Gm to the Boys Club Grants Program
A Boys Club DAO Initiative (V1)
Introducing the Boys Club Grants Program: A new initiative enabling Boys Club community members to actualize our mission in the wild.
- Author: Parker Jay-Pachirat
- Editor(s): Natasha Hoskins, Taylor Dunstan
- Grants Program Manager: Taylor Dunstan
In May of 2022, we sold out of two NFT drops and raised 150 ETH to fund the Boys Club Treasury. We outlined our treasury allocation design during our third Town Hall back in June, allocating 5% of the Treasury for the Boys Club Grants Program. At the time, our Grants Program was still in the “concept” phase. Now that we’ve done our research and onboarded our new Grants Program Manager, Taylor, we’re ready to get this party started.
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the Boys Club Grants Program. (Apply here).
We’re launching this initiative to provide valuable resources to Boys Club members, enabling them to actualize the Boys Club mission out in the wild. We want to extend our reach throughout the web3 ecosystem, and trust our community members will find interesting, impactful, and unexpected ways of doing so, acting as a sort of ‘connective tissue’ between Boys Club and the rest of the world. The Grants Program (GP) aims to achieve a deep and strategic impact with limited financial resources. By providing resources to Boys Club members with good ideas — amplifying their talent, passion, and intrinsic motivation — we can create a system where internal value capture (value discovered/captured inside the community) propels external value creation (value created outside of the community), creating a net benefit for the ecosystem as a whole and trickling back into the community over time.
Before we dive deeper into the program and all its juicy deets, allow me to do the honors by providing some context.
WTF is ‘Boys Club’?
The TDLR on who we are & what we do
Recognizing that crypto and blockchain are reimagining how society functions at a base level, we envision a world where women and non-binary individuals are at the forefront of building new avenues for wealth distribution and creation, in turn mitigating the replication of existing inequalities in web2. We strive to elevate underrepresented communities, enabling them to not only participate but shape the future of this multifaceted industry.
“Boys Club is a social club and community designed to welcome women and non-binary individuals in web3, with aligned incentives at the heart of everything we do. Our community attracts people across the spectrum of web3 experience, from those who have yet to set up their first wallet to crypto-native founders & operators who have been building in the space for years.”
Boys Club is a lot of things: a social club, a DAO, a community… but mainly, it’s the place in crypto for cool girls to hang out, learn within community, and build really cool shit with really cool people.
How did we get here?
A high-level recap of our progress & accomplishments
- We started Boys Club in November 2021. Since then, we’ve completed the Seed Club SC04 Accelerator Cohort, incepted 9 fully-functioning DAO working guilds, launched a podcast, sold out a merch line, produced 2 educational roadmaps, launched a mentor-mentee program to support crypto onboarding, and sold out of our first 2 NFT collections, launched earlier this year.
- Boys Club has also launched many independent, community-driven initiatives since its inception. These include, but are not limited to, a product studio (currently in beta), High Pitched: our community-led startup pitch workshop (for founders, operators, and investors), a Builder Roundtable series, a Solidity Learning Group, and more.
- Since our inception in November, we’ve been featured on the Bankless podcast and in major media outlets including The Atlantic, Vox, and Fast Company (x2). We’ve also spread the word across time zones, speaking about Boys Club at conferences like Permissionless, Coindesk’s Consensus, and DAONYC.
- We’re lucky to have some incredible ecosystem partners — peeps we love and collaborate with regularly, and who have supported us in huge ways in the past. Huge thank you to Poolsuite, Bankless, FWB, Disco, Blockworks, Seed Club, Framework Ventures, PleasrDAO, Arkive, Rabbithole, and many, many more. We love you sm and this initiative literally wouldn’t be possible without you.
The Anatomy of Boys Club
A High-Level Field Guide to our Community Ecosystem
To really, truly understand our Grants program and why we’re so freaking excited about it, it might be helpful to provide a high-level breakdown of our community anatomy. Note: If you’re losing patience and just want the Grants tea already, skip to the “What is the Boys Club Grants Program?” section.
Our community ecosystem has many layers. Let’s dissect, starting at the most peripheral layer of our community ecosystem and working inward:
1. Audience
The widest ring of our community ecosystem is our audience. This is anyone that follows us on Twitter or Insta. Maybe you read our newsletter from time to time or listen to our podcast when you’re cleaning your kitchen or taking your dog for a walk. Our audience consumes our content on a regular basis.
2. Community (chat + irl)
Our ~ community ~ is where the vibes really start hitting diff. Community members are up in our Discord, saying gm, posting memes, asking & answering questions in the #no-dumb-questions channel, and generally just vibing. Community members are also those who regularly (or semi-regularly) attend our events. Maybe you came to the banger we threw during NFT NYC (Happening III), hit up one of our side parties at a conference, or attended one of our DTR (Define The Relationship) events in Brooklyn.
3. Contributors
We can get even more granular from there. Our contributors come next. These are the people working day in, day out on Boys Club — likely anywhere between 5–20 hrs/wk. Contributors are our core nucleus. They’re also the members that makeup Boys Club DAO (V1). BC Contributors = (Founding Team + Guild Leads + Guild Contributors).
Audience + Community + Contributors = Boys Club Community Ecosystem
WTF is the Boys Club Grants Program?
Finally, getting to the point
When designing V1 of the GP program, we wanted to create a public goods program as authentic and ambitious as Boys Club itself. The following questions served as our *North Star* and remains top of mind as we roll out the first iteration of the GP:
- How can we amplify the reach of Boys Club members, allowing them to create a positive and long-lasting impact in the web3 ecosystem?
- How can we create a flywheel effect between community & impact?
- How can we incentivize Boys Club members to become force-multipliers, advancing our mission in new and interesting ways out in the wild?
Things To Know / FAQ:
1. Where do I apply?
Apply for Season 1 here. Applications for S1 will close on November 11th, 2022.
2. How are applications evaluated & awarded?
Grants will be evaluated and awarded case-by-case, but always on the basis of merit. Grants will be assessed and awarded, measured by their perceived ability to drive impact across the following thematic areas. You can find more on grant criteria and our actual step-by-step decision-making process below.
3. What types of grants are we looking for?
We’re optimizing for:
(A) Access — Creating new pathways into web3 for women and non-binary individuals.
- Examples: hosting a workshop with a local non-profit organization to teach an audience about aspects of web3; joining a local university group’s monthly meeting to share about web3 opportunities; participating in a girls and women mentoring program
(B) Participation — Participating in hands-on activities in web3, or enabling new opportunities for participation — (especially for underrepresented members in the Boys Club community, and in the wider crypto industry as a whole).
- Examples: enrolling in a web3 course or skills-based training; participating in a web3 hackathon; attending a web3 conference or summit
(C) Shape — Increasing thought leadership for women in web3. Sharing and transmitting knowledge, fostering and encouraging intellectual curiosity, engaging in intellectual debate, advancing/working to increase the diversity of thought, opinion, and perspective held within Boys Club (and the wider ecosystem as a whole).
- Examples: Serving as a speaker or moderator at a web3 conference; conducting and publishing web3-related research, hosting a debate on a relevant topic with representation for a diverse array of viewpoints (including opposing viewpoints)
What’s the process? — How, when, and where to apply for a BCG.
In its initial phase, GP grants will be awarded on a quarterly basis. The first round’s application window is ~8 weeks (two months) followed by a 3-week evaluation period. Selected grantees will be announced during the final week of the quarter.
- Applications open: September 7 — November 11th, 2022
- Evaluation period: Nov 12 — Dec 1st, 2022
- Grantees announced: Dec 2nd, 2022
- Review the Grants Program Overview (also outlined below) to ensure your grant is a good fit based on the GP criteria. If you are uncertain or have specific questions, reach out to our Grants Manager, Taylor, via the Boys Club Discord.
- Once you determine that your project is a good fit, fill out the Grant Application before 11:59pm PST on November 11th. When applying, please make sure your contact details are accurate in case the Grants Manager needs to contact you with any follow-up questions.
- After the application period has closed, the Grants Manager will review applications and make a recommendation to the Governance Committee in the form of a DAO Proposal.
- Before the grant selection announcement on December 2nd, the Grants Manager will contact all applicants on the respective grant’s selection decision.
- If selected, the Grants Manager may immediately ask for more details on the grant to include in the grant selection announcement (always respecting the privacy of grantees). The Grants Manager will work with each grantee on grant disbursement, which will be provided in the form of USDC to grantee wallets.
- Selected grants will be shared publicly in an AirTable or Google Sheets for both accountability and transparency. (Link will be shared publicly once live). While not required, grantees are encouraged to document their experience executing the grant and measure & record its impact.
The Fine Print (Terms & Conditions):
Back-of-the-label stuff (like nitty-gritty process details & nuanced, rubric-style selection criteria)
The Boys Club Grants Program will award up to three grants per quarter, to Boys Club members building or supporting a (vetted) public goods project.
Grant Program & Process Details:
Selection Criteria:
In addition to the areas of impact we’re optimizing for (mentioned above under ‘What types of grants are we looking for?’), grants will also be evaluated by assessment of two primary factors: (1) The project’s capacity to extend the Boys Club mission throughout the web3 ecosystem, and (2) the grant’s potential ROI. (Here, ROI is measured not only in potential for financial return, but in the total net benefit the grant has the potential to bring about, both for our community and for the web3 ecosystem as a whole).
Finally, applications will be evaluated on how well they meet the following criteria:
- The project or opportunity creates new pathways into web3 (learn), provides hands-on web3 activities (participate), or increases thought leadership in web3 (shape).
- The project or opportunity engages new communities or creates a new opportunity for an existing community, both of which must directly benefit women and non-binary individuals in web3.
- The project demonstrates the recipient’s clear understanding of Boys Club’s ethos. (See: Boys Club DAO V1, What is Boys Club?)
- The project demonstrates a clear understanding of the relationship between Boys Club and the web3 space.
- The project, timeline, and budget are clear, sufficiently detailed, and realistic.
- The recipient’s ability to complete the project is sufficiently demonstrated.
By Way of Conclusion…
Made it this far? Huge for you. We’re so excited to get this out in the wild. It’s been a long time coming! That said, we don’t have it all figured out — we’re still building and experimenting in public.
This is a pathfinder round that will be re-evaluated quarterly to help us shape future grant rounds. We’re starting small, with the potential to grow this into a significant initiative (with more significant grant sums) over time. And as we progress, we’d love your feedback.
Are we making any assumptions that need further validation? Is there anything we’re not seeing, or that we’ve overlooked? What could make things clearer, or more efficient? Questions, thoughts, feelings, feedback?
Drop us a line babe, our inbox is open.
XOXO,
— Boys Club
