Universal Solidarity Fund

Constitution

The Universal Solidarity Fund (USF) is a fund with multiple accounts at different levels:

At micro-local level, each residents' association involved in the project has an USF account. Partners twinned with these residents' associations can also create an USF account where they can collect donations.
Residents' associations are grouped into federations at regional or national level, which will also have an USF account
At the global level, the USF account will be managed by the TOGETHER Network, based in Portugal.

The unit of account of the funds can also be variously monetary (euros as a reference), working time, local currency, etc.

Functioning

Nota Bene: The operation presented here is an initial hypothesis for the launch of the fund. It may be refined at a later date, on the basis of proposals from the Steering Committee, which will then be validated at the international meetings of co-responsibility territories.

Principles

The USF will operate according to the following principles:

The principle of universal solidarity, i.e. that the priority beneficiaries are those who are most in need and with the commitment not to return the donation received as in a loan, but to make it available to others who are also in need, as soon as they can, and so on, creating in this way chains of solidarity based on sharing and equity.
The principles of transparency and traceability, enabling solidarity chains to be tracked in their entirety
These principles imply a principle of democratic co-decision on the use of funds: collective decisions (at general assemblies in residents' associations, at General Assemblies of the Federations and by the Steering Committee at the level of TOGETHER, etc.).

To ensure traceability, each association or federation has its own page on wikispiral.org where it can report on the use of the fund

Circulation of funds

Transfers between fund accounts will be made by numbering them in each solidarity chain. A distinction will thus be made between:

Transfer 0 corresponds to the initial donation paid, either directly into the account of the residents' association concerned, or at a higher level
Transfer 1 corresponds to the allocation to the first beneficiary (individual or collective in the case of a cooperative or user association)
transfer 2 corresponds to the first beneficiary's allocation to the second beneficiary
and so on.

All transfers can be made directly or via the fund's accounts. The main thing is to respect the principles of co-decision, transparency, traceability and universal solidarity. Accounts will be kept for each chain of solidarity.

Project funding criteria

In addition to the principles already mentioned (priority for the most disadvantaged, commitment to solidarity, joint decision-making, transparency and traceability), the projects to be carried out must, as far as possible, meet the following criteria:

Be part of the ecological transition, in particular by highlighting how they reduce the use of fossil fuels and can therefore be financed by carbon offsets.
The investments made remain the property of the community residents' association, which makes them available or rents them out to individual or collective beneficiaries (cooperatives or others), which presupposes that the residents' association is formally constituted. In this way, the USF will contribute to the development of common assets in each community, managed by the residents' association and made available to those who need them most for as long as they need them.

Ratings

Participatory co-assessments of the impact of the USF will be carried out, if possible on an annual basis under the impetus of the Steering Committee, in particular to draw methodological lessons, disseminate results and methods and propose supporting public policies. In particular, the impact on the fight against global warming, the reduction of inequalities, social cohesion and co-responsibility (local and international) and, more generally, the well-being of all will be assessed.