Instead of growing hierarchically by increasing the funding and staff of our national office, the Icarus Project is putting its budget into our Seed Grant program. We plan to distribute small grants in the $100-$1000 range to multiple initiatives, projects, schemes and contraptions spawned by groups working in their communities around the country and even internationally.

We're not interested in the formalities and bureaucracy of other foundation-grant style programs. We're not going to require you to do any paperwork. What we're looking for is ways to support inspired, creative people to get things done.

What gets funded?

Icarus Seed grants will be given to projects and efforts that further the Icarus vision as described in our Mission Statement. Anything that fits our Mission and qualifies for tax-deductible funding is eligible for a grant. That's right, anything. Just because it hasn't been done before or no one at Icarus has heard of it doesn't disqualify you -- on the contrary, wild and unexpected ideas are especially encouraged to apply.

Examples are: an art show; t-shirts; Carnaval float; zine of personal stories; claymation video; banner for a contingent at a big protest; herb tea fundraiser; insurance for your street march; support group voice mail; air ticket to fly in an event speaker; anything related to crossing race and class boundaries; printed how-to and skillshare guides; acupuncture needles; anything celebrating Mad Pride Day; seeds for your community garden; stencil supplies; cd of madness-inspired music; stipend for healers at a community wellness fair; web space; translating into spanish and other languages; radio show...

Some of the qualities we are looking for are:

Doable. Modest is fine. And you're more likely to get a grant if you've done something at least similar to your idea before, but we'll also consider first-time experiments.

Involves people. Community-building efforts that bring people in and nourish participation.

Independent. We are especially interested in funding fully autonomous goals that local individuals and groups direct and pull off independently of the national office, but we also plan on funding some collaborative ventures that involve staff time and resources.

Inspires other people. Making a community garden is an incredible thing; taking digital photos of it and posting on the internet to stir others to create gardens in their community too is even better.

Who is eligible?

Anyone is eligble for a seed grant. We're prioritizing people who:

have lived experience with madness and 'mental illness,'

have been organizing and working with us before; people we have a track record with.

How do we apply?

Send us an email letter outlining your idea, explaining why you think you can pull it off, describing who is involved, overviewing how you will spend the money (stipends are ok), and in one sentence what the end result will be. Each project needs one person who is the point person. You need to include letters of support from four people in your community, people who know you as an organizer or artist. Include a brief bio of yourself and also a brief bio of the people who are writing letters of support (who they are, how they know you, what they do).

It's good to include the following information, and anything else that would be helpful.

1. Name of Project and one-sentence description of what it is.
2. Name of contact person and contact info (email, phone, address, website)
3. Describe your project in 3 or 4 sentences
4. How much will the project cost and how much money are you asking Icarus for?
5. What exactly do you need the national Icarus staff to help out on this?
6. How will organizing this project involve and empower others?
7. How will we know that the project is done? Circle that apply:
a. provide receipts of how $ was spent
b. provide documentation such as flyers, photos, etc
c. end result publicly available
d. other __________
8. Have you ever done anything like this before and pulled it off?
9. How you collaborated with Icarus before? How did it go?
10. Is it clear how this project embodies the Icarus vision statement? If not, explain.
11. If you haven't really worked closely with us before on a big scale, please enclose 4 letters or statements of reference from people you've collaborated with before.
12. Brief bio of yourself and the people writing recommendation letters.
13. Anything else we need to know?