TL;DR

The Localism Fund has officially launched — with $155,000 in funding to empower local hubs, networks, and place-based groups around the world.

Two major opportunities are now open:

• 🌿 Local Grant Programs | Round 01 — Apply for funding to design and run a local funding program rooted in political, economic, cultural, or ecological localism. Matching Pool: $125,000 USD.
  Apply now → localism.fund/round-01
  
• 🕸️ Localism Fund Expert Network — Join as a peer-validated expert in grant-making, Web3 tooling, or localism. Contribute as an evaluator, mentor, or tooling feedback advisor. Compensation pool: $5,500 USD + 10,000 CELO
  Apply now → localism.fund/expert-network
  

Read on to explore how the Localism Fund works, the partners behind it, and how you can help shape the future of Ethereum-powered local coordination. 🌱

Ethereum for what?

For all its promise, Web3 has often concentrated energy in speculative cycles and abstract narratives. Meanwhile, the world’s most urgent challenges—democratic fragility, brittle local economies, cultural erosion, and ecological decline—are experienced locally. Global tools alone don’t create legitimacy or lasting adoption; grounded relationships, institutions, and practice in place do.

If Ethereum is to matter beyond crypto-native circles, it must serve real communities as reliable infrastructure for coordination, not just capital. That requires working with the grain of local life—supporting those already stewarding trust, knowledge, and care on the ground.

Introducing Localism Fund

Localism Fund exists to support credible local networks and place-based groups to nurture political, economic, cultural, and ecological localism, while demonstrating Ethereum as foundational infrastructure for that work. We provide grants, guidance, and hands-on support that help local hubs translate global tools and knowledge into practical, locally rooted outcomes.

We aim to:

• Strengthen communities & economies by integrating Ethereum tools into local coordination, governance, and resource flows.
• Advance Ethereum adoption & legitimacy through credible, non-speculative use cases and measurable on-chain activity.
• Catalyze tangible local impact across political, economic, cultural, and ecological dimensions.
• Build open knowledge commons so successful models can be adapted and scaled.
• Weave a global-local network that connects diverse hubs into a coherent movement for Ethereum Localism.

Why Localism?

Localism is the belief and practice that decision-making, governance, and economic activity should be rooted in local communities, not distant authorities. It values place-based solutions, where those closest to an issue are best positioned to solve it.

• Political Localism: decentralizing authority; assemblies, participatory budgeting, municipal innovation.
• Economic Localism: local ownership & value circulation—co-ops, community currencies, CSAs.
• Cultural Localism: identity, heritage, bioregional stories and practices as foundations of resilience.
• Ecological Localism: stewardship, shorter supply chains, watershed/bioresource governance.
• Ethereum Localism: Ethereum-based infrastructure and tools —payments, identity/attestations, governance, open data—to empower local coordination without extracting.

How?

Localism Fund is running thematic grant funding rounds focused on locally rooted adoption and impact. Funding flows to local hubs—organizations, chapters, coalitions, or bioregional nodes—that then operate their own local funding processes. Hubs decide priorities, select projects, disburse funds, and report outcomes.

• Subsidiarity: decisions sit at the most local competent level.
• Matching + Mentorship: we add matching funds, expert evaluation, and operational support.
• Attest & Learn: hubs publish impact via on-chain attestations and open reports; learnings roll up to improve future rounds.

This lets global partners achieve strategic goals (e.g., Ethereum adoption, regeneration) without overriding local context.

• Downward flows: capital, tooling, frameworks, and mentorship move from domain → fund → networks → local hubs → local activities.
• Upward flows: attestations, metrics, and stories flow back up, informing future rounds and increasing alignment.
• Outcome: a polycentric, learning system where effective strategies replicate and credible hubs attract more resources.

Partners & Roles

Embodying a networked and collabrative approach, Localism Fund is co-stewarded and co-funded by aligned partners:

• Stewardship: OpenCivics (civic innovation & ops), Regen Coordination (regenerative finance, localism strategy, network weaving).
• Current Funders: Gitcoin, Celo Public Goods, Ma Earth, Ethereum Foundation / Ethereum Everywhere.
• Technical: Karma GAP (applications & milestones), TrustGraph (peer attestation & reputation).
• Development: Ethereum For The World (ecosystem expansion).

Round 01 | Local Grant Programs

(Live Now!)

Local Grant Programs is the first funding round of the Localism Fund. Through this round, we’re funding locally-led grant programs — not just single projects — that bring Ethereum tools and values into the heart of communities to coordinate resources, governance, and regeneration on the ground.

Our aim is empower local hubs to design and operate grant programs that strengthen political, economic, cultural, and ecological localism—while piloting Ethereum tools in practice.

• Applications: Open now!
• Matching Pool: $125K
• Grant Range: $5,000 – $20,000 per local program (matching basis)
• Who should apply: local programs ready to launch late 2025 / early 2026
• Learn more: localism.fund/round-01

The Localism Fund Expert Network

To ensure that funding decisions and learning processes are credible, contextual, and regenerative, we are seeding the Localism Fund Expert Network – a peer-attested network of trusted practitioners advancing the intersection of localism and Ethereum coordination.

In many funding systems, evaluators operate behind closed doors — detached from communities and tools they assess. The Expert Network aims to flip that model by grounding evaluation in peer validation and transparent reputation.

Each expert brings practical experience from at least one of three key domains:

1. Grant-making — designing, managing, or evaluating funding programs across Web3, philanthropy, civic, or public sectors.
2. Web3 / Ethereum Tooling — proficiency with Ethereum-based tools for coordination, funding, governance, or identity.
3. Localism — leading or advising initiatives that advance political, economic, cultural, ecological, or Ethereum localism.

Why It Matters

Funding credible local programs requires local understanding, ethical awareness, and technical fluency. Rather than outsourcing this expertise, the Expert Network builds it as a living, community-governed trust layer — ensuring evaluation, mentorship, and learning flow through peer relationships, not bureaucracy.

Experts contribute by:

• Evaluating applications for Local Grant Programs using a shared rubric.
• Mentoring local hubs, helping them design, operate, and measure community-led programs.
• Providing feedback to improve the Web3 tools (like Karma GAP, Gardens, and Prosperity Pass) that power these rounds.

Participation is flexible — from light-touch review to deeper mentorship — and experts are compensated according to their contribution tier (ranging $200–$1,200 USD + CELO rewards + onchain badges).

A New Way to Build Trust

At the core of enabling this new network will be TrustGraph — a newly launched attestation protocol that enables communities to build transparent webs of trust and expertise.

Rather than relying on centralized credentials, TrustGraph lets experts vouch for one another through attestations. As these peer attestations accumulate, each member’s TrustScore grows dynamically using a PageRank-style algorithm. TrustGraph continuously recalculates scores as new attestations flow, creating a living, adaptive reputation system that evolves with real collaboration and contribution.

You can learn more at trustgraph.network or follow updates via @TrustGraphNetwork.

The Vision & Call to Action

Over time, Localism Fund aims to grow into a polycentric funding network with global resources and local wisdom flowing in harmony. Each round strengthens a growing ecosystem of local hubs, expert networks, and open-source tools that enable communities to coordinate, govern, and regenerate their place.

And with the Localism Fund now live we’re calling on builders, funders, and community organizers to join us in growing this experiment.

For local hubs: Apply to Local Grant Programs | Round 01 and pilot your own community-led funding round that connects local needs with Ethereum coordination. Apply now → localism.fund/round-01

For experts: Join the Localism Fund Expert Network, help evaluate and mentor local hubs, and earn recognition for your contribution to the movement. Apply now → localism.fund/expert-network

For partners & allies: Collaborate with us to launch new localism-aligned rounds and extend this polycentric funding architecture to more regions and ecosystems.

Let’s build the future of Ethereum Localism together 🌱

💬 Join our community: t.me/localismfund

✉️ Contact: support@localism.fund