Funding and Learning

A funder considering a project wants to understand the work, the evidence behind it, and what others have learned. The records we've covered let an application bring those pieces together.

The funder can then make a decision using its own priorities and process. Hypercerts helps carry information into that decision and preserve what happens afterward.

Record support for the work#

A funding receipt describes a funding payment. It records a recipient and a creation time, and usually the amount and currency. It can also name the sender, the kind of payment, the platform or intermediary that handled it, link to the activity or project supported, and include payment details such as a transaction identifier.

A funding platform, facilitator, funder, or recipient can publish a receipt. That flexibility makes it useful across different funding arrangements. A reader should be able to see who published the receipt as well as the parties it names.

For example, a platform could record a payment toward a community energy installation and link it to that activity. A later reader can then connect the support with the work and its subsequent reports.

A funding record is also a trust signal. Knowing who has already backed a project, and on what basis, helps the next funder decide.

The payment itself happens through the platform's chosen payment system. The receipt describes it; verifying that money arrived requires payment evidence and trust in the source. An acknowledgement from a relevant party can add confirmation, but it doesn't replace payment verification.

Close the loop after funding#

The useful story continues after a funding round closes:

1. A project describes the work it intends to do.
2. Funders use available information and assessments to decide what to support.
3. Receipts record support for the work.
4. The team reports progress, and others contribute observations or assessments.
5. The next funding decision builds on that history.

This is an example, not a required sequence. Work may already be underway or completed before it receives funding. The point is to keep what each round learns available to the next.

Support different ways of funding#

The landing page describes crowdfunding with matching funds as a current use. The same idea of shared evidence could support outcome payments, prize competitions, or milestone bounties. Investment and procurement are further possibilities to explore.

Those approaches need their own rules for eligibility, selection, and payment. Hypercerts supplies reusable information; it doesn't decide which funding mechanism a community should use.

Likewise, an app showing “total funding” needs to consider currencies, repeated receipts, and which publishers it includes. A number is more useful when readers can inspect the receipts behind it and understand its coverage.

The Funding Receipt reference has the field details.

We've now followed the story from a description of work to evidence, trust, and support. Next, Describing and Classifying Work explains how apps can recognize related work across projects.