What Is Grant Accountability in Open Funding?
In one sentence
Grant accountability turns funding promises into persistent execution history.
Short answer
Grant accountability is the system of tracking how funded projects execute on their commitments over time, making progress visible, verifiable, and reusable for future funding decisions.
Why this matters
Most funding ecosystems spend enormous effort deciding who gets funded, and very little effort understanding what happens after funding. When execution is not tracked in a durable, comparable way, ecosystems cannot learn which teams reliably deliver.
Without accountability:
- Good and bad projects look the same after funding
- Capital allocation does not improve over time
- Trust resets every funding round
What grant accountability actually requires
Grant accountability is not reporting. It requires:
- Clearly defined milestones at funding time
- Ongoing, timestamped progress updates
- Contextual review or verification
- Public, persistent records
- Visibility across funding rounds and ecosystems
Common misunderstandings
- Accountability ≠ submitting a final report
- Accountability ≠ one-off check-ins
- Accountability ≠ centralized audits only
Related articles
How Karma fits
Karma provides modular infrastructure for ecosystems to define milestones, collect structured updates, attach reviews, and preserve execution history so accountability compounds instead of disappearing.