Hello Dacha, I started to help the Onboarding DAO this year, there were already funds on the DAO when I get in.
I also want to clarify that all the activities I do on the Onboarding DAO are for free, I am just an advisor, I mean that I had not request reward for myself, I feel I am really helping and I am on other initiatives around the Near Community where I am rewarded. 
I will try to solve your concerns:
Here the report from what the Onboarding DAO did this year → [REPORT] Onboarding DAO [January-February]
Yes → $4000 USD are meant for little projects just as you can see on the report. From the report we had a bad experience with both activities on Lagos, but we learned from it and we contribute to gather information regarding JhonX. And there was a very successful onboarding from a University from where I am, Venezuela. But another city, other new group, they also get into the Near Venezuela DAO 3 of them, they really did a great job taking people into Near University and this participants get certifications and now are really building with us the web3.
So, the idea of that funding is to distribute it into little initiatives, is like you have a big DAO like Creatives DAO or Marketing DAO, and you take a lot of proposals asking for funds that are usually above $1000, well the Onboarding DAO takes care of little initiatives needing around $500.
We have now in our view one from Spain for example. So, we are going to try to look for other regions… and in that look to connect with people who wants to help onboarding Nearcomers we are certain we need more expousure, promotion and marketing.
In conclusion, we want people to know about Near, about the easy onboarding and all the help we can provide. And this activities took some time for the Onboarding DAO team to plan.
Thanks to the @marke for taking this proposal into account,
Big hug and cheers 