This page will explain the process for approval of community rounds. A community round must meet the criteria mentioned on this page and will be approved as part of the quarterly grants program but not led by Gitcoin. The round's decision-making, coordination, and implementation are the responsibility of grant round operators external to Gitcoin. As compensation, Gitcoin receives 10% of matching funds in exchange for inclusion in the round marketing. Additional value-added services are available for these rounds

TLDR: How to get a “Community” Round Approved

1. Identify the Round Operator and at least two other partner team members
2. Every round must have at least a minimum of $25,000 in matching funds
3. The round should align with Gitcoin’s Mission and Essential Intents.

Background

These criteria are taken into account by Gitcoin’s PGF team and Stewards when deciding on what rounds may be eligible to be Community Rounds in the quarterly Gitcoin Grants Program. All Community Rounds must fit the objectives of the Gitcoin Grants Program and have the minimum criteria outlined in this document.

Key Role

When one person or a group of people wish to stand up a Round, the first thing that should be done is that a Round Operator should be identified who will drive & be accountable for all aspects of the round. One person raising their hand to own this role is essential for accountability, transparency, and clear communication.

• Round Operator Description - Each round needs one clear owner accountable for ensuring enough funds are raised, onboarding a sufficient number of grantees into the round, and handling the eligibility, marketing, grantee relations, and all other tasks related to the round.

The Round Operator does not need to be someone who has been a full-time contributor at Gitcoin but should be someone who has deep context on the grants program and knows what it takes operationally to run a round.

Before the Round

The 1-2 months leading up to the round require an intentional blitz and dedicated Owners who can drive the below responsibilities forward. For smaller first-time rounds, all these may fall on the Round Owner if the round owner is operating in a near full-time capacity – but generally, we recommend building out a small team to assist the round Operator as well as a small group of stakeholders from the community to be an Advisory Team of committed people to help generate ideas, gather feedback and provide support throughout the round.

Round Eligibility Document

A Round Owner should create an eligibility criteria doc for what projects qualify for acceptance.

While this can evolve if needed, the first version should be created before going out and fundraising and recruiting grantees so that it is clear to parties what is eligible & what isn’t for the round.

The first-order mission-critical areas include:

• Allocating or otherwise raising at least $25k in matching funds
• Grantee recruitment & onboarding - (Runbooks will be made available with guidance for this process on the new Gitcoin Grants Stack tools)

Then, once a ‘minimum viable round’ is in place, the phases would be the following: