by Will Corcoran on January 28, 2022

Since its launch in August of 2020, the Stacks Foundation Grants Program’s mission has been consistent:

In the 16 months since its inception, the Grants Program has aimed to create an open, efficient, and transparent process that creates a path for ‘builders’ (passionate individuals with a technical, design, and/or community growth skillset) around the world to contribute to this mission.

Highlighted data:

• We’ve awarded approximately 100 grants to builders and teams
• Of these grants, approximately 30 have supported 6 amazing Stacks Chapters with their work in local communities across the globe
• The remaining 70 or so grants have been awarded to projects led by builders and teams including (but not limited to): ALEX, Arkadiko, Ryder, daoOS, StackerDAO, Stacking.club, Pravica, Friedger, Asteria, and Pseudozach
• In total, the Grants Program has awarded approximately 300,000 STX and $440,000 USD to grantees to date

The grants review committee is always very thoughtful about what projects the network needs, but there will inevitably be needs that emerge that we won’t be aware of. As such, we are contemplating ways to decentralize the grant review process to include more people to help with the speed of the review process and represent more points of view.

There are a number of ways this transformation could take shape, becoming a DAO certainly being one of them. It's an option we’ve been casually discussing as a team and with the community that consistently comes up. Given the model of the grant program, it seems like a natural fit and for that reason, we will be pointing our initial explorations in that direction. However, we are only beginning this process and we need help from the community to ensure we not only arrive at the right structure but the right implementation of said structure as well.

The first step in this exploratory process is to assemble a small team of Grants Ambassadors. The Ambassadors will work with Stacks Foundation staff and together they will form a Working Group. The success of this next phase in the Grants Program and any moves towards decentralization will largely be driven by the Ambassadors.

We are looking for 6-12 Ambassadors for this program. Applicants should be:

• Representatives from the Stacks and/or Bitcoin community.
• Proficient in one of the three areas: Technical, Design, and Community.
• Incredibly knowledgeable about Web 3 and Crypto.

Please see this detailed overview of the Grants Ambassador role. We invite you to apply or refer an amazing candidate. And yes, there is a referral bonus!

If you have questions or would like to learn more, please tune into this Twitter Spaces on Monday, January 31st at 5pm EST.