I’m excited to share an in-depth reflections and learnings post on GG20. Thank you to my co-author, @umarkhaneth, and for the key inputs from @sejalrekhan and @Sov. As we continue to move forward and iterate on the grants program, it’s important to take stock on learnings and community feedback to inform the decision we make ahead of the remainder of this year and as we look into 2025.
Below I am sharing a summary of the post, with the link to the detailed Mirror post for those who want to take some time for a deep dive.
TL;DR:
- Duration of GG20: April 23 - May 7, 2024
- Key Learnings: Governance, Grantee Experience, Donor Experience, Operations
- Future Plans: Continuous improvement and innovation
Summary: Gitcoin Grants, a community-driven funding initiative, has facilitated over 3,500 projects with $60M distributed since 2019. GG20, running from April 23 to May 7, 2024, saw a $1.6M matching pool, the election of a Community Council, a protocol upgrade, and an improved sybil resistance strategy.
Key Learnings:
- Governance: The new Community Round governance process required proposals reviewed and voted on by a newly elected Community Council. The top five rounds received an extra $25K each in matching funds. Moving forward, Gitcoin plans to include more rounds in the marketing efforts, above and beyond of the top 5 chosen for extra matching funds.
- Grantee Experience: Improvements in communication and platform navigation led to an 81% satisfaction rate among grantees (which met our key success metric). Positive feedback highlighted the need for better marketing resources, a more user-friendly grantee portal, and clearer guidance on creating strong grant proposals. Future plans include enhancing resources, such as Canva kits, and providing streamlined application processes for returning grantees.
- Donor Experience: Despite a decrease in the number of donors, each donor contributed more, leading to a $27K increase in crowdfunding. Focus on retaining first-time donors and simplifying the donation process is essential. Strategies include potentially collecting donor emails for updates and making the donation process more user-friendly, especially for new donors. Running all rounds on Arbitrum and partnering with ThankARB enhanced the donor experience.
- Operations: The introduction of decentralized review processes with “Team Tiger” and the use of the AI-based tool “Checker” improved transparency and efficiency. Clearer instructions and better support for grantees were identified as areas for further improvement. Future plans include refining the review process, enhancing support during the application phase, and expediting payout timelines by improving the QF/COCM calculator app and pre-approving matching results.
Moving Forward:
- Marketing: Expand marketing efforts to include more community rounds, providing broader exposure and support to teams beyond the top five. This approach aims to ensure a more inclusive and impactful experience for all participants.
- Grantee Support: Enhance resources to guide grantees in successfully marketing their grants. Improve the grantee portal to be more user-friendly and easier to navigate. Provide clearer resources on creating strong grant proposals and consider rolling applications for returning grantees to streamline the process. Finding ways to build a stronger builder community centered around mentorship, growth and education.
- Donor Retention: Implement strategies to retain donors by collecting their emails for updates and exploring ways to allow grantees to email their donors. Make the donation process more user-friendly and continue promoting the popular collections feature to make the experience more social and engaging.
- Operations: Continue refining the review process and expediting payout timelines. Improve support for grantees during the application phase and enhance project impact reporting. Maintain a fair and transparent process by not making team member wallet addresses public and focusing on the core mission of supporting open-source software and digital public goods.
Gitcoin is committed to evolving its grants program to be more resilient, inclusive, and impactful. The insights from GG20 will guide future strategies, ensuring continuous improvement and innovation as we move forward to GG21 and GG22. As we move into a multi-mechanism future, further experimentation and expansion will be enabled as we continue to evolve.
