Gitcoin Governance Council Term 2 - Community Vote

đŸ€– DAO Governance and Vision
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The Governance Council completed its first term and has published a retrospective assessment of their performance against the original mandate established in March 2025.

The council was initially created to bring “structure, accountability, and decentralization” to governance through facilitating governance processes, supporting decentralization efforts, stewarding the DAO Constitution, and enhancing transparency.

Term 1 Assessment

The retrospective documents both successes and challenges during the 3.5-month term:

Challenges Identified:

  • Token delegation delays prevented full participation until May

  • Communication gaps between council and core team

  • No designated council coordinator for deliverable tracking

  • External organizational transitions (Allo Capital spinout, Grants Labs shutdown) created additional complexity

  • Zero progress on constitutional development due to unclear guidance and scope

Achievements Noted:

  • GG23 coordination achieved 100% participation through Grant Ships

  • Successful vote participation once delegations were completed

  • Cross-ecosystem governance insights provided to the community

  • Voting power distribution helped reduce quorum dependency on large token holders

Proposed Term 2 Framework

Based on Term 1 lessons learned, the retrospective outlines a refined approach for Term 2 (August - December 2025):

Enhanced Operational Structure:

  • Self designate a council coordinator for deliverable tracking and core team coordination

  • Improved communication framework to prevent reactive decision-making

Updated Deliverables:

  • Process Facilitation: Enhanced forum participation, ensuring proposals and posts on the forum receive adequate discussion and feedback

  • Transparency Enhancement: Quarterly governance updates published on schedule (October 15, January 15)

  • Community Engagement: Documented council input on high-impact proposals and partnerships.

Success Metrics:

  • 100% of votes meet quorum

  • All quarterly updates published on schedule

  • Improved forum engagement and moderation coverage

The constitutional development mandate has been removed from Term 2 scope to better align deliverables with available resources and community priorities.

The Vote

Based on the retrospective findings and community feedback, we will be taking this to a vote with two options:

  1. Continue: Proceed with Term 2 using all five current members (Wasabi, Ivan Molto, SEEDGov, PGov, Tane) and the enhanced operational framework

  2. Discontinue: End the council program and revert to the current steward-led governance model

All five current members have committed to serving Term 2 if approved. The decision maintains the existing team composition rather than opening new nominations, allowing the group to apply lessons learned from Term 1 immediately.

If discontinued, governance will return to ad hoc coordination by active stewards, with lessons learned from the council experiment documented for future reference.

Community Input

The retrospective provides analysis of what worked, what didn’t, and proposed solutions for moving forward. The original charter outlines the initial vision and expectations that guided Term 1.

We encourage the community to review both documents and provide feedback on whether the proposed Term 2 framework adequately addresses the structural issues identified in Term 1, and whether a structured council approach can deliver meaningful improvements to Gitcoin’s governance effectiveness.

Thanks for your consideration!

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As members of the Council, we would be more than happy to get the second term approved. Like we said in the retro, the first term coincided with a rather turbulent time for Gitcoin, where immense changes were happening one after the other. Nevertheless, we really appreciate the conversation that we had with the other members and the Gitcoin team, when we could iron out every detail to have a successful second term. Looking forward to the community feedback!

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Hey Gitcoin community,

As a member of the Council, I want to personally thank everyone who’s taken the time to read the Term 1 retrospective and hopefully engage with the upcoming vote on Term 2.

Term 1 was an experiment in bringing more structure and transparency to Gitcoin governance. While it wasn’t perfect, I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish, especially under the constraints and growing pains of spinning up a new model.

I believe Term 2 is our chance to apply the lessons from Term 1 with more clarity, accountability, and better communication between the Council and the broader ecosystem.

I’m committed to continuing this work if the community chooses to move forward. We’ve built trust and rhythm as a team, and I think we’re in a much better position now to deliver value through governance facilitation, proposal vetting, regular transparency updates, and more.

That said — this is your DAO. I encourage all of you to review the retrospective, the original Term 1, and the Term 2, then share your thoughts or vote accordingly.

Looking forward to hearing what the community thinks.

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i would like to echo @ivanmolto and @SEEDGov and add a different POV to the mix.

Today more than ever there’s a huge disconnect between the Top and the Bottom of the Builders Funnel, having people that know first hand the reality of many builders across the world, I think that keeping the Committee is a good investment that can reap benefits in value in areas that aren’t too easy to measure, but still are very important.

The council is very close and have its ears in the Community because besides Council Members, we’re all builders developing projects that have the potential to shape narratives.

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After reading the retro and the assessments & comments here, I won’t be voting in favor of this program at this time without clear outcomes laid out for the council and the community.

The deliverables above are essentially ‘paid community participation + reporting’ and while it has been useful (regardless in delay of token delegation) there were further defined improvements we were looking to achieve in this first term, and across the board I see below passing marks. As pointed out by @SEEDGov:

Stewarding the DAO Constitution: F Grade. Zero progress made. This mandate was hindered by a lack of specific guidance on constitutional priorities and an unclear scope definition from core team coordination. This situation left us without clear direction on which constitutional issues to address and how to make progress on this matter.

This council was specifically elected to prove we can update our governance in a decentralized way - not inside out as it has been. I don’t think that pointing to the core team as a failure point for not doing a given improvement embraces that ethos or shows any initiative on the council’s part to even find out what these problems are.

With that being said 
 I’d love to see some actionable outcomes for the 2nd term, and always open to having my mind changed. I think that there is value in having a council to spearhead our governance initiatives and as we move into the future of Gitcoin, I’d love to see participation expand and be worthwhile for every member of our community.

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Thanks for the honest retrospective and the summary on the first term. It’s been great to work closely with this council. From my POV, I think having more external active voters within our governance is very valuable, but something I would need to see more of in Term 2 is more than just community engagement forum participation. I wonder if there is a lightweight version of ensuring this community participation that you outlined gets met, but that it can be enhanced to where the council has more of a stage to provide feedback on processes as well as recommendations on enhancements?

But I also might not be fully understanding the below as the deliverables are outlined at a very high level instead of being too granular.

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Hello everyone in the Gitcoin community, below there’s an official response from the Council in relation to the conversation taking place on this forum thread. Before getting to that, i would like to announce the Council has elected me as the Lead if the Term 2 is approved by governance.

It is a great honor for me to take up on this role and the responsibility that comes with it and I will be going the extra mile to make sure I fulfill it to the best of my ability by helping coordinate Gitcoin stakeholders and be the liaison with our multidisciplinary council members, which is very aligned with the direction of Gitcoin 3.0 and to explore the best ways to leverage our collective skill set to support the execution of that vision with focus on to making Governance = Ecosystem Growth.

As I’ve been wearing multiple hats in the Gitcoin ecosystem during the past few years, I understand the current state of affairs and for Term 2 I will focus my efforts on the coordination of high impact initiatives that helps augment the footprint of Gitcoin Team roadmap and OKRs, mainly focused on the growth of GG Program.

I’ll start my role as Council Lead by making myself available to all stakeholders and community members for meetings to talk about how we can grow Gitcoin impact in the Ethereum Ecosystem via this calendar; Let's discuss Gitcoin | Wasabi đŸ„„đŸŒŽ | Cal.com

Official Council Comment for the Council Term 2 - Community Vote Forum Post

@deltajuliet and @MathildaDV, first of all, thanks a lot for your replies and for taking the time to leave your thoughts in the proposal.

We’ve been having internal discussions within the Council about how to improve the Term 2 proposal to better meet the expectations of the Gitcoin community, and your feedback has been pretty helpful to understand where our efforts need to go. Therefore, our first decision was to nominate @wasabi as the Council’s leader. Due to his long involvement, understanding, and commitment to the Gictoin community, we truly believe that he’s the best fit for this role.

We hear the concerns around the lack of clear outcomes and the need for more concrete, actionable deliverables. That’s something we’ve been working on. Based on our learnings from Term 1 and the feedback we’ve received, we’re shifting the Council’s focus in Term 2 around the following pillars:

Gitcoin Constitution

We know this document’s importance for the entire community. After failing to deliver on this point during Term 1, we ironed out the loose ends, and we’re opening collaboration channels with Gitcoin’s team to coordinate future collaborations. We believe that, on that end, we could commit to crafting a high-level Constitution aligned with a new vision and set concrete and measurable objectives around it during Term 2. This includes a preliminary document of Gitcoin’s Constitution, where we can clarify why Gitcoin’s governance matters, what the purposes of the Constitution are, and how the Constitution supports the coordination of Gitcoin’s ecosystem. Setting a preliminary document for the Constitution will help Gitcoin move toward a governance model that’s regenerative, inclusive, and aligned with the values of public goods. This document would consist of an executable framework to allow Gitcoin’s governance to go beyond the limits of treasury management, to address a comprehensive coordination for public good funding.

External Orientation

We will be shifting from an internal-facing role to a more externally engaged one. That means leaning into things like treasury allocations, ecosystem partnerships, and breaking walls between communities. We all know that Gitcoin is in a unique position in the public goods space, and we want to help expand it even more. Our expertise and connections could help bring new partners to Gitcoin to help push in that direction. As we did during our first term, we will continue to provide guidance for Gitcoin Grants and direct our efforts to identify which domains must be funded, the alliances that we can create in this context, and oversee the alignment of GGs with Ethereum.

Community Participation and Feedback Loops

We want to contribute to the community engagement by feeding into the process, providing feedback, and offering improvement recommendations. Our goal here is to create more space for the Council to act as a sounding board, so together we can amplify the community’s voice. We acknowledge that due to the latest changes within Gitcoin’s team, which is now reduced, our role will take a greater importance. This role can be clearly seen within the context of GGs, where our participation would matter to define funding priorities and potential partnerships or collaborations. Nevertheless, we aim to smoothly integrate within this structure, without creating a new layer of bureaucracy, but rather streamlining the process in which we participate.

Roadmap

This initiative will unfold over six months, with clear milestones and engagement strategies designed to strengthen Gitcoin’s governance and expand its ecosystem impact:

Constitution Drafting

We will draft and propose a new version of Gitcoin’s Constitution, an executable 2 to 3-page document that clearly outlines the governance process, scope, and priorities.

DAO Partnerships and Ecosystem Alignment

We will actively explore strategic partnerships with other DAOs. This will involve engaging with their communities through public forums and/or holding direct conversations with key stakeholders. The objective is to deeply understand their needs and assess how Gitcoin can collaborate or build solutions that support mutual public goods goals.

Strategic Forum Participation

Throughout the entire six-month period, we will maintain a proactive presence in governance forums to help shape Gitcoin’s strategic direction. In particular, we will contribute to conversations that define which domains and initiatives Gitcoin prioritizes for funding, ensuring alignment with broader ecosystem needs and values.

Expected Outcomes

  • A concise, community-aligned Constitution that anchors Gitcoin’s governance model.
  • Clear mapping of potential collaboration pathways with partner DAOs.
  • Strengthened governance legitimacy through consistent strategic engagement.
  • Improved clarity on Gitcoin’s funding priorities, grounded in community input.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this direction, and we expect that these points will help you understand the direction that we plan to take in the second term of the Gitcoin Governance Council, if the community decides to keep it going.

Thanks again to everyone in the community for the support so far. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Gitcoin through the Council, and we’re hopeful this proposal can pass so we can keep building together :green_heart:

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