Gitcoin Grants 21 Community Round Eligibility Criteria
The first iteration of the updated Gitcoin Grants Community Round process was rolled out in GG20. ICYMI, read the retrospective.
The below eligibility criteria has been set by the elected GG Community Council in partnership with Gitcoin. Applications for GG21 Community Rounds are open June 19-July 14th. The Community Council will vote on the proposals, select the top 10, and allocate matching funds to the top 5 rounds. The proposal template and fleshed out timeline will be posted a day after this post is live. If you would like to apply to GG21, please use that post as your foundation for applying.
- GG21: August 7 - 21
- Ecosystem ‘Spotlight’ Rounds
- Ecosystem Rounds will now have the opportunity to share the stage alongside the community rounds.
- 10 Community Rounds
- $125k allocated towards matching for top 5 Community Rounds
- Ecosystem ‘Spotlight’ Rounds
UPDATE: The top 10 rounds will be accepted into the round (included in marketing efforts), and the top 5 of those will receive extra matching funds from Gitcoin.
NOTE: If you would like to experiment with another funding mechanism during GG21 outside of Quadratic Funding or with QF itself, you may include this in your proposal for the Gitcoin team to first review in the proposal phase. This could include: Direct Grants, Conviction Voting, MACI QF, Tunable QF. For Grants Stack resources and more information, please visit the Grants Stack Resource Hub. All proposed mechanisms must run on top of Allo Protocol. Note that the GG21 Ecosystem Rounds will be Quadratic Funding.
Eligibility Criteria for Community Rounds
TLDR: How to get a Community Round Approved
- Identify the Round Operator and at least two other partner team members who will be reviewers and/or be involved in managing the round.
- Every round must raise their own matching pool (no minimum)
- The round should align with Gitcoin’s Mission and Essential Intents
- All rounds must comply with Gitcoin’s core rules, which include no fraudulent activity, no quid pro quo, hate speech, or other activities out of alignment with Gitcoin’s essential intents.
- Rounds run on Arbitrum or OP for a seamless donor experience, and is our preferred method for our OSS Program. Arbitrum will be strongly encouraged. If you’d like to run on another chain, please specify the reasoning behind it and our team will review.
- Show proof of funds in a multisig (similar to how anyone can view the funds in Gitcoin’s multisig)
- We highly recommend that proof of matching funds and any further plans for funds raised by communities be provided by the time applications are in review. This will help council members review applications more easily.
Before the Round
The time leading up to the round requires an intentional blitz and dedicated owners who can drive the responsibilities below forward.
For smaller first-time rounds, all these may fall on the Round Operator if the Round Operator is operating in a near full-time capacity. On top of using Gitcoin’s AI Checker tool for application reviews, we recommend building out a small team to assist the Round Operator as well as a small group of stakeholders from the community to be an Advisory Team of committed people to help generate ideas, gather feedback and provide support throughout the round.
Round Eligibility Document
A Round Owner should create an eligibility criteria doc for what projects qualify for acceptance.
While this can evolve if needed, the first version should be created before going out and fundraising and recruiting grantees so that it is clear to parties what is eligible & what isn’t for the round.
The first-order mission-critical areas include:
- Allocating or otherwise raising funds for the matching pool
- Grantee recruitment & onboarding - (Runbooks will be made available with guidance for this process on the new Gitcoin Grants Stack tools)
Other Considerations
- When selecting a round owner, it is recommended (if possible) to have someone on the team that has previously run a Gitcoin round or participated in one in the past, or has experience in grants management/operations.
During the Round
Responsibilities include:
- Marketing the Round
- Undergoing KYC if receiving matching funds from Gitcoin.
- Supporting Grantees and Donors in partnership with the Gitcoin Core Team.
After the Round
Responsibilities include:
- Overseeing the payouts and KYC process (if required for your round) to ensure smooth facilitation and address questions or issues.
- Conducting a retrospective of the round to assess what worked and what can be improved and sharing feedback as appropriate with Gitcoin.
- Matching funds must be released within 4 weeks of the round ending, barring any unforeseen delays. If not, will not be eligible for further matching or participation in GG rounds.
- All payouts to be conducted via Grants Stack, and not manually. This is non-negotiable.
- If using alternative mechanisms, those must run on top of Allo.
- Ongoing support and communications with Grantees are often required as the round concludes.
REMINDER: This is the minimum for a viable round. The runbook provided to Round Operators includes much more information about how to run the best possible round.
Community Round Partner Offerings - GG21
Gitcoin’s Agreements:
- Gitcoin Marketing Support: Includes the following:
- Round highlighted on our grants website
- Round highlighted in our announcement post
- All open shill spaces are open to the spotlight round & community rounds
- Partner logos on the main funder banner grants website & shared in all Gitcoin Grants Round emails
- Each community round will have access to Gitcoin’s marketing assets to use for their own round marketing and grantee communications.
- Gitcoin will amplify GG21-related posts.
- Each partner will receive a marketing best practices handbook and any resources needed to run their round successfully.
- Responsive Grant Ops Support: Our dedicated Grant Ops team is available for general questions and support.
- A dedicated support group with selected round operators will be set up
Partner’s Agreements:
These are non-negotiable.
- Publish a fleshed-out proposal on the gov forum
- The elected GG Community Council votes on the proposals, selects the top 10, and allocates matching funds to the top 5 rounds
- Meet all eligibility criteria for running a Community Round
- Round donation and application periods to align with GG21 dates set by Gitcoin
- Be responsible for outlining your round’s eligibility criteria
- Owning marketing and grantee & donor support of your round
- A post-round retrospective report released within 30 days after closure of GG
- Complete security training with Gitcoin’s security consultant
- All payouts to be conducted via Allo, and not manually.
- All GG rounds to use Passport’s Model Based Detection in conjunction with COCM for sybil resistance
- Round Operators agree to use Gitcoin’s “Checker” tool and provide clear feedback to all applicants with a short rationale on their approval/rejection.