Big Green DAO Governance Portal Proposal

Objective Develop and deploy a cutting edge and intuitive governance portal (dApp) for hosting of Big Green DAO governance and grantmaking. The dApp (decentralized app) will enable integrated user experiences for Big Green DAO observers/supporters, applicants, donors, and governance-token-holding community members, and be integrated into the existing Big Green DAO Website.

Product Overview The Big Green DAO Governance Portal will consolidate all Big Green DAO governance and grantmaking operations into a vertically integrated full-stack (front end/back end) solution. It will be accessible via a web3-enabled site (i.e. dApp), and built using OpenZeppelin smart contracts and modules of the Gnosis Reality ecosystem. The OpenZeppelin and Gnosis Reality systems will allow for advanced governance functions, such as multi-signature wallet management, vote delegation, and scaling of DAO operations over time and with changing technologies.

Team Members The Big Green DAO dApps team will be an external team of consultants, managed by Mathew Markman, Big Green DAO’s Lead Operator. This team will include a Product Designer, Solidity Engineer, and Front-End Developer. Development work will also require close collaboration with Ethelo and Gitcoin team members to support platform integrations. Team members will include:

• Mathew Markman - Product Manager
• Duke Jones - Senior Product Designer & Assistant Product Manager
• Elad Mallel - Senior Blockchain Engineer
• 0xHanValen - Front End Developer
• John Richardson - Ethelo Grantmaking Portal
• Gitcoin Grants 2.0 Development Team - Applicant Portal

Advisors & Contributors*

• Matan Field - CEO, DAO Stack
• n3o - CEO, Zero.Tech/Wilder World
• Ben West, Cause Round Lead, GitCoin
• Gino Cingolani Trucco - DAO Product Lead, Decentraland
• Bear Kittay, Managing Partner, Peaceful

User Experience The Big Green DAO Governance Portal will be tailored to the specific user experience of target audience members, including: donors, applicants, and token-holding community members. The Governance Portal will be accessible via a token-gated dApp on the public facing Big Green DAO website, which has existing UX targeting observers/supporters and potential Donors for Big Green DAO. Governance Portal development will make minor modifications to these user experience pathways.

1. Observers/Supporters. User experience tailored to the general public, providing an overview of Big Green DAO; its operations, community members and leadership; and pathways to increase involvement, including donating, applying, media requests, and more. The UX will include:

• Big Green DAO website, which is already operational. Only minor modifications/integrations will be necessary as part of the governance portal development process to integrate the governance dApp and additional user experience pathways discussed below.

1. Donors. User experience tailored to those wishing to make a donation to the DAO. This will include integration of the Giving Block, and a pathway for requesting access to Big Green DAO’s Discord server and a token-claim for qualifying KYC donations. The UX will include:

• Giving Block Integration (existing web-site)
• Token-Claim Mechanism

1. Applicants. The application pathway will be powered by the Gitcoin Grants 2.0 engine, and development will focus on integrating Gitcoin’s API, and integrating Big Green DAO’s existing Applicant resources. The UX will include:

• Eligibility Quiz
• Learning Management System and Educational Content
• Web3-enabled Grant Application powered by Gitcoin Grants 2.0 engine

1. Governance & Grantmaking Portal. The governance and Grantmaking Portal will be token-gated and only accessible to $GARDEN governance token-holding community members via the primary Big Green DAO Website. While voting and governance operations will likely all occur off-chain, all governance and grantmaking decisions will be published on-chain for transparency and provenance. The UX will include:

• Community Member On/Off Boarding
• Governance Voting Interface (Snapshot API)
• Grantmaking Voting Interface (Powered by Ethelo & Gitcoin Grants 2.0)
• Forum Communications
• Transparency Dashboard
• Documentation (e.g. White Paper)
• Education (Kinjabi Pathway)

Budget & Timeline The Governance Portal will be rolled out in stages, starting in December 2023, with each relevant user pathway coming online in time for their use in Grants Round 5 in Q1 of 2023.

The Big Green DAO dApps team will be set up as a subcontracted unit of Peaceful Group and under the direct administrative management of Mathew Markman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Peaceful, who currently serves as the Lead Operator for Big Green DAO.

Total Budget: $75,000 USD This budget is requesting an additional $55,000 USD from the original 2022 technology estimated budget for development of an industry leading DAO Governance Portal (dApp). This is a one-time upfront cost to develop this platform, however, some upkeep will be required after its initial development, and as the web3/DAO space continues to evolve. Expenses will be invoiced by Peaceful Group to Big Green 501c3 monthly, and payment distributed to subcontractors for services rendered.

The budget will cover costs for the following team members, with their respective hourly rates:

Product Manager: n/a (included in DAO Opps Budget) Senior Product Designer: $300/hr Senior Block Chain Engineer: $400/hr Senior Front-End Developer: $150/hr Front-End Designer: $50/hr Ethelo Development: TBD Gitcoin Grants 2.0 Integration: TBD DAO Stack Integration: TBD

Design Theory Big Green DAO is a unique design case, as it is a first of its kind Impact/Giving DAO. Our architectural aim is to create the structural preconditions for a symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship between a traditional brick and mortar 501c3 (Big Green) and a technologically autonomous decentralized organization (Big Green DAO). Big Green, has in recent years following the onset of COVID19, transitioned from primarily an implementing to a grantmaking organization, and Big Green DAO - which was founded by Big Green in 2022 - comprises a broad coalition of aligned non-profit organizations in the food justice and security sector.

Why is Big Green DAO unique? First and foremost it is because we are a hybrid DAO that is using web3 technology to change the way we think and operate in philanthropy, while continuing to operate within some traditional guardrails. For example, our central treasury is structured around a traditional fiat bank account, linked to Big Green 501c3. This allows the 501c3 to shoulder much of the administrative burden surrounding grantmaking, support fundraising efforts, and ensure the tax exempt status of donations to the DAO. Big Green DAO is thereby unburdened to a certain extent to focus on decision- and grantmaking. At the same time, we want the DAO to be able to pursue alternative or additional forms of funding and be able to transition into a fully autonomous structure should the community decide to do so. Having a sovereign technology stack under DAO control is thus important for maintaining the potentiality of separation, mutually agreed upon or otherwise.

In our DAO design we are thus aiming to create an architecture in which this relationship between the 501c3 and the DAO continues to be one of choice and mutual collaboration and not one of necessity or exploitation. Each the 501c3 and the DAO will thus have their sovereign spheres of influence that can operate autonomously of each other. For the 501c3 this will surrounding the organization’s financial infrastructure and policies that are relevant to the DAO’s continued use of Big Green as their central treasury and fundraising and distributional mechanism. For Big Green DAO this will be the DAO’s core smart contracts and technological stack, which will be linked to a multi-signature wallet, which in the future could be used as the DAO’s central treasury.

A secondary goal of our design will be to develop systems of automation that assist with bridging between traditional finance (TradFi) and web3 or decentralized finance (DeFi) systems. For example, moving from snapshot voting to execution of a salesforce transaction, all of which is captured for provenance on the blockchain.

This proposal can be viewed online, including a more detailed breakdown of the user experience pathways, can be viewed here

Voting Options

• For: Approve budget for development of Big Green DAO Governance Portal
• Against: Do not approve budget for Big Green DAO Governance Portal