Beta

Grant data: no garbage in, no garbage out.

Clean, comparable, checkable data: from the applications that go in, to the decisions and reports that come out.

Most often this data starts as a grant application, and a form is the most common way in. But these standards work on the data, not the form: it can arrive from a form, an AI reading documents, a data feed, or any system, and whatever collects it, the result is machine-readable and built to be checked.

Funders often decide what they really want as they go, and the same four things break each time. A small set of free, open standards changes each one.

Where it falls apartWhat holds it together

Where it falls apartCriteria shift mid-round, and decisions come down to impression

What holds it togetherA round commits to what it funds and how it judges before any application opens

Where it falls apartApplicants cannot tell what they are being measured against

What holds it togetherEvery measure is defined precisely enough that a value can be wrong, which is what makes it data instead of a story

Where it falls apartThe data cannot be compared across applications or rounds

What holds it togetherEverything is collected in one shared format that any tool or AI reads the same way

Where it falls apartOnce a round is over, its decisions cannot be checked

What holds it togetherThe whole thing is built to be checkable, and stays on the record

For the people who run grant programs, the people who review applications, and the people who apply. Grants is where these standards run today, but the rigor they put on a question and on a standard is not grant-specific, and reaches other kinds of data too.

How it works Under the hood

Where this comes from

None of this began as a design. It began as an analysis of where grant funding breaks down, read across every tradition at once instead of staying inside one.

200+

programs, rounds, and instruments analyzed

funding and evaluation frameworks

1,100+

cited sources

web3 roundsphilanthropic foundationsgovernment and multilateral fundersimpact investinghumanitarian and evaluation bodieslegal and tax frameworks

A pattern that shows up in a foundation, a development bank, and an on-chain round is structural, not a matter of taste. It is what the standards and the tools on this page are built from.

Compatibility

Works alongside any program, platform, or sector

Every sector that runs grant programs faces the same intake and reporting problems:

international developmentpublic healthclimatecivic techarts and cultureWeb3

These are not Web3 standards and not a single-platform integration. They are a common data layer that any grants program can adopt without changing its existing tools.

What it opens

Worlds that could not read each other now can

Compatible with everything is not a feature, it is the effect. The same grant, described once, is legible on both sides of lines that used to block it.

Web3 grants

Gitcoin · Optimism · Octant · DAOs

⇄

CROSS+WALKRI

one common layer

⇄

The larger grants world

foundations · government · multilateral · impact investing

Conformance is the crossing: it makes the bridge possible, not the funding automatic.

And the bridge is only one case. Once everything is comparable, more opens:

Comparable across the whole fieldAccess for small and new programsMachine and AI readableHarder to inflate or fakeTools and analysis built on top

Who it's for

Every role in the grants ecosystem

Operators

Run rounds with obligation structures committed before applications open. No more ad hoc criteria shifts mid-round.

Reviewers

Evaluate from declared criteria, not impression. Verdicts are documentable and consistent across reviewers.

Grantees

Know exactly what you are being measured against before you apply. Track your funding history in one legible place.

Analysts

Comparable data across rounds and programs. Structured attestation records instead of scattered reports.

Institutional Funders

Audit grant programs against published obligation structures. On the record and checkable, without having to ask for it.

Platform Providers

Build CROSS and WALKRI compatibility into your tooling. CC0 standards, no licensing arrangements required.

How it works →

The working model: what you choose to collect, the two standards of rigor, and the round lifecycle.

Under the hood →

The machinery: the foundations, the CRAFT meta-standard and its six conditions, and the published specifications.

Open standards

CC0. No licensing. No arrangements.

The CROSS and WALKRI standards are dedicated to the public domain. Read them, implement them, build on them.

Read CROSS Read WALKRI Standards assistant