OpenCivics Grants Program + Lobby3 Sunset Strategy

Title: OpenCivics Grants Program + Lobby3 Sunset Strategy

Authors: Clinamenic

Team: Reneedaos, Aphilos, Clinamenic, the OpenCivics team

Date Created: 08/07/23

Date Posted: 08/15/23

SUMMARY

This proposal concerns the official winding down of Lobby3 and its operations, and the liquidation of remaining assets to benefit the public good. Specifically, we propose to use the rest of the ETH (~36 ETH) from the token sale to fund multiple quadratic funding rounds for civics-related and advocacy-related nonprofit projects, and for a final modest retroactive compensation for the three directors.

Lobby3 would donate to the matching pool of a quadratic funding grants protocol (using Grants Stack) which would be managed by OpenCivics, a consortium of innovators and technologists in the domain of civics. Specifically, Lobby3 would contribute $25,000 worth of ETH to the first season of this grants program, while the rest of the ETH will be reserved either for a following OpenCivics season, or some other grants program, depending on the success of this first season. The main action being proposed here is that our ETH be given to public goods projects, in order for Lobby3 to wind down.

While the OpenCivics consortium, which will include Lobby3 core team personnel, will be managing its own instance of the Grants Stack protocol, we will also join the main Gitcoin grants season as a featured round. Being a featured round requires that the matching pool contain at least $25,000 of matching funds. You can read more about the featured round eligibility criteria here.

BACKGROUND

Renee has prior experience designing quadratic funding rounds, specifically the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) round in the previous Gitcoin season. Her experience should help us avoid making certain rookie mistakes, and her personal commitment to DEI promises to ensure that the OpenCivics program is just that: equitable and inclusive. She also helped develop the Decentralized Science (DeSci) community grants round, and facilitated a $50k matching donation to said round.

Clinamenic first made contact with Benjamin Life, co-founder of OpenCivics, almost a year ago, for a podcast collaboration. Since then, Ben and the others at OpenCivics have demonstrated not only a shared set of values with Lobby3, but also an interest in operating a quadratic funding program. Now that Gitcoin has Grants Stack available for anyone to manage a program, this dream can become a reality.

Aphilos became a Lobby3 Director in January 2023, has been managing the development of Lobby3’s investment in DeVox and is continuing this work by supporting the OpenCivics recruiting and fundraising efforts.

Also part of this conversation have been prominent representatives of LexDAO, ATX DAO, and Gitcoin, and so far it has been a beautifully collaborative interorganizational effort to establish the foundations for this grants program. Collectively, we hope to help jumpstart a new sector of web3 applications which can be referred to as DeCiv, or decentralized civics. We’re hoping the OpenCivics grants program can help catalyze this new domain of use cases.

MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT

Lobby3 was founded with the intention of civically empowering web3 users and developers, and this grants program is a culmination of our work.

SCOPE OF WORK

Lobby3 will allocate $25,000 worth of ETH (~13.65 at the time of writing) to be sent to the first season of the OpenCivics grants program, and Renee will join the grants management committee within OpenCivics to help oversee the program.

Retroactive compensations will also be made to the three directors, at 2 ETH per director. This leaves ~16.47 ETH to be allocated for additional public goods funding, be that a second OpenCivics round (if the first is successful), or some other grants program.

Aside from the transfer of funds, the scope of this proposal mostly includes strategy and management work pertaining to the grants program, on a seasonal basis. Seeing as OpenCivics is a consortium, the management personnel may switch from season to season.

BRAND USAGE

Lobby3’s brand and name may be used (EG mentioned as a leading donor) in copy and marketing materials relating to the OpenCivics grants program. Lobby3 will transition attention and mindshare into this grants program, to give it more of a life of its own and enable it to persist across multiple seasons of grant-giving.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

13.65 ETH allocated for the first season of the OpenCivics grants program 2 ETH to be sent to Renee 2 ETH to be sent to Aphilos 2 ETH to be sent to Clinamenic ~16.47 ETH allocated for additional public goods funding, such as a second OpenCivics round if the first is successful. SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIS

The grants program will be a success if we deliver funding to multiple promising civics-related or advocacy-related projects which benefit the public good. Such projects often have difficulty acquiring funding, seeing as public goods often don’t translate to ROI opportunities for investors. Innovative philanthropic funding systems like Grants Stack provide infrastructure for us to give our remaining ETH to capable teams pushing the technological frontiers of civics and advocacy.

NEXT STEPS

Disburse final ETH retroactive compensations to directors, send 13.65 ETH to the designated OpenCivics wallet, and allocate remaining ETH for additional public goods funding.

By voting in favor of this proposal at the draft stage, you are also accepting that the active proposal will make use of the quadratic voting method, in addition to a sybil-resistant whitelist of all tokenholders at the moment this draft proposal is posted. This measure is being taken in the interest of protecting the decentralized integrity of the Lobby3 Legacy DAO, in light of prior plutocratic circumstances.

TEAM BACKGROUND

Renee, Clinamenic, and Aphilos joined Lobby3 as core team members, in that order, and have been co-directors together for several months.