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Grant Committee Handbook

History & Purpose

Unlock, Inc. owns about 80% of the governance tokens supply. Our goal is to distribute at least 20% of those through grants. We have joined forces with Gitcoin to help distribute some of those tokens. Additionally, we have this direct UDT grant program to continue encouraging building on Unlock Protocol. This handbook intends to provide instructions to those participating in the UDT Grants program as committee members.

Committee Function

Each grant application undergoes an initial review by the core team to weed out spam and incomplete applications. The purpose of the grant committee is to review grant applications that have moved past the initial assessment. The scores gathered from grant committee member reviews will be totaled by a grant administrator and averaged to determine if they meet the minimum scoring requirements and to what grant level the applicant will receive.

Grant Administrators

Currently the Unlock Labs team has two members who play a role in helping with the administrative function of overseeing the grants program runs smoothly.

  • Angela Steffens, Primary Administrator
  • Julien Genestoux, Payments & Backup Administrator

Responsibilities

As a member of the grants committee, we ask that you regularly check the designated place to review grants and follow the outlined process for those reviews within two weeks of being assigned a grant review.

Because we understand that people sometimes take vacations, have periods where they’re not as available, or have to step back for one reason, we know if you don’t get to 100% of the assigned grants. The system allows this level of flexibility by assigning four committee members to each grant application for reviews but only needing two finished reviews to move the application to the next stage. So the goal is to get to a minimum of 50% of the grants you are assigned. Suppose you fall below the threshold of 50% review completion during any quarterly period. In that case, we will ask you to step down from the grants committee to allow another community member to take your place.

In addition to grant reviews, you will also be asked to attend a quarterly grant committee meeting to give feedback to the grant administrator for improvements, discuss any issues with the rest of the grants committee, and provide feedback on the outcomes. If you can't attend that meeting, you will be given a recording of the session and are asked instead to provide written comments. The result of those meetings will be recommendations for changes to the program which the grant administrator will turn into a proposal to be voted on by the DAO membership.

Joining the Grant Committee

Each committee member will fill out a Grant Committee Application. That application will be voted on by the DAO for approval. Minimum requirements to serve on the committee are included in the application so please read through those carefully before filling it out.

Promotion & Marketing

As a DAO it is understood that committee members will be working openly and transparently, but in addition to that Unlock, Inc. and Unlock DAO may use their names and bios in promotional and marketing materials. By joining the grants committee you should understand the level of visibility the position may require. This is not a position where anon applicants would be appropriate because as a decision maker on the distribution of DAO treasury tokens it’s a position of responsibility that requires visibility to gain trust from the greater community.