TL;DR
Imagine a community-focused fund whose entire purpose is to pay for activities that Doodles community members want to organize for one another. Organizers would get streamlined access to funds and not worry about being out of pocket doing something nice for the community. Members would get a bunch more activities to enjoy regularly (e.g. online game tournaments, IRL meetups, etc.). And the fund would be accountable to the community itself, reporting its results and impact back to the community in a transparent and consistent way.
That’s our vision for the Doodles Community Fund we’re proposing, and we’re asking for 15 ETH of initial funds to disburse in this way – hope you like it! (In fact, if you don’t like it after 6 months, we’ll either restructure it or just shut it down and return the remaining funds to DoodleBank!)
(You can also view this proposal in Google Docs here: Doodles // Doodles Community Fund - Google Docs)
Overview
Key Points
This is a “pilot” Proposal to establish a Doodles Community Fund (the “DCF”):
- Dedicated to funding Doodles community-organized activities (e.g. online game tournaments, IRL meetups, etc.)
- Allocating initial funds of 15ETH for reimbursements (13.5ETH) and rewards (1.5ETH)
- 6-month timeline to deploy funds and evaluate DCF performance
There will be two uses of DCF funds:
-
Reimbursements (90%, 13.5ETH) – Reimburse activity costs (e.g. tournament rewards, food & bev, venue costs, etc.)
- The goal here is to ensure that organizers are not “out of pocket” when organizing activities for the Doodles community
- Reimbursements will require reasonable provision of records and/or receipts (see more about the process below)
-
Rewards (10%, 1.5ETH) – Reward organizers retroactively for exceptional efforts (not for every activity organized) and as “bounties” for organizing targeted activities
- The goal here is to incentivize more events than we would previously have had without such rewards, including some for “underserved” Doodles demographics (locations, sub-communities, etc.)
- Rewards will be granted post-activity and will be no more than 0.2ETH each
Rough estimate of target “community impact”:
- At “run-rate”, we expect (or hope) to fund 2 online activities + 1 offline activity per month
- Online activities: Expected average cost of 0.3ETH, attracting ~40 participants each, 2 per month
- Offline activities: Expected average cost of 0.8ETH, attracting ~20 participants each, 1 per month
- Including a 2-month ramp-up period, over 6 months we hope to:
- Fund ~16 events, with a weighted average cost of ~0.5ETH each
- Involve 500-600 participants total
| BASE CASE | MONTH 1 | MONTH 2 | MONTH 3 | MONTH 4 | MONTH 5 | MONTH 6 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # Online Activities | 1 | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10.5 |
| # Offline Activities | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.5 |
| TOTAL ACTIVITIES | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 16 |
| # PARTICIPANTS | 50 | 80 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 530 |
Based on these projections, 15ETH should cover our first 6 months of operations (~66%) plus a buffer (~33%) for:
- In case we ramp up faster and/or we receive more deserving applications than expected, activities cost more, etc.
- Continued operation while we prepare to execute on any decisions at the end of the 6-month period
- Regardless, if we decide to wind down the DCF after 6 months, all remaining funds will be returned to the DoodleBank
The application process will be made to be as simple and streamlined as possible:
- Simply fill out a 3-minute Google Form
- Applications will be reviewed within 1 week
- Communication will happen via Discord private channels created by Doodles Moderators
- Approved – reimbursement upon post-activity submissions (see below), with up to 20% of funds for upfront costs
- Rejected – feedback based on review, esp. organization, budget, and impact considerations
For approved activities, to qualify for reimbursement, organizers must submit:
- Reasonable records and/or receipts for expenditures to be reimbursed
- Brief activity report (via another simple Google Form), including collected metrics (e.g. duration, # attendees, etc.)
- Sufficient completion of an optional participant survey
- For transparency, info gathered above will be made available (with privacy protection) to the Doodles Community
A DCF Committee will be established to govern and administer the DCF, including the following responsibilities:
- Understand & represent community needs, as they pertain to community activities
- Review & approve / reject applications based on community impact and reflection of community needs
- Report & evaluate DCF performance & impact on a transparent and regular basis
- Implement optimizations on an ongoing basis based on performance results
- (Treasurer Only) Custody and disburse funds to relevant parties
The initial DCF Committee (during the 6-month pilot period) will consist of:
- Mushy (Executive Chairman w/ Veto, Treasurer)
- Doodles Moderators
- Hankthecat
- Jonny
- Smolchonk
- CKT
As a pilot proposal, the DCF will give itself a 6-month initial timeline to evaluate success based on:
- How well has the DCF accomplished its mission of “Investing in the Community”?
-
Key metrics include:
- Number of activities funded and run
- Number of community member participants (unique and repeat)
- Rating of funded activities (via post-activity participant survey)
-
Success looks like:
- Funding more activities than before establishment of the DCF, especially of new types & geographies
- More community members participating, especially reaching more new participants
- Positive activity ratings from participants
-
Primary outcomes, depending on the results:
- Meets expectations – Evaluate the degree to which there is success and enthusiasm for the project
- Expand – Expand program in various ways based on learnings and feedback
- Continue – Continue program and/or with minor improvements
- Doesn’t meet expectations – Evaluate how and whether to iterate and try again
- Fix – Restructure program based on feedback
- Don’t Fix – Wind down and return any remaining funds to DoodleBank
- Meets expectations – Evaluate the degree to which there is success and enthusiasm for the project
Shoutouts
Although this is a new proposal, there was a proposal on Snapshot (/#/doodles.eth/proposal/0xb97c89dbe9e0caadd07e46310340e1d1871838e906da41a165a362f446358749 – sorry, I can’t use too many links as a “new account”!) from mid-2022 which served as a useful reference. Kudos to @ayhth for the previous work done there!
Moreover, we referenced many examples of activities run or put forward by community organizers in the past for indications of community interest, data for estimates, and how we might improve the process of funding such activities. Kudos to all the incredible community organizers for all your amazing contributions!
Voting Specifics
- Choices:
- Establish Doodle Community Fund and allocate max of 15ETH
- Do not allocate
- Quorum: 10%
- Result: Majority of Yes or No
- Abstentions: Count towards quorum but do not affect yes/no votes
Doodles Community Fund
Mission
Key Principle: INVEST IN THE COMMUNITY
Scope & Mandate: Focus on funding COMMUNITY-ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES that BENEFIT COMMUNITY MEMBERS
The guiding mission of the Doodles Community Fund (the “DCF”) is to invest in the community by doing three things:
- Provide resources (i.e. funds and support) to the community to organize activities for fellow community members
- Empower community organizers to easily access those resources
- Benefit as many community members as possible from the results of the invested resources (“community impact”)
The DCF can be thought of as a “public good” for the entire Doodles community. It funds and facilitates a layer of utility – i.e. a consistent calendar of community activities to participate in – that comes with being a member of the Doodles community.
Use of Funds
Funds in the DCF will be used towards two things – reimbursements and rewards. Assuming an initial fund size of 15ETH:
- 13.5ETH (90%) – Reimburse organizers for expenses associated with running activities
- 1.5ETH (10%) – Reward organizers for taking the initiative and the efforts of running activities
Reimbursements
The goal of the Reimbursements allocation of the DCF is to ensure that organizers do not feel “out of pocket” when organizing events for the Doodles community.
We ran a “quick and dirty” analysis to arrive at our initial request of 15ETH, which also outlines how we expect to use the funds over the initial 6-month period. Summary below, or check out our raw analysis here: Doodles // Doodles Community Fund.
Some key questions here are:
- How many activities do we expect to fund on a consistent, ongoing basis?
- How many Doodle community members can we reach with each activity?
- How much would such activities cost?
Some key assumptions:
-
Average cost of a community activity?
- Online (e.g. game tournaments): 0.3ETH
- Offline (e.g. offline meetups): 0.8ETH on average
- Weighted average: ~0.5ETH
-
Average attendance per activity?
- Online: 40 attendees
- Offline: 20 attendees
-
Expected frequency of activities:
- Currently we are seeing Doodles community activities at a rate of about 1 / month, globally
- We hope to increase that, thereby getting to around 2-3 / month, globally
Example events that we referenced (and which we hope to see more of) include:
- Online – Game tournaments:
- Target: Balance recurring “let’s do something fun & lightweight” vs. one-off “huge audience events”
- Game tournaments proposed in #think-tank
- Chase the Rainbow
- Doodles 2 Fashion Show
- Offline – Locale-based meetups:
- Target: Balance more frequent “dinner & drinks” vs. more occasional “throw a huge party”
- Fam Art Basel Miami Meetup
- LA Meetup
- UK Doodles offline meetups (support-the-meetups-for-the-doodle-uk-community-group/2304 – sorry, I can’t use too many links as a “new” account!)
- South Korea Doodles offline meetups
Resulting (rough) target estimates:
| BASE CASE | MONTH 1 | MONTH 2 | MONTH 3 | MONTH 4 | MONTH 5 | MONTH 6 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # Online Activities | 1 | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10.5 |
| # Offline Activities | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.5 |
| TOTAL ACTIVITIES | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 16 |
| # PARTICIPANTS | 50 | 80 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 530 |
All in all, we expect to fund ~16 activities (mix of online and offline) over the course of 6 months, impacting more than 500 attendees (though not necessarily uniquene).
Notes on online vs. offline:
- One might note that online activities involve more participants for lower cost and thus assume that they might be a “better investment” of DCF funds
- However, we do believe that there are qualitative differences between online and offline events which make offline events valuable, as well (e.g. the depth of the interactions and connections, the “experience” of the activity, etc.), which we may attempt to quantify in future
Rewards
The goal of the Rewards allocation of the DCF is to incentivize and reward organizers for taking the initiative and for their efforts.
We will have two types of Rewards:
- Bounties – for activities that have not yet been planned, but that we would like to see (e.g. an offline meetup in an “under-served” location)
- Retroactive Rewards – for activities where the organizers went above and beyond to create an incredible Doodles experience (particularly where the “cost” of their efforts are not properly reflected simply in reimbursements submitted)
Reward amounts will be at the discretion of the DCF Committee (see below), but for now, Rewards will be no more than 0.2ETH per activity (regardless of the number of organizers or scale of the event). In the future, we may consider different tiers of Rewards as we gather more data on the scale and amount of effort necessary to organize such events. Furthermore, these will generally be reserved for larger (particularly offline) events which may require greater organizer involvement.
Note on Rewards:
- The amounts in our analysis reflect average monthly Rewards across all activities, as we currently do not plan on providing Rewards for all activities organized
- In the future, we will revisit the Rewards mechanism (e.g. if some amount of Rewards should be given for all community activities organized) based on both organizer and member feedback, as well as whether we feel there is a simple but fair mechanism for determining Reward amounts
Funding Process
Key Principle: SIMPLIFY & STANDARDIZE
Basic features:
- Simple and standard application process
- Per activity (not per group or per period of time)
- Rapid review and feedback
- Rolling, not “season”-based
- Built-in accountability
In order to apply for and receive funds, Organizers can go through a simple 3-step process:
(Please see the diagram in the Overview section above – sorry, I can’t use too many images as a “new account”!)
1. Submit Application
Applicant fills out a simple Google Form (WIP here) with the following information:
-
Organizer Info
- Name
- Discord (required for communication)
- Sub-Community or Organization (if applicable)
- Role
-
Activity Details
- Name of Activity
- Date(s)
- Note: Retroactive funding is allowed, within a limitations period of submission within 1 week of activity
- Type of Activity
- Location (if applicable)
- Expected # of attendees
- Open vs. Holders-only
- +1s allowed?
- How many?
- +1s allowed?
- Activity Description
-
Funding Request
- Total Amount (ETH)
- Breakdown:
- Venue
- Food & Drink
- Prizes
- Swag
- Other (specify)
- Funding Wallet
- Note: Funding requests will only be disbursed in ETH to a single wallet
- Additional Request Info
- Reference a Bounty (if applicable)
Organizer Rewards
- Bounties will be listed in Discord
- Reference a specific Bounty in the application as necessary
- If Retroactive Rewards are given, they will be coordinated directly in the Private Discord channel
- All Rewards will be made public in the Community Reports, as well
Activity Promotion
- By default, all activities will receive promotion in Discord and on the Community Calendar (hosted on fam.)
- If there is some reason that this should not be the case, Organizers can explain in their request
2. Application Review
Applications will be reviewed by the DCF Committee (see below) within 1 week:
- DCF will reach out to the Organizer on Discord:
- Private channel in Doodles server
- Request for more info, if necessary
- Communicate Approve / Reject (with feedback)
- Also will be used for Post-Activity Submissions (e.g. receipts, photos, etc. afterwards)
Approved
- Approval for either the full requested amount or approval for a partial amount
- If partial, discussions can take place to decide if the amount is acceptable, or if the activity will change
- Organizer can choose whether to accept and run the activity as is, update the activity, or abandon it
- Upon accepting:
- Depending on the level of pre-activity outlays, up to 20% of the approved amount can be sent upfront, with the condition that if the activity is not run per the application, that the amount be returned to the DCF
- Remainder will be reimbursed after the activity with receipts / photos via Post-Activity Submissions (below)
Rejected
- Feedback will generally be given on why it was rejected and how it can be changed to receive approval
- Organizers can feel free to update and re-submit their application as desired
3. Post-Activity Submissions
For approved activities, to receive the full amount of reimbursement, organizers must submit:
- Reasonable records and/or receipts for expenditures to be reimbursed
- Brief activity report (via another simple Google Form), including collected metrics (e.g. duration, # attendees, etc.)
- Sufficient completion of an optional participant survey
Any relevant rewards (bounties and/or retroactive rewards) will also be disbursed at this time
For transparency, info gathered above will be made available (with privacy protection) to the Doodles Community.
Approval & Governance
The DCF will design and implement the process for the application, review, and disbursement of those funds.
- Key Principle: SUPER STREAMLINED
- No longer requires entire DoodleBank vote
We will establish a DCF Committee to represent the community and administer the Fund itself, with responsibilities including:
- Review and approve events
- Design of the Fund, the application process
- Report results regularly
- Solicit feedback from the Community and ensure that they are representing them properly
The initial DCF Committee Members (during pilot period) will consist of:
- Mushy (Executive Chair, with veto power)
- Doodles Moderators
- Hankthecat
- Jonny
- Smolchonk
- CKT
The DCF Committee will have a Treasurer, whose responsibility it will be to custody and disburse the DCF funds themselves. Only the Treasurer will have access to the wallet with the funds:
- Mushy
It is our intention after the Pilot program to expand the Committee (again, to the extent that the DCF pilot is successful) to include more members (e.g. more Community Representatives) and also include governance mechanisms for the appointing and removal of Committee members as needed. The Treasury role may also be similarly expanded in the future. During the Pilot process, we will entrust those responsibilities to Mushy as the Executive Chair of the Committee.
Results & Accountability
Key Principle: TRANSPARENCY TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY
Finally, the DCF will also be accountable to the community for its impact, and hence will report results in a timely and transparent manner:
- A super simple Google Sheets Dashboard will be maintained here on an ongoing basis:
- Doodles // Doodles Community Fund (see the LINK ABOVE or in the Google Doc linked at the top – sorry, I can’t use too many links as a “new account”!) – see “Applications” and “Stats” tabs
- Moreover, a more detailed status report will be generated at approximately 3 and 6 months of operation
Key areas of transparency, which will be covered in reporting:
- Funds disbursed
- Activities funded
- Organizers funded
- Rewards given, including Bounties claimed
- Attendee impact
- Try to capture DISTRIBUTION of Funds, as well – geographic, trait, activity type (IRL meetup, gaming, etc.), etc.
Note:
- One additional key principle that will be balanced with transparency is the privacy of those involved
- As such, all information publicized to the community will be aggregated and/or “de-identified”, i.e. scrubbed of private, personal, or otherwise “doxxing” details
Evaluating Success
Community Impact
What is success?
- Key Principle: BRING VALUE TO ALL DOODLES COMMUNITY MEMBERS
- Non-monetary ROI: Community Impact
- Return on investment based on value provided to the Doodles Community MEMBERS themselves
Key Metrics
The success of the Community Fund will be measured using the following “Community Impact” metrics:
- (Primary) How many community activities are successfully run per month?
- How many unique Doodles community members participated in at least one activity in a given month?
- What is the cost in order to achieve the aforementioned impact?
We will also track additional metrics like:
- Activity frequency
- Participant recurrence
- Activity type
- Activity location
- Sub-community or organizing body
- Etc.
In our final evaluation, we will also consider how well the aggregate results represent what we believe is a good balance of activities in the community (online vs. offline, frequency vs. intensity, etc.) – we believe in a good mix of “something always going on”, as well as tentpole events to look forward to. Moreover, we will consider the Doodles community demographics (e.g. locales, sub-community membership, interests, etc.) to see how well the results represent our actual members.
Potential Outcomes
Key Principle: RISK MANAGEMENT
- This is a PILOT – you might call it a “Minimal Viable Proposal”
- EVALUATE latest by 6 months in (or as soon as have some data to report to community)
The outcomes will depend on the results of the DCF over its 6-month pilot period:
Meets Expectations
Signals (quantitative and qualitative):
- MORE Activities than previously
- MORE Community Members attend activities than previously
- Smooth user experience, for both Organizers and Members
- Reasonable cost per activity and per participant
Potential Outcomes:
- Expand program
- Continue program
- Invest in various Roadmap initiatives (see below)
Doesn’t Meet Expectations
Signals:
- FEWER Activities than previously
- FEWER Community Members able to attend than previously
- Poor user experience, for either Organizers or Members
- Unreasonable cost per activity and/or per participant
Potential Outcomes:
- Iterate based on data & feedback
- Weigh cost benefit of trying again
- Worst case: return funds & shut it down
Future Roadmap
Depending on the relative success of the program, we may invest in some or all of the potential ideas below. This section is just to give an idea of what could be in store, and what we would be excited about in terms of potential future initiatives for the DCF.
Scope
- Ensure great balance and mix of activity types – something for everyone
- Strong, global coverage of all/most major Doodle hubs
- Expand funding resources to encourage larger number and scale of activities
- Extend funding format and processes to include additional community-created things of value, e.g. content
Resources
- Ongoing investment: Greater and regular resource “top-ups” from DoodleBank
- Larger single activities / activations – resources & process for, e.g. “annual meetups” which are expected to be significantly more costly than ~1ETH
- Organizer support: Create standard “kits” to support organizers of various activity types
- DCF-specific assets (e.g. Doodles “community logo”)
- Connect with other members of the community who can provide needed support
- Sources for actual physical materials
- Organizer Rewards: Standardize some way of recognizing and/or compensating organizers for taking on the responsibility of organizing these activities, e.g.
- Two flat Reward amounts for online vs. offline activities
- Tie Reward amounts to participant numbers, etc.
Process
- Approval: Expand DCF Committee to improve / accelerate review process
- Tooling: Create a dedicated website flow
- Streamline: Improve & expand the process, especially for Content as well
Results
- Tooling: Create a Proposal dashboard and leaderboard
- Community demographics: Polls and ongoing “suggestions / votes” to better understand community members and their interests