[Grant Application] Herd

Project name
Herd

Description
We are a minority women led NFT project for taking care of animals, sharing values to members of our community, as well as helping smaller artists (prioritising female and minority artists) to gain more exposure and financial support.

Vision
We’re here to build a Herd with like-minded people, who share the love of animals and want to care for them. Together, the Herd will aim to educate on the importance of cohabitation with our fellow earthlings. We want to spread the message of inclusivity and care-giving amongst humans and animals alike.

We would like to help members of our community to have a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle full of mindfulness, as well as encouraging them to help animals, other human beings and the environment.

We’re aware of many talented artists needing more support to be able to sustain themselves financially by using their talents, and we would like to collaborate with them and help them to reach larger audiences by using our platform. We will be prioritising female and minority artists. We believe that the NFT space provides a unique opportunity to help support artists like never before.

Problem Solution/Product
Problem 1:
Being involved in different animal charities, sanctuaries, and projects we see how much they can struggle financially as they rely on donations from the public. Vet bills, food, building and fixing facilities, hiring more staff all cost a huge amount of money.

We’re here to create different NFT collections, as well as building real life businesses to help generate capital in order to provide financial help to animal based charities, projects and sanctuaries in need.

A part of the profits from each NFT collection, as well as our real life products like merchandise, will be donated to related charities, sanctuaries and projects for rescuing and taking care of animals in different ways.

Problem 2:
Many people nowadays are moving towards a more healthy, sustainable and mindful lifestyle, and we’re here to provide value to members of our community by facilitating online classes like yoga, mindfulness, art, sustainable living, organic food growing, cooking, in order to help people live a healthier and happier life.

We will organise, and moderate sessions for people who are in our Discord group, while holders will gain access to more in-depth information and classes.

Problem 3:
Today’s world of social media is a double edged sword. The ease with which artists can share and expose their work, build communities and find inspiration is seamless and intuitive. On the other hand, this causes a saturation within the market. A lot of artists struggle and find it difficult to receive the appreciation they deserve.

We want to be champions for promoting artists in a fair way that will allow them to thrive financially and be able to create freely.

An integral part of our operational strategy is building partnerships with
artists, prioritising individuals that identify as women and/or minorities. Those who express interest in our concept will be recruited to get involved in our future collections. Our aim is To help artists to attain financial sustainability and be happy to earn a living from doing what they love and know best.

Problem 4:
It is common for NFT projects to prioritise rewarding individuals who spend the most amount of time and energy on promoting their mission which can lead to deterioration in mental and physical health.

We want to change this expectation.

Herd wants to use this as an opportunity to reward good deeds. People who prioritise their wellbeing, help others, do things which are beneficial to the planet, environment or animals will be rewarded. As our first step towards promoting this culture we are planning to give some of our white-list spots to individuals who make a charitable donation to an animal based shelter/charity/project/sanctuary.

Validation / Traction / Progress so far
Animals of Ukraine:
In March 2022, we created a mini collection of 5 NFTs called Animals of Ukraine, with the aim of raising money for Network for Animals, a non-profit organisation who are rescuing animal refugees from Ukraine and bringing them to safety in Poland.

9 days after launching the mini collection, they were sold out. Through the total revenue from sales as well as an extra donation from one of the holders (a moderator from Random Character Collective), we raised over BTC0.025 and donated the full amount to Network for Animals.

Collection:
Our first collection is focused on helping rescued farm animals. It has 5 species of animals: chickens, cows, sheep, pigs and goats. This collection will have 5555 NFT’s which will be released via 10 round of 555/556 with 10 different themes of properties.

We have now finished the colour palette and 5 basic forms of the animals for the whole collection, and are working on designing the properties for the first genesis of 555 NFTs.

Community:
Our founder Victoria is an active member, WL holder and NFT holder in several NFT projects, and has direct support from the Invisible Friends and Random Character Collective, Fox Fam, Staycool Shamanzs and FWEN CLUB’s community and their teams. In the meantime she’s expanding her reach in different communities.

Victoria has also created a Discord server with 40 members from Invisible Friends’ holder group, who are also building their own NFT projects. The reasons behind creating this group is so that they can learn and grow together, as well as support each other.

Our main artist Bella has over 20k followers on her art Instagram, as well as a Facebook group named fairy-core with over another 20k members, and she will be introducing Herd to her communities to get support from those 40k+ members.

Our advisor Jason has connections with different well-known NFT projects, web3 companies and he will be reaching out to them once we have more designs to show.

Our relations and operations Przemysław has experience working with animals directly as well as connections with different sanctuaries. He has been in meetings with them to work out collaborations.

We also hold Twitter Spaces twice a week to update our progress, with AMA sessions towards the end.

Team
Victoria Ye
Founder, Co-Artist
Victoria is a multicultural and multi-talented designer with undergraduate degrees in fashion design and architecture, and a masters degree in sustainable design. Having lived in 4 countries and 9 cities, and travelled to many more, she feels able to relate well and connect with people from different cultures. Being an animal lover, she has rescued, helped take care of and been sponsoring animals in sanctuaries. She stepped into the web3 space at the end of 2016. After seeing how creativity coupled with the strength of building relationships are two very powerful tools in the NFT space, she decided to use her skills to create a project to help others.

Bella Welsh
Artist, Co-Founder
Bella, is a 23 year old female artist, from the Romani traveller culture and heritage. Creator of minx.doodles, a growing instagram page with over 22k followers, she compiles her bright and bold artwork aimed to spread positivity and mental health awareness online. She’s the founder of Fairycore, a Facebook community with over 20k members bringing users back to nature and emphasising the magic in the little things that surround us every day.

Living life with visual snow syndrome, anxiety and other complex health issues she wants her artwork to showcase that everyone deserves to be happy and free.
Outside of the internet, with over a year’s recent experience caring for rescued farm animals round the clock, she is a keen animal lover. Involved with multiple animal rescue charities and activism groups around the UK. She aims for her presence online and in the metaverse to continue to spread joy, compassion and positive change to those in need.

Przemysław (P) Grabowsky
Relations, Operations
P’s passions stem from his absolute love and care for animals. P has worked with hundreds of animals across fifteen different species including domesticated animals, rescued farm animals, as well as other wildlife. Having first hand experience working with various animal based projects he has knowledge of the logistical and financial challenges that these projects often face. P’s strong understanding of photography and videography makes him a strong member of our team.

Jason Langston
Advisor
Since the end of 2016, Jason has been in blockchain ecosystems as a consultant, business developer, and Web3 partnerships manager based in enterprise and open blockchain solutions including metaverse partnerships.He is currently a senior web3 partnerships manager with Boson Protocol. He is a crypto native who spends half of his time strolling through the metaverse and deep in NFTs. His strengths lie in sales, negotiation, research, relationship building and creative thinking, with a deep knowledge of the crypto landscape, including DeFi, NFTs, and most recently open metaverse platforms.

Grant Amount Requested
10K USD

What it will be used for?
Paying developers for randomly generation and minting service
Paying Victoria and Bella 3 months’ salary to enable us to work on this full time

Attach any additional documents/resources about the project if you have any.
Herd’s Website: https://www.herdnft.io/
Herd’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/HerdNFT
Herd’s Mini Collection - Animals of Ukraine: https://opensea.io/collection/animals-of-ukraine
Victoria’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/vvv_petal
Bella’s Instagram: Login • Instagram
Jason’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-langston/
P & Bella’s Youtube channel: Human Interactions at Happy Pants Ranch - YouTube

How did you hear about MGD’s Funding program?
Through Holly, a friend who is in the MGD community