The Roddenberry Foundation has announced a new initiative: the +1 Global Fund, aimed at quickly getting funding to communities around the world most affected by COVID-19.

The new +1 Global Fund leverages a new type of funding that “emphasizes networks, trust, and collaboration.” By seeking recommendations for funding recipients from other organizations, it helps eliminate the applications, restrictions and reporting that can lead to traditional philanthropy slowing down.

In a statement last week, Sameen Piracha, Director of Partnerships and Fundraising, Global Venture at Ashoka, one of the Fund’s partner organizations, said of the initiative, “The +1 Global Fund is a truly innovative funding platform that flips the script on who and how organizations and identified and vetted. It’s a distinctive participatory funding process that unlocks the power of our networks.”

The core of the initiative is a recommendation-based model that rewards both nominees and those who nominate them. Nominees for funding can receive $15,000, and the individual who nominated then can receive $2,500. Grantees are then encouraged to pay it forward by nominating another recipient.

The Roddenberry Foundation intends to apply the funding towards solutions for COVID-19. Lior Ipp, Roddenberry Foundation Chief Executive, said, “In our design process we set out to meet the crisis with a solution as unorthodox as the problem. We challenged ourselves to throw out the funder’s playbook. We took a different approach. Covid is going to have a continued social, economic and health impact and we will need more responsive, scalable and agile funding models to fight it.”

Initially, the Roddenberry Foundation has partnered with organizations including Acumen, Ashoka, The Obama Foundation and The Resolution Project. So far, over 150 social entrepreneurs have nominated nearly 350 peers in 35 countries.

To find out more about the +1 Global Fund, as well as the Roddenberry Foundation’s other work, visit roddenberryfoundation.org.