Questbook 🛠 How to write a great grants proposal Deep dive into the best proposals in web3

foreign [Applause] [Music] thanks thanks for coming for the workshop I'll give a brief intro About Me Myself And The Quest book before we start this presentation oh I'm Harsha I'm the co-founder at Quest Book quest book is a place for Builders to apply for Grants and it's a it's a decentralized or grand orchestration tool for protocols to dispose their grants as well and uh till now we discuss close to 1.2 million dollars in the last uh six months two developers so if you're a builder if you're hacking something at the hackathon keep an eye on the product because this is where you'll find all the grants opportunities right now uh I've also set up the grants program for polygon and I have so I've been on both sides of the table I have been on the admin side where I've operated the grants program and for the last six months I myself like any one of you have worked on a grant proposal for compound I've requested a one million dollar budget allocation as part of the grant proposal in this presentation I'll walk you through how I work through that proposal and there's a charm at there and I'll tell you what's the current result of that proposal as well it's a very special day because today is the announcement date for that proposal as well I'll share the result uh towards the end uh but yeah I'll share both sides of the table now make sure you have the paper and the pen with you so first just write down whatever idea you have like it could be vague whatever idea you're planning to hack at the hackathon it would be very simple it could be very crisp it need not have a detailed roadmap just share just write your idea on your papers so I'll walk you through how a grants proposal has to be written and make sure at each slide your implementing the suggestion on that cool let's cut to the chase uh we have uh so what I'm going to do now is these are all actual Grand proposal reviews which were done so all these screenshots which you are looking at these are the reviewer comments across protocols across proposals so we'll be actually talking data see what kind of proposals interest a grant reviewer what they focus on what they don't okay first whatever idea you have written make sure that you have a USB and it it could be anything like it could be say something like this right here they have there are existing products like what you're planning to hack but what is that small USB which differentiates from the existing products in the market it could be very simple right like for example they in this proposal they used a more legit collateral comp compared to any other proposal which was trying to do the same thing it's a very small USB but still it got the reviewer attention it caught the committee's attention so make sure that however small the USPS make sure that you point it out um I'll read it out if you're not able to see so the second proposal has a very strong UI ux it's a very simple product it's a very common product a very common proposal across the grant programs but the USB this proposal has is a strong UI so it need not be a web to it need not be a web 3 differentiator it could be a webto differentiator it could be as simple as a user experience how it feels even that is a USB for you make sure that you call it out in your proposal this is something interesting uh this is something which we might uh generally Miss if your proposal is specific to a demographic right like if it is specific to a particular region a particular country make sure you point it out I mean this is not relevant for all the proposals but there could be proposals where uh you are implementing an activity or Community activity which is very specific to that particular region so make sure that is called out like if you look at this proposal the whole uh attention on this proposal was because it was related to that particular region it got the attention because it's relevant in that particular region so make sure if it's demographic specific it is very clearly called out it is one of the key metrics uh when you review a proposal it will stand out right this is regarding having a USB on the proposal I'm hoping that you are making note uh on the pages so how much grants to request I think it's uh quite intuitive look at similar proposals on other Grant programs or may there will be very similar like if not exact matching but there will be similar products uh which you are trying to propose as well if you are at an experimentation field if you are at a phase which you are you're not sure of a very detailed roadmap if you are if you are not aware what three months is going to look like for the product clearly call it out and ask for an experiment Grant so all these grants which you request for experiments keep it very minimal ask for a reasonable Grant uh committees do review proposals which do not have a product yet they do appreciate experimentation but make sure that you call it out and you also also have to clearly share what your metrics are going to be on what basis are you going to measure that your experiment is successful on what basis are you going to measure that your experiment is not successful right and ask for a reasonable budget because any abnormal budget it catches the attention in a negative way immediately there is a cross mark and there will be questions so make sure that you are putting up a reasonable budget and if you are an experimentation phase call it out whatever contributions you have done uh whatever development has been done to your product make sure everything is related to the Community member uh it need not like I understand that because the grants process is through a form through the committee you might not always have access to the grants committee the best way to do deal with this is to ensure that all the progress is relayed on the community channels make sure this is put up on all the telegram groups of that particular protocol make sure it is being discussed uh take feedback from the community on Discord okay this is the way the grants committee will be part of these channels and they will they will have an eye of what your progress is make sure every development is communicated to the channel uh if the best it's always good to be over communicative uh start from the scratch of the product and share the entire implementation details of course team is quite crucial uh if especially if you're at an experimentation phase make sure that your credentials are called out by credentials it need not necessarily be your work that XYZ it could also be you have your previous GitHub contributions it could be your previous contributions to similar projects it it could be relevant experience in that particular product which you are building so more relevance the higher the mark for example uh they had a very detailed organization The Proposal applicant had a structure in place to handle the product so make sure if you're a team of more than one then clearly layout who is handling what uh on your product again this is kind of a reputation from a previous point this talks about previous work make sure that uh all the product developments are related to the community as I said uh if you look at this proposal uh they previous contributions were really crucial like they might not have shared this with the interest of this Grand proposal getting accepted but the entire Community was aware that the applicant previously worked on similar products uh that played a really crucial role in accepting this particular proposition go to the product detailing uh so if you look at this particular proposal they went to the extent of writing a white paper for their Grant proposal like very detailed right like spend that time don't don't rush into submitting a grand proposal don't rush into I know there are these Grant cycles and you will have to submit them before the grand cyclins but it when you are doing it in a rush it's always evident make sure that a grant proposal is as detailed as possible do your research make sure that research you have done is showcased in your proposal as well like here the single USB was that they had a white paper and though there were like five six negative comments on this proposal on different elements this got still got accepted this was one more team which uh cracked the proposal Grant because the participation it's always a good habit to share your observations even if you are researching about your product even if you are having learnings make sure that you hit them up on Discord or share it in the community there are similar people who are working on similar products or they would like to collab with you they would like to you know set up a one-on-one call to share feedback don't miss out on these opportunities it it's always good all these Discord communities are very proactive the community is very generous so don't don't hesitate to share your learnings and observations this is crisp make sure the first line of your product Grant proposal clearly explains the product it should not it should not complicate the thought process of the reviewer what is the easiest way for the grant reviewer to apply a proposal reviewer to understand your product that should be your first one to two sentences make sure that the product presentation is very crisp and clean these are the do's uh there were proposals which have a direct trademark which get rejected outright uh if you miss out on certain details so I'm hoping you are making notes or just adding whatever slide is relevant to your idea lack of details if even if you are at an experimentation phase even if you are at an idea or an initiate initiative which did not still yet take a make sure that it is very explicitly called out right it should not come out as hey the details were not shared even if the details are not shared they should know why certain details are not yet maybe if you're at a development phase you are still yet to figure out who your developers are going to be for this product call it out make sure the committee knows in and out of your proposal or your approach or your research your work being done on that particular product this is a little difficult to predict to be honest uh this is not entirely in your hands there could be circumstances which could uh affect your grand proposal like it could be a great idea in a bull market but it need not be like it could not be something which will catch attention in a bear market right so there could be proposals though a great idea perfect implementation fantastic team but still might not get accepted because of the circumstances so make sure that you take this feedback from the grant committee review team so that you are aware why your proposal is not getting accepted if it's something to do with the circumstances you'll have to just hit back when the time is right so this is one reason one of the uh key elements which we don't have control on we also don't take this into consideration While submitting a proposal uh this is a very simple very basic across all the grand programs this is one line which everybody cares about milestones uh there are protocols which take for example if you apply for a grant at ton you will have 10 Milestones as a mandate so you will have to Define 10 milestones for your Grant proposal it's very difficult right when the moment you are defining 10 Milestones you are going very as granular as possible you are explaining them every single implementation detail every specific action which you take with your team so the more Milestones there are the detail The Proposal is it's always good if there are no Milestones it's very clearly visible that you're coming here for free money uh though grants from the marketing standpoint might look like free money it is not protocol is treating this grant money as an investment they are not just using this for marketing they want to ensure that their protocol grows when they give this grant to a project right so when you are requesting for a proposal make sure that your Milestones are very clearly laid out it can't be random it can't be big you don't get access to open grants just because you have a great idea you have to have a very detailed Milestone set up okay this is one proposal uh from filecoin which which stood out amongst many others like there are multiple things which were good about this particular proposal I just only called out like three to four uh crucial elements look at the project description so when you are giving out your project description when you are giving out your proposal ideas uh description that clearly shows how much research you have done on that particular idea right so if you look at this particular this proposals project description the entire research they have done and also they also talk about similar product which has been implemented within filecoin itself uh similar proposals why the previous proposals didn't go about uh why is this unique as compared to other proposals uh in the grants program it clearly calls out they talk about the entire research which is being done in order to ensure that their project isn't very clearly described what is the value that you are adding this is another key element like if you look at a template of a grant proposal you might not find explicit side headings for this like they won't have a very clear heading stating that hey can you share the value this proposal is going to add to the protocol but this is intuitive this is intuitive for a reviewer this is what a reviewer will be looking out for they would be looking out for what this particular proposal what this particular idea is adding value to the protocol but this is in general not actually called out in the proposal form so make sure that you include this in the description you include this in your proposal even though it's not actually asked in the application form and this is obvious uh the deliverable is very similar to milestones and you have a very detailed like this proposal has a very detailed roadmap uh starting with every like if you look at uh their proposal they literally have a weekly uh submission for their development like 25th January then they have first February then 15 February so they have a very detailed execution plan they are also promising the deliverables in the like if you have not clicked a picture they're also promising the deliverables and the development roadmap date wise so if you look at it like it's very clear right it's very evident that they have done their research uh they know what they are doing they know or they know how to organize their team they know how to get their team to deliver the promised deliverables again uh coming back to the team Slide the credential slide uh which was again relevant experience not just contributions not just GitHub contributions but your contributions in the relevant field in the relevant uh product ideas is what matters yeah so I'll quickly summarize it like these are not actually as project description of course is asked in a different way but these are the things which are not explicitly asked on application forms but make sure that you include this on your proposals project description value deliverables development roadmap and relevant experience this is the current status of my proposal with compound uh the result will be out in 19 hours from now but I have requested for a 1 million dollar budget uh to disperse through Quest book I have worked on this for the last six months as a grant applicant so I was in your shoes for the last six months working on my proposal doing my research I'll quickly brief you what all went into because this is a huge ask this is literally 10 to 13 percent of comp treasury that we are requesting from compound right and this is not the first like this proposal is about launching a grants program for compound it is like a meta proposal there's a proposal to launch a grants program now they already had cgp 1.0 which was successful and I'm relaunching cgp 2.0 so which means that I need to have a clear definition of cgb 2.0 what am I trying to do here what are my learnings from cgp 1.

0 took a lot of time it took me six months this proposal is to run the grants program for six months so to run a grants program for six months I had to do research for six months so I'll quickly explain what all went into the six months uh first one month I did a lot of research I spoke to the previous Grant committee members I spoke to active community members of compound I prepared the first draft of the proposal but even before I shared it with the community I shared it individually one-on-one with the active community members the core compound developers the core contributors of compound I got their feedback even before I put it out there right then the first draft of The Proposal uh I took the feedback on the community there's a discourse Forum I put it up there with even with the proposal for voting was put last week but on the discussion forum I have put it up six months back like took the feedback spoke to the Token holders at the end of the day people who like if it's such a huge Grant proposal if this has to do with a million dollar budget if you're requesting for a high budget grants it goes through a voting Quorum and for that the token holders will be voting on your proposals so it's not just a discourse Forum Community which is showing interest in your proposal you will need interest from the token holders the token holders are the ones who are actually going to vote on your proposal so I had to make sure that I get their feedback their feedback is incorporated had to explain them why this program is being launched and also uh there is a threshold for every Quorum like for compound it was 400 000 words so at least when there is a 400 000 words being voted only then the proposal will be valid I had to go through legal compliances uh then the process to put up the proposal itself took a month and at the end I had the proposal up last week and it is going to end soon I have 415 000 votes for the proposal and two votes against my proposal there were very uh Basics which I uh stuck to I ensured that the structure is very detailed like this is I feel this is simple you have to just stick to your Basics and be very persistent uh like I'm not personally a very deep programmer I don't have a very deep knowledge into technology but I was very persistent in understanding the concept I was very persistent in understanding the community I was very patient in speaking to I had close to I spoke to most more than 300 plus grant applicants when I've set up the grants program for polygon so when you are proposing something make sure that you speak to the community members so this was one of that like my research took a lot of time almost month and a half was just speaking to the community members be active in the community it's okay if nobody is responding to your messages on Discord it's okay if nobody is responding nobody is answering your questions but still ask them uh there will be people who will be generous and eventually connect with you and coordinate with you to ensure that your proposal is out there these are this had a very simple structure uh I always start The Proposal with the summary it's not the summary is not towards the end I ensured that the summary is very clear people know why I'm putting up this proposal I've put up the purpose why am I even launching cgp 2.0 the problems solution how am I designing my particular Pro program uh what what am I expecting out of this proposal and last comes the credentials why am I even doing it what's best book and the product and the compensation details I always ensured that it's pictorial uh make it as easy as possible for the reviewer to understand uh make it make it simple to comprehend for a reviewer I had a grants program structure very pictorial I put up my research like I've done a lot of research make sure that you speak to relevant members also discuss this in a similar uh Discord communities like it could be a different protocol but a similar protocol make sure that you're also talking those community members to those community members like if you look at my draft I I start off by uh talk saying that these are the core contributors of compound one of them was the grant lead for the cgp 1.0 so this is my first line of my proposal I have done my research that is what I wanted to say I spoke to people I I put in efforts I've done my research I ensured that all the loopholes are blocked a program design what is the inspiration it's not like a idea uh which is entirely unique they have ethereum Foundation uses a very similar model so I ensured that all the programs which are already using similar models are also mentioned I have a like whatever is uncomfortable whatever is the gray area make sure that it's whitened out uh legal compliances if there is anything make sure you speak to don't hesitate to speak to Illegal Advocates and take their opinion compensation details be as clear as possible what are you charging for how much are you charging and why are you and uh that's all uh I have the Quorum right now with 400 and thousand words if I was able to submit for a one million dollar budget and in a bear Market I'm pretty sure each one of you would be able to do it just make sure that you're genuine and following the steps very sincerely and be persistent with your proposal I have my team Richie Kan shweta who will do a very quick demo uh I'll also I think Richard will clear what to be done with these color papers at the end of the talk yeah yeah so you can scan this QR code that's there and you'll be able to visit our website so uh upon visiting Quest book you'll be able to see all the ground details that is there and this comes up like this and this is for your own benefit as in all the points that Harsha mentioned they are jotted down here in a very crisp format for you to refer to them during the hackathon or even after that as well and once you submit the proposal it comes up and you can submit several iterations of it and use it during the hackathon to maintain your draft your proposal and at the end submit it on the fourth I hope you have a great hackathon Happy hacking