tldr;
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Temporary pause to Marketing DAO funding
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Working closely with NEAR Foundation to review and align incentives
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We expect to resume activities with new, clearer guidelines by the last week of October
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All proposals received and approved to date will continue to be paid out as usual
A Brief History of the Marketing DAO
The Marketing DAO was created over a year ago as a Trusted Community Funding Vertical. How did we earn the trust? In the beginning, there were more NF members as Council than Community members. Over time, this number decreased and community members have had total control of the DAO since late March 2022.
As the ecosystem evolved, introducing changes such as compulsory KYC, changes to the payout structure (NEAR to USD, DAO to payments directly from Foundation, etc.) we retained the autonomy to decide on proposals without any input from the NF and they honoured every single approved proposal.
Optimizing Objectives
It goes without saying that the essential component to make such an arrangement is Trust.
While the Marketing DAO used to benefit greatly from being incubated directly by the NF and seeded with long standing community members with deep involvement into the ecosystem, something curious started to happen this year: after a lot of changes in the ecosystem, including the expansion of the community, it’s clear that we need to align more closely with the NEAR Foundation.
A couple of additional and equally important factors are the ongoing bear market and the rapidly changing priorities and needs of a rapidly evolving ecosystem.
Review & Renew
This is why we believe it is sensible to temporarily pause all funding so we can do a full review of Marketing DAO activities and realignment with the NF. Over the next three weeks we will be:
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Reviewing the strategic priorities and OKRs of the NF. Assessing how the Marketing DAO currently fits in and how we can evolve to better address those needs from the community side.sounds a little
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Review all the proposals and reports to date to create a comprehensive report of the Impact the Marketing DAO has had on the community.
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Create simplified frameworks to enable us to capture impact of proposals going forward.
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Create simpler guidelines for decision making that are aligned with Strategic Objectives (this may include but is not limited to: criteria for decision making, key areas and regions of interest, etc.)
What next?
We acknowledge that changes to community funding are needed and embrace the approach and renewed working relationship with the NF to simplify, optimise and guarantee funding for Marketing DAO going forward.
For those active community members that are concerned this is the beginning of the end, we can assure you that we are dedicated to driving the community forward. NEAR doesn’t exist without its community. This is an opportunity to strengthen the frameworks of the DAO and drive even greater initiatives moving forward.
All proposals that were received and approved prior to the pause will be paid out. Those grantees can proceed with their AstroDAO and request for payment from the NEAR Foundation.
We will provide more updates as they arise. Thank you for your patience and support,
Marketing DAO Council