---
title: run a group for what you already care about
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/run-a-group-for-what-you-already-care-about
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/run-a-group-for-what-you-already-care-about.md
subtitle: "one namespace, as many agents as you have mandates"
category: how-to
---

# run a group for what you already care about

*one namespace, as many agents as you have mandates*

Standing up a finance stack for a watershed is a long year. Lawyers, a vendor for the marketplace, another for the reporting, a bank that will not open the account, and a board that wants a diagram. Most groups that already do the work on the ground never finish that year. They go back to the grant.

The forest, the wetland, the herd, and the town that drinks from them already depend on each other, whether or not your organization adds a namespace. [**Ensurance**](/?from=guide) funds that living condition. It is not the forest, and it is not a replacement for the trust, the fund, the monitoring firm, or the protocol you already run.

What you can add, if you want it, is smaller than a new institution. A group is a namespace under a name you choose. Inside it, an agent is an account a person, a place, or a purpose holds in its own name. One organization can run many of those accounts, because you do not have one reason. The creek, the herd, the town, the method you measure with, the theme the fund was raised for. The list is yours. We do not hand you our list and ask you to adopt it.

:::johnson
**one namespace. as many accounts as you have reasons to keep.**

[create a group →](/groups/create?from=guide)
:::

## the list is the point

Relational value is a plain idea wearing a formal name. It is what this organization actually depends on, and what it actually keeps, named one by one. A carbon shop depends on the stand, and the stand depends on the watershed, and the watershed depends on the snowpack, and the town downstream depends on all three. Those are different reasons. They can be different accounts. Putting them under one slogan throws the reasons away.

A land trust can hold an account for the trust itself, and separate accounts for the parcels, and a further account for a purpose those parcels perform — cold water for a fish, forage for a herd, shade for a ditch. A fund can hold an account for the strategy and accounts for the places inside it. A town can hold an account for the town and accounts for the reaches of river it actually draws from. A monitoring firm keeps its sensors and its report. Attaching those readings to a place-account is designed, and the public intake is not switched on.

You do not have to mint all of them on the first day. You mint the one that matches the check you are trying to receive, or the check you are trying to send. The others can wait until the reason is real. Empty accounts with no purpose are how namespaces get noisy. Specific accounts are how a board can see what the money is for.

The older pages walk the clicks for a group: [what a group is](/guide/what-is-an-ensurance-group?from=guide) and [how to create one](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-group?from=guide). Creating an account inside it is [how to create an ensurance agent](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-agent?from=guide). This page is the reason you would, and whose list the accounts follow.

## two doors into the infrastructure

Both doors end at a namespace you can put accounts in. They differ in who decides, and what it costs.

| door | who decides | what it costs | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apply | A person here reviews the application | No charge for the application | If we approve it, we create the namespace. Who holds the owner key is part of that setup. Say in the application if you need it in your own wallet. We can say no. |
| Permissionless | You do. There is no review. | The contract price. On 7 October 2026 that price was 10 ETH, and this door was switched on. | The namespace on Base, in your wallet, whether or not we would have approved the application. |

The create page reads the price from the contract. If that number has moved since 7 October 2026, the page is right and this paragraph is history. The 10 ETH makes an empty namespace expensive to squat, and it supports the protocol. The create page's own note says both. It is not a tip, and it is not a small amount. If 10 ETH is the wrong size for your organization, use the application. That door is the one we expect most trusts, crews, and funds to use.

The review on the free door is the client. We are looking for a namespace that funds living systems, or that helps the people who already do. A name that fights that purpose can be declined. The chain door is the other fact, and the last page in this series says what we can and cannot do after a contract exists.

## after the namespace exists

You set the price other people pay to create an account inside your group. That price can be zero. Zero means a steward, a town, or a co-worker can open the next account without a second budget line. A price above zero means you charge for a seat in the namespace. The factory also writes a royalty figure onto a new namespace. On 7 October 2026 that figure was 49.99%. This page does not say what that percentage is taken from. Read the namespace contract before you publish a price. Both a zero and a price are legitimate. Pick the one that matches how you already work, after you have read the royalty field.

Each account can then have instruments pointed at it. A certificate names one agent, and a purchase of that certificate pays that agent. Today you suggest the certificate and we create it after review. The instant door on that form says coming soon. A coin is a currency whose trading can fund a theme. Proceeds are value routed to named addresses. You do not have to issue any of them on day one. A namespace with one honest account is a finished first step. A namespace with a coin, a certificate, and a promise of yield is a brochure. Skip the brochure.

How a purchase pays the agent, and how a coin purchase does something else, is the fundraising series. Read that before you tell a donor the two are the same. This page stops at the namespace and the accounts.

## nature finance infrastructure is the pipes you skip building

You are not building a chain. You are not standing up a marketplace and a proceeds router for every acre. Those objects already exist here, in a form you can point at a place. The account is not a legal entity. Your trust, your company, or your agency stays the accountable party. That is the cost you skip: the second set of pipes. The cost you still pay is attention: a name that means something, a list of accounts that matches real dependencies, and someone who will say no to the fifth account that does not have a job.

You are also not joining a single mandate. Groups here already exist for basins, for ecosystem types, for shared risks. You may want an account inside one of those, under their name, rather than a namespace of your own. That is a smaller step. Ask. If your reasons are specific enough that they should sit under your own name — the trust, the firm, the town, the method — the namespace is the right object.

We are early. A new group does not arrive into a deep market. It arrives into pipes that work. Plan for that. The infrastructure is shared so that your first year goes into the creek, not into reinventing the account.

## frequently asked questions

### what does a group hold?

A namespace. A name you choose, with accounts underneath it. It organizes the agents you run. It is not a pool of capital by itself, and it is not a legal entity. The longer definition is on the [group page](/guide/what-is-an-ensurance-group?from=guide). This page is about using one as nature finance infrastructure for the mandates you already have.

### can one organization run many agents?

Yes. That is the ordinary case. A trust, a firm, a fund, or a town has more than one reason. Each reason that should be able to receive or send value can have its own account: a person, a place, or a purpose. Mint the ones that match a real check. Leave the others until they do.

### is creating a group free?

The application is free, and a person reviews it. We can decline a namespace that is not aimed at funding a living system. The door with no review is priced by the contract. On 7 October 2026 that price was 10 ETH, and the door was on. [The create page](/groups/create?from=guide) shows the live figure.

### what do other people pay to join our group?

You set that price when accounts are opened in your namespace. It can be zero. The 10 ETH figure is the price of creating the namespace itself on the no-review door. It is not the price of every account inside it.

## next step

If the list of reasons is clear, [create a group](/groups/create?from=guide) or apply and wait for the review. If you want to talk through which accounts are real and which are noise, [tell us](/contact?from=guide&topic=open-protocol) the organization and the places. Groups that already live onchain can start from [onchain groups](/solutions/onchain-groups?from=guide&topic=open-protocol).

## the series

Read first: [use ensurance beside the work you already do](/guide/use-ensurance-beside-the-work-you-already-do?from=guide).

1. [use ensurance beside the work you already do](/guide/use-ensurance-beside-the-work-you-already-do?from=guide) — keep your project. the living system can still have an account
2. run a group for what you already care about — this post
3. [three ways to stand next to the protocol](/guide/three-ways-to-stand-next-to-the-protocol?from=guide) — use it, be in it without running it, or stay out
4. [a place and a purpose can hold an account](/guide/a-place-and-a-purpose-can-hold-an-account?from=guide) — people are not the only ones with an account
5. [the protocol door stays open](/guide/the-protocol-door-stays-open?from=guide) — the app can say no. a contract on base stays on base

## sources

[Create a group](/groups/create?from=guide) — the live price and both doors.

[How to create an ensurance group](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-group?from=guide) and [how to create an ensurance agent](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-agent?from=guide) — the clicks. This page does not repeat them.

[How conservation fundraising reaches the crew](/guide/how-conservation-fundraising-reaches-the-crew?from=guide) — a certificate purchase pays the agent it names. A coin purchase does a different job.