---
title: how to fund the project you depend on
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-fund-the-project-you-depend-on
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-fund-the-project-you-depend-on.md
subtitle: find your node. pay it. let it pay what it depends on. that is how you join a network of projects
category: how-to
---

# how to fund the project you depend on

*find your node. pay it. let it pay what it depends on. that is how you join a network of projects*

Somewhere above your intake, your road, or the lake you fish, a forest or a slope is already doing work you rely on. The useful question is not which conservation project deserves your money. It is which one you already depend on.

**How to fund a conservation project:** pay into the one you already depend on — the forest above your intake, the slope above your road — and let it route a share to the projects it depends on. You do not fund "conservation" in general. You fund your node, and your node can pay what it needs.

This is for a water utility, a county road department, a plant manager, a lake town, and a landowner who knows the creek came from somewhere. A project paid by one grant tends to end with the grant. A project paid by the people who use what it makes has a reason to keep going.

The headwater forest, the floodplain, the meadow, and the run of fish exist — and already trade water, shade, soil, and food with each other — whether or not anyone funds a project on them. Ensurance gives each one an account so the people who depend on it can pay into the network. The network is not the forest.

You do not have to care about "global water" to do any of this. It is not the world's water; it is your water, and the forest that makes it. ([Why that is the only ask that works](/guide/people-dont-care-about-nature-they-care-about-theirs).)

## step 1: name what you depend on

Start with three questions. They are the whole method.

1. **What stops working if this place fails?** The intake runs brown, the road closes, the run does not come back, the plant loses its water.
2. **Where does it come from?** Upstream, upslope, upwind. Water moves downhill, fire moves along fuel, sediment moves toward the intake, moisture moves downwind.
3. **What is the smallest named thing that would fix it?** Not "the watershed." The forest above the intake. Not "erosion." The slope above the switchback.

The answer is your **node**: one named place, or one purpose that runs across many places. A place is a piece of ground or water with a name — a forest, a reach, a meadow. A purpose is a job done across many places — keeping water in the cycle, holding a slope, keeping a corridor open, keeping fire from running into town.

| who | the specific thing | the node type |
|---|---|---|
| A town | The forest above its intake | Place |
| A county | The slope above the road | Place, or the erosion-control purpose |
| An angler or a lake town | The run and the lake | Purpose or place |
| A factory | The forest upwind of its rain; the catchment of its intake | Place |
| A utility | The catchment above the plant | Place |
| A landowner | The creek that enters from upstream; the ridge that burns toward the house | Place, or the fire purpose |

If you find yourself writing "nature" or "biodiversity" in the middle column, keep going until you hit a name. [How to pick the specific thing](/guide/how-to-pick-the-specific-thing) goes deeper on that step.

If a land trust, a watershed group, or a ditch company already works on that place, you have found a node the old way — call them. The steps below are how that place gets an account of its own, so your payment can also reach what it depends on.

## step 2: find the node

Open the map on [explore](/explore?from=guide). It shows places, the purposes that run across them, and how they connect. Each live place or purpose holds an **account in its own name** — what the app calls an agent. That account is what you pay.

If your dependency runs along one kind of link, the node may be the **syndicate** that coordinates that link: an account that joins the projects along one flow, so a payor does not have to find every parcel alone.

| your link | where to look |
|---|---|
| Water — intake, snowpack, the reach you fish | [water-cycle.syndicate](/water-cycle.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Fire — the ridge, the fuel, the town below | [wildfire-resilience.syndicate](/wildfire-resilience.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Animals — the crossing, the migration, the hunt | [wildlife-corridor.syndicate](/wildlife-corridor.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Soil — the slope, the culvert, the sediment at the intake | [erosion-control.ensurance](/erosion-control.ensurance?from=guide) |

Erosion control is a purpose account rather than a syndicate; as a door it works the same way. The same forest can sit in more than one of these. That overlap is part of what makes a region hold: the forest above a town's intake is also the fuel above its homes.

### if your place is not there yet

Most places are not live yet. That is expected; the network grows one node at a time. Name your place under the parent it belongs to and open it as a suggestion. Each link below opens the form with a sample name filled in — replace it with yours.

- A forest, spring, or reach that makes your water → [suggest it under water-cycle.syndicate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=water-cycle.syndicate&name=the%20forest%20above%20our%20intake&from=guide)
- A ridge or fuel bed above your town → [suggest it under wildfire-resilience.syndicate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=wildfire-resilience.syndicate&name=the%20ridge%20above%20our%20town&from=guide)
- A crossing or migration route → [suggest it under wildlife-corridor.syndicate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=wildlife-corridor.syndicate&name=the%20crossing%20on%20our%20road&from=guide)
- A slope above a road, a ditch, or an intake → [suggest it under erosion-control.ensurance](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=erosion-control.ensurance&name=the%20slope%20above%20our%20road&from=guide)

A suggestion is how a place becomes a node. You are not waiting for someone else to build it; you are the first payor naming it.

## step 3: pay the node

There are two ways in, and both are small enough to start this week.

**A certificate on a named place.** A certificate is a share of one named place. Browse what is live on [specific ensurance](/specific?from=guide) and pick the one closest to what you named in step 1. You hold it in an account on the site; an email address is enough to open one, and the certificate page shows the price.

**A certificate or coin on the account that holds the link.** Each page in the step 2 table shows what you can hold today. Where a certificate is live, the page says "ensure this certificate" — the three syndicates above each have one. Where it is still in ideation, as on erosion-control.ensurance today, the page offers a suggestion instead, and your suggestion counts.

Be clear-eyed about scale. What is live today is a set of named accounts, certificates on named places, and small volumes. Your payment may be one of the first on that node. That is not a weakness of the idea; it is the stage it is at. [What the first check actually buys](/guide/what-the-first-check-actually-buys) covers what an early payment does and does not do.

## step 4: let it route

A node rarely stands alone. The forest above your intake depends on the snowfield above it and the meadow that holds the melt. The slope above your road depends on the forest that holds the slope.

**Proceeds** are the routing that sends a cut of what one project receives to the projects it depends on. Each account's operator sets the split. A node you pay can route a set share onward to what it depends on, so your payment reaches past the first fence line without you finding every parcel. You can read the splits on [proceeds](/proceeds?from=guide).

This is also how a strong project can carry a new one: a node with steady payors can point a share at a node that is just starting, or at one having a bad year. It can. It is not automatic, and nothing here rebalances on its own; a person sets each split and can change it. [Projects that fund each other](/guide/projects-that-fund-each-other) walks through the plumbing.

A network does not make a basin-wide drought disappear. Every node in the basin feels it. What the network does is keep the weak nodes alive long enough to recover, and spread the load across water, fire, corridor, and soil. [The fine print of the free lunch](/guide/the-fine-print-of-the-free-lunch) covers why that distinction matters.

## step 5: see who pays with you

You are almost never the only one depending on your node. The forest above a town's intake also shades the reach an outfitter guides on, holds the slope above the county road, and keeps sediment out of a plant downstream. Each of those is a payor. Each one gets a different benefit from the same forest.

Once you are paying a node, the others paying it are your **co-payors**. Nobody has to carry the whole forest. [You don't have to shoulder it alone](/guide/you-dont-have-to-shoulder-it-alone) covers how a shared payment works when the benefit is split this many ways.

The first payor on a node makes it easier for the second to say yes. That is the quiet reason to go early.

:::johnson
**fund the place you would miss first** — then let it pay the places it would miss.

One certificate on one named place is a complete start. Everything else in this post is how that start grows.

[find your node →](/explore?from=guide)
:::

## where to start, by reader

Each page below covers the services and instruments for that reader, and its contact form carries this topic so whoever replies knows which post you came from.

| reader | start here | what it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Water and power utilities | [utilities](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=networked-projects) | Source watershed investment; fuel reduction and slope work that protect intakes, reservoirs, and transmission corridors |
| Companies with a plant, an intake, or a supply chain | [corporations](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=networked-projects) | Mapping and valuing what your operations depend on, then funding that natural infrastructure |
| Towns, counties, and states | [governments](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=networked-projects) | Municipal watershed protection, regional resilience planning, and wildfire and flood work across jurisdictions |
| Landowners | [landowners](/solutions/landowners?from=guide&topic=networked-projects) | Your land may be the node someone else depends on — valuation, and issuing instruments without selling |

If you have done step 1 and cannot find the node, [talk to someone who can help you find it](/contact?from=guide&topic=networked-projects). Bring the name of the place.

## frequently asked questions

### how do i fund a conservation project?

Pay into the one you already depend on — the forest above your intake, the slope above your road — and let it route a share to the projects it depends on. Start with one certificate on one named place, or a certificate or coin on the syndicate that coordinates that link.

### what if the project i depend on does not exist yet?

Name it under the parent it belongs to and open it as a suggestion — water under water-cycle.syndicate, fire under wildfire-resilience.syndicate, animals under wildlife-corridor.syndicate, slopes under erosion-control.ensurance. A suggestion is how a place becomes a node, and you become its first payor.

### do i have to care about nature in general to do this?

No. You have to care about your water, your road, or your lake. The network is built from people paying for the specific places they depend on; the general good is what that adds up to, not what you sign up for.

## next steps

You fund a conservation project by finding the one you already depend on and paying it. The ladder is short:

1. Answer the three questions in step 1 and write down one name.
2. Find that name on [explore](/explore?from=guide), or suggest it under its parent.
3. Pay it: one certificate on that place, or one on the syndicate that holds the link.
4. Read where it routes on [proceeds](/proceeds?from=guide).
5. Find your co-payors, and tell one of them.

The network grows one node at a time. This is how you add yours.

## the series

1. [what a networked project actually is](/guide/what-a-networked-project-actually-is)
2. [why conservation projects fail on their own](/guide/why-conservation-projects-fail-on-their-own)
3. [nature already runs a portfolio](/guide/nature-already-runs-a-portfolio)
4. [landscape-scale conservation needs a way to pay across the fence](/guide/landscape-scale-conservation-needs-a-way-to-pay-across-the-fence)
5. [how to fund the project you depend on](/guide/how-to-fund-the-project-you-depend-on)