This project has two components: small grants and grant auspicing.
The first component, small grants will be a very small discretionary fund set aside to provide seed funding and umbrella support for those independent outside-the-box market driven concepts that could have a material impact towards the sustainable aviation system objectives but have been unable to be financed via traditional means due to their risk profile. Sustainable Sky has unique attributes that enable it to easily asses and manage these micro-funding activities. As well as being a non-profit, Substantial Sky is nimble and impactful, including an expert pool of supporters, which the organisation uses to its advange to allow it to do things that larger corporates and major research institutions are unable to do. The micro-grants (likely up to a maximum of US$10k each) will only be provided to organizations on the endorsement of the Sustainable Sky Board of Advisors, and only if the funding proposal has satisfactorily convinced them that that they possess a strong transformational potential yet are unable to get funding from traditional sources. These grants will be predominantly designed to lend brand credibility to enable these ideas to germinate and gain further support elsewhere.
The second component, grant auspicing will, as the name suggests, enable Sustainable Sky to auspice funding. Auspicing of grants is a regularly used mechanism in the non-profit sector to enable organizations to access funding for their activities that they could not otherwise reach. Since Sustainable Sky is a high integrity regulated Australian charity it will be eligible to receive grants that may not be available to others. If ineligible individuals, groups or organizations wish to apply for such a grant then Sustainable Sky will be able to ‘vouch’ for them and auspice their grant to them, if they win it. For instance, if an Australian corporate foundation wanted to donate funds to the US-based Carbon War Room (Renewable Jet Fuels Initiative) charity but was unable to do so, say because its foundation Constitution only permits it to donate to Australian charities, then it could donate the funds to Sustainable Sky who would in turn pass the funds on to the Carbon War Room. As with normal grant auspicing arrangements, Sustainable Sky will only be able to provide this service in ways that align with the Sustainable Sky charitable purposes. Sustainable Sky will transparently detail any auspicing deals it has undertaken in any given year. And, as with all donations received by Sustainable Sky, it will accept funds from any source only provided that they agree to adhere to the organization's strict conflict of interest/non-interference policy and associated practices that enables Sustainable Sky to maintain its reputation for high integrity.
Preliminary forecast costs
Capital: US$100k
Operating: US$100k
Project duration: Ongoing
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