributors this month
- Monthly recurring revenue (subscriptions)
- % of goal reached
- Velocity (raised in last 30 days)
This is important because:
- A small project with 500 supporters may be more meaningful than a large project funded by 1 donor.
- DPI is about participation, not just dollars.
Leaderboard layout idea
Show a card-style list for each project:
- Project name
- Category tags
- Total raised
- contributors
- “Last 30 days” raised
- Progress bar toward goal
- CTA: Fund / Follow / Share
5) Category Filters: A Smart Way to Organize “Public Infrastructure”
You can add categories in a few ways:
Option 1 — Tags on each project page (most flexible)
Examples:
- Community-Owned Networks
- Digital Literacy
- Local Content & Knowledge Commons
- Civic Data Tools
- Emergency Communications
- Co-op Business Tools
- Youth Workforce / Training
- Network Maintenance / Tooling
- Accessibility
- Policy & Advocacy
Option 2 — Program Funds (“Funds” as umbrella categories)
Create umbrella collectives like:
- “Community Networks Fund”
- “Digital Literacy Fund”
- “Open Tools Fund”
Then projects can sit under them.
This is great if you want to:
- let donors fund a category, and then community allocates downstream
- run participatory budgeting later
6) “Commons Stewardship” Messaging: Make the 2.9% Feel Like Civic Infrastructure
This is where your narrative becomes very strong.
You’re not extracting value — you’re sustaining shared capacity.
You can frame the 2.9% as:
- Commons Stewardship Contribution
- Cooperative Infrastructure Support
- Digital Public Infrastructure Maintenance
- Operations & Compliance for Community Accountability
- Regenerative support for the nonprofit backbone
This aligns with your vision of moving from extractive ISP models to a regenerative, cooperative approach.
7) Suggested Implementation Steps (Practical Rollout)
Phase 1 — Set up the foundation
- Create the Broadband Institute Foundation Host Collective
- Configure the 2.9% host fee
- Publish a “How this works” explainer page
- Create 3–5 pilot projects (high credibility, clear budgets)
Phase 2 — Launch “DPI Project Commons”
- Build a directory page that lists projects
- Add category tags
- Launch leaderboard (basic: total raised + supporters)
- Promote “community challenges” (monthly spotlight categories)
Phase 3 — Expand community governance
- Add “Follow project” and update cadence requirements
- Allow community nominations for featured projects
- Introduce participatory budgeting for category funds
8) How This Supports Broadband Institute Foundation Without Creating “Overhead Anxiety”
A common donor concern is overhead — so you preempt it.
A simple statement you can use:
“This 2.9% powers the shared nonprofit infrastructure that makes the projects possible: compliance, reporting, administration, fiscal sponsorship, and stewardship of the commons.”
Then show what that includes:
- payment processing + receipting
- accounting + compliance
- project support + training
- governance + transparency systems
- security + platform maintenance
- outreach + community capacity-building
This turns “overhead” into public infrastructure — exactly the model you’re advocating.
9) A Few Design Features That Will Make This Pop
If you want the leaderboard to really drive activity, add:
Social proof + motivation
- “Trending projects”
- “New this month”
- “Most supporters”
- “Most active updates”
- “Closest to goal”
- “Featured category: this month’s priority”
Shareable project badges
Each project can auto-generate:
- “Funded by the Commons”
- “Top 10 this month”
- “DPI Project Partner”
This helps projects recruit donors for you.
10) What This Unlocks Strategically for Community Internet + DPI
This structure becomes a DPI funding layer that:
- provides transparent accounting (trust)
- builds community participation (CBPP)
- scales project discovery (leaderboards + filters)
- creates recurring support for nonprofit sustainability (2.9%)
- reinforces your regenerative narrative (commons stewardship)
It’s a practical, modern approach to funding the kind of cooperative digital equity work that traditional philanthropy struggles to support.
If You Want, I Can Draft Two Things Next
- A public-facing explainer for donors that describes how Open Collective + 2.9% works (simple, trust-building language).
- A proposed category taxonomy + leaderboard metrics spec, so your team can implement it on the Community Internet platform (or using Open Collective’s API).
Just tell me which one you want first.