Update on Near Decentralized Funding, DAOs, and Accelerator

Hello Nearians,

We are more than halfway through the first quarter of 2023 and wanted to share a quick update on the progress NEAR Foundation has made on community funding and accelerator strategies.

First, if you are a project building on NEAR or interested in building on NEAR and need some immediate support, please fill out this Project Support Form. NEAR Foundation will connect you with the appropriate person or organization who can assist. 

Decentralizing Funding

Important changes in the grant program were announced at the start of January, highlighting the Foundation’s goal for a more decentralized funding process by handing over decision making to community DAOs. What follows is the status of the initial DAOs. 

• MarketingDAO is actively reviewing proposals related to amplification and marketing via the MarketingDAO forum channel. At the moment, the core focus of applications is around content and social media, with an exciting ETHDenver bounties initiative having just recently been announced.
  • What is the Marketing DAO
  • How to submit a proposal
  • Marketing DAO Guidelines  

• DevGov is ramping up and reviewing proposals supporting technical ecosystem projects via their NEAR.social gig board.
  • What is the Developer Governance DAO
  • How to submit a proposal

• Creatives DAO is on track for accepting proposals for funding before the end of March.
  • What is the Creatives DAO
  • How to submit a proposal
  • Creatives DAO Guidelines

• NEAR Digital Collective (NDC) is a grassroots movement by the NEAR Community to decentralize. NDC V0 Governance is coming soon! The initial milestone is for the Community Treasury to come online, and it is actively being finalized. V0 focuses on funding the GrassrootsDAOs listed above: Marketing, Developer, and Creatives.
  • A beginner’s guide to V0 of the NDC governance structure
  • What is the NDC? 
  • How to Get Involved:
    • Join the NDC movement on Telegram:
      • Join the Movement
      • Start a conversation
      • Join or form a Workgroup to contribute to governance and decentralization on NEAR 

The Accelerator

From the accelerator side, NEAR Foundation’s past experience with the grants program showed us that founders and teams are in need of a variety of support in order to be successful and take their project to the next level. 

To that end, the Foundation’s strategy consists of three elements: 

1. We are building a product on NEAR Discovery that will allow founders to connect with a range of contributors (e.g., investors, subject matter experts in areas like legal and finance) who can support them in their journey. We are launching an MVP in early March.
   1. If you are a founder, investor, mentor, or subject matter expert interested in being a beta tester, please fill out this form. 
   2. If you are a founder interested in participating in paid user research, please fill out this form.

2. We recently made an open call to partner with accelerator programs that can help us fast track support needs for projects. We will be releasing additional open calls in the coming weeks as we continue building out the support network available for founders. These open calls will be for:
   1. Engineering support resources
   2. Talent / Recruitment platforms and services
   3. Legal platforms and services
   4. Back office accounting platforms and services
   5. Marketing services
   6. Product management services

3. We are continuously developing and identifying learning content and tooling that are most helpful for early stage founders (e.g., accounting software geared towards Web3 teams, Go To Market exemplars, etc.). These resources will be available within the product.

Take 1 minute to help us pick a name for the Accelerator here (survey closes on March 1, 2023)!

If you have any questions on decentralized funding, the DAOs, and Accelerator program, please reach out to the Community Team on Telegram, Discord, and other social media channels used by the NEAR community. 

And again, if your project is building on NEAR or interested in doing so and you are in need of some immediate support, fill out this Project Support Form. NEAR Foundation will connect you with the appropriate person or organization who can assist.