For curators · Article II, with K.3 · Rewritten from Field Manual Ch 6.3
K-6.3 Grants for Nonprofit and Public Pools
Spec v0.1.1 · StableExamples invented and labeled
K.3 puts it in one line: "A nonprofit Pool is a grant-shaped business." Several of the Kindling library's invented organizations run that way, on a grant, a public budget, an education budget or donations. The Field Manual's grants chapter covers the money. For a curator inside a nonprofit, a library, a college or a hall, most of it carries over. The library adds one rule: a funder's money never buys a place in a Pool. Kindling defines no chargeable surface between two people (§1.3, a stated non-goal), and that holds whoever is paying. Every organization named here is invented by the Kindling sites. Spec references are to v0.1.1, as of October 4, 2026.
The Field Manual's warning comes first: non-dilutive money "sounds free. You pay in time, reporting, restrictions on how you spend it, and sometimes in the direction of your company, because every funder has an agenda and grant writing pulls you toward it."
The shapes on record
| Invented organization | Who pays | What the money covers, in its own words |
|---|---|---|
| Midspan, a mentorship program | "a three-year grant from the Ellery Coast College Foundation, the college's own fundraising arm" | "The grant pays for Fina's time as coordinator." Mentors are volunteers. |
| The Board, Port Ellery Free Library | "the library's public budget, the same budget that pays for the books and the story hour" | "a little staff time at the desk, the web hosting, the canary paper and the printer toner" |
| Seen Work, a trades referral circle | "the Harbor Trades Hall pays it from its education budget" | The Hall also "lends the back room for the monthly walkthrough, does not choose who is in the circle" |
| Card Catalog, an app | "A nonprofit"; "members' donations and a small grant" | "Every field, every drawer and every feature is the same for everyone." |
| Familiar Faces, an app | Libraries, clubs and co-ops, "each a yearly amount it chooses, from the budget it already has for this" | "That money never buys a place in line." |
Read down the right-hand column and the pattern is plain. The money pays for people's time, hosting and supplies. None of it pays for anything inside a Pool.
Where grant money for a Pool comes from
Foundation grants. The Field Manual: "Most foundations give only to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. A for-profit company usually cannot receive a standard foundation grant." A Pool kept by a nonprofit can apply directly. A for-profit curator or host has the Field Manual's three routes:
- Program-related investments (PRIs). "Foundations can make low-interest loans or equity investments in for-profit companies whose work advances their charitable purpose."
- Recoverable grants. "Grants that are repaid if the business succeeds. Terms vary."
- Fiscal sponsorship or a nonprofit partner. "If part of your work is charitable in fact, such as a free public-interest tool, a nonprofit partner or fiscal sponsor can receive grant funds for that portion. The line between the charitable project and your company must be real and documented. Get a lawyer involved."
"Foundation money runs on relationships." Read a foundation's recent grants lists, "in their annual reports or on Candid, formerly Foundation Center and GuideStar," before asking.
The budget an institution already has. The library's commonest shape is no grant at all. A public library's own budget, a hall's education budget and a college foundation's grant each fund a Pool because it serves something the institution already pays for. Familiar Faces states the logic: such groups "already spend money on bringing people together: a notice board, a monthly coffee, a supper on the second Sunday." Ask the institution which line its money would come from before you write a proposal.
State and local programs. The Field Manual: "They differ completely by state. See your state's 'Support' entry in Volume 13, then call your SBDC."
Prizes, only where they reuse what you already have: "Don't write a new 20-page plan for a $2,500 prize." Real private small-grant programs "never charge application fees."
The real cost, before you apply
The Field Manual's table applies to a Pool as written, with the restrictions, reporting and strategic-pull rows read against the protocol:
| Cost | Questions |
|---|---|
| Application time | Hours to apply × your hourly value. At a 15% success rate, multiply by about 7. |
| Delay | Months from application to money. Can you survive the wait? |
| Restrictions | Can you spend it on what you actually need? Does any condition reach inside the Pool? |
| Reporting | What the funder asks you to report, and whether you can report it without reporting on people |
| Strategic pull | Will chasing this money pull you toward the funder's goals and away from the people in the Pool? |
Figures checked October 2026.
The funder clause
Familiar Faces states the rule in full: "A group is read and shown the same way whether its host chips in or not, and no group can pay to be shown first." Put the same sentence, in your own words, in every grant agreement and every institutional arrangement. The funder's money pays for time, hosting and supplies. It never buys placement, order or visibility for anyone, and it never makes a yes a condition of anything (§5.1).
Reporting is where this gets tested. A funder may ask how many people were introduced, or who. You can report what you did: Pools kept, hours spent, events run. Leave out anything that turns the people in a Pool into a funder's metric. K.4's invented charter ends with "The list is never sold, shared outside this Pool, or ranked." A grant report is outside the Pool. Say so in the agreement before the first report is due.
One more limit, from the Field Manual's Chapter 3.7: if you hire someone to write the grant, "The Grant Professionals Association code (revised June 25, 2021) bars members from accepting percentage compensation based on grants" (item 19). Price grant writing "as a fixed project."
SBIR, STTR, NSF I-Corps and the other federal research programs fund technical risk that nothing in the Kindling library carries. They are in the full Chapter 6.3, on solo.joshwolf.net.
Field exercises
- Find the budget line. Ask one institution near your Pool's purpose which budget its support would come from. Done when you have the line's name and the person who controls it.
- Map three foundations funding work near your Pool's purpose. Done when you know whether each funds 501(c)(3)s only or also makes PRIs, and have a program officer's name for at least one.
- Score one real opportunity with the cost table above. Done when you have decided to apply or not, with a reason.
- Write the funder clause for your next grant or arrangement. Done when it says the money never buys placement, order or visibility, and names what you will and will not report.
Rewritten for the Kindling edition from Chapter 6.3 of The Solo Operator's Field Manual. The full chapter is on solo.joshwolf.net. © 2026 Josh Wolf, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Quotations from the Kindling Protocol Specification v0.1.1: © 2026 TranquilTech and Kindling spec contributors, CC BY 4.0, marked where shortened.