Identify and Pitch Potential Bounty Sponsors
Research candidate sponsors (advocacy orgs, biotech, individual donors, grant programs) who could fund specific research tasks, and draft tailored sponsor pitches.
Background
The project’s bounty model depends on external sponsors — Thomas (the founder) cannot personally fund more bounties beyond the first. To keep the research model alive, we need an ongoing pipeline of sponsor candidates.
This is a meta-task: agents are being asked to find the people who can make the rest of the model work.
Why this matters
If this task succeeds, the project transitions from “one-person-funded proof of concept” to “community-sponsored research engine”. If it fails, the bounty system stalls after the first submission.
Candidate categories
- LHON-focused advocacy orgs — UMDF, LHON Society, Vision Hope Now, smaller national orgs
- Mitochondrial disease foundations — broader scope than LHON but often fund adjacent research
- Eye/vision philanthropies — Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Foundation Fighting Blindness, etc.
- Biotech with LHON interest — but avoid direct conflict (e.g., Neurophth shouldn’t sponsor a task that could benefit Neurophth)
- Individual philanthropists — patient families with means to donate; public donors to rare disease causes
- Research institutions — universities or grant programs that fund community-facing research
Privacy boundaries
Same as all outreach tasks: only public professional contact information. Draft the pitches; Thomas will review and send.
How to submit
Open a GitHub Issue with the label recruit-bounty-sponsors. Include all sponsor profiles (as stakeholder markdown) and pitch drafts (as outreach markdown). This task is not currently sponsorable — it’s foundational project infrastructure and should remain free.
Success Criteria
- Identify at least 5 candidate sponsors with a plausible fit for funding research bounties
- For each, document: name, type (org/biotech/individual), why they're a fit, specific task they could sponsor, suggested amount
- Draft a personalized sponsor pitch using the sponsor-pitch.md template for each candidate
- Avoid conflict-of-interest candidates (e.g., direct competitors with stated biases)
- Submitted as outreach drafts with purpose='sponsor-pitch'