Ecosystem Collective S21/22 Budget Proposal

🧙 🧙‍♀️ Ideas and Open Discussion
1

This proposal is seeking a total of $1,801,672 of funding for the Ecosystem Collective’s 360 Team & the work they will complete for the latter half of S21 and for the total of S22 (March 1 - July 31, 2024).

TL;DR

With the recent reorganization of Gitcoin into several business units and a community-focused subDAO, Gitcoin introduced a new unit: the Ecosystem Collective. This unit is dedicated to stewarding Gitcoin’s brand, community and governance in support of the overall growth and health of the Gitcoin ecosystem.

This budget request for S21/22 is $1,283,935 including reserves and roll-over amounts. Total anticipated spend in S21/22 is $1,356,379. Details of this budget request are listed below.

Focus Areas, Objectives & Results:

In 2024, EC will focus on 3 key areas in 2024:

  • Focus Area 1 - People: Deepen engagement and grow participation in Gitcoin’s community(ies)
  • Focus Area 2 - Innovation: Experiment with Gitcoin products and build prototypes to advance our mission
  • Focus Area 3 - Impact: Forward Gitcoin as a powerful impact-driven brand

EC will use the OKR framework to ensure that all of the work is aligned with each pillar and DAO’s strategic goals.

Focus Area S21-22 Objectives Key Results
F1 - People: Deepen engagement and grow participation in Gitcoin’s ecosystem Objective 1: Empower Citizens and Stewards to add maximal value to our ecosystem KR1: 50% of Citizen proposals have clear strategic alignment to one or more Focus Areas

KR2: 50% of token token delegates are "highly-informed"

Objective 2: Attract and retain highly skilled Citizen contributors KR1: 75% of Citizen-led initiatives have met timelines and KPI targets

KR2: # of high-impact grantees in the Citizen Grants Program
F2 - Innovation: Experiment with Gitcoin products and build prototypes to advance our mission Objective 1: Capture strategic value for Gitcoin by bringing the most important mechanisms, tools and campaigns into the Gitcoin ecosystem KR1: Catalyze 50% of early-stage ideas and shape them from concept (0) to prototype (1)

K2: Set baselines and solidify processes to demonstrate growth of the ecosystem created by successful prototypes.

Objective 2: Demonstrate the use cases of our products through dogfooding initiatives KR1: 7 active dogfooding initiatives / experiments

KR2: 50% of dogfooding experiments are sticky

F3 - Impact: Forward Gitcoin as a powerful impact-driven brand Objective 1: Position Gitcoin as the source of truth for web3 grants KR1: Run 2 thought leadership campaigns that that convey value of grants in building, funding and scaling communities

KR2: 500k overall impressions of grants centric-content (ex: EGS handbook, whitepapers, podcasts, event attendance, etc.)

Objective 2: Fuel open source technology through impactful grant making and educating on grants best practices KR1: Launch 4 educational campaigns

KR2: 80% satisfaction rate or higher on feedback for OSS grantee onboarding experience

KR3: Codify a Gitcoin Grants impact reporting plan*

KR4: Fundraise $250K

* This isn’t an actual Key Result; the EC will first develop a strategy and plan by end of S21 and then set new KR(s) for S22 based on the plan.

Specific functions of the Unit:

  • Strategy & Ops (OKR setting, project management, etc.)
  • Governance (Gitcoin Grants, DAO governance, etc.)
  • Community Engagement (communities of practice, Citizen Grants, Gitcoin Grants, etc)
  • Events
  • Design
  • Brand & Comms (media relations, partnerships, impact reporting, etc.)
  • Research
  • Rapid Prototyping

We will also map seasonal budget reporting to these functions in order to create clarity on how much we are spending on each function. Please comment if you would like to see any other functions reported on.

Budget Request

Team structure

The EC will employ a team of always-on contributors called the “360 Team”. They will ensure the integrity and execution of key always-on initiatives.

Having an established team will enable more seamless context sharing to Gitcoin Citizens and create strategic alignment for bottom-up initiatives.

The initiatives that will be directly steered by the 360 Team are those that touch strategic decision-making, brand/comms management and other high-context or always-on functions.

Name Status Role/Title
Caolan Full-time Events & Gitcoin Media/Comms
Carey Full-time Team Assistant
Carl Full-time Developer/Engineer
Cici Full-time Design & Art Direction
CoachJ Full-time EC Operations & DAO Governance
Kevin Full-time Rapid Prototyping Lead
Harry Full-time Community Experience Design
Laura Full-time Strategy & Community
Mathilda Full-time Gitcoin Grants Comms & GG Governance
Rohit Full-time Citizen Grants Program & Content support
TBC Full-time Engineer
TBC TBC Rapid Prototyping Operations Manager

In addition to these full-time contributors, funds will be allocated to Citizen contributors/ part time contractors with functional skill sets or areas of expertise as needed. Any unused funds will be returned to the Gitcoin treasury at the end of each budget cycle.

Funding Breakdown

2024.03 2024.04 2024.05 2024.06 2024.07 S21/22 Totals
Total budgeted spend $301,325 $260,013 $260,013 $260,013 $275,013 $1,356,379
33% Reserves $97,127 $85,804 $85,804 $85,804 $90,754 $445,293
Past Season Treasury Balance (leftover from MMM’s mulitsig) $517,737 - - - - $517,737
Total Request $1,283,935

*** Note: MMM is currently wrapping up payments for last month and final spin down costs. This number will be updated in the next week once that process is completed and this number is finalized.

Budget Breakdown

Below is a breakdown of staffing, contracting, operational expenses, and planned RFPs.

Expenses from Mar 1 - July 31, 2024
Headcount $738,452
Other Consultants $250,000
Software & Subscriptions $43,572
Travel, Lodging & Meals $15,000
RFPs (Rapid prototyping, research papers, impact reporting) $250,000
Miscellaneous (Gas subs, Education, employment fees) $52,355
GG20 Grants Council Payments $7,000
Total $1,356,379

Voting Details

Once ready for a vote, this proposal will use the following options:

1 - Yes, fund the EC

2 - No, fund the EC

3 - Abstain

Should this vote be passed by GTC token delegates, funds will be deposited into MMM’s multisig, which will be repurposed as the Ecosystem Collective multisig.

Multisig address: 0xC23DA3Ca9300571B9CF43298228353cbb3E1b4c0

Current signers:

13 Likes
2

I am excited to see this reset + the subsequent evolution of the DAO after it.

Some comments:

  • I think that this proposal is likely just the start of something fairly simple and that we will want to grow more complexity over time.
  • I am particularly excited about pod-based working structures (as opposed to workstreams - which I believe became too bloated, political, and hierarchical over time), and the ability to the ECS to collaborate with Citizens.
  • If we can cultivate the Citizens engagement and stimulate an upward spiral of more trust + collaborative working relationships, I think that will be important. Right now I think Gitcoin is 9/10 as a social DAO and 4/10 as a software development shop (or network of software development shops), and I think that engaging technical people in the Citizens is key to turning that around.

That said - I will be abstaining from voting on this proposal due to conflicts of interest (I am a contributor in the ECC).

10 Likes
3

I will also be abstaining from this vote due to the conflict of interest and my co-authorship on these plans. I am really excited to be able to get to work on and help steward the work associated with this proposal!!

3 Likes
4

In the budget above, I didn’t account for the payments required for the recently nominated Community Council.

I have gone ahead and amended the post to include an additional $7,000 on the total request and have included it as a specific line item at the bottom of the post. I didn’t not change the 33% reserve amounts in order to keep things simple.

2 Likes
5

Thanks for this @CoachJonathan. I support this proposal and have already seen great work being done by EC via @MathildaDV in the approach to Community Governance with GG20 via the Community Council.

I look forward to continuing to work with this team in the days ahead.

2 Likes
6

I am supportive of this direction and plan to vote YES for this proposal. I am particularly keen to see value added to the Gitcoin Citizens and Impact Reporting initiatives, as well as a high NPS for the OSS grantees.

5 Likes
7

Excited for this new direction and grateful for the work of the ecosystem collective team! I will vote in support of this proposal.

One note on budget that I mentioned to @Viriya : I’m a little skittish about having ~40% of the budget in two catch-all buckets, “consultants” and “rfps.” I trust this group to manage expenses well and understand that this is the first pass and will likely grow more detailed in future rounds. Just pointing out that we likely shouldn’t make a habit of this!

2 Likes
8

Thanks @meglister, appreciate you sharing your concerns. You can count on us to thoroughly report on spend and have a much more scoped roadmap in future requests. The window of time we had to generate this request while spinning up a net new unit of the DAO with a fully fleshed strategy was very ambitious :melting_face:

Not my favourite way to approach the work but we had to get something out to ensure we could meet the march deadline for contributor payouts this month. Really excited to continue to build momentum both with EC strategy and ops :sparkling_heart:

4 Likes
9

I’ll be voting yes to this proposal - curious to see what’s next!

2 Likes
10

An update for everyone on this:

  • Total leftover funds in the MMM multisig is $517,737
  • This amount will be carried over into the EC multisig, and is therefore being deducted from the total request amount
  • This amount includes leftover funds from the EthDenver activation that were not spent - instead of returning this to the Gitcoin Treasury, these have been deducted from the total request
  • Total request amount is now $1,283,935, down from around $1.8M
11

The proposal is now live to be voted on in Snapshot: Snapshot

3 Likes
12

This is a well-structured, informative proposal, and I’m supportive of the holonic approach optimizing for long-term impact in the Ecosystem Collective (EC), particularly highlighting:

  • Clear Focus Areas and Objectives: The breakdown into “People,” “Innovation,” and “Impact” provides a clear direction for the EC’s work and aligns with Gitcoin’s Essential Intents.
  • Measurable Key Results (KRs): The use of the OKR framework with specific KRs for each objective demonstrates a data-driven approach to measuring success.
  • Transparency in Budget Allocation: Mapping the budget to specific functions like “Community Engagement” and “Brand & Comms” allows for clear understanding of resource allocation.
6 Likes