Inside the 3FPD Proposal Bank

The 3FPD Proposal Bank is a curated collection of proposals from organizations working to strengthen and protect the public data ecosystem. The bank is designed to help funders identify aligned projects, coordinate support across the field, and better understand where philanthropic investment can help sustain critical public data infrastructure.

Rather than serving as an application portal, the Proposal Bank functions as a shared reference point for proposals that already exist across the ecosystem. By making these materials accessible to a network of aligned funders, 3FPD helps surface work that may benefit from collaborative or complementary funding.

What the Proposal Bank Includes

Proposals in the bank span a range of efforts focused on strengthening public data systems and protecting long-term access to government datasets. Projects are organized around several priority areas that reflect shared needs across the field:

Archiving and Tools — Projects preserving public datasets or safeguarding access to public data tools.

Monitoring — Efforts tracking changes to federal data sources and identifying risks to data availability or integrity.

Communications — Initiatives strengthening public narratives, messaging, and awareness around the importance of public data.

Data Defense — Work focused on protecting the independence, integrity, and long-term sustainability of the federal data ecosystem.

Future Vision — Research and strategy exploring how public data infrastructure can evolve to better serve communities, researchers, and policymakers.

In addition to these categories, the bank may include:

• Current Priority Proposals, which highlight projects actively being shared with aligned funders.

• Adjacent Proposals, which may not align directly with current priorities but may still be of interest to funders working in related areas.

How Proposals Are Included

Most proposals included in the bank are existing materials developed by organizations working in the public data ecosystem. In many cases these proposals were originally prepared for other philanthropic opportunities or collaborative initiatives.

3FPD may include proposals based on:

• recommendations from organizations and partners in the field

• proposals shared directly with the collaborative

• work identified through ecosystem research and outreach

3FPD may review submissions for relevance to the collaborative’s focus areas before including them in the bank.

What the Proposal Bank Is Not

The Proposal Bank is not an open grant program or request-for-proposals process.

3FPD does not currently issue open RFPs, and organizations are not expected to develop new proposals specifically for the bank.

Instead, the bank serves as a mechanism to help funders learn about and coordinate support for work that is already underway across the public data ecosystem.

Who Can Access the Proposal Bank

Access to the Proposal Bank is generally provided to:

• philanthropic funders

• collaborative funding initiatives

• trusted partners working to strengthen public data infrastructure

Access is shared on a case-by-case basis in order to protect the integrity of proposals and the organizations that have shared their work.

Request Access

Funders interested in reviewing proposals or learning more about the Proposal Bank may request access by contacting the 3FPD team.

Request access:
info@3fpd.org