Applicant Name: Mike Cooper

Applicant ETH Address: 0x4d79F603383d72Ad3b2F6468770C469992FCF13D

Organization(s) or Affiliation(s): Metagov/Grant Innovation Lab

Why do you want to serve as an Expert Evaluator for the Localism Fund?

I worked on IMM for localization objectives with the World Bank, USAID, MCC, and other foreign assistance funders for 15 years. Localization was an umbrella term used for any strategy aiming to enable locally led solutions to local problems (which included everything from direct funding to various types of technical assistance, but most of all...the need to have high levels of adaptability in funder strategy). Before the disbanding of USAID I sat on the Digital Asset Working Group and we were creating a Localization sub-group within USAID. I am now working with the Grant Innovation Lab at Metagov on creating a Grant Impact Handbook that outlines the general task list and guidance for each phase of the grant program lifecycle (from planning to measurement, to iterative learning) and am now contributing to research on advancing capital allocation mechanism curation and data standards with DAO Star. I am not a developer; I am a web3 social scientist (with a decade of responsibility in managing program budgets and staff) specializing in IMM with high levels of technical knowledge on localization and social impact.

🪴 Grant-Making Expertise

Program Design & Management: ****3

Evaluation & Impact Learning: 3

Financial Strategy & Fundraising: 2

Governance Systems & Mechanism Design: 3

Experiences, Highlights & Evidence:

I led the inception, design and IMM for the Innovation Grant at MCC (approx $40M across five countries), served on approx 15 evaluation panels and led approx 4-7 after-action reviews for Localization Grants for USAID, conducted in-depth research and created the Grant Impact Handbook for the Grant Innovation Lab at Metagov.

⚙️ Web3 / Ethereum Tooling

Applied Web3 Literacy & Systems Understanding: 3