Home Office Allowance Policy 2023

Giveth Proposals
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As the number of inquiries for a home office allowance from our contributors grows in number, we believe it’s important to consider offering a home office allowance to support some of our tenured contributors. With the current economic downturn and the increased financial strain on our contributors, providing a home office allowance can help alleviate some of the financial burdens they are facing while also improving their overall productivity and well-being.

A previous post in the forum was posted about this but we believe it is high time to revisit and talk about this topic more now.

Previous post: Home Office Allowance

Here are some key reasons why we believe a home office allowance would be beneficial:

1. Improved productivity: Studies have shown that remote workers who have a dedicated workspace at home are more productive than those who don’t. By providing a home office allowance, we can help our contributors create a comfortable and productive workspace, which can lead to better job performance.

2. Cost savings: By offering a home office allowance, we can share some of the expenses and help them cover the costs of setting up a home office.

3. Contributor satisfaction: Offering a home office allowance can improve contributor satisfaction and morale. It shows that we value our contributors’ well-being and are willing to invest in their success. This can lead to higher retention rates and better job performance.

Eligibility Requirements:

We propose that the home office allowance be offered to contributors who meet the following criteria:

1. Full-time Contributors

  • Eligible for $1000 maximum

2. Part-time (contributing for an average of 75 hours or more per month)

  • Eligible for $500 maximum

3. Contributing for less than 75 hours per month

  • Not eligible for Home Office Allowance

The contributor must have been actively contributing for 1 year as of March 31, 2023.

Other Requirements:

  1. The contributor must not have fully received the home office allowance after the last disbursement (March 2022).
  2. The Home Office Allowance can be availed anytime within 2 years. The allowance will replenish every 2 years.

This means that if you have fully claimed the Home Office Allowance from last year, you will have to wait until it replenishes on March 2024.

Home Allowance Dispersal

  1. The home office allowance can be used anytime during the 2-year period. The allowance does not need to be used all at once and can be broken up into separate reimbursements.

    For example: The contributor uses $200 of their allowance and one year later requests to use the remaining of the allowance.

Reimbursement Process

  1. The contributor is required to submit documented receipts of their home office reimbursements, with either photos or PDFs showing the item and the amount of the purchase.
  2. After the submission of receipts, the reimbursement will be processed together with your next monthly payment.

What items qualify?

A. We’re generally pretty open as to what qualifies, but here are some ideas.

  1. Computers, laptops, headphones, desks, office chair, any ergonomic item, laptop stands, second monitor, mouse/mousepad, speakers, external hard disk, backpack, cables etc…
  2. Any item that will contribute to a comfortable and productive workspace.

We believe that offering a home office allowance is a smart investment in our contributors and the future of Giveth. We look forward to discussing this proposal further and working together to find a solution that works for everyone.

Approve Home Office Allowance Policy?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

4 Likes
2

I’ve started setting up the monitoring and eligibility sheet here. You can find your allowance balance and check if you’re eligible or not.

As I made the sheet above, I propose these additional details:

For this requirement, we’ll consider the 1 year average from February 2022 to February 2023 hours.

If this proposal passes, the distribution date of the allowance will be dated March 31, 2023 and will be replenished every March 31 biennially (every 2 years).

For those not eligible as of March 31, 2023 due to not meeting the requirement of being a contributor for at least 1 year, they would be eligible 1 year after their start date.

3 Likes
3

Maybe this is down to the individual - leave the option to apply for home office support available but contributors should think about whether they really need the home office grant before applying.

2 Likes
4

IMO Giveth shouldn’t commit to this. We are not having luck with fundraising, and the chance of layoffs is real. The price of ETH and GIV are very volatile at the moment, if the market tanks… well yeah… things get rough and I would rather not commit to any future expenses.

I propose that we provide the allowance for those eligible until April 30, 2023. Those who didn’t fully consume their allowance last year can also get the left overs. But that’s all we can promise… In the end we don’t know if we can afford to offer this benefit in the summer, so instead of saying yes to a rolling benefit, which we might then go back on… We must restrict the open endedness of the proposal.

This should be a one time thing until we actually build revenue models that cover costs.

7 Likes
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Thanks, @Griff ! That makes a lot of sense and would be beneficial for the team and the community.

Give only one-time Home Office Allowance for those eligible until April 30, 2023 and allow others who didn’t use up all their allowance from last year to claim it until April 30, 2023.

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

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I’m strongly agains of this proposal. We’re not in a financially good position to offer HOA, and even if we were, I don’t think that as a DAO we should replicate corporate employee benefits practices.

2 Likes
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I agree. The most recent DAO proposals & conversations are measures to take care of Giveth’s financial health. HOA sounds like the opposite

1 Like
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There might be some eligible contributors who badly need this - to the point where they need upgrades to work properly. Perhaps we encourage those who really needs HOA to speak up and share their POV on how this would make a difference in their current work set-up. We can probably do a quick survey if this is something contributors really need at the moment and would make a huge impact, or if this is something that can wait.

If not, maybe revisiting this proposal again after 3-6 months or a year would be better once Giveth will have enough sustainable revenue streams.

7 Likes
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This proposal was developed because we need a system or a policy for HOA because we get so many questions about this topic.

I think benefits like this HOA encourage and reward long term retention. We all need a computer to work from home to complete this job. I think ultimately, people will stay even longer if we offer this benefit. A lot of times, I think the DAO and non-profit model rely on self-sacrifice from contributors. Isn’t that the dialogue we are trying to get away from? That people and non-profits should be rewarded for doing good?

And this topic may come down to revenue models again. Maybe we need to revisit how Giveth can have a functioning business model? Like taking fees, etc… I think we are relying so much on fundraising without really addressing the lack of revenue streams. That’s a whole different forum proposal.

I think it’s easy to say “no” to these type of proposals when some contributors already have enough and have been in the crypto game for a while. Meanwhile, many contributors are not in this type of situation and need some extra help.

5 Likes
10

I’d like to provide figures to guide others on how to assess this proposal.

If we follow the proposed eligibility requirements above and do a distribution now, the maximum amount the DAO will spend is $5,537.

Eligible as of Mar 31, 2023 Amount
Mateo 542.95
Ashley 1000
Mohammad 38
Carlos 447.08
Mo 509
Alireza 1000
Suga 1000
Cotabe 1000
Total $5,537

If we do this every 2 years for each contributor and distribute once every year (every March/April), this is how budgeting looks like considering the current active contributors:
2024: $14,500
2025: $4,000

3 Likes
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POV: I admit that I desperately needed a new computer for work recently. I did not voice that need to anyone. I try to make a small footprint of liability because I am more worried about losing my job to potential layoffs, and so would gladly forgo HOA to keep my job. Might be dramatic thinking, but it deeply underpins my POV.

I really appreciate the comments here, notably @hanners717 explanation, as it’s giving a supportive voice where I myself would be uncomfortable raising my voice precisely due to what she points out: should contributors be those who take cuts, or should we work harder on finding ways to make our business model reliably functional without cutting corners on contributors.

I know we have to live lean at Giveth until (until…), which is something I’ve done my whole life (born in prison, and 10 of us kids abandoned, if you didn’t know!), so I still don’t know where I stand on asking for HOA. I admit I’m frugal to a fault! (Separate forum discussion! :rofl:)

4 Likes
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Thanks for sharing your experience and voice :heart:

I imagine you are not the only contributor that has had this internal battle of weighing of fearing that it’s better to have a job than speak up for a HOA to help you buy a necessary computer to complete your job.

I really agree with your point, that we need to focus on creating a sustainable business model rather than asking contributors to take personal hits.

4 Likes
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Thanks for providing the figures! I think this will help everyone understand the true dollar amounts associated with HOA. Moving forward, the proposal could include these specific figures to pass a DAO vote of $24,037 budget for HOA until 2025?

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Do you mean requesting funds from the DAO (nrGIV) for $24,037? Or setting up a yes/no vote?

Having a budget set would be nice, but this would probably increase/decrease depending on contributor turn over and hires in the future. But for sure, we only need $5,537 for now.

1 Like
15

I really like this initiative and would love to see this happening in Giveth as one of the many other benefits of being part of such a fantastic team!!! However, considering the time of the year and the state of the market I voted no because the timing just doesn’t seem to be right.

I’d suggest bringing this up again when we are in the bull market and have established the new SubDAOs.

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@Nicbals What about reaching out to each eligible contributor to see how much of their allowance they would use and then we’ll have a better idea of the budget?

1 Like
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For sure, I already started reaching out to the eligible contributors today and I’m just waiting for a few more to confirm how much of the allowance they would use up. I’ll create another poll in here with new figures probably tomorrow morning.

1 Like
18

Hello everyone!

Here are the updated guidelines for the Home Office Allowance proposal.

  1. We will only give a One-time Home Office Allowance for those eligible and allow others who didn’t use up all their allowance from last year to claim it until April 30, 2023. This will not be recurring, thus this is a one-time benefit.

  2. Eligible contributors who cannot make the claim by April 30, will forfeit the eligibility to claim it.

Following the list of those who are eligible and after conducting a survey, these are the final numbers.

The total maximum amount the DAO will spend for this one-time Home Office Allowance will be $3,547.

This poll will only be up for voting until Friday.

  • Yes to granting the Home Office Allowance
  • Not this time

0 voters

2 Likes
19

Receipts have been submitted. Total amount to be reimbursed is $2,834.

@Griff and I are proposing to reimburse people directly from the Giveth wallet using the DAI we received from Optimism. Do you agree with this?

  • Yes, reimburse DAI from Giveth’s Wallet
  • No, I have another proposal

0 voters

20

We didn’t want to delay reimbursing the team, so we went ahead and sent the reimbursement from Griff’s personal wallet to those eligible and have claimed. Details of this round’s distribution can be found here.

Total home office allowance incurred this round is $2,834.

The multisig transaction to reimburse Griff is up here. We will be reimbursing him USDC on Polygon. Multisig signers, please sign!

2 Likes