First rule of DAO grants is influence, so start social vetting now, but be discerning, because the process takes time. You’re doing your due diligence just as much as the organizations distributing grants. Let’s break down the steps.
- Hunt
Deciding which grants to apply for is a two step process. Gotta find the grants first, then figure out which grants are worth spending time applying for.
Search
- Newsletters
- Forums
- Socials
- Friends and colleagues
Discern
- Treasury size
- Growing
- Static
- Dying
- Round parameters
- Amount
- Token
- Distribution timeline
- Lock up
- Milestones
- Impact metrics
- Tech stack commitment
- Decision makers
- DAO votes
- Committee
- Agency
- Community
- Anyone
- Apply
While you can make yourself a proposal template, each grant round will require a unique proposal. The template will have the basic information about your project that you expect organizations will want to see, but since each grant round has its own unique parameters and decision makers, they will notice if you copy pasted from another grant round and might be turned off.
Submitting to rounds varies depending on round parameters and platform the organization uses. Discourse used to be the most popular, but Charmverse is being used more and more. The experience on any platform can get tricky, with gating and forms. I recommend keeping open communication with round operators, if possible, so mistakes are avoided.
Write
- Read previous proposals
- Harvest a template
- Draft
- Who’s your audience?
- What do they want to see?
- What do they want to avoid?
- Do you have any impact metrics?
- Do you have any attestations, like content, EAS, referrals, testimonials, case studies, recorded speaking engagements, etc?
- Feedback
- Project team
- Round operator
- Delegates
- Office hours
- Community calls
- Edit and revise
- Start early
- Go back for another round of feedback
Submit
- Platform
- Timeline
- Communication with round operator
- Campaign
Since each round is unique, each campaign is unique. Sometimes a few delegates have all the decision making power, sometimes an agency is distributing funding, and sometimes it’s a popularity contest.
Strategy
- Who are the decision makers?
- What do you want to tell them?
- How do you get your message in front of them?
- What are the rules for campaigning?
- Don’t get disqualified!
For next time
Depending on the organization and round, some grant operators are well compensated and others are volunteers. Tell them thank you.
Round parameters change from season to season, and it’s hard to compete with projects that have a marketing budget and friends on the inside.
Do your social vetting, collect impact metrics and attestations, and apply again.
This was originally shared during Local DAO Summer 2024.
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