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Proposal Submission & Review Process

Submitting Proposals to Voi

In the future Voi will be releasing a RFP to build a comprehensive Grants Portal for proposal submission and management. Until then we will be employing the following process. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for grant funding of any kind please review the procedure below:

  1. Thoroughly read the Submitting Proposals section of Voi's documentation along with this comprehensive guide that contains additional details not included in this website.
  2. Next, review the most up to date Grants Calendar to ensure you are aware of the relevant deadlines for the current funding round. The most up to date Grants Calendar can be found on the Voi documentation website and Discord. Voi accepts proposals on a monthly basis for the first two weeks of each month, after which any submitted proposals get pushed for the next month's review.

  3. Fill out the appropriate grant application completely. Ensure that you provide thorough responses to each of the questions as incomplete applications are automatically rejected.

  4. Prepare the pitch deck and recorded pitch presentation required for your appropriate grant as part of the application process and submit it with the above google form as a publicly viewable link. Microgrants do not require a pitch deck nor do Ecosystem Services Grants worth less than <$10,000 in Voi in requested funding.

  5. Any supporting documents if unable to be submitted via the application should be sent via email to the Council at voi.grants@voi.network with identifying information in the email subject line to be able to associate it with the appropriate application (Name of project_Type of Grant_YYYMMDD).
  6. Prior to submission, we highly encourage you to review the Grants Evaluation section of the documentation so that you understand how your application will be evaluated.

Council Review Process

Once an application has been submitted, the following process ensues for proposal review:

  1. Any incomplete applications are automatically rejected by the Council.
  2. All applications are made publically available on Discord for a 5-day community review.
  3. During this 5-day period, community members can provide feedback, comments and also vote on the proposal with a thumbs up or thumbs down signalling their overall sentiment towards the proposal.
  4. Applicants then have 48-hours to incorporate any feedback they find useful from the community.
  5. The Council then has 48-hours to independently review the proposal and submit an evaluation with feedback to the grantees. The Council may choose to set up an independent meeting with certain grantees to gather additional information. This will be more relevant for build grants, and projects larger in scope and/or monetary value.
  6. Applicants then have 48-hours to incorporate any of the Council’s suggestions into their proposal.
  7. Community members have 24-hours to change their up or down vote based on changes made to the proposal
  8. To end the process, the Council then engages in a final vote on the proposal, taking into account the edits the team made to the proposal based on the community's review and the Council's evaluation. This vote is done within 48-hours of receiving the final version of the proposal.
  9. The Treasury then has 48-hours to approve the grant, per Voi’s checks and balances system, to allow the future release of funds.
  10. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are diligent with sticking to milestones and submitting milestones on time to the Council using the tracker in the link provided here. For grants that do not require milestone tracking (microgrants, ecosystem service grants<$10,000), 50% will be paid upon signing the grant acceptance form, and 50% upon completion of the grants.

Grantee Selection & Evaluation Factors

Different types of Voi grants are evaluated differently. The evaluation forms used by the Voi Council can be found below. Please review them prior to submitting your proposal so that you understand how your proposal will be judged.

Product Design Grant Evaluation

Build Phase Grant Evaluation

Ecosystem Services Grant Evaluation

Retroactive Grant Evaluation (Development Projects)

Retroactive Grant Evaluation (Ecosystem Services Projects)

Microgrant Evaluation

Grant Implementation

If you’ve received a grant you can start implementing based on the timeline and milestones agreed upon in your grant application.

  1. Sign the grant acceptance letter, which confirms receipt of your application and agreement to the milestones within and payouts. This will be distributed to grant winners.
  2. Begin developing your product blueprint, building your application or engaging in any other scope of work for which you received funding.
  3. Reach out to the Voi Council any time you need support. The Council can support with facilitating connections within and outside the Voi ecosystem to support you in being successful.
  4. Everytime a milestone has been completed be sure to submit documentation of completion to the Voi Council at grants@voi.network. This includes a description of the completed milestone, any relevant links, and a reference to the milestone number in the originally submitted milestone tracker. The milestone submission form is the same as the milestone tracking form and can be found here. Grantees must take a proactive role in ensuring they receive payments owed to them.
  5. For those completing a product design grant, submission of the product blueprint is required to receive a final payout. For those building an application to launch on Voi, development teams must schedule time with the Voi Council to demo their final product. This presentation will be open to the community!

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