A Guide to Grants and Funding Opportunities on NEAR
Introduction
Greetings NEAR builders! Are you working on the NEAR ecosystem and eyeing a grant from the Near Digital Collective (NDC)? Look no further! This guide will walk you through the core values of NDC, funding guidelines, effective metrics for progress, and the step-by-step process to apply for grants. Let’s delve into the details.
1. Core Values of NDC
- Empowering the ecosystem (for people by people)
- Respected by the ecosystem (fair, accountable, transparent, and reliable)
- Dedicated to ideas of decentralization (antifragile, scalable, with collective decision-making)
- Efficient operation (don’t be a burden; instead, help the Community to be more efficient)
- Continuous improvement via weekly iterations (plan, measure results, and adjust continuously)
2. Funding Guidelines: Who’s Eligible?
Any proposal aligned with NDC V1 priorities and key metrics is eligible for funding. NDC V1 focuses on growing the NEAR ecosystem, empowering NEAR projects, and enhancing public goods. Whether it’s widening adoption, refining operations, or innovating within NEAR, the NDC is committed to supporting projects that contribute to a dynamic and inclusive landscape.
3. Key Metrics for Success
Metrics is how we measure things. They ensure that we collectively make meaningful progress. Metrics should be used for both tracking individual initiatives performance, and the whole NDC performance (based on the accumulated metrics from the supported initiatives). All the metrics must be attributable to the relevant project/initiative through on-chain activity + off-chain reporting, ensuring GDPR compliance and preserving privacy:
- Accounts retention after 1/2/4/8 weeks — the percentage of accounts who continue interacting on the chain over a given time period (higher is better)
- Account acquisition cost — budget divided by the number of accounts interacting through the funded initiative (lower is better)
- Median number of dApps used by P95 accounts retained for 1+ week (higher is better)
- Number of accounts retained for 1+ week using at least three dApps (higher is better)
- Social engagement score — some compound metric of the number of posts, likes, and followers/views in social media produced by the users.
4. Applying for Funding in NDC
Ready to shape the future of NEAR? There are two avenues for funding in NDC: create a proposal to any existing Grassroots DAO or apply within existing NDC Grassroots DAO. From marketing to ecosystem development, various DAOs like MarketingDAO, NEAR Globe DAO, and Aurora Community DAO await your project. Follow the structured process to unlock funding and support for your ideas.
5. Grassroots DAO Onboarding Procedure
Ready to launch your DAO? GrassrootsDAOs can initiate the onboarding process by submitting proposals between the 13th and 19th of each month. After review, evaluation, and on-chain voting by the House of Merit, successful DAOs are onboarded. For a comprehensive guide on launching your GrassrootsDAO, visit NEAR Governance Forum.
6. Other Funding Avenues in the NEAR Ecosystem
Apart from NDC, explore additional funding avenues in the NEAR ecosystem. The NEAR DevHub facilitates technical projects and fosters a decentralized NEAR developer ecosystem. Visit NEAR DevHub for more information. NEAR Horizon, an early-stage accelerator, empowers Web3 founders to build, connect, and grow. Learn more at NEAR Horizon.