FundingNavigator – Smart Matching for Social Funding in Switzerland

Social workers and individuals in financial distress spend hours manually searching through PDF directories to find the right foundation for their specific situation – only to face rejection because the foundation's purpose didn't match their case. The ZHAW "Fonds und Stiftungsverzeichnis" alone lists 188 foundations for the Canton of Zurich, each with specific eligibility criteria regarding target group, nationality, residency, type of need, and application process. Mismatched applications waste time for both applicants and foundations, which report being overwhelmed by unsuitable requests. FundingNavigator turns this static knowledge into an intelligent matching tool. Users answer a guided set of questions – Who are you? (individual, social worker, organization) What do you need? (emergency funds, education, project grant) How urgent is it? – and the system matches them to the most suitable funding sources. But we go beyond classical foundation directories: FundingNavigator integrates the full spectrum of social financing options, including crowdfunding platforms, sharing economy resources, and public support programs, following the holistic approach of the ZHAW directory. The prototype could use a RAG-based architecture (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) with the structured foundation data as its knowledge base. Core features for the hackathon: (1) guided needs assessment, (2) intelligent matching with ranked results, (3) urgency-based filtering (decision timelines vary from weeks to months), (4) direct links to application forms or auto-generated template letters. The architecture is designed to scale beyond Zurich to other cantons and national-level foundations. Data source: ZHAW Fonds- und Stiftungsverzeichnis 2024/25 (publicly available, 188 foundations + supplementary financing chapters). Impact: Fewer mismatched applications, faster access to support for people in crisis, reduced administrative burden on foundations, and a scalable model for all of Switzerland.