We help foundations and program officers do more with less.
Our “science angel” program works to help foundations, nonprofits and organizations support more research with less overhead. We operate a model of platform philanthropy that supports projects on Experiment.com that align with your mission and research objectives. The program helps:
Widen the funnel of potential collaborators and future grantees.
Effectively manage a high-volume, small-grant program.
Move fast with relatively small dollar amounts.
Who we are:
The Experiment Foundation is a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) organization. We work with the team at Experiment through our facilitation of Challenge Grants and patronage efforts, but we maintain separate organizational governance.
Experiment has grown into the largest science crowdfunding website in the world. Thousands of researchers come to Experiment to pursue the ideas and questions that are most meaningful to them. A peer-reviewed study found that the platform flipped science’s traditional reward model. The Experiment Foundation connects foundations, companies, and agencies with that enthusiasm and brainpower.
“FootPrint Coalition is funding early research in brand new environmental fields, and doing it under the direction of esteemed Science Leads who can move quickly and fund at their discretion. The FootPrint Coalition Science Engine builds off suggestions made in the Funding Risky Research paper. It operationalizes the “loose-play funding for early-stage risky explorations” but doesn’t bind it to universities.
We’re doing it “in public” on the Experiment funding platform, a website for crowdfunding science research projects, so anyone can participate as a co-funder.”
-Robert Downey Jr. (Fast Company)How it works:
The organization writes one grant to the Experiment Foundation — a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) through Social Good Labs — which serves as a standing balance to support researchers on the platform. The funding decisions (between $500-10,000) are made by a designated “science angel” with relevant domain expertise and familiarity with your organization, mission, and goals. Every step of the process, from the project applications to funding decisions, is public on the Experiment platform.
Track progress without stress.
Every potential recipient of grant funding signs a document agreeing to — in addition to Experiment.com’s terms of service — provide regular and periodic updates for the funders to follow along. Those “lab notes” are aggregated into a webpage where the program officer or foundation can easily track progress.
Images from the FootPrint Coalition’s Science Engine program. experiment.com/grants/scienceengine
Emboldening better early-stage ideas.
The science angel hypothesis is simple: the lessons of venture capital and startup investing can be applied in scientific funding scenarios to improve the diversity of research and accelerate discovery. More information on the background and program design is here: scibetter.com/angels
CASE STUDYOcean Solutions Fund
Partner: Schmidt Marine Technology Partners
Phase I of the Ocean Solutions fund involved a $50k grant allocated to projects. We funded 12 projects and crowdfunded more than $30k in additional funds from more than 300 people. The most consistent feedback from scientists was the added exposure from working in public, and the new connections forged as a result.
LEARN MOREIf you or your organization would like to learn more, please reach out via our contact form.