In collaboration with University of Maryland Students, we are creating a database called Finance your Neighborhood Projects (FNP) to facilitate fundraising from around the world, as well as facilitating information sharing, and network building. It will also be useful to local and international organizations providing/seeking financial and technical resources, volunteer work, donations, local expertise, etc. Project teams will upload their project proposal and choose a deadline and a minimum funding goal.
CEN will not guarantee that teams that post projects on FNP will deliver on their projects, use the money to implement their projects, or that the completed projects will meet funders' expectations. People will use their own judgment when they chose to support a project. However, we will provide them with the tools below to help them ensure that the project teams deliver on their promises:
Project team will be required to present the project to the community in an open forum to get their input. Provide character reference letters from respected members in the community. The team pictures and contact info will be required as well.
If funding raised does not match the minimum funding goal, the money will be returned to the funders. After funding is completed, projects and uploaded media cannot be edited or removed from the site.
We will integrate a tool that will help monitor project implementation progress. That will be a way for the team to post implementation progress and show good faith and gain credibility for future projects. It will also give them an opportunity to ask for technical assistance to make sure that their project achieves its objectives.
The public will be able to comment on projects, assuming the role of monitoring and evaluation.
If project fails, assets bought with project funds become automatically government properties.
The web pages of projects launched on FNP will be permanently archived and accessible to the public.