Project Charters

The charter is the foundational document that describes the rationale, goals, overall timeline, necessary resources, terms and conditions, and outcomes of a CDH project.

Charters are written by core members of a project team in a series of planning meetings before the work starts. The planning process is intensive, collaborative, and requires substantial input from everyone on a team. Charters serve as formalized agreements among on such crucial questions as scope, technical design, infrastructural needs, and success criteria. At the CDH, each project charter is peer-reviewed by the Faculty Director and Executive Director.

The charter has a twofold importance: 1) it provides the project’s organizational infrastructure and 2) it defines and embodies a commitment to a set of intellectual, ethical, social, and political values, providing space to negotiate topics like equity and fair labor, accountability, accessibility, sustainability and community practices. Charters are social, setting the tone for collaborative work and establishing the terms on which the project engages its audiences.

The published charters below are digital copies of a “living document” at a single point in time. Charters are amended as necessary throughout the project lifecycle to document major changes and serve as part of the CDH project archive. CDH charters and their planning documents exist in several forms as we have refined them over the years and tailored them to the several types of projects we have supported.