Crowdsourcing for research funding

[Kron3007]

Hello Everyone,

I have a project that I have wanted to get off the ground for a while now, but have had little success getting it funded through granting agencies.  It is a slightly controversial project, or at least one that may not get funded through standard agencies.  In contrast, I think it is a project that some companies would support, as well as some individuals, so I have been thinking about crowdsourcing funding for the project to do what the government wont.

I am posting to see if anyone else has experience with this, or if there are issues that I have not considered.

Anyone?

[mamselle]

Would the results be for academic publication?

M.

[Kron3007]

Would the results be for academic publication?

M.

It would be to establish a resource that would support publications, but not be published in its own right.  An analogy would be to use the funds to create a library.  People would use it to publish papers and it would ensure the works are preserved.

[research_prof]

Hello Everyone,

I have a project that I have wanted to get off the ground for a while now, but have had little success getting it funded through granting agencies.  It is a slightly controversial project, or at least one that may not get funded through standard agencies.  In contrast, I think it is a project that some companies would support, as well as some individuals, so I have been thinking about crowdsourcing funding for the project to do what the government wont.

I am posting to see if anyone else has experience with this, or if there are issues that I have not considered.

Anyone?

Have thought about that. The university did not like it at all. There are apparently a lot of legal issues involved. You cannot be asking for money essentially on behalf of a university unless the university has agreed to that and typically they would want their indirect cost paid. They could force you to go through their foundation and if the money seems too small to the foundation, they might not even bother dealing with you.

[Kron3007]

Hello Everyone,

I have a project that I have wanted to get off the ground for a while now, but have had little success getting it funded through granting agencies.  It is a slightly controversial project, or at least one that may not get funded through standard agencies.  In contrast, I think it is a project that some companies would support, as well as some individuals, so I have been thinking about crowdsourcing funding for the project to do what the government wont.

I am posting to see if anyone else has experience with this, or if there are issues that I have not considered.

Anyone?

Have thought about that. The university did not like it at all. There are apparently a lot of legal issues involved. You cannot be asking for money essentially on behalf of a university unless the university has agreed to that and typically they would want their indirect cost paid. They could force you to go through their foundation and if the money seems too small to the foundation, they might not even bother dealing with you.

I sent a message asking them about it as I suspected this could be the case.  However, our university dosn't charge overhead on donations, which this would be.  I also don't see why I couldnt pay indirect if needed out of it

A more important question perhaps, is what would they do if you proceeded?  Would they reject the money or just be mad at me?  My target would be a substantial amount, so if successful it would be hard for them to decline.

[research_prof]

Hello Everyone,

I have a project that I have wanted to get off the ground for a while now, but have had little success getting it funded through granting agencies.  It is a slightly controversial project, or at least one that may not get funded through standard agencies.  In contrast, I think it is a project that some companies would support, as well as some individuals, so I have been thinking about crowdsourcing funding for the project to do what the government wont.

I am posting to see if anyone else has experience with this, or if there are issues that I have not considered.

Anyone?

Have thought about that. The university did not like it at all. There are apparently a lot of legal issues involved. You cannot be asking for money essentially on behalf of a university unless the university has agreed to that and typically they would want their indirect cost paid. They could force you to go through their foundation and if the money seems too small to the foundation, they might not even bother dealing with you.

I sent a message asking them about it as I suspected this could be the case.  However, our university dosn't charge overhead on donations, which this would be.  I also don't see why I couldnt pay indirect if needed out of it

A more important question perhaps, is what would they do if you proceeded?  Would they reject the money or just be mad at me?  My target would be a substantial amount, so if successful it would be hard for them to decline.

I do not know. I did not proceed because grants came in shortly after that and I did not need money so desperately anymore. I guess they could reject the money or even try to discipline you in some way.

You are right about donations though. If it's a donation, they do not charge indirect. The issue in my case was that the foundation found the money to be too small for them to even bother. I guess they needed to hear at least about a few million dollars in order to care. I do not know...

[hazelshade]

Hello Everyone,

I have a project that I have wanted to get off the ground for a while now, but have had little success getting it funded through granting agencies.  It is a slightly controversial project, or at least one that may not get funded through standard agencies.  In contrast, I think it is a project that some companies would support, as well as some individuals, so I have been thinking about crowdsourcing funding for the project to do what the government wont.

I am posting to see if anyone else has experience with this, or if there are issues that I have not considered.

Anyone?

Have thought about that. The university did not like it at all. There are apparently a lot of legal issues involved. You cannot be asking for money essentially on behalf of a university unless the university has agreed to that and typically they would want their indirect cost paid. They could force you to go through their foundation and if the money seems too small to the foundation, they might not even bother dealing with you.

I sent a message asking them about it as I suspected this could be the case.  However, our university dosn't charge overhead on donations, which this would be.  I also don't see why I couldnt pay indirect if needed out of it

A more important question perhaps, is what would they do if you proceeded?  Would they reject the money or just be mad at me?  My target would be a substantial amount, so if successful it would be hard for them to decline.

I work in corporate and foundation relations and grants. The leap from "government agencies won't fund this" to "I'm gonna crowdsource it" seems odd to me--have you explored nonfederal sources at all? I would recommend talking with fundraisers at your institution (maybe start with corporate and foundation relations, but let them know that you'd be interested in soliciting individual donors as well. They may be able to point you towards some other sources that could fund your request and can address issues like how to deal with indirect costs (and what sorts of costs different potential funders are willing to pay; some nonfederal funders will cover indirect costs up to a limited extent, and many institutions require you to recover these when possible).

You should definitely not go out to individual donors and corporations on your own to try to get this funded. There are all sorts of ways that this could go badly and/or result in the institution rejecting the gift (let me assure you that there is a nontrivial chance of the latter!). These might include:

• The university was cultivating a corporation or donor that you end up targeting, and your ask interferes with their ability to land a much larger or higher-impact gift.
  
• You negotiate a gift that the institution cannot accept for regulatory or operational reasons (problematic IP arrangement, nature of gift agreement makes it not "countable" as a gift, donor's conditions make the gift too difficult to manage given its dollar value).
  
• Going outside the system results in you generating a budget that does not adequately reflect the actual costs of the project, meaning that the institution will have to contribute some costs in order to hold up their end of the bargain.
  

FWIW, I initially thought you were talking about crowdsourcing in the, like, GoFundMe sense. There are some platforms like that--some that universities run on their own, and some that third-party providers like Experiment.com run, but even there, you'd want to be operating through your institution.

[research_prof]

The university was cultivating a corporation or donor that you end up targeting, and your ask interferes with their ability to land a much larger or higher-impact gift.

That's exactly what I am talking about. Universities look after themselves so they care about large-scale gifts without really caring about the research of individual faculty. What university employees that work at foundations do not get is that individual faculty do have needs too. Individual faculty need to move their research forward and, unfortunately, money is the fuel to do that. On the other hand, foundation employees care about the revenue they are able to generate.

In my experience, gifts (especially unrestricted ones) do not end up to faculty that need money to move their research forward, but typically are given to faculty that have the best "connections/relationship" with the foundation, while the foundation is also trying to make things complicated for faculty that are trying to do something out of the norms established by the foundation.

[Hibush]

If it is something of interest to an outside non-profit foundation (ie not the university foundation), they might be interested in supporting it. That would probably be treated as a contract by your school. Institutions vary quite a bit in how they work with private foundations, and whether the funds support a specific faculty project versus a capital improvement or endowed position. Talk to the people in the relevant bureaucracy to see what they are capable of and what they recommend.

Non-profits tend to fund things based on relationships and track records, so those are a couple of things to have in place before asking for money.

[Kron3007]

Thanks for all the feedback, just what I was hoping for.

I sent an inquiry and they got back.  It was fairly positive.  They sent a link to a recorded workshop they held several years ago and put me in touch with people who would deal with this type of thing.  So, it seems they are supportive on the surface.  The devil is in the details though, so we will see

As for restricting this type of activity, it really seems to violate academic freedom to me.  I should be free to solicit and accept gifts to support research as I wish (within reason) and they should only be able to reject it with very good cause (which there are some as discussed above).  Fortunately, they seem to be on the same page...

[Kron3007]

Hello Everyone,

I have a project that I have wanted to get off the ground for a while now, but have had little success getting it funded through granting agencies.  It is a slightly controversial project, or at least one that may not get funded through standard agencies.  In contrast, I think it is a project that some companies would support, as well as some individuals, so I have been thinking about crowdsourcing funding for the project to do what the government wont.

I am posting to see if anyone else has experience with this, or if there are issues that I have not considered.

Anyone?

Have thought about that. The university did not like it at all. There are apparently a lot of legal issues involved. You cannot be asking for money essentially on behalf of a university unless the university has agreed to that and typically they would want their indirect cost paid. They could force you to go through their foundation and if the money seems too small to the foundation, they might not even bother dealing with you.

I sent a message asking them about it as I suspected this could be the case.  However, our university dosn't charge overhead on donations, which this would be.  I also don't see why I couldnt pay indirect if needed out of it

A more important question perhaps, is what would they do if you proceeded?  Would they reject the money or just be mad at me?  My target would be a substantial amount, so if successful it would be hard for them to decline.

I work in corporate and foundation relations and grants. The leap from "government agencies won't fund this" to "I'm gonna crowdsource it" seems odd to me--have you explored nonfederal sources at all? I would recommend talking with fundraisers at your institution (maybe start with corporate and foundation relations, but let them know that you'd be interested in soliciting individual donors as well. They may be able to point you towards some other sources that could fund your request and can address issues like how to deal with indirect costs (and what sorts of costs different potential funders are willing to pay; some nonfederal funders will cover indirect costs up to a limited extent, and many institutions require you to recover these when possible).

You should definitely not go out to individual donors and corporations on your own to try to get this funded. There are all sorts of ways that this could go badly and/or result in the institution rejecting the gift (let me assure you that there is a nontrivial chance of the latter!). These might include:

• The university was cultivating a corporation or donor that you end up targeting, and your ask interferes with their ability to land a much larger or higher-impact gift.
  
• You negotiate a gift that the institution cannot accept for regulatory or operational reasons (problematic IP arrangement, nature of gift agreement makes it not "countable" as a gift, donor's conditions make the gift too difficult to manage given its dollar value).
  
• Going outside the system results in you generating a budget that does not adequately reflect the actual costs of the project, meaning that the institution will have to contribute some costs in order to hold up their end of the bargain.
  

FWIW, I initially thought you were talking about crowdsourcing in the, like, GoFundMe sense. There are some platforms like that--some that universities run on their own, and some that third-party providers like Experiment.com run, but even there, you'd want to be operating through your institution.

Talking to fundraisers may be a good idea, but I have my doubts it would go anywhere.  In contrast, I am fairly confident that I could be successful crowdsourcing for this project.  I also feel it could be used for PR and to raise awareness.  I guess I don't see potential without investing too much time and very little downside as long as the university is supportive.

[Hibush]

As for restricting this type of [fund raising] activity, it really seems to violate academic freedom to me.  I should be free to solicit and accept gifts to support research as I wish (within reason) and they should only be able to reject it with very good cause (which there are some as discussed above).  Fortunately, they seem to be on the same page...

Academic freedom really does not come into play very much because there are so many rules and regulations affecting the kind of funds the institution can accept, how they are spent, and what commitments are made in return. You can pick your topic, but you can't take just any money to pursue it.

One organizational point is that all the research funds are awarded to the university, not to the investgator. Therefore, the institution legitimately looks to develop the funding portfolio that will meet its overall goals. A good institution will work well with faculty to keep the research funds coming. Their main worry seems to come when faculty ask for too little of the funder.

[Kron3007]

As for restricting this type of [fund raising] activity, it really seems to violate academic freedom to me.  I should be free to solicit and accept gifts to support research as I wish (within reason) and they should only be able to reject it with very good cause (which there are some as discussed above).  Fortunately, they seem to be on the same page...

Academic freedom really does not come into play very much because there are so many rules and regulations affecting the kind of funds the institution can accept, how they are spent, and what commitments are made in return. You can pick your topic, but you can't take just any money to pursue it.

One organizational point is that all the research funds are awarded to the university, not to the investgator. Therefore, the institution legitimately looks to develop the funding portfolio that will meet its overall goals. A good institution will work well with faculty to keep the research funds coming. Their main worry seems to come when faculty ask for too little of the funder.

That's fair I suppose. 

Fortunately, my meeting went well and they are supportive (my university is generally pretty functional).  I dont know if it will actually go anywhere, but I will see.  Even if it dosnt, this process was worth it as the people who go our fundraising are now aware of this project.  They told me they often have people interested in donating if there is a good match, and they can only find the match if they are aware.

[mamselle]

So, at least a partial win-win....glad that the meeting went well.

M.

[mleok]

I would first try to secure corporate funding for the research first. Maybe it's just me, but a research project funded by crowdsourcing just seems a bit too crackpot for my taste.