Grant Lifecycle
Grant Tracking
Timeline: 0 days
When an application is submitted, it’s received in our Airtable database and processed to show as “Applied.” Applications can also be found on our website Dashboard, although reduced to preserve applicant privacy.
When a grant has been formally approved, the team publishes the relevant information on the Grants website and stores the grant in our database. The database is used for tracking status on grants and payments.
Contributor Onboarding
Timeline: 1-2 days
Our initial screening consists of reviewing against the Selection Criteria to filter out applications that would not be considered for obvious reasons. These reasons typically include obvious spam (e.g. no real application), no attempt at relevancy to dYdX, or duplicate of existing grants.
Before getting started, our grantees are required to complete two onboarding steps to comply with our onboarding requirements. A contributor agreement is signed, and basic KYC information is shared.
Project Launch
Within seven days of the application received, the team will have sent either a Rejection Email or a follow-up with questions and/or request to schedule a call.
We estimate bout 1/6 of our follow-ups do not receive a response. These applications are rejected after two weeks.
At this stage, the grantee is ready to get to work! The team will initiate the first payment batch, if included as part of the grant. Typically, our grants include up to 25% upfront to cover costs and initial compensation.
The team will conduct an interview to better understand qualifications, the final deliverable, milestones, and the impact of the project. We use this as an opportunity to set milestones, KPI’s, and discuss the funding costs to negotiate if needed.
Only if the grantee is known and the application is 100% clear do we maybe skip this part.
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Feedback and Iteration
Throughout the project, the team will regularly engage with the grantee to check on progress, offer support, and provide feedback on the work being done. The team shares resources to improve the likelihood of success. If the grant is staged in milestones, grantees can unlock milestones payments by delivering on the milestone agreed upon.
Completion Sign off
If the team believes the Grant qualifies for funding, the application is submitted for review in the next approval batch to the Grants Committee.
Committee members are given 48 hours to review the grants and come back with question or feedback. The Committee can reject a grant if it does not meet their criteria for impact and funding.
Once the grantee feels they’ve met the final deliverable of the grant, and they’ve iterated over feedback from the team, the team provides a final sign-off on the grant being completed. The team issues the final payment to the contributor as part of the agreement.
Announcements
If the team believes the Grant qualifies for funding, the application is submitted for review in the next approval batch to the Grants Committee.
Committee members are given 48 hours to review the grants and come back with question or feedback. The Committee can reject a grant if it does not meet their criteria for impact and funding.
In an effort to promote the work and grantee, the team will typically highlight the completed project in a blog post and schedule a community AMA with the grantee to discuss the grant in-depth. We always look to reward our grantees with public acknowledgement.
Measuring Impact
Once the committee has signed off, the team will send an email to the applicant confirming their approval.
Approvals include our contributor agreements and KYC information to guarantee protection for both the grantee and Grant Trust.
The grantee can now get to work on their project!
Approvals include our contributor agreements and KYC information to guarantee protection for both the grantee and Grant Trust.
The grantee can now get to work on their project!
Finally, the team will look to measure the success of a completed grant through individual KPIs and overall community engagement or use. Different KPIs are used across categorical grants, but overall we look to assess whether the completed grant has successfully impacted the dYdX protocol.
