[DAO: QmQNvy9] Expanding the Community Grants Program

Governance
1

by 0xfe91c0c482e09600f2d1dbca10fd705bc6de60bc

Summary

This proposal aims to expand the range of grant tires in order to support teams and bigger scoped-projects.

Abstract

Decentraland DAO opened their Community Grants program on May 31st 2021. Since then 12 grants have been given for Content Creator, Platform Contributor, Gaming and Community categories.

The current structure is aimed to single individuals:

  • Tier 1: One-time payment of $500 - $1500 USD in MANA
  • Tier 2: One-time payment of $1500 - $3000 USD in MANA
  • Tier 3: Up to a 3 month vesting contract of $3000 - $5000 USD in MANA, with a one month cliff.

This proposal aims to create 3 new tires designed for teams and larger scoped projects.

Motivation

The current tires are good to fit small projects and individual contributions. If more money is needed the contributor can continue requesting further grants to keep up the good work (eg. KevinOnEarth).

In order to tackle bigger projects that require the commitment of a team for many months we need to scale our tire options. This will attract more talent to the ecosystem.

Specification

The proposed new tires are:

  • Tire 4: Up to $60.000 USD using a 6 months vesting contract (1 month cliff).
  • Tire 5: Up to $120.000 USD using a 6 months vesting contract (1 month cliff).
  • Tire 6: Up to $240.000 USD using a 6 months vesting contract (1 month cliff).

These tires allow a team to receive up to 10k, 20k or 40k per month for over 6 months. The amounts represent the maximum requested value per tire and it opens the possibility to request less money, for example with Tire 4 one could ask for 3k USD per month over 6 months.

It’s recommended to teams to start with small tires, get idea’s validation from the community, show some progress and later request a bigger grant to suit the escalation of operations. It will be quite harder to get DAO approval for a massive grant to an unknown team.

Teams should report progress to the DAO Facilitator which will be included in regular reports. The grants are provided via revocable vesting contracts, thus enabling the DAO to cut a program that doesn’t deliver what was promised.

Benefits

There are many ways the DAO benefits from the success of grants:

First, if these grants add value to Decentraland’s ecosystem then MANA should get more general awareness and the price should go up, thus making the treasury of the DAO bigger. So what is good for Decentraland is good for the DAO.

Second, I would love to see projects capable of generating a revenue stream, becoming profitable ventures, and generating employment around Decentraland. Enabling more people to make a living out of Decentraland’s ecosystem is key.

Ultimately, bringing new people on board with skills and mindsets it’s a great benefit for the DAO. We need more active members. Attention and initiative are scarce resources IMHO.

  • Approve the inclusion of Tire 4, 5 and 6
  • Do not approve the inclusion of Tire 4, 5 and 6
  • Invalid question/options

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

1 Like
2

I’m super excited to see that this is getting passed through!

One thing to consider to help de-risk the larger tiers would be increasing the acceptance threshold with each tier. For example:

  • Tiers 1-3: Currently need 1M VP voting in favor to pass
  • Tier 4: Needs 2M VP
  • Tier 5: Needs 4M VP
  • Tier 6: Needs 6M VP

We should think more carefully about the actual thresholds, but with some marketing I think that upwards of 5M VP is attainable for committed applicants.

Curious to hear what others think.

3

I agree that the higher tiers need to have significant voting thresholds, and will need to look at the data more in terms of what VP we have had in the most active votes, but when we are talking about grants of 240K USD, I do think we need to have very stringent risk mitigation protocols in place, both in terms of barrier to access/approval as well as grant monitoring and impact evaluation.

This may be something we want to talk about including in grant proposals/requests of this scale, a framework for reporting on what we can in international development, monitoring and evaluation (M&E). So what metrics do you have for assessing success in impact, how will you measure these, and when/what intervals will you report on it. There maybe should then be some milestones where the vesting of the grant could be first paused to allow for project adjustment or catch up, and potentially frozen/suspended…

A few questions I have is how many grants of each tier do you think we would like to see/allocate in an average yearly period? How many grants of the highest tier(s) could the DAO financially manage without causing us financial risk? Should grants of higher tiers be requested to make donations back to the DAO in the future if they become profitable?

4 Likes
4

Love this proposal, but my grammar nazi mind needs we change “tire” for “tier”. Any way someone on the team can do that? :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
5

Once these have been submitted to the DAO and they’re being voted on, the text can’t be changed (to prevent someone from changing the terms/conditions of their proposal mid-vote). :upside_down_face: