Our 2017 ELS Civic Ignition cycle received 16 submissions.  On Saturday of the conference 22 community members came together to discuss the submissions, producing a meaningful and at the same time difficult conversation circling the ideas of impact and community investment.  We are exited to announce our two winners from the 2017 cycle:

– David’s Ranch Community Maker Space: Israel
David’s Ranch community is the beating heart of the local Midburn community. Each year we open our doors to hundreds of Burners both local and international. During the months prior to Midburn we open our doors for community members to use our land to build Art installation, Lead crew and community meeting and build camps. All voluntary.  This year we plan on expanding our facilities and providing showers and toilets, better electricity foundations, open air kitchen area and tools for projects who will be hosted at the ranch. David’s Ranch community. We try to live our life here inspired by burning man 10 principles and the burn culture, alongside other communal ways. We aspire to create a self sustaining green, creative hub.  We would like to use the funding to improve our infrastructure and also create a space where a local non-burner community feels welcome to come and create alongside us.

– Art bike Invasion: Lithuania
The Art bike Invasion project is a horde of crazy and fun artistic bikes riding as a parade to celebrate creativity, Burning Man spirit & culture.  Every bike is unique and individual form of art and statement. The parade is the representation of the variety in individual creativity and expression. Also it is a performance. With sounds, lights, fun & crazy installments parade becomes a mobile and interactive installation.
Art and Mutated bikes are personalized decorated, pimped, altered, welded and constructed bikes before-hand. Also bikes can be illuminated with LED’s/El-wire/lights and/or installed with portable speakers, microcontrollers/microcomputers etc. They can produce sounds, change LEDs color patterns, be tall, weird, funny and playful.  The bikes were saved from Black Rock City 2016 and brought to Lithuania for this purpose.  The granted funds will purchase supplies for the workshops and help host space for children working on the bikes.

What is the ELS Civic Ignition Grant?                                                                                                                       A program aimed at funding innovative community & civic projects within the Burning Man European Regional Network.  We are interested in programs that create collaborations, produce direct actions, utilize several of the 10 Burning Man Principles, are reproducible, and creatively tackle local social problems. This grant gives Burning Man European Regional Leaders the opportunity to submit a collaborative, creative, and principle-focused project with a chance to win up to a €1,400 grant.

Timeline:
–  Grant Opportunity is announced on January 20. 
–  Deadline for grant submissions is February 20 (Midnight CET)
–  Judges will review the grant proposals at the 2017 European Leadership Summit (March 3-5)
–  Winner(s) will be announced Sunday afternoon at the ELS.  (March 5)

Apply here:  http://bit.ly/2jIlH9p

What’s special about the ELS Civic Ignition Grant?
Submissions to the 2017 ELS Civic Ignition grant cycle will be workshopped and judged by a select group of Regional Contacts and community leaders that attend this year’s European Leadership Conference (ELS). This group will be using the submissions as material to review and workshop while learning how to administer their own civic grant programs.

Who is eligible to apply?
Individuals, Groups, and Not-for-Profits are all eligible to apply.  All projects *must* be endorsed by a local Burning Man Regional Contact.  The RC does not need to be a project lead, or heavily involved with the process, rather they are simply endorsing the project and the leaders who are submitting.  We recognize not all regions have local RC’s, if this applies to you consider contacting a neighboring RC or contact Christopher Breedlove <breedlove@burningman.org>.

How much can you ask for?
The maximum grant that maybe awarded is €1,400.  We encourage your project’s viability to not be solely dependent on this grant.  Think about other sources of funding that might be available.  Grants awarded could be less than the full amount.

What types of proposals will likely not get funded by this program?
Programs that are solely based on artistic endeavors and do not have a community or civic aspect will most likely not be considered for funding.  Funds should not be used for direct fundraising, chapter promotion efforts, or for paying people for their work.

What follow-up will be expected by grant recipients?
All recipients will be expected to submit written reports on what they have accomplished and learned in the course of their projects, along with accompanying visual media.  This media will be hosted on the Burners Without Borders website.

Who won the Civic Ignition Grant in 2016?                                                                                              [freespace] Barcelona won the civic ignition grant last year. [freespace] is an international movement and experiment in what is possible when a community shares the gift of physical space. A [freespace] is a gathering place for people to come together, to create, teach, learn, and share the things which they are truly passionate about, and strengthen connections between individuals as well as communities through art, events, and long term projects.

This particular [freespace] project that was awarded the grant is a series of Civic Hacking workshops that will happen throughout the year- with concepts for topics such as: Urban Gardening, The Psychedelic Vaudeville, Poetry & Spoken Word and many others.

> How to create a Project.