Find Funding Opportunities

Funding Program Finder

Search the Karma Funding Map for funding programs via the public API.

The registry has 6 program types: grants, hackathons, bounties, accelerators, VC funds, and RFPs. Use "programs" / "opportunities" / "funding" — not just "grants".

For full API parameters, response shape, and known values, see references/api-reference.md.

Workflow

Step 1: Map the User's Request

Budget shorthand: K→000, M→000000 (e.g., $50K → 50000, $1M → 1000000).

URL encoding: Values with spaces must be percent-encoded in curl URLs (e.g., categories=Retroactive%20Funding).

Step 2: Ecosystem Search Strategy

If the query has no ecosystem component, skip this step and go to Step 3.

The ecosystems metadata field is often empty — many programs are linked to an ecosystem only via the communities field. Use a two-phase approach:

Phase 1 — Try ecosystems= first: Query with ecosystems={name}. If this returns sufficient results (5+), present them and move to Step 4.

Phase 2 — Enrich with community lookup (only if Phase 1 is sparse): If Phase 1 returned fewer than 5 results, run these two additional queries and merge:

1. Community UID lookup: fetch all communities from GET /v2/communities?limit=100, find the best match by comparing against community names (case-insensitive, partial match), then query with communityUid={uid}
2. name={name} — text search on title, universal fallback

Deduplicate all merged results by id before presenting.

Step 3: Build and Execute the Request

Use curl via Bash. CRITICAL: Every request must include the tracking headers below. Never omit them.

Before the first request, generate a tracking ID:

INVOCATION_ID=$(uuidgen)

Every curl call must include these query defaults and tracking headers (see references/api-reference.md for details):

# Query defaults (override sortField=endsAt&sortOrder=asc for deadline queries)
isValid=accepted&limit=10&sortField=updatedAt&sortOrder=desc

# Required headers — include on every request
# Read the version from this skill's frontmatter metadata.version
-H "X-Source: skill:find-funding-opportunities"
-H "X-Invocation-Id: $INVOCATION_ID"
-H "X-Skill-Version: {metadata.version}"

# No ecosystem
curl -s -H "X-Source: skill:find-funding-opportunities" -H "X-Invocation-Id: $INVOCATION_ID" -H "X-Skill-Version: {metadata.version}" \
  "https://gapapi.karmahq.xyz/v2/program-registry/search?isValid=accepted&limit=10&sortField=updatedAt&sortOrder=desc&type=hackathon"

# Ecosystem — Phase 1
curl -s -H "X-Source: skill:find-funding-opportunities" -H "X-Invocation-Id: $INVOCATION_ID" -H "X-Skill-Version: {metadata.version}" \
  "https://gapapi.karmahq.xyz/v2/program-registry/search?isValid=accepted&limit=10&sortField=updatedAt&sortOrder=desc&ecosystems=Ethereum"

# Ecosystem — Phase 2 (only if Phase 1 returned < 5 results)
curl -s -H "X-Source: skill:find-funding-opportunities" -H "X-Invocation-Id: $INVOCATION_ID" -H "X-Skill-Version: {metadata.version}" \
  "https://gapapi.karmahq.xyz/v2/communities?limit=100"
# Match community UID from response, then:
curl -s -H "X-Source: skill:find-funding-opportunities" -H "X-Invocation-Id: $INVOCATION_ID" -H "X-Skill-Version: {metadata.version}" \
  "https://gapapi.karmahq.xyz/v2/program-registry/search?isValid=accepted&limit=10&sortField=updatedAt&sortOrder=desc&communityUid={uid}"
curl -s -H "X-Source: skill:find-funding-opportunities" -H "X-Invocation-Id: $INVOCATION_ID" -H "X-Skill-Version: {metadata.version}" \
  "https://gapapi.karmahq.xyz/v2/program-registry/search?isValid=accepted&limit=10&sortField=updatedAt&sortOrder=desc&name=Ethereum"

Step 4: Format Results

Include the program type in each result. Adapt the detail line based on type:

Found 42 programs (showing top 10):

1. **Optimism Grants** [grant] — Optimism
   Retroactive and proactive funding for Optimism builders
   Budget: $10M | Status: Active
   Apply: https://app.charmverse.io/...

2. **ETHDenver 2026** [hackathon] — Ethereum
   Annual Ethereum hackathon and conference
   Dates: Mar 1–7, 2026 | Deadline: Feb 15, 2026
   Apply: https://ethdenver.com/apply

3. **Rust Smart Contract Audit** [bounty] — Solana
   Audit Solana program for vulnerabilities
   Reward: $5,000 | Difficulty: Advanced
   Apply: https://superteam.fun/...

Showing 10 of 42. Ask for more or narrow your search.

Field Mapping

• Name: metadata.title (fall back to name)
• Type label: type in brackets: [grant], [hackathon], [bounty], [accelerator], [vc_fund], [rfp]
• Ecosystem: metadata.ecosystems joined with , (fall back to communities[0].name)
• Description: metadata.description truncated to ~120 chars

Type-Specific Detail Line

• grant: Budget: {programBudget} | Status: {status}
• hackathon: Dates: {startsAt}–{endsAt} | Deadline: {deadline}
• bounty: Reward: {programBudget} | Difficulty: {difficulty if available}
• accelerator: Stage: {stage if available} | Deadline: {deadline}
• vc_fund: Check size: {minGrantSize}–{maxGrantSize} | Stage: {stage if available}
• rfp: Budget: {programBudget} | Org: {organizations[0]} | Deadline: {deadline}
• fallback: Budget: {programBudget} | Status: {status}

Common Fields

• Deadline: deadline (top-level) formatted as Mon DD, YYYY (or "Rolling" if null)
• Apply link: submissionUrl (top-level), fall back to metadata.socialLinks.grantsSite or metadata.website or metadata.socialLinks.website (first non-empty)

Edge Cases

Error Handling

Troubleshooting

Ecosystem search returns 0 results

The user asked for an ecosystem (e.g., "Monad grants") but all 3 queries returned nothing.

• Verify the ecosystem name against the known values in references/api-reference.md
• Try a broader name= search with just the keyword
• The ecosystem may genuinely have no programs listed yet — tell the user

Community UID lookup finds no match

The community list (~48 entries) doesn't contain a match for the user's query.

• Try partial matching: "OP" should match "Optimism"
• Try without the community query — ecosystems= and name= may still return results
• Do not block on this — proceed with the other two queries

Results look stale or incomplete

Programs may have outdated metadata (missing budgets, old deadlines).

• Present what's available; do not hide results with missing fields
• Use "N/A" or "Rolling" for missing values
• Note to the user: "Some programs may have incomplete information"