Public Goods Funding S17 Workstream Budget Proposal
Thank you to the whole PGF workstream for their help shaping this proposal draft and all the work put in to push us forward as a DAO in S16. A particular shout out to @Maxwell for all his help shaping this budget.
Essential Intents
During S17, we will continue to prioritize the following EIs
- EI1: Protocol Adoption
- EI2: Financial Sustainability
- EI3: DAO Organization
- EI4: Grants Program Success
TL;DR
Our S16 goals were:
- Launch Gitcoin Protocol Alpha Round Successfully
- Transition 90% of selected & willing grantees successfully for Alpha round to the protocol
- Transition Partners successfully to the protocol
- Determine future of the program + services strategy + structure
- Plan Partner + community retreat in support of protocol launch
PGF has remained on track to hit these goals. The two caveats are that (1) weāre still aligning on details of the services strategy and communicating that more clearly to the broader community (2) we havenāt fully scheduled and transitioned partners to the protocol. That said, we are in conversation with partners about scheduling rounds from March onward after we launch the beta of Allo Protocol and start testing a fee for service model. We are also in discussions about running featured rounds in April when we launch the next iteration of the Gitcoin Program during our Beta period.
Weād also like to celebrate behind the scenes work that exceeded our goals. We launched the UNICEF Innovation round in Q4 2022 that raised over 130 ETH (50 ETH from UNICEF Innovation and 80 ETH from 15,500 Donors)!!
In addition, a less tangible highlight is how the PGF team has become a tight and highly efficient unit. It wasnāt easy to reorg the team but weāre down a total of 50% of contributors over the past 3 seasons to 9 FT and 2 PT contributors and one contributor on leave (@annika weāre excited to have you back soon). Weāre building a strong culture of talented, highly effective, and dedicated contributors.
Our main goals for S17 are twofold:
Protocol growth readiness and Gitcoin Grants Program readiness.
Our overarching priority in S17 is to continue setting up the protocol for successful adoption with solid infrastructure to drive sustainable growth.
Overall we will
- Developing runbooks and guides for communities to use to run QF rounds and drive adoption
- Running test rounds with partners to onboard and enable them to manage their own programs permissionlessly
- Defining and launching the Core Gitcoin Grants Program in April, to embrace our DAOās goal of funding public goods with our protocol
- Defining and providing a paid services offering to early adopters until a fully self serve approach is viable
Amount
PGFās total request will be $606,000 USD for S17. A 30% decrease from last season. Accounting for 60+ day reserves and current reserves we are requesting $337,903 USD for S17. A 68% decrease from last season.
1) The amount of GTC requested and the value of the reserves will be adjusted based on the current market value at the time this proposal is moved to Tally using the lower of the current price or the 20 day moving average, whichever is lower.
2) The Treasury Request amount is an estimate using the price of $2.10 GTC to calculate the total of the reserves rolled over from Season 16.
Milestone Report for the past Season
Legend
Success
Incomplete, will hit goal or priority change
Incomplete, will not hit goal
Canceled - out of workstreamās control
| Initiative/Project | Always-on [YES/NO] |
Key Results |
Value Delivered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transition Partners successfully to the protocol (EI: 1+2+4) |
NO | |
Made progress towards scheduling 12 protocol rounds with previous ecosystem partners. So far X amount of protocol rounds have been scheduled, with many more ongoing conversations with key partners. Defined partner onboarding roadmap and support in collaboration with other workstreams. Continued having 1-1 protocol education conversations key partners explaining protocol value Continuing to scope services contracts with partners according to their needs / requirements for round success |
| Launch Gitcoin Protocol Alpha Round Successfully (EI: 1+3+4) |
YES | |
We executed a highly successful alpha round with UNICEF, raising over 80 ETH from 15,500 Donors. Launched three more successful alpha rounds for OSS, Climate, and Eth Infra |
| Transition 90% of selected & willing grantees successfully for Alpha round to the protocol (EI: 1+2+3+4) |
NO | |
100% of cimatee grantees were transitioned successfully over to the protocol in the climate round. 62% of viable OSS grantees applied for the OSS round. 70% applied to the Eth Infra round. Many that were not were because they no longer qualified (inactive githubs, raised VC funding etc.) |
| Determine future of the program + services strategy + structure (EI: 1+2+4) |
NO | |
Future of the program and services strategy has largely been solidified internally within PGF, and we shared the program strategy on the forum for wider community feedback. Weāre using our alpha rounds to determine run books for anyone to run rounds on the protocols and identifying gaps to build services in the interim vs building services that arenāt applicable. |
| Plan Partner + community retreat for Schelling Point protocol launch (EI: 1+4) |
YES | |
First ever Gitcoin Community Retreat to celebrate public goods funding leaders and activate our community around the protocol has been planned for pre-ETHDenver. |
S17 Objectives and Key Results
List of S17 OKRs
| Initiative/Project | Always-on [YES/NO] |
Metrics | Key Results / Likely Deliverables / Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test and establish infrastructure to support successful Gitcoin Grants Program Rounds and Protocol Adoption (EI: 1+2) |
NO | Build operational runbook that is utilized by partners, empowering current and future partner success and establishing Gitcoin as a leader in providing clear funding processes Metric B Decrease time the PGF team spends doing administrative and operational support to deliver a successful grants round by >40% with the use of runbooks |
Ensure consistency and support for partners through creating runbooks for partners to run a round either self-service (with minimal Gitcoin Operational support) and/or to experiment during featured rounds as part of the Gitcoin Grants program Publish grantee handbooks based on alpha round learnings to ensure grantees are set up for success without as much hands on support from PGF Author FAQ for partners and grantees in close collaboration with DAO Ops knowledge-base team leading to lower hands-on time with grantees and increased satisfaction Improve and tighten feedback loops between PGF and Support, Product, and DevRel to drive forward more cohesive messaging increasing overall grantee, donor, and partner satisfaction |
| Solidify Future of Program and launch first Gitcoin Program Beta Round (EI: 1+2+3) |
NO | GTC Holders voted on the 3-6 rounds for the Gitcoin Core Program GTC Holders voted eligibility criteria Gitcoin runs 3-6 Core Program Rounds in April Run at least 5-8 (ambitiously 10) partner Featured rounds alongside the Gitcoin Core Program rounds to create the Gitcoin Program āFestivalā |
Develop process for GTC holder community voting on Core Program rounds and eligibility criteria and review for each round Conduct and test revenue forecasting for the Gitcoin Program Featured Rounds Ensure partnerships tactics and strategies to engage more consistent funding of future Gitcoin rounds Work closely with MMM and Support to use economies of scale to run many rounds at once in an advantageous way, where network effects helps bolster the success of the program and the value of funding public goods |
| Define partner prioritization strategy (EI: 1+2+3) |
NO | Clear rubric for when to partner with a given program / protocol Criteria for when to say no to a partnership and/or direct them to self-service options |
Partnerships develops a partner prioritization roadmap and solidifies strategic focus for simulated rounds (e.g. by legitimacy, growth, effort) Defines needs / expectations from other workstreams (e.g. MMM + GPC) to ensure partner success Being able to clearly defining verticals / what to sell in order to optimize partner economics |
| Support partner test rounds on the protocol (EI: 1+2+3) |
NO | 5-10 partner test rounds planned with small matching pools 8-10 partners commitment to running larger partner rounds (between S17 - S18) |
Continuing scheduling and begin executing 5-10 partners running small (10-15 eth) test round mid/end March with commitments to running a program featured round in April Combine early work around services with ongoing partner prioritization work, driving forward service support for adoption growth from beta launch |
| Execute first-ever Gitcoin Community Gathering (EI: 1+3+4) |
NO | Community Gathering executed with rave reviews from attendees (ideally 80% 5 star rating from those that respond to end of event survey) and increased interest in and excitement about the protocol Have 3-5 partnership commits come out of the retreat over the next two seasons |
Execute a high-quality, intimate retreat that excites our community and drives interest in the protocol Conduct follow up survey with all attendees to hear about their experience Conduct follow up calls with all attendees that could be relevant partners |
| Business Development and Revenue Opportunities (EI: 1+2+3) |
NO | 2-3 recurring revenue partnerships solidified | Pushing forward key deals closed in s16, namely partnerships for self sustaining funding for Gitcoin with an oDAO from Rocket Pool, and sequencer fees from zksync Examining other self-sustaining funding such as receiving percent of Hop Protocolās fee switch for funding public goods. Exploring other fee switches, sequencer fees, cex fees, across the wider crypto ecosystem Protocol fee switch for organizations who want to build on top of the protocol |
Budget Breakdown
View: USD per Initiative/Project
| Initiative/Project | Amount USD | % |
|---|---|---|
| Program Readiness (formerly a portion of Grant Operations and Partnerships) ([EI]) |
$237,125 | 40% |
| Growth Readiness (formerly Partnerships and portion of grant ops) ([EI]) |
$318,875 | 53% |
| PGF Operations | $50,000 | 8% |
| Total | $606,000 | 100% |
View: USD per Category
| Budget Category | Description | Amount USD |
|---|---|---|
| Core Contributors | Former WS Lead on Mat Leave (Annika) WS Lead (Janine) Growth Lead (Connor O.) Program Core Round Lead (Ben W.) Grants Round Account Manager (Kieran O.) WS Lead (Scott) Partnerships Lead (Azeem) Ecosystem Developer (Juanna) PGF Operations + Partnerships (Maxwell) |
$439,000 |
| Trusted Contributors | Cause Round Support (Coleen) Grants Support (Madison) Data Support (Umar) Virtual Assistant Partnerships Technical Support (Eli) |
$35,000 |
| Hiring, Bounties, HIT Roles | External Round Manager (New PT Hire) Services Support (New PT Hire) Financial / Revenue Growth Support (New PT Hire) Ecosystem Developer (New Hire) |
$132,000 |
| Total | $606,000 |
