We have raised 10k to distribute to the NEW INC Community through a frictionless application and democratic, community-led distribution process. We are seeking applicants and voters from the community to participate in our first experiment in community grant making. Please read on for all the nitty gritty — how to apply, registering to vote and more! For live updates follow us on Instagram or Twitter.
Overview
After months of research, model development, workshops and conversations, we are excited to announce Unnamed Fund’s first funding experiment. We have raised $10k in ETH and CELO to democratically distribute to our creative community through a community-led quadratic vote.
In consultation with community we have decided to forgo traditionally strict guidelines for applications and voting and instead ask that both applicants and voters agree to a set of community values and participation principles as an act of radical community decision making power. We have prepared these values and principles to help guide this experiment for Unnamed Fund, and support the experience of both applicants and voters. We acknowledge the bias in developing any process, and the possibility of imperfect outcomes. We seek to learn from this experiment, and share our findings transparently with the community.
Community Values
These values were developed in consultation with the NEW INC community.
- Frictionless: We are committed to frictionless process with minimal submission and reporting requirements, and a quick turnaround.
- Unbiased: We seek to address bias in funding through radical community decision making.
- Transparent: We strive to provide transparency and clarity throughout this process.
- Impactful: We seek to understand how we can impact broad set of voices in the community.
Principles of Participation
- Experimental Methodologies: We ask participants to embrace the experimental nature of this process — we do not claim to have all the answers, and we seek to fund creative practice in the pursuit of more knowledge.
- Community Trust: We ask participants to place trust in the NEW INC community — applications and voting will be guided by the collective decision making of the community in concert with these values and principles.
- Radical Review: We ask participants to practice radical review — acknowledging that there are many different ways of thinking, writing, and forming ideas. Think broadly when submitting and reviewing materials.
- Messy Outcomes: We ask participants to acknowledge that this experiment will result in messy and imperfect outcomes — We embrace this imperfection, seek to learn from this process, and share our findings.
- Seek Accountability: We ask the community to join us in seeking to be accountable to all outcomes — whatever our findings, we will build accountability in commune with the community.
Experiment #1
The process
Community participation in both the application and voting process will lead to the most impactful outcomes for this experiment. Applications will be submitted via google form during the application period between July 7-15, and community voter registration will be open from June 20 - July 10. We will host two open hours Applicant Support Sessions on July 7 & 12 and a Community Vote Workshop on July 18. After applications are submitted, the NEW INC community will democratically vote on how to distribute our pool of money. We are facilitating a blind review process for this experiment and only the funding request portion of applications will be visible to voters. Review and voting will be open for one week (July 18-25). Fundees will be announced on August 1, and funds will be distributed by August 15.
Who is paying for this?
Funding for this experiment is supported, in part, by Web3 - including generous funding support from Ocelot Labs as CELO and m.club as ETH. OCELOT is a collective that democratically controls a multi-signature safe for CELO grants, and has a focus for grantmaking in four categories: Research and Development on Open Source Projects; Radical Experimentation; Emerging Markets; Community Growth. mCLUB is a DAO whose mission is to support projects within the Mirror ecosystem. The group introduced a snapshot vote which received overwhelming support from their community. As part of the proposal, mCLUB contributed 2ETH towards our crowdfund. Unnamed Fund is also a recipient of the Next Web Seed Grant in partnership with NEW INC and Meta Open Arts, this funding supports our ongoing research.
Timeline
- Voter Registration Period June 23 - July 10
- Application Period July 7, 10:00 AM EDT - July 15, 11:59 AM EDT
- Applicant Support Sessions July 7 & 12, 6:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
- Community Vote Workshop July 18, 6:30pm - 8:30pm EDT
- Review & Voting Period July 18, 10:00 AM EDT - July 25, 11:59 AM EDT
- Awardees Advised August 1
- Funds Dispersed August 15
- Awardees Announced August 15
- Findings Published September/October 2022
Apply
What can you apply for?
There are no restrictions on purpose or project. There are also no deliverables. We only ask that you consent to being surveyed/contacted after the experiment. Funds in this experiment are completely unrestricted - meaning you can apply for funding for any purpose, including but not limited to: an experimental idea, personal expenses such as rent or healthcare, seed funding for a company, project completion funding, research, or anything else you can imagine!
Who can apply for funding?
Applicants must be NEW INC affiliated, this includes current members, alumni, and staff from current or prior years only (we hope to include mentors in future rounds, but applications are not open to mentors at this time). Applicants may apply as individuals, collaborators, or teams, and applications may include collaborations with people outside of NEW INC. Only one person is required to complete the application, and this person must be the NEW INC affiliate.
Funding requests
The total funding pool for this experiment is 10K, and each funding request will apply for a % share of the total funding pool, rather than a specific $ amount. If you get funded, you may receive more or less than the percentage requested. The application will ask some brief questions about the applicant/s and three questions about your Funding Request — a title, and a short description (500 words max), and the % of the pool you are requesting. This is the application in its entirety! Applicants may submit more than one application for different funding requests.
How do you get $$$?
Selected fundees will need to set up a digital wallet in order to receive funds, and we will contact selected fundees with instructions. We will also provide support to any fundees who need help setting up their digital wallet. As we are an unincorporated, experimental fund, this is the most frictionless way for us to run this experiment at this time. If the use of ETH or CELO is a deal breaker for you, please reach out to us - we’d love to hear why, and we also hope to run future experiments in other currencies including USD.
Support sessions
We will be hosting two open hours sessions where applicants can drop in to ask questions about the application process, facilitated by the Unnamed Fund team. Sessions will be held on Zoom on July 7 & 12, 6:30pm - 8:30pm EDT and you can drop in anytime during the session, for as long or as little as you need.
>>>>>>> ADD A SUPPORT SESSION TO YOUR CALENDAR JULY 7 OR JULY 12
Vote
The vote
Community participation in the voting process is crucial to the impact of this experiment. There are no external reviewers — only eligible NEW INC Community who register to vote will review applications and vote. By distributing the labor of application evaluation and decision making agency to the community, we are empowering collective action with direct community impact. Through this process, we seek to foster a more transparent funding experience.
Who votes?
Voting is open to applicants and the community (current members, alumni, and staff past and present) who wish to participate in collective decision making for the distribution of funds to the community. We strongly encourage applicants and all who are eligible to support the community by participating in the vote. We place trust in this community to not vote for themselves ;)
Quadratic voting
The vote will determine which projects get funded and how much money each one gets, using a method called quadratic voting — designed to reflect how strongly people feel about proposals rather than a yes or no vote. We are using the Radical XChange platform to facilitate quadratic voting. You can read more on quadratic voting here and watch a short video explainer here.
Voting process
Each registered voter will receive 100 voting credits and be sent an individualized voting URL. Voters will review all applications and cast their votes. Votes will be cast anonymously, and voters will not be able to see how others have voted. Votes may be cast on any number of applications (1-XX), at any ratio (0-XX) with each vote increment indicating the strength of support for that application. Voting will open on July 18, 2022 and voters will have 7 days to review applications and cast their votes.
Community Vote Workshop
We are hosting a Community Vote Workshop on July 18 that will be a facilitated session designed to engage and support voters through the democratic decision making process. This session will provide an opportunity for networking and discussion, as well as a forum to ask questions and engage with fellow voters. Attendance is recommended but not required.
Voters must register during our voter registration period (June 20-July 10) and we will send out instructions on how to vote and join the community workshop.
VOTING REGISTRATION HAS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO REGISTERED ;)
For live updates on Experiment #1, follow us on Instagram or Twitter.
If you’d like to get involved with the running the fund, or just want to say hi, hit us up at [email protected]
If you are unable to participate at this time, no worries! We hope to have more experiments in the future.
Thanks for coming on this journey with us ;)
<3 Unnamed Fund Team - Alex, Austin, Bhavik, and Noya