Authors: @hol.eth @klxx zayi heyitsDB nich (sorry it doesn’t let me tag more than 2 people)
Summary
A season-based approach for DAO onboarding and operations with a goal of sustainably executing towards our mission of funding & supporting women in web3.
Motivation
Over the past 2 years, MGD has transformed from a parody sorority DAO into a grants DAO that has deployed $70k+ worth of funding to women-led web3 initiatives. We have 100+ members pledged on-chain, have run weekly calls with guest speakers, and helped connect women with new career and speaking opportunities. All of this was accomplished on a voluntary basis from members.
Some observations:
- We have had a few members run key operations for a long time with no end in sight.
- New/previously less-engaged members want to contribute but don’t know how.
- Committees have struggled to maintain member engagement.
- Fundraising efforts take a lot of work and we run dry after giving out 2-3 grants, with the same individuals spearheading the efforts each time, causing fundraising fatigue.
- It’s unrealistic to expect that members will contribute to the DAO on a voluntary basis in perpetuity.
- We don’t know how well we are doing towards our mission of “funding and supporting women-led projects in web3”. There needs to be quantifiable success metrics for us to know this so we can continue improving.
- We should establish our role in the wider ecosystem amongst other womxn-focused groups in web3.
This proposal intends to address the above points so we can become sustainable in executing towards our mission.
Specification
- Seasons (up to 3/year for 4 mo) that allows for:
- A defined [sub] group of people that go through ‘rush’ together (think along the lines of Kernel)
- A defined period of leadership or other kind of meaningful role/participation
- A defined scope of work in the context of agreed upon milestones
- A deadline after which the particular group will no longer be obligated to actively participate on an ongoing basis
- Cohort “class project” is to raise funds
- As a part of formal onboarding, new member cohorts will work on fundraising for MGD together, identify grantees, and distribute funds.
- Define S.M.A.R.T. goals at the beginning of each cohort
- Can create a template to give an idea of what to expect
Can elect to provide a % of their funding to the upcoming cohort
- The first cohort can come from existing members of the DAO
- POAPs for participation (MGD Alumni status) like Kernel, SheFi model
- Use Coordinape within a cohort to compensate work done in a season
- Decide on a % of funds raised that will be used to compensate members
- Cohort distributes this amongst themselves in a peer-based fashion
- Partner with other communities who are aligned for things that are currently out of scope for us
- SheFi educates womxn in crypto
- BoysClub has a jobs platform
- MGD is the grants arm for womxn-led projects
What this might look like
- A cohort of 10 members - can be completely new to MGD or a pledged member who has been less active in the past and looking to be a more active contributor
- Split the work of what MGD committees have been doing so far and owning them - fundraising, identifying projects to give grants to, distribute funds to them, publishing content, giving updates on DAO-wide calls, etc.
- Whatever funds are raised, keep x%* to distribute within the cohort using Coordinape
- “Graduate” and receive POAPs - become MGD alumni
- Present what was achieved at the end, publish content, learnings etc.
- Handoff to next cohort
*TBD by the DAO
Benefits
- Seasons give a defined scope of work and clear expectations of how long members will have ownership of a given task.
- Cohorts help members foster interpersonal relationships with each other and establish a sense of belonging in the DAO which will give them motivation for further involvement.
- Allocating a % of raised funds to compensate members ensures the treasury doesn’t get depleted, as compensation follows a successful fundraising effort.
- Peer-based compensation using Coordinape incentivizes members of the active cohort to actually contribute, as their compensation is subjective based on peer review.
Drawbacks
- Operational overhead in managing cohorts [at least initially]. This could be mitigated by the fact that cohorts don’t consist entirely of new members, but previously less-engaged members who now have more scope to contribute to the DAO. These individuals have more context and may be more cryptonative and assume the leadership role within their cohort.
- Unclear how we will onboard members mid-season. Since the initial idea is 1 season = 1 cohort, individuals who want to get involved in the DAO in the middle of a season will need to either wait or be brought up to speed by the current cohort to join them. Alternatively, they could join as an “idle” member of the DAO and join our events while waiting for the next round.
- Need to get some ideas around what is the role of remaining members who are not part of an active cohort.
Vote
We’ll do a soft poll on Discord to gauge sentiment first, but please leave thoughts on this thread so it doesn’t get lost!
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Yes - I support this initiative and can leave further thoughts in this thread
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No - I like how we’re doing things as-is OR will propose an alternative approach
Next Steps
Should this proposal pass:
- Develop an initial template for this approach. The proposing group can take ownership of this but we of course are open to other contributors.
- Seek support from other DAOs in the ecosystem (for feedback, contributors, process design etc.)
- Recruit a strong first cohort to provide structure and commitment