Hey folks! I am late with this proposal, but happy to finally get it up.
The Quadratic Funding WG is responsible for all things Giveth QF. We built the Giveth QF product and since have been running rounds and iteratively making improvements to both the product & the process.
You can see our Season 1 WG proposal here.
In this post, I will break down our spending, earnings and achievements since our last proposal, and our proposal for Season 2. LFG!
S1 Deliverable Status
In S1, we requested $36,360 to cover contributor costs to complete the following:
This proposal passed was posted in June 2023 & passed on July 17, 2023.
Deliverable Details & Further Progress
Since our last proposal, the QF product was successful built and launched, and we ran our MVP “Alpha” Round, completing all S1 milestones. We also ran a second “Optimism Round” & third “Giving Season” round successfully from start-to-finish.
Here is a summary of results from these first rounds:
Giveth Alpha Round (July 18 - Aug 1, 2023)
- Matching Pool: 10,000 xDAI on Gnosis Chain (raised from the Quadratic Force)
- Donations: $11,737 raised from individual donors.
- Engagement: 47 verified projects, 246 unique donors, and 919 total donations.
Optimism Round (Oct 9-23, 2023):
- Matching Pool: 25,000 DAI on OP Mainnet (raised from the Quadratic Force)
- Donations: $23,306 raised from individual donors.
- Engagement: 125 verified projects, 388 unique donors, and 1,728 total donations.
Giving Season Round (December 19, 2023 - Jan 2, 2024)
- Matching Pool: 25,000 USDGLO on OP Mainnet (raised from the Quadratic Force)
- Donations from individual donors: $17,125
- Engagement: 85 verified projects, 211 unique donors & 949 total donations.
Buidl on Polygon Round (January 15 - 24, 2024) - Final results TBD
This was a unique round as it was our 1st partner-focused round. The entire matching pool was sponsored by Polygon and they chose the list of projet to include in the round. We ran the round & supported with comms, project curation & marketing.
- Matching Pool: 250,000 MATIC on Polygon PoS (provided by Polygon Labs)
- Donations from individual donors: >$200k
- Engagement: >200 projects projects. Unique donors & total donations TBD
Combined results for above completed rounds:
Although the final data from Polygon is still pending (so we might have to eliminate some donations counting as “recirculated”), the summary of these rounds is as follows:
- $260k in total matching pool funds
- ±$311k towards funding Public Goods through Giveth
“Locked in” Upcoming Rounds
- MetaPool APAC Region - $10k mpETH on OP Mainnet, Feb 19-29, 2024
- ENS Public Goods Builders - 2 x $10k rounds, ETA 1st round start on March 24, 2024
Spending
Our only real expense for QF is contributor salaries, as subscriptions & plans overlap w/ the dApp WG.
| Season | Date range | Spending (on Salaries) | Major Milestones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | June 1 - July 1, 2023 | $15,581 | Built QF |
| 1 | July 1 - Oct 1, 2023 | $22,991 | Alpha Round Juy 18- Aug 1 |
| 1.5 | Oct 1, 2023 - Feb 1, 2024 | $28,070 | Optimism Round Oct 9-23 / Giving Season Round Dec 19-Jan 2 / Polygon Round Jan 15-24 |
Reference: Giveth QF Budget spreadsheet
Earnings
We earn a % of every QF matching pool plus have gained some extra funding by driving donation traffic on Giveth, and experimenting w/ Giver NFT holder nominations.
| Funding Source | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Funds gained from matching pool % fee | $32,000 | This is assuming MATIC price of $0.92 and including funds for all the aforementioned rounds |
| Funds gained from Giver sales during Giving Season & Polygon rounds | $3300 | We sold 23 Givers at 100 DAI each on Mainnet during the Giving Season and an additional 10 during Polygon |
| Donations to Giveth during QF rounds | $2742 | This is including donations to Giveth’s project during Alpha, Optimism, Giving Season & Polygon rounds |
| Total Funds raised for Giveth | $38,042 |
Donations made on Giveth & Other Metrics
In order to save time on database querying troubleshooting (since @cquinterom096 is getting sick of my bugging him), here is some hacky math estimates on how much of our donations on Giveth are associated with QF.
- From our stats dashboard it says that from July 1, 2023 - Feb 1, 2024 there has been about $626,782 of donations
- This includes matching funds distributions from the alpha round & Optimism round, so subtracting those ($35k), donations is: $591,782
- The Giveth project & Giveth matching pool projects were included above and include also some hefty donations from Octant distributions, so if I eliminate those from July 1, 2023 to Feb 1, 2024, total donations approx.: $380,000
- The total donations from QF rounds (to QF eligible projects) alone are approx $11k+$23k+$17k+$203k = $254,000
- And so, roughly, QF rounds were responsible for a minimum of 67% of the organic donations made to Giveth projects over the last 7 months since launch (and this is excluding donations made to non-QF rounds during QF round period).
As for verification, we haven’t been tracking very closely exactly how many verifications were related to QF, but to get an idea:
- Verification applications process in December 2023: 40 (around Giving Season round)
- Verification applications processed in January 2024: 185 (around Polygon round) - which according to @NikolaCreatrix & @WhyldWanderer is a record amount of applications for Giveth.
Season 2 Deliverables & Budget
4 options are available - GROW, SUSTAIN, SHRINK and NO (WG halts or suspends activity)
Grow 
What we will do 
Feature Development
- Expand our UI & backend to handle running multiple QF rounds simultaneously
- Scope out bulk checkout “cart” feature - requested often by donors during feedback rounds
- Improve Admin bro to more easily manage QF rounds without devs & streamline curation process for less manual copy/paste type labour
Fundraising, Accounting & Partnership Management
- Perform regular & active fundraising to raise for the matching pools and attract new QF round partners
- Manage and maintain partnerships w/ existing members of the quadratic force, providing updates to any received grants for QF rounds
Comms, Marketing & Community Building
- Run twitter shill spaces for each QF round
- Create round-specific support guides for projects & donors
- Create & send social media content to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Create & send emails to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Provide support for donors & projects via discord, telegram & email
- Build resources for nonprofits/project owners to make it easier for them to market QF to their communities (example)
- Increase graphic design support for to guides, event announcements, round details & other comms for QF rounds
Ops
- Project curation, round management, sybil analysis & funds distribution for all locked-in & committed-to rounds: Buidl on Polygon (Jan), MetaPool (Feb), ENS1 (Mar), ENS2 (Apr)
- Create assembly line flow for running QF rounds
- Collect, review & incorporate user feedback
Core Metrics 
Matching pool totals Feb-May: $30,000
Number of Rounds Feb-May: 3
Donations in the rounds Feb-May: $30,000
Extra funding secured for future matching rounds: $20,000
 Breakdown |
Estimated S2 (3 month) Cost |
|---|---|
| Feature Development | $17,500 |
| Fundraising | $6,500 |
| Comms/Community | $6100 |
| Ops | $29,500 |
| Total | $59,600 |
Note: devops and services are covered by dapp wg but still needed for QF
Sustain 
What we will do
Feature Development
- Improve Admin bro to more easily manage QF rounds without devs & streamline curation process for less manual copy/paste type labour
Fundraising, Accounting & Partnership Management
- Perform regular & active fundraising to raise for the matching pools and attract new QF round partners
- Manage and maintain partnerships w/ existing members of the quadratic force, providing updates to any received grants for QF rounds
Comms, Marketing & Community Building
- Run twitter shill spaces for each QF round
- Create round-specific support guides for projects & donors
- Create & send social media content to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Create & send emails to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Provide support for donors & projects via discord, telegram & email
Ops
- Project curation, round management, sybil analysis & funds distribution for all locked-in & committed-to rounds: Buidl on Polygon (Jan), MetaPool (Feb), ENS1 (Mar), ENS2 (Apr)
- Create assembly line flow for running QF rounds
Core Metrics
Matching pool totals Feb-May: $30,000
Number of Rounds Feb-May: 3
Donations in the rounds Feb-May: $30,000
Extra funding secured for future matching rounds: $20,000
| Breakdown |
Estimated S2 (3 month) Cost |
|---|---|
| Feature Development | $5000 |
| Fundraising | $6500 |
| Comms/Community | $5000 |
| Ops | $26,000 |
| Total | $42,500 |
Note: devops and services are covered by dapp wg but still needed for QF
Shrink 
What we will do
Comms, Marketing & Community Building
- Create round-specific support guides for projects & donors
- Create & send social media content to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Create & send emails to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Provide support for donors & projects via discord, telegram & email
Ops
- Project curation, round management, sybil analysis & funds distribution for all locked-in & committed-to rounds: Buidl on Polygon (Jan), MetaPool (Feb), ENS1 (Mar), ENS2 (Apr)
Core Metrics
Matching pool totals Feb-May: $30,000
Number of Rounds Feb-May: 2
Donations in the rounds Feb-May: $30,000
Extra funding secured for future matching rounds: None
| Breakdown |
Estimated S2 (3 month) Cost |
|---|---|
| Comms/Community | $5000 |
| Ops | $26,000 |
| Total | $31,000 |
Conclusions & Final Notes
QF has been an EXTREMELY big growth mechanism for Giveth leading to the significantly more donations, significantly more projects & even a small but promising source of revenue.
This proposal will remain open for advice process for one week and will move to Snapshot voting for final approval from the DAO.