Fundraising Hub Sub-DAO Proposal
Author: Wikist
View all relevant info about my previous role as Fundraising Operators here.
Summary
This proposal outlines the vision for Fundraising Hub in Developer DAO. We outlined the scope of work, our business model, our budget requests, KPIs, domain of operations and how we are aligned with DAOâs OKRs.
I donât have two remaining people for the creation of multisig. I gladly ask for two volunteers who would join the safe as a second and third person. These people should probably be a Stewards, as this way the DAO will have a way to monitor my financial operations by a people who are not part of the Sub-DAO. In next seasons I might change this, but at least for season 2 I require two more people for me to be in line with DAO-wide rules.
Motivation
As it stands there are a lot of founders in Developer DAOâs community which are struggling with getting funded for their projects. On DAO-wide Coordination Calls we have collectively determined that the majority of DAO members are builders and that most of them are searching for job, but as a matter of fact being a builder is not only about that, but maybe even more so about building something that matters to you and trying to sustain yourself by being a founder.
Even in a bear market there is a lot of funding waiting for people to be used. Protocols are eager to support serious projects. Venture Capital and Angel Investors are searching for good opportunities now to profit during the next bull run. The protocolsâ problem is the need to increase the popularity of their ecosystems and the private capital wants projects that have product-market-fit so they can see a return on their investment. On the other hand founders have problems with getting funded and in determining good funding opportunities. These two problems meet each other in Developer DAO, where they can be solved by connecting protocols with founders.
By establishing Fundraising Hub Sub-DAO in Developer DAO I will continue my job, build more momentum, attract more founders into the community and help people build with more peace of mind without worrying so much about how to get funded.
Scope of Work
Fundraising-specific tasks
Fundraising Hub Sub-DAO will continue to work very similarly as to how it was working before in season 1. This time though I want to split tasks into two categories. First one is focusing directly on fundraising and the second on taking care of the community.
The fundraising-specific OKRs are as follows:
LEARN | ||
---|---|---|
O2 | Provide DAO members with high-quality learning opportunities | Owner |
KR | Stewarding the Fundraising section on the D_D wiki (link), managing the D_D Fundraising Guide and adding content when necessary (link) | Wikist |
BUILD | ||
---|---|---|
O3 | Support DAO members to elevate their impact on the world | Owner |
KR | Performing outreach to grantmaking organizations, Venture Capital and Angel Investors for the sake of fostering relations for easier access to funding for D_D founders | Wikist |
KR | Taking care of the database with grant programs, funders and project data to give D_D founders access to valuable information about different funding opportunities in the space not easily available outside of our community | Wikist |
GOVERN | ||
---|---|---|
O4 | Position the DAO structurally and financially for long-term success | Owner |
KR | Create an income stream for the DAO through fundraising management for founders (details below) | Wikist |
Community-specific tasks
These tasks will be part of my salaried position, but are different in nature from fundraising-specific tasks and can help everyone to better orient themselves what Fundraising Hub is actually doing. Thatâs why I distinguish them as a separate bag of tasks.
Outside of the tasks that focus primarily on the fundraising aspect, there are also more community focused tasks, which I think are essential to reinvigorate the community of founders in Developer DAO for the sustainable long-term growth of the D_D and Sub-DAOâs capabilities and opportunities. Without openly talking with founders and organizing public events to gather their attention I foresee that the interest will steadily go down and hence prevent the Sub-DAO from effectively delivering on its purpose and make D_D lose a part of its community.
Outside of that I think that Office Hours also lean more towards the community-specific OKRs rather than fundraising-specific. The main difference is that sometimes there are a lot of people and sometimes there is no one at those meetings. I reduced the number of Office Hours from twice a week to once a week.
Below are the community-specific OKRs:
LEARN | ||
---|---|---|
O2 | Provide DAO members with high-quality learning opportunities | Owner |
KR | Minimum of one live streaming or study group facilitation per week | CMs |
FH | Minimum of one live streaming or study group facilitation per month (link) | Wikist |
KR | Have regular Office Hours on Wednesdays at 2pm UTC where people can connect with me about anything fundraising related | Wikist |
VIBE | ||
---|---|---|
O1 | Foster a fun and safe Member experience | Owner |
KR | Minimum of one social event per week | CMs |
FH | Minimum of one social event for founders per month | Wikist |
Business model
Starting from season 2 every Sub-DAO should seek its own business model and aim to become self-sustainable. To achieve this task I introduce very simple business model:
In order to get active support from me in the fundraising activities the founder needs to agree on a percentage cut from the funding that I help him raise. The percentage fee depends on the table below.
For every individual funding that founder gets thanks to our support, we will take a % cut.
These fees follow the structure below:
Minimum raised | Maximum raised | The % fee |
---|---|---|
$0 | $10,000 | 24% |
$10,001 | $50,000 | 19% |
$50,001 | $100,000 | 14% |
$100,001 | $500,000 | 9% |
$500,001 | $1,000,000 | 6% |
$1,000,001 | â | 4% |
I reserve a right to allow for individual negotiations between me and founders when appropriate. On such occasions the percentages might change.
Due to the recent negotiations about season 2 and asks from the community to focus on specific areas I will fundraise for Developer DAO directly only on favorable occasions. This means that if during my talks with any funding organization I will notice an opportunity to start talking about possible fundraising for D_D itself, I will pursue it, but I will not take it as priority. I will focus primarily on helping D_D founders polishing their project ideas, business models and fundraise in their name.
Funding requests
To make this shift from public goods model to a business model I require a transition period, which in my mind would be the season 2 and 3 of Developer DAO. I want to continue with salary throughout the coming season, as otherwise the job that I do will not be sufficient to sustain me in the work. In season 3 or 4 I hope that the work done by me before will already be paying for my salary.
1. Salary
I ask for a monthly salary of $2500 USDC.
In return every income brought with this business model will be fully (100%) transferred to the DAO itself. This amount will also allow me to focus on this job more as a half-time/full-time position instead of a side-time position.
For this route I create specific KPIs for the season.
I report back on the KPIs by the end of the season by creating a summary and posting it in the original season proposal for the Sub-DAO. This summary will be then discussed by the Steward Council afterwards on the DAO-wide call where the Council will decide if my summary is factual. On the Stewardâs ask I will have to provide a proof of every KPI deliverable. During my operations mid-season every Steward has a right to ask for the current progress on those KPIs.
If I go over 100% with the KPIs at the end of the season, then 25% of that additional income is being transformed into a bonus on top of my salary. This is only true if through my work I had already paid my salary back to the DAO in the current season and only for the KPIs that bring back financial value back to the DAO. Non-financial KPIs can go over 100% in delivery, but nothing above 100% will be counted for this purpose.
Time period 06.03.2023 - 26.04.2023 (the end of season 2 with the new roadmap proposal):
Wikist: $2500 USDC monthly for the two months
Funding requested for the rest of the season 2: $5000
I also want to request some $CODE budget for operations to test new ideas.
- First one revolves around introducing myself to different organizations. I would like to reward D_D members with small amounts of $CODE for making an introduction for me in organizations that offer funding to founders.
I request 1000 $CODE to be spent on Crew3 bounty-like quests incentivizing making connections between grantmaking organizations and me. This budget assumes that max 10 connections can be achieved this way before the end of season 2.
The idea is that people that already have connections in different organizations can get rewarded for introducing FO into these organizations.
Specifications:
For one connection a person can gain 100 $CODE. This connection needs to be new which means that it is not part of the D_Dâs Friendly Funders Report and has grant or funding programs. The task will be considered delivered when the intro meeting with us will be done and the organization has in fact active grant or funding programs. This condition means that an applying person needs to make sure first if the organization has those programs running before contacting Fundraising Hub Operators.
After bringing this idea forward on the Discord few members supported its implementation and hence it was presented at the DAO Coordination Call on which everyone agreed with its implementation.
- Second idea revolves around rewarding founders for participating in social events that target the founders community in D_D. If they prepare a case-study or will be able to present an interesting presentation for other founders in the community I want to give them a reward.
Specifications:
I request 1200 $CODE to be spent on Crew3 bounty-like quests incentivizing being active on social events for founders. This budget assumes that max 3 presentations/events/case-studies will be done by the end of season 2. For being a founder that prepares either one of these and will present it to the rest of the community I want to give them 200 $CODE. I foresee that on one meeting there might be max two different presentations done and that by the end of season 2 there can be at least 3 social events done.
In both cases (ideas number 1. and 2.) if there will be some $CODE left over, then I will either return it back to the treasury or leave it for the next season.
KPIs
These are to be taken into consideration if I were to be working on a salary.
By the end of season 2 (updated with regards to the current short and chaotic 2 months period):
- Number of project teams I help (review grant application, schedule a call etc.): 10
- Number of grant applications submitted: 15
- Number of grant applications awarded: 4
- Summarized amount of funding awarded to projects: $15k USD equivalent
- Number of recorded live educational workshops for the community: 2
- Host regular Office Hours on Wednesdays at 2pm UTC where people can connect with me about anything fundraising related: presence from Wikist on at least 7 out of 8 in the rest of season 2
Domain of Operations
My domain of operations is Fundraising.
Throughout season 1 me and Chuck were tasked as Fundraising Operators to establish fundraising infrastructure for the DAO. This task had been done and we proceeded with active support to founders in Developer DAOâs community starting from the mid November. Since then we have helped several people with their fundraising efforts by creating fundraising workshops (link), guides (link), reviewing grant applications, researching available grants in web3 space, introducing ourselves to different protocols and foundations and pointing people to appropriate opportunities (link ). We held regular Office Hours every Monday and Friday which allowed us to get to know the founders and their needs.
Chuck will not be continuing on this position, but if community finds that the value that I bring is worthwhile and will vote positively on this proposal, then I will work on it.
I think that I am the correct person to handle the fundraising aspects in Developer DAO.
If you want to know more about me, read our proposal for season 1: link.
If you want to see our update of derivables from season 1, go here: link.