Gitcoin DAO 2026 Budget Request [First Tranche]

TL;DR

This seeks funding for DAO operations through January 2026 - December 2026, funds released in two tranches. The DAO 2026 Strategy presents an integrated approach to governance, builder engagement, and ecosystem growth, focusing on progressive decentralization and global expansion. We are requesting $1,053,469 from the treasury to execute this vision. We did not spend the reserves from the 2025 budget, therefore it will carry forward to the 2026 budget request.

Note: Grants Lab dissolved mid-2025, and in H2 of 2025 we moved into the Gitcoin 3.0 era; this request represents our evolved strategic direction.

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Vision: A future where Ethereum funds its foundations and future through ecosystem coordination.

Mission: Fund What Matters.

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Current State & Progress

The DAO navigated significant organizational changes throughout 2025, focusing on stability, restructuring and financial sustainability:

• Maintained and took over essential organization operations through the Grants Lab spindown mid 2025
• Sustained Gitcoin Grants builder satisfaction rate at +80%
• Achieved our first domain-led GG round with minimal resources
• Initiated governance structure experiments
• Structurally adapted to meet a more financially sustainable model moving forward

These accomplishments, while modest, provide a foundation for our more ambitious 2026 plans. Gitcoin deliberately hit the brakes in 2025. We spun down burn, shed organizational debt, and returned to a founder-stewarded, lean network.

Organizational Context

With the dissolution of Grants Lab mid-2025, and a shift towards Gitcoin 3.0 in H2 of 2025, the DAO has continued to operate on minimal resources within budget constraints, while restructuring for greater efficiency. The key changes that were made since the last budget request is as follows:

• Dissolution of Gitcoin’s business unit, Grants Lab
• A renewed focus on the Gitcoin Grants program
• A return of Kevin Owocki, leading the organization as Executive Steward
• A shift towards Gitcoin 3.0, building the infrastructure for pluralistic, domain-driven funding. The first pilot was run in GG24
• After three prior eras (PMF → QF scale → DAO/enterprise overreach), 2025 marked a reset: no organizational debt, lean core team, and strategic optionality.

Gitcoin’s next era in 2026 is organized around activating three reinforcing legs:

1. Alignment Build coalitions that align technology, capital, and human thriving (e.g. public goods, d/acc, privacy, open source).
2. Alpha Attract top-tier builders, founders, and funders — and develop the capability to spot early, high-upside opportunities.
3. Accelerate Return to Gitcoin 0.1 velocity: lean teams, fast iteration, high-quality execution.

2025 Achievements

In the DAO’s last budget request, these key goals were outlined and tracked:

Key Goals for 2025

Governance

Goal/MilestoneStatusNotesUpdates to Governance Handbook: Define core principles and decision-making frameworks to guide progressive decentralization.Not completed as it was not set as a priority when the team restructured.Introduce a DAO Coordinator to oversee governance, context-sharing, and operational alignment.The DAO coordinator introduced operational alignment. Eventually the role was reduced in order to save on operational overhead.Attract and support builders through improved governance and community engagement.GG24 saw a steady 80% satisfaction from builders, and an increase in high quality applications.Decentralize governance processes, with 50%+ community-driven decisions by year-end.Gitcoin’s 3.0 model is largely community-driven and we saw a significant increase in community participation during sensemaking szn for GG24, with 20+ proposals driven by the community. We plan to continue this community-led model in GG25.Onboard high-caliber stewards while fostering stronger DAO-to-DAO relationships.We experimented with paid delegates for the majority of 2025, which increased governance participation, but did not bear DAO-to-DAO relationships as we had aimed for. We dissolved this initiative.Execute a 2025 events strategy targeting APAC, SEA, and LATAM to expand builder engagement.We made the decision to reduce our engagement to only Devconnect in Buenos Aires, where we hosted Schelling Point and participated at the main event. We will revisit a wider events strategy in 2026, depending on budgetary constraints and expected outcomes.Execute a new governance strategy that includes engaging 5 high-context ecosystem-savvy paid delegates.An experiment that increased governance participation with leading ecosystem delegates. It, however, did not lead to the fruitful business goals we set out, therefore we spun down the initiative in 2025.

Builder Engagement

By engaging and supporting builders, we’re directly increasing adoption and activity on Allo and within our GG rounds to support Gitcoin’s North Star.

Goal/MilestoneStatusNotesExpand Builder Community: Onboard 500+ new builders globally, with a focus on LATAM, APAC, and SEA.Our focus was mainly focused on attracting and onboarding high quality builders in GG24, deciding not to actively expand our scope yet to certain global areas. This can be revisited in 2026.Promote Accessible Funding: Encourage 100+ Gitcoin Community Proposals (GCPs) and Requests for Proposals (RFPs).We no longer actively encourage GCP’s and RFP’s due to budgetary constraints.Support Innovation: Enable MVP development through hackathons and bounties to showcase Allo’s potential.Allo’s strategy intertwined with Gitcoin was not followed through as the Allo team took on its own goals internally instead.

Our strategy was adapted to the shift into a Gitcoin 3.0-led GG24, which was predominantly domain-led. In order to attract and retain high quality builders, we sought the correct domains to fund first. We achieved a coalitional funding goal of having +50% of gitcoin.eth’s matching being matched by outside funders.

Regional Events

Goal/MilestoneStatusNotesHost 3+ Regional Events: Engage builders in LATAM, APAC, and SEA through hackathons, workshops, and community meetups.We hosted Schelling Point in Buenos Aires during Devconnect, participated in the main event where we were able to create some IRL time builders and community members. We decided to keep our engagement to one event for budgetary reasons.Amplify Ecosystem Awareness: Ensure 70% of attendees understand Gitcoin’s broader ecosystem.Launched Gitcoin 3.0 at Devconnect main as well as Schelling Point in Buenos Aires, focusing on amplifying the new direction of Gitcoin.Promote Local Innovation: Partner with local organizations to co-create impactful funding experiments.Ran a partnership with Funding the Commons in Buenos Aires, co-hosting an impactful PGF-focused event in

... please visit link below to view full proposal

https://tally.xyz/gov/gitcoin/proposal/71297445673138093821499487099523311360281460799525284241135685496285495937867