The Quadratic Funding WG is responsible for everything related to QF at Giveth. In the last few months, we’ve been operating QF rounds and iteratively making improvements to both the product & processes.
You review past WG proposals here:
This post contains a breakdown of our spending, earnings, and achievements in Season 4, as well as outline what lies ahead for Season 5.
S4 Deliverable Retrospective
| Deliverable | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Improve estimated matching shown in the UI to more accurately represent the calculations of Cluster Match QF |  IN PROGRESS |
This work is still ongoing. Carlos is leading the efforts to host the COCM Python script in order to use it for estimated matching calculations. |
| Add a celebratory page and round stats to giveth.io/qf after a round ends; keep the page up 24/7 |  DONE |
This is completed and live at Giveth | Archived QF Rounds |
| Perform regular & active fundraising to raise for the matching pools and attract new QF round partners | DONE |
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 | DONE |
Qforce members were updated on current rounds, upsold for more sponsorships, and provided with continuous program updated where applicable. |
| Run 1-2 Twitter shill spaces for each QF round | DONE |
We ran 2 spaces per QF round - see Giveth X account for recordings |
| Create round-specific support guides for projects & donors | DONE |
Each round had a support guide/website - recent ones are linked on this page. |
| Create & send social media content to support projects & attract donors for rounds | DONE |
Lots of content went out over X, farcaster, and linkedin during rounds, worked on in conjunction with our communications team. |
| Create & send emails to support projects & attract donors for rounds | DONE |
Multiple emails (announcement, last days to donate, results, etc) were sent out for each QF round. |
| Provide support for donors & projects via discord, telegram & email | DONE |
The support team and QF team collaborated to provide support to donors and projects in a timely manner for all QF rounds. |
| Project curation, round management, Sybil analysis & funds distribution for all locked-in rounds: GIV-Earth, GIV-ARB, & GIV-a-Palooza | IN PROGRESS |
GIV-Earth and GIV-ARB completed, GIV-a-Palooza pending funds distribution. |
| Round setup & execution work to ensure at least 3 QF rounds this season. (July, Aug, Sept) | IN PROGRESS |
S4 had 3 QF rounds, listed above. |
Spending Review
| Estimated S4 (3 month) Cost | Actual S4 Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries | $47,100 | $58,682 |
Reference: Giveth QF Budgeting Spreadsheet
Earnings Review
| Funding Source | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Matching pool 15% fee | $9750 | From GIV-Earth & GIV-a-Palooza |
| GIV-ARB round ops grant | 7,100 ARB = approx. $3900 | From hasty coordination and lack of advice process, we received less for ops than we’d usually charge for a round this size. |
| Funds gained from Giver sales during S4 | $3300 | We sold 33 Givers at 100 DAI each on Mainnet since July 1 |
| Donations to Giveth during major QF rounds | $1509 | This considers USD value donated to The Giveth Community of Makers Project during S4 QF rounds. |
| Totals | $18,459 |
Core Metrics Review
| Metric | Goal (July-Sept 2024) | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Matching Pools Totals | $175,000 |  ±$160,000 |
| Number of QF Rounds | 3 | 3 |
| Donations in QF Rounds | $40,000 | $90,521 |
| Extra funding secured for future rounds | $50,000+ | $0 |
Round Stats Review
| GIV-Earth | GIV-ARB | GIV-a-Palooza | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dates (2024) | June 25 - July 9 | July 30 - August 13 | September 10 - 24 |
| Matching Pool | 40,000 USDGLO on Celo | 150,000 ARB on Arbitrum | 25,000 USDGLO on Base |
| USD Donated | $44,735 | $18,960 | $26,826 |
| Total funding to projects from this round: | ±$84,735 | ±$108,960 | ±$51,826 |
| Eligible Projects | 75 | 79 | 106 |
| Total Donations | 3249 | 1552 | 2393 |
| Unique Donors | 478 | 668 | 494 |
Observations
- This season we were over budget on contributor costs by approx. $11,000.
- QF brought in approximately $18,500, meaning it covered about 31% of its total (overbudget) cost to Giveth ($58,682).
- The GIV-ARB round was significant drain on resources and was a result of the proposal being submitted with improper budget estimates and without time for advice process.
- The QF WG is scaling down and will be continuing into Season 5 with no full-time PM.
Season 5 Deliverables & Budget
There are 3 proposals for this next season - Grow, Sustain & Shrink - with budgest and deliverables for each broken down below. Note that all fundraising activities for QF have been moved to the Fundraising WG for this Season.
GROW 
What we will do
Wrapping up leftover issues from S4
- Complete funds distributions, dapp updates & project communications for GIV-ARB and GIV-a-Palooza
- Improve estimated matching shown in the UI to more accurately represent the calculations of Cluster Match QF
- Resolve open issues related to MBD (donor eligibility) system inefficiencies and bugs that arose during the last QF rounds
Grow the Team
- Hire a new round manager for QF to start in Dec: Create job posting, search & filter candidates, conduct interviews
- Onboarding new QF manager (December)
Improving QF
- Improve the design and layout of the Giveth homepage and (QF project navigation flow) to more easily navigate to and within active QF rounds
Manage & Operate 1 QF Round & up to 1 additional QF round according to won grants (e.g. Stellar)
- Set round specifications, onboard & curate projects
- Run 3 Twitter spaces for each QF round
- Create a round-specific support guide for projects & donors
- Create & send social media content & emails to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Provide support for donors & projects via discord, telegram & email
- Conduct sybil analysis & funds distribution
Core Metrics 
- Matching pool totals: $25,000 for the guaranteed round + $100k for 1 additional sponsored round
- Number of Rounds: 1-2
- Donations in the rounds: $25,000 with 1 round / $50,000 with 2 rounds
- Complete all open issues related to QF, created prior to Oct 8, 2024
Budget
| Task | Estimated S5 Cost |
|---|---|
| Wrapping up from S4 | $6,300 |
| Growing the Team | $18,800 |
| Improving QF | $900 |
| Managing 1 QF Round | $13,000 |
| Optional: Managing up to 1 more QF Round | $13,000 |
| Total | $39,000 + Optional $13,000* |
*The $13,000 required to cover this solo-sponsored round will come out of the % fee to run that round, and will require a minimum matching pool of $87,000 USD equivalent.
SUSTAIN 
What we will do
Wrapping up leftover issues from S4
- Complete funds distributions, dapp updates & project communications for GIV-ARB and GIV-a-Palooza
- Improve estimated matching shown in the UI to more accurately represent the calculations of Cluster Match QF
- Resolve open issues related to MBD (donor eligibility) system inefficiencies and bugs that arose during the last QF rounds
Improving QF
- Improve the design and layout of the Giveth homepage and (QF project navigation flow) to more easily navigate to and within active QF rounds
Manage up to 1 additional QF round according to won grants (e.g. Stellar)
- Set round specifications, onboard & curate projects
- Run 3 Twitter spaces for each QF round
- Create a round-specific support guide for projects & donors
- Create & send social media content & emails to support projects & attract donors for rounds
- Provide support for donors & projects via discord, telegram & email
- Conduct sybil analysis & funds distribution
What we won’t do
- Hire a new round manager for QF to start in Dec: Create job posting, search & filter candidates, conduct interviews
- Onboarding new QF manager (December)
- Manage 1 guaranteed QF round
Core Metrics
- Matching pool totals: Optional $100k for 1 solo-sponsored round
- Number of Rounds: up to 1
- Donations in the rounds: up to $25,000 for 1 QF round
- Complete all open issues related to QF, created prior to Oct 8, 2024
Budget
| Task | Estimated S5 Cost |
|---|---|
| Wrapping up from S4 | $6,300 |
| Improving QF | $900 |
| Optional: Managing up to 1 solo-sponsored QF Round | $13,000 |
| Total | $7,200 + Optional $13,000* |
*The $13,000 required to cover this solo-sponsored round will come out of the % fee to run that round, and will require a minimum matching pool of $87,000 USD equivalent.
SHRINK 
What we will do
Wrapping up leftover issues from S4
- Complete funds distributions, dapp updates & project communications for GIV-ARB and GIV-a-Palooza
- Improve estimated matching shown in the UI to more accurately represent the calculations of Cluster Match QF
- Resolve open issues related to MBD (donor eligibility) system inefficiencies and bugs that arose during the last QF rounds
What we won’t do
- Hire a new round manager for QF to start in Dec: Create job posting, search & filter candidates, conduct interviews
- Onboarding new QF manager (December)
- Improve the design and layout of the Giveth homepage and (QF project navigation flow) to more easily navigate to and within active QF rounds
- Manage 1 guaranteed QF round
- Manage up to 1 additional QF round according to won grants (e.g. Stellar)
Core Metrics
- Complete all open issues related to QF, created prior to Oct 8, 2024
Budget
| Task | Estimated S5 Cost |
|---|---|
| Wrapping up from S4 | $6,300 |
| Total | $6,300 |
Next Steps
Quadratic Funding has been a great source of traffic and donations for Giveth, but as we reflect on last season and prepare for Gurves, we have chosen to significantly scale down this WG for the next 3 months (in all levels of the proposal). This will free up resources to support with running q/acc rounds, and preparing for the launch of Gurves!
This forum post will remain up and open for advice until all other Working Groups Proposals entering this Season have met minimum advice process. After that we will move to a Snapshot vote to decide the priorities of the Giveth DAO for the next 3 months.
When we have the outcome of the Snapshot vote we will meet as DAO Stewards to finalize the scopes of all WGs based on the available Season budget.
BTW Major praise to @koday @Griff @JakeS @mitch @cquinterom096 @freshelle for helping me compile this proposal! Could not have done it without you.