{"signature": "0x41c7b4ab8a0202fa0503fa08877159d8fab1e8c5a31c0e0656d7d59614558e542d6258e096ed3672787423fa1b2bea3fa46d288ecff208ea97f79154b357a46e1c", "application": {"round": "0x1b0caf40f491dce9c51e7e33d6e86112bb0bb91b", "answers": [{"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["Research on grant program design and effectiveness", "Development of Web3 Grants tooling", "Experiments with innovative funding mechanisms"], "hidden": false, "question": "How does your project contribute to the advancement of the Web3 grants ecosystem?", "questionId": 0}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "### Funding and Impact\n\n- **Artizen Fund**: \n  - We conducted two rounds of funding through the Artizen Fund, distributing a total of $60,000. These funds supported pioneers in public goods and creators focused on sharing stories of displaced people, fostering social impact and community engagement.\n  - One round was part of the Commons Fund initiative, emphasizing funding based on community impact rather than purely technical output. This approach has activated many of our collaborators and ecosystem newcomers to seek funding for their work.\n\n- **Gitcoin Re-Granting Round**:\n  - We have completed 85% of a re-granting round of $100,000 of funds entrusted to us by Gitcoin. The aim is to identify and financially support builders integrating Gitcoin’s grants stack, Allo Protocol, Passport, or other components. \n  - Grantees include Tomislav Mamic ([Muqa](https://muqa.org/)), who was recognized as an Ethereum Next Billion Fellow for the project he started in our residency, and James Farrell ([Hyperstaker](https://www.hyperstaker.com/)).\n\n- **Builders Basic Income Fund**:\n  - We launched the [Builders Basic Income Fund in partnership with Drips](https://www.drips.network/app/drip-lists/36167722434539895740687283110259945938004377627588501179309095983175), supporting three public goods builders with a continuous basic income.\n\n- **Innovative Funding Mechanisms**:\n  - Our residencies have facilitated the development of innovative funding mechanisms. One notable project is **MUQA**, a municipal quadratic funding (QF) initiative, highlighting our commitment to exploring and implementing novel approaches to resource distribution.\n  - Other projects worked on during our previous residency include **Hypercerts**, **Octant**, **GainForest**, **impactMarket**, and several emerging projects. The full list of projects can be viewed [here](https://www.notion.so/e12a308f195f4d049d4372603d85d278?pvs=21).\n\n- **Real World Web3 Public Goods Funding Pilot Grant**:\n  - We completed our first Real World Web3 Public Goods Funding Pilot Grant to [Refunite](https://refunite.org/), an organization supporting one million refugees worldwide.\n  - The grant was distributed on the Bitcoin blockchain in partnership with public goods funding infrastructure project [Fedi.xyz](https://www.fedi.xyz/), a tool for real-world community management of funds.\n\n---\n\n### Future Plans\n\n- **Funding the Commons RetroPGF**:\n  - We plan to run our own Funding the Commons retroPGF this year. We’ve secured $40,000 in funding through the generosity of Protocol Labs and Gitcoin and plan to supplement this with a portion of the funds received from the Optimism retroPGF round 3.\n\n- **Transition to On-Chain Governance**:\n  - We are transitioning a portion of the Funding the Commons treasury to a distributed on-chain governance structure consisting of two membership types: proposers and voting members.\n    - **Proposers**: Community members who have produced a Funding the Commons conference, residency, or hackathon in their region in coordination with our team.\n    - **Voting Members**: Anyone who has previously attended a Funding the Commons event in the real world, as designated by event POAPs claimed. Enabling programmable attestation, these POAPs will provide the basis for participatory community decision-making around the allocation of organizational funds.\n\n- **Real-World Pilot in Thailand**:\n  - We are planning the launch of a real-world pilot in Thailand during Q4 of this year in partnership with real-world public goods funding infrastructure provider [CoalaPay](https://coalapay.org/) and various grassroots NGOs supporting displaced Burmese refugees.\n  - CoalaPay is a public aid funding marketplace that makes it easier than ever to find and fund truly grassroots aid initiatives, enabling web3 communities and institutional philanthropists and foundations alike to achieve sustainable social impact.\n  - The pilot will test crypto-to-fiat ramps connecting the international aid sector to marginalized populations, incorporate grassroots NGOs into the design and implementation of the pilot itself, and measure the impact of the funding.\n\n- **Hyperboards and Transparency**:\n  - We are actively experimenting with mechanisms like Hyperboards, in partnership with our collaborators at Hypercerts, to enhance transparency and efficiency in funding decisions.\n\n- **Commons Fund Partnership**:\n  - We are currently launching the Commons Fund in partnership with the [Open Impact Foundation](https://openimpact.foundation/).\n  - Our initiative aims to enhance public goods infrastructure through the open development of key tooling and infrastructure. By leveraging blockchain technology and open-source solutions, the Commons Fund is set to support the growth of a sustainable framework for public goods.\n  - Our mission is to catalyze the development and implementation of public funding infrastructure by funding both the builders of the infrastructure and the funding experiments that will enable the infrastructure to be tested in myriad environments.\n", "hidden": true, "question": "Describe your previous work or plans related to the Web3 grants ecosystem.", "questionId": 1}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Since its founding in 2021, Funding the Commons (FtC) has become a central hub for the public goods funding ecosystem, fostering conversations and resource sharing across the Web3 grants landscape. We achieve this through various initiatives, including conferences, workshops, hackathons, residencies, and virtual Public Goods Town Halls. By running funding rounds and experimenting with innovative approaches, we aim to empower the community to make impactful decisions and accelerate real-world use cases.\n\n- **Innovative Granting Models:** We are “dog-fooding” a unique granting model for Funding the Commons itself that enables community participation in grant-making and distribution through distributed governance and allocation of a portion of the FtC treasury.\n\n- **Collaborative Events:** Our residencies, hackathons, and design jams bring together builders to develop Web3 grant-making and public goods funding tools, facilitating collaboration and innovation within the community.\n\n- **Cross-Fertilization of Ideas:** Our conferences provide a platform for thought leaders to share insights on innovations in grant-making across Web3, Web2, and the public sector. This cross-fertilization helps Web3 learn from more mature grant-making communities.\n\n- **Funding and Support:** Web3 foundations are able to give grants and prizes to builders of public goods funding infrastructure during our hackathons and residencies, having secured over $100k in funding specifically for public goods builders in these events.\n\n- **Media and Outreach:** We produce and distribute professional media content that highlights thought leaders in the Web3 grants ecosystem. For example, we featured the Director of Fundraising for the Tor Project, a successful recipient of Web3 grant funding. This video has reached over 10,000 people and is expected to reach hundreds of thousands over its lifecycle. More videos are in the pipeline, enabling thought leaders to reach a wider and more mainstream audience.\n\nOur last event in Tokyo attracted government officials, traditional media, and organizations like UNICEF's Office of Innovation, demonstrating our ability to bridge diverse sectors and funnel change-makers into our conversations. Now in its third year, Funding the Commons has reached a maturity level that uniquely positions us to continue driving value in the Web3 grants ecosystem.\n", "hidden": true, "question": "How does your project create value for the Web3 grants ecosystem?", "questionId": 2}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Our team combines extensive experience in community engagement and innovative funding models to drive progress in the Web3 grants ecosystem. We have collaborated with a variety of stakeholders to build and implement unique funding mechanisms, demonstrating our commitment to advancing this space.\n\n- **David Casey:** David has been deeply involved in the Web3 public goods space since 2020, being a recipient of various Web3 grants and managing the Funding the Commons granting initiatives for the past 18 months. As a Celo Scout, he has supported numerous builders in the Celo community in securing grant and ecosystem venture funding. David’s experience with traditional grants dates back to 2013 when he launched his first non-profit organization, funded through a series of grants and donation-based crowdfunding campaigns. He is a frequent speaker on Web3 public goods funding and social impact, having addressed prime ministers, central bank administrators, CEOs of public companies, UN members, and other public sector officials.\n\n- **Nancy Bui, Operations Project Manager, The Commons Fund:** Nancy Bui brings over a decade of program management and consulting experience, focusing on health, social impact, and environmental sustainability. She excels in developing and scaling programs that address challenges in underserved communities. Previously, as Deputy Director of Program Management at Vital Strategies, Nancy led operations across 17 countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, enhancing data quality and connecting program activities with impactful outcomes. Her skills include strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and impact evaluation. Nancy has managed large-scale projects, secured funding, and influenced global health practices through her research and evaluation efforts.\n\n- **Beth McCarthy:** Beth has been active in the DAO, coordination, and public goods sectors of Web3 since 2018. She began her journey in Web3 grants by participating in DAOstack as a grants recipient and active community member in 2019. Her work with Ocean Protocol, Gnosis/Safe, Toucan, Centrifuge, and the Sovereign Nature Initiative has involved applying for, designing, and evaluating grants programs tailored to the unique needs of each organization, from developer grants to those serving the broader ecosystem.\n\n    As Program Director for experience design and program curation at Funding the Commons, Beth has cultivated thought leadership across topics like impact evaluation, attestation, critical discourse, and human-centered design of grants programs in the Web3 public goods space. She collaborates with entities like Metagov, speaking at events such as the Grants Funding Forum during ETH CC 2024, co-curating content at DWeb Camp, and co-facilitating the Metagov-led Grants and Impact hub at Devcon 2024.\n\n- **[Kim Buisson](http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimbuisson), CMO, Funding the Commons:** Kim is a former Global Marketing Director at a Fortune 500 company and co-founder of a creative agency and residency program focused on storytelling through the works of artists, filmmakers, activists, and technologists. Over the past 13 years, she has navigated various industries, focusing on building strategic partnerships, original media plans, and elevated brand narratives, while cultivating a unique blend of corporate and creative leadership.\n\n    As CMO of Funding the Commons, Kim promotes initiatives that bridge the gap between traditional philanthropy and the emerging dynamics of Web2 and Web3. Her work focuses on convening diverse minds—from industry pioneers to academic researchers—to catalyze innovation in public goods funding and value alignment.\n", "hidden": true, "question": "Describe your team's expertise in your chosen focus area within Web3 grants. Include relevant experience, publications, or past projects.", "questionId": 3}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "- **Public Goods Funding Events:** We plan to continue sharing insights, methodologies, and tools through our public goods funding event series, particularly the Funding the Commons conferences and pop-ups, which we host more than five times per year.\n\n- **Collaboration with Metagov:** We will deepen our collaboration with Metagov to demonstrate our shared objectives around critical discourse, standards-setting, research, and meta-analysis in the grants design space. This includes:\n  - Hosting a workshop at DWeb Camp titled “Leveraging Public Goods Funding Mechanisms for Supporting Open Source Infrastructure.”\n  - Participating in the monthly Grants Manager call and other community engagement activities.\n  - Inviting Metagov to curate a cohort at the Bangkok Design Jam in November, focusing on topics like impact evaluation standards and integrating long-term grants programs into hackathons.\n\n- **Media and Outreach:** We plan to share synthesized learnings by producing short videos featuring thought leaders and distributing them through partner channels, including Protocol Labs, Filecoin Foundation, and other blockchain foundations. Our unique position allows us to support the Public Goods ecosystem by showcasing cross-disciplinary talent to a highly engaged audience. For instance, we will release a film featuring a leader from UNICEF's Office of Innovation discussing the importance of our Funding the Commons pilot experiments and residency programs. This approach highlights real-world use cases, attracting attention from policymakers and major funders to drive mass adoption.\n  \n  - **Examples of interviews conducted in 2024:**\n    - Al Smith, The Tor Project - *launched in July* (15.8K views + 1 more video drop in August)\n      - [The importance of spaces to discuss public goods with stakeholders (feat. Gitcoin, Octant, Drips)](https://x.com/FundingCommons/status/1813660112655155266) *(9.5K views)*\n      - [Funding DPGs means paving the way for a freer, safer internet](https://x.com/FundingCommons/status/1808157535607681102) (6.3K views)\n      - [Digital Privacy as a Human Right](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj835oyCABc) - *full video*\n    - Navroop Sadev, The Digital Economist\n    - Samantha Power, BioFi Project & Finance for Gaia\n    - Stuart Cowan, Buckminster Fuller Institute\n    - Brian Behlendorf, Linux Foundation\n    - Natalie Cadranel, Open Archive\n    - Audrey Tang, Plurality.net\n    - Glen Weyl, Plurality Institution & RxC & Microsoft\n    - Aya Miyaguchi, Ethereum Foundation\n    - Chris Szymczak, UNICEF Office of Innovation\n    - Scott Moore, Public Works\n    - Ken Suzuki, University of Tokyo, SmartNews Inc.\n    - Atossa Soltani, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance\n    - Behind the Scenes Video - FtC x DeSci Tokyo\n\n- **Distributed Governance and Treasury Management:** Our distributed governance and treasury management experiment will be public, with all attendees encouraged to participate actively. We will present updates at each Funding the Commons conference.\n\n- **Impact Reports:** We will publish impact reports on our grant-making activities, real-world pilot projects, Builder Basic Income Fund, the Commons Fund, and our distributed treasury governance experiment for a portion of our own organizational budget.\n", "hidden": true, "question": "How do you plan to share insights, methodologies, or tools developed through your project with the Cartographer Syndicate and the broader Web3 grants community?", "questionId": 4}, {"type": "paragraph", "hidden": true, "question": "List any contract addresses with the associated network(s), EOAs, or deployer addresses your project has deployed.", "questionId": 5}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "- **Gitcoin Re-Granting Funds:** We were entrusted with $100k of Gitcoin funds to re-grant, as mentioned before. We did not use any of this funding ourselves, as the intention was solely to re-grant it.\n\n- **Optimism retroPGF Funding:** We were recipients of Optimism retroPGF round 3 (92,000 OP) for our organization’s combined activities, which include conferences, hackathons, and residencies focused on incubating the Web3 public goods funding ecosystem.\n\n- **Octant Funding:** We received two rounds of Octant funding (12 ETH and 9 ETH) for similar reasons to why we received funds from the Optimism retroPGF.\n", "hidden": true, "question": "Have you received any previous grants or support for your work in Web3 grants? If so, please provide details and estimated funding amounts.", "questionId": 6}, {"type": "dropdown", "answer": "Yes", "hidden": true, "question": "Please confirm that you have read and agree to comply with the ethical standards outlined in the eligibility criteria, including Gitcoin's Quid Pro Quo policy (https://support.gitcoin.co/gitcoin-knowledge-base/gitcoin-grants/general-questions/what-is-our-quid-pro-quo-policy)", "questionId": 7}, {"type": "paragraph", "hidden": true, "question": "Do you have any potential conflicts of interest to disclose? If yes, please provide details.", "questionId": 8}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "We at Funding the Commons occupy a unique position within the web3/digital public goods space, having deep context while also being platform and chain agnostic. We believe this positioning enables us to provide a unique and essential perspective to the Cartographer Syndicate – as fellow cartographers, we can navigate and co-create both the map and territory of future public goods funding!\n\n- We look forward to bringing the Cartographer Syndicate into such collaborations as described above with Open Source Observer and Metagov, from both ecosystem development and rigorous research standpoints.\n\nWe would like to invite the Cartographer Syndicate to join upcoming programming at the Design Jam and Funding the Commons conference in Bangkok, and as a strategic collaborator for events into 2025.\n\n- Our program curation intentionally centers experimentation, strategic connection-building, platform-neutral impact evaluation and both on-chain and off-chain methodologies of funding mechanisms and related community-building.\n\nWe strive to involve aligned collaborators in program curation and experience design whenever possible, for example bringing in Open Source Observer as a curatorial partner leading Open Web Day at Funding the Commons San Francisco 2024.\n", "hidden": true, "question": "Is there anything else you'd like to share about your project or team that wasn't covered in the previous questions?", "questionId": 9}], "project": {"id": "0x158ab8951774976a766c75367cc2995b796300ebb2212b4b8cf8ef9f2ffbd9a2", "title": "Funding the Commons", "logoImg": "bafkreicnmrxqztrcnhkbfz2z7kaefbj3nkufgon2nucoi3rh345c7tjgie", "metaPtr": {"pointer": "bafkreidqkgp77rbkxem54p6obkr44d3dxb5hjtbue4rwsboi6w6dudh3iu", "protocol": "undefined"}, "website": "https://fundingthecommons.io/", "bannerImg": "bafkreifvwiwdyoysluosbclqzs7mnqnhgjgoytl6hyylys5skaxrrhzpfi", "createdAt": 1699376462734, "userGithub": "davidacasey", "credentials": {"github": {"type": ["VerifiableCredential"], "proof": {"jws": "eyJhbGciOiJFZERTQSIsImNyaXQiOlsiYjY0Il0sImI2NCI6ZmFsc2V9..zK9h17UnIDoROGSLzBSBBZTnyyn48Fr5MrKQSY555kB1_Ox_eYsWIG51qJeGxPuKSZ-fU4_P--1Kp-G_jra6Ag", "type": "Ed25519Signature2018", "created": "2023-11-07T16:58:44.472Z", "proofPurpose": "assertionMethod", "verificationMethod": "did:key:z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC#z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC"}, "issuer": "did:key:z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC", "@context": ["https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1"], "issuanceDate": "2023-11-07T16:58:44.472Z", "expirationDate": "2024-02-05T16:58:44.472Z", "credentialSubject": {"id": "did:pkh:eip155:1:0x576edCed7475D8F64a5e2D5227c93Ca57d7f5d20", "hash": "v0.0.0:FNQFRLDgB8do9280TgD0X92Dx7MqM4wlh12Sae049pA=", "@context": [{"hash": "https://schema.org/Text", "provider": "https://schema.org/Text"}], "provider": "ClearTextGithubOrg#fundingthecommons#10065319"}}, "twitter": {"type": ["VerifiableCredential"], "proof": {"jws": "eyJhbGciOiJFZERTQSIsImNyaXQiOlsiYjY0Il0sImI2NCI6ZmFsc2V9..TZZM6pW6sLzDdgdEBk4Oodw1WbfFJ858wn5H2pT9LVKVOB8AEZmPwJhKlRPRjgYx85ZK_kOl85BOnMbfGLHVDg", "type": "Ed25519Signature2018", "created": "2023-11-07T16:58:19.656Z", "proofPurpose": "assertionMethod", "verificationMethod": "did:key:z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC#z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC"}, "issuer": "did:key:z6MkghvGHLobLEdj1bgRLhS4LPGJAvbMA1tn2zcRyqmYU5LC", "@context": ["https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1"], "issuanceDate": "2023-11-07T16:58:19.656Z", "expirationDate": "2024-02-05T16:58:19.656Z", "credentialSubject": {"id": "did:pkh:eip155:1:0x576edCed7475D8F64a5e2D5227c93Ca57d7f5d20", "hash": "v0.0.0:X7k3yGIb71xKLLToM1zyN1j24J+e2MH0m9PnQE5+npo=", "@context": [{"hash": "https://schema.org/Text", "provider": "https://schema.org/Text"}], "provider": "ClearTextTwitter#FundingCommons"}}}, "description": "Funding the Commons (FtC) originated as an event series aiming to cultivate a public goods community spanning across the spectrum, including Web2, Web3, research, philanthropy, government, and industry. \n\nIts primary focus is the fostering of innovative public goods funding mechanisms. 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