About Us

How SEESALT runs.

SEESALT is not one organisation running five programmes. It is a cluster of small, separately led units that share a name, a method and a training pipeline. Each unit belongs to the person who leads it, and so does everything that follows from it — the work, the money, the hours and the responsibility.

What SEESALT itself does is narrower than the sum of those units: open-source knowledge production, the Adaptation Lab, the consultant network, and the training that prepares people to lead. Those four are the founder’s responsibility. Everything else belongs to whoever is running it. Nobody is paid, at any level. There is no central budget, no grant cycle and no fundraising target, and the cost of keeping this site and the shared tools running is paid personally by the founder.

That is the whole arrangement. This page exists so that anyone deciding whether to work with us knows it before they ask.

2018Founded 5Countries with programmes 135Alumni and volunteer consultants 0Salaries paid, at any level

The shape of it

Units, and the layer underneath them.

A unit — Verdevision is one — starts when someone decides to run something and takes it on. It carries its own name, its own team, its own resources and its own risk. It is not a department of SEESALT and SEESALT does not run it.

The point of the shape is that a twenty-two-year-old with a workable idea does not have to wait for an institution to authorise it, and that when a unit fails, it fails by itself rather than taking anything else down with it.

What SEESALT itself runs

Four things, none of them programme delivery. All four are the founder’s responsibility.

  • Open-source knowledge production — research, method and toolkits published for anyone to use, including people who will never work with us
  • The Adaptation Lab — the standing research effort the units draw method from
  • The consultant network — who is admitted to it, and what the name is taken to mean
  • Capacity training — preparing people to lead something for the first time, and reviewing their plans when they ask

Capacity is the product. The programmes are what the people we train go on to build, and those belong to them.

The money

Three kinds of cost, and who carries each.

Keeping these separate is deliberate. It means a unit can start without waiting for anyone’s approval, and it means no one is ever asked to contribute to something they are not running.

Unit costs
Carried by the Program Lead. Whoever leads a unit raises and manages what it needs, in money and in hours, and answers for how it is spent. SEESALT does not hold or disburse unit funds.
Shared operating costs
Paid personally by the founder. Domain, hosting, the tools everyone uses. Small, steady, and out of one pocket.
Labour
Unpaid, without exception. Program Leads, consultants and the founder alike. No stipends, no honoraria, no equity in anything.

The limits of it

What this model cannot do.

A volunteer organisation with no pooled budget has real constraints, and stating them is more useful to a prospective partner than claiming otherwise.

  • Capacity moves with people, not with plans. When a Program Lead graduates, moves or runs out of time, that unit slows down or stops. We would rather say so than publish a roadmap we cannot staff.
  • There are no audited accounts, because there is no pooled money to audit. Each Program Lead is accountable for their own unit’s spending. Anyone funding a specific unit should expect reporting from that unit, not from SEESALT as a whole.
  • We cannot absorb costs on a partner’s behalf. If a collaboration needs travel, translation or field logistics, that is part of the project’s own budget and has to be settled at the start.
  • Response times are volunteer response times. Everyone here has a degree, a job, or both.

Accountability

Who answers for what.

Program Lead Consultants

Everything their unit does: design, staffing, resources, delivery, safety, and reporting to whoever supports it. A consultant who takes on a small project becomes its Program Lead Consultant and answers for it — the responsibility is theirs, not SEESALT’s.

SEESALT

The four things it runs itself: open-source knowledge production, the Adaptation Lab, the consultant network and capacity training. It does not direct, supervise or operate any unit.

The founder

Those four, and with them the site, the shared tools and their costs, and what is published under the SEESALT name. Also the first point of contact when something has gone wrong.

Consultants

The work they take on, and the accuracy of what they put their name to. Data handling is governed separately — see Privacy and Data.

If you want to support something.

There is no donate button, and there will not be one until there is an entity and an audit trail worth pointing at. Support a specific unit instead: say which one, and we will put you in touch with the Program Lead, who will tell you what it actually needs. Very often that is hours rather than money.

zhijun1933@gmail.com

Terms

Terms of use and limitation of liability.

These terms govern this website and any material published on it, and apply to everyone who uses the site or works with SEESALT.

  1. What SEESALT is. SEESALT is a voluntary association of students, graduates and independent researchers, organised as a set of separately led units that share a name. Its own activity is limited to four things: open-source knowledge production, the Adaptation Lab, the consultant network, and capacity training for the people who go on to lead units. It is not a licensed professional services firm, a consultancy, a broker, a financial institution or an accredited educational provider, and it does not hold itself out as any of these.
  2. Material is provided as it is. Everything published here — research, notes, toolkits, methods, translations and data — is provided for general information and educational purposes, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, currency or fitness for a particular purpose.
  3. It is not professional advice. Nothing on this site constitutes legal, financial, investment, medical, agronomic, engineering or policy advice. Decisions taken on the basis of it are taken at the reader’s own risk, and readers should obtain qualified professional advice before acting.
  4. Authors write in their own capacity. Views expressed in any publication, note or presentation are those of the named author alone. They do not represent SEESALT, its other members, or any university, employer or organisation with which an author is affiliated.
  5. Units are run by their leads, not by SEESALT. Each unit and each small project is designed, staffed, resourced and delivered by the Program Lead Consultant leading it, who is solely responsible for it. SEESALT does not supervise, direct or control unit activities, does not hold or disburse unit funds, and accepts no responsibility for the acts or omissions of any Program Lead, member, volunteer or partner. Training or review provided by SEESALT to a Program Lead does not transfer any part of that responsibility to SEESALT.
  6. No relationship is created. Use of this site, or contact through it, creates no employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, fiduciary or client relationship between any person and SEESALT or its founder.
  7. External links and third-party material. Links to other websites are provided for convenience only. SEESALT does not endorse and is not responsible for their content, availability, or data practices.
  8. Limitation of liability. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, SEESALT, its founder, members and volunteers shall not be liable for any loss or damage — direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary, including loss of data, revenue, profit or opportunity — arising out of or in connection with the use of this site or reliance on any material published on it. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where such exclusion is not permitted by law.
  9. Corrections. Errors are corrected on notice rather than defended. Write to the address below and the correction will be made and, where it matters, noted on the page it affects.
  10. Changes. These terms may be updated from time to time. The version in force is the one published here.

Last updated 4 September 2026. Questions about these terms: zhijun1933@gmail.com