grantcloud presentation for masschallenge 2010
DESCRIPTION
This short presentation was given on July 16, 2010 by Lee Wright and Adam Duston as part of MassChallenge 2010 judging. grantcloud was envisioned as a web-based tool that would bring together current information from thousands of sources, along with historical data and community insight to help organizations identify, track, manage, and secure grants that provide new sources of funding for their initiatives. This project did not advance in MassChallenge and we chose not to pursue it. Lee's current projects include The History List (www.TheHistoryList.com), a platform for publicizing history-related sites and organizations across the country, and eventicize (www.eventicize.com), a tool for leveraging your social network to raise awareness of your events.TRANSCRIPT
Lee WrightAdam Duston
MassChallengeJuly 16, 2010
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 2
Jobs: $6B
Date/mate: $1B
Travel: $90B
Real estate: $B
Products: $90B
Grants: $540B$500B: 26 Federal agencies
$40B: 110,000 foundations, corporate donors, public charities
500,000 registered non-profits seeking funding
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 3
Founders
• Lee Wright (ceo)o Citibank, Texas Instruments, Nokiao Founded Internet startups (1994, 1997)o Co-founded mobile app developer community, tools provider (2000)o VP of Marketing, CoreStreet (2004) o Consultant to founders (MatchLogic, BlueDasher, others)o Advisor to Viafo (Seattle), Zingzam (London), Career Numbers (Boston)o Current/past board member (library system, arts, social services, humanities)
• Adam Duston (cto)o Founded Langolab, a TechStars 2009 companyo Managed local and offshore to design and build several large-scale
software products used by millions todayo Studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of
Chicago.
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 4
Advisors
• Pat Spain—Founder, CEO, and chairman of Newser. Formerly co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Hoovers (acquired by D&B); chairman, and CEO of HighBeam Research (acquired by Cengage Learning). On the board of directors of GuideStar, the leading provider of information on more than 1.5 million charities in the US.
• Kathleen Lee—Project Coordinator for grants for the Natural Resources Group of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Previously a freelance grant writer for the National Urban League, the Children's Museum of the Arts, Pfizer, others.
• Ali Williams—President of the Postdoctoral Association and a research fellow in the Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Department at the Harvard School of Public Health.
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 5
Institutions seeking funding
Institutions providing funding
The ecosystem today
Pain
110,099 grant making foundations distributing
$40B/year
26 Federal agencies distributing $500B/year
Foundation Directory100,000 foundationsBased on IRS 990PF$1,295/yr.
600+ private foundations
400+ corp. grants
650+ grant making public charities
483,779 public charities with $25,000 or more in
gross receipts
grants.gov26 Federal agencies
Consultants, other resources
Very time-consuming to research, writeChallenging to keep up with changes at foundationsSometimes very difficult to get in the door without knowing someoneGrantwriters and consultant can be expensive
Private firms(SBIR/STTRs)
For foundationsTime-consuming to sort, review
Verticals
(Ex: AAAS COS)
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 6
Institutions seeking funding
Enter project description
Analyze and recommend funders
Institution selects grants to apply for
Institution fills in master application online
Institutions providing funding
grantcloud
Create master application from selected funders
Create and submit individual applications
grantcloud
Benefits More opportunities
Much greater efficiency
Database learning
Strengthen relationship
Broad outreach
More electronic submissions
Database compiled
Microgiving
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 7
Institutions seeking funding
Compile profiles,
historical funding info.
Upload existing
application
Analyze and recommend additional funders
Institution rates recommendations
Can add additional information and upload past grants
Opt in for alerts
Watching for opportunities and alerting institution
Indicating interest in specific grants to track
Institutions providing funding
grantcloud: Launch
BenefitsNew sources
Alerts to new opportunities
Build database
Permission to contact in future
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 8
Why grantcloud makes sense for MassChallenge
• Paths alignedo Started in mid-Aprilo Identified industryo Conducted researcho Conceived product/solutiono Next
• Developing a prototype and getting feedback• Building out a business model, plan
• High-leverage idea in a “space” that no one else is addressing• Great example of a business to be built in Massachusetts
o Creative tech solution that creates greater efficiency and transparency as it brings together those seeking funds and those who want to put their money to work in the community
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 9
One early reaction to the concept
“If you could do this and get people to participate, I think it could be really valuable.”
“I really like these ideas - very concrete, and if you get a critical mass of participants, very useful.”
Responsible for grants at a Chicago Museum
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 10
Questions?
Lee Wright [email protected]
Adam Duston [email protected]
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 11
Appendix: Founders
• Lee Wright, CEOCo-founded The Synapse Group in 1994 (clients included Hilton Hotel Corp.); founded the web usability consultancy People | Design | Technology in 1997 (Hoovers, GameStop, and Nokia Americas and Nokia Inc.); co-founded AnywhereYouGo, an independent mobile application developer community in 2000 (acquired by HP (US) and Argo Group (Europe)); VP of Marketing for CoreStreet (acquired by ActivIdentity). Advisor to Viafo, a Seattle-based provider of infrastructure for managing mobile deployments; CareerNumbers, an early-stage company in Boston providing deep career insight based on a large database of career data; and London-based Fife Ventures and their Zingzam hosted community platform. On the board of trustees of the Marlborough Historical Society and on the Massachusetts IMLS Statewide Planning Grant advisory board. Earlier served on the board of trustees of the Des Moines Public Library System, the board of directors of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Evening Associates, the Dallas mayor’s technical services committee, and the board of directors of the Association for Retarded Citizens/The Arc of Dallas as well as the board of the state-wide organization.Masters of Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
• Adam Duston, CTOFounded Langolab, a TechStars 2009 company based in Cambridge that teaches foreign language through subtitled online video. He led the development of Universal Subtitles, an open-source subtitling platform selected as a Mozilla Drumbeat project and funded by the Mozilla Foundation; architected and led the development of Miro Video Converter, an open-source video converter recommended by the W3C and adopted widely, with hundreds of thousands of downloads over the last 12 months; and, for Localytics, one of the leading mobile analytics providers, architected and led the development of an efficient, scalable, Erlang-based data-processing pipeline that provides real-time processing of over one million events per day from mobile devices.Early innovator in the development of iPhone applications. He developed two apps that are currently in the iPhone app store -- iEarnedThat and IvBeen -- and is currently developing an iPhone app for Langolab. He is a guest lecturer on iPhone development at Boston University.Earlier designed and deployed improvements in IT operations for a large publicly-traded financial services firm. The redesigned processes resulted in a savings of more than $3 million over the first 12 months.Studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Chicago.
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 12
Appendix: Advisors
• Pat Spain—Founder, CEO, and chairman of Newser. Formerly co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Hoovers (acquired by D&B); chairman, and CEO of HighBeam Research (acquired by Cengage Learning). On the board of directors of GuideStar, the leading provider of information on more than 1.5 million charities in the US.
• Kathleen Lee—Project Coordinator for grants for the Natural Resources Group of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Previously a freelance grant writer for the National Urban League, the Children's Museum of the Arts, Pfizer, others.
• Ali Williams—President of the Postdoctoral Association and a research fellow in the Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Department at the Harvard School of Public Health.
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 13
Appendix: Growth of charities and foundations
231,625
67,625
483,779
110,099
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
1998 2008
Reporting publiccharities with $25Kor more in grossreceipts
Private grantmakingfoundations
Source: The National Center for Charitable Statistic s (http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/profile1.php?state=US) based on IRS Business Master File 04/2009 (with modifications by the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute to exclude foreign and governmental organizations).
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 14
grantcloud.com – Confidential draft – July 16, 2010 Page 15