We’re proud to announce the latest funding round of the OpenCivics Grants Program: the Collaborative Research Round!
📝 Applications are open 07/24 - 08/06
💸 Donations are open 08/07 - 08/21
The OpenCivics Collaborative Research Round is designed to foster collaboration among researchers and civic innovators to produce open source research & knowledge production that serves community organizers to access the power of web3 and civic innovation.
Projects are required to submit as a team or pod which offers an opportunity to experiment with on-chain collaboration and the co-governance of open-source civic engagement research. We’re specifically looking for research initiatives that are exploring the following areas of focus:
Impact and contribution measurement, reporting, and valuation
Commons governance, self-organization, and decision-making
Collaborative knowledge management, learning, and sensemaking
Open protocols, community templates, and coordination infrastructure
Community currencies, cooperatives, and alternative economics
Decentralized project management, roles, and certifications
Resource allocation, funding mechanisms, and funding sources
Collaboration and Showcase
A key aspect of this research round is the emphasis on collaboration. Participants must agree to coordinate and collaborate with other grantees during and after the research round. This collaborative effort will enable the sharing of knowledge, resources, and playbooks designed to serve local civic engagement. The culmination of this collaboration will be the Grantee Impact Showcase, where all grantees will present their research findings, highlighting the collective achievements and insights gained through their cooperative efforts.
Funding and Governance
Grant applications must direct funds to multi-signature wallets. If you’re interested in applying and need help getting one set up, please reach out to us on Telegram.
Projects must also specify the collaborative mechanism they will use to govern, evaluate, and compensate participant contributions. This ensures transparency and accountability in the management of funds and contributions.
Milestones & Reporting
Projects must outline reasonable and verifiable milestones for low, medium, and large funding outcomes. These milestones will help track progress and ensure that projects remain on course to achieve their goals. OpenCivics is proud to be providing leadership among the round operators of all the Gitcoin Community Rounds to expand and improve the supporting infrastructures for grantees to report on their impact.
Implementing Learnings From Last Round
We’re continuing to iterate based on insights from our last round, including a smaller matching cap (15%) and exploring solutions for processing credit card donations. While our previous rounds limited the number of grantees to a specific number, this round will admit all eligible projects to compete for funding. We’re committed to continued learning and development in each round, perpetually refining our capacity to deploy and improve upon novel mechanisms for public goods funding.
The Purpose Of The Round
This round extends OpenCivics’ mission to empower communities with web3 coordination tools for civic engagement and collective action. The research developed through this round will be shared as a public good, providing educational resources and foundational explorations that support civic innovators and local community organizers.
This applied research will help communities self-organize and will broaden the scope of how web3 tools can be leveraged across the civics and community organizing design space. Documented case studies, curricula, and research will help communities coordinate to meet their own needs and transform their local governance and economies.
We look forward to reading your applications and sharing our collective research in the coming days, weeks, and months.
In Us We Trust,
OpenCivics Stewards