Hello everyone,
It’s great to see how the grants program has been developing since launch, there’s clear momentum building around the ecosystem.
I previously led the Cartesi Grants Program, where I helped distribute $1M in funding and scaled the grants program from pilot to maturity. I have also contributed to ENS DAO as a grantee, building a tool that enabled the community to redirect websites using ENS names, hosted on IPFS with the contenthash stored on ENS.
Drawing from those experiences in both worlds (as a grants program lead and a grantee), I wanted to share a few reflections that might support the continued growth of the grants program.
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In the early phases of grant programs, there’s often a gap between what the community proposes to build and what the core team and the project considers impactful.
At Cartesi, we found the best way to bridge this is by introducing a shared “north star” — a clear sense of what outcomes align with the project’s direction. Optimism does this through Collective Intents, and Gitcoin recently used a similar idea with Dedicated Domain Allocation to help the community and the project stay aligned around common goals.
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I noticed the program has 3 funding tracks, which is a great way to guide applicants. One approach that worked well for us was milestone-based funding, where grantees define their own milestones during the application process, and payments are released only once each milestone is completed.
This structure helped us balance trust and accountability, while giving both reviewers and the wider community a transparent way to track progress and verify outcomes throughout each project’s lifecycle.
Would love to hear how the grants committee and community are thinking about shaping the next phase of the program.