It's the bear. It's winter. Everybody is feeling it.

Projects need funding. But where to look?

Let's get into it!

TL;DR

The infamous Gitcoin GR16 grants round has been postponed this quarter as the hotly awaited Grants Protocol upgrade is being implemented. So what better way to start the ReFi Radar than with a scan of some of the other top sources of grant funding available for ReFi projects right now! With the help of Akshay Aditya's ReFi Grants Notion Database, we uncover the top 10 grant programs and provide some further context.

The Backdrop 📍

The Web2 world seems to present an almost binary choice:

1. Open-source software (no business model, underfunded)
2. Proprietary tech (extractive, overfunded).

Web3 provides a space and tools to experiment with new economic systems to overcome this dichotomy, of which public goods funding is an essential part.

Gitcoin has been leading the way in this domain. Since its launch in November 2017, they have facilitated the raise over $72.4m for over 11 thousand unique public goods projects, leveraging a unique quadratic funding mechanism to create a more democratic and community-powered allocation system. This has helped to fuel an explosion of new projects and initiatives emerging. You can read more about Gitcoin in the ReFi DAO deep dive and podcast here → https://blog.refidao.com/refi-deep-dive-gitcoin/

The Climate Collective has also been a key player in the web3 climate ecosystem, providing support for many of the exciting ReFi projects building on Celo! Yet the collective is also going through a period of reflection as they prepare for an updated program in 2023. It seems Filecoin Green's grant program is going through a short pause at this time of year as well...

So what to do ReFi founder? 🤔

With Gitcoin and Climate Collective slowing down in Q4, combined with tough macroeconomic conditions, many projects are wondering how to stay afloat!

Fear not! Lets get into some of the other sources of funding available... 🤑

Top 10 Grant Programs for ReFi - Dec 2022

Grant programs have been selected from the ReFi Grants Notion Database based on their focus on ReFi and the size of fund. Furthermore, before we dive in, you might want to checkout the AlphaGrowth platform that aggregates over 120 Crypto Grants Programs in one place!

1) Future Quest — Deadline Extended to Dec 7!

An exciting coalition of organiszations including @0xPolygon, @BMWfoundation, @CeloOrg, @ReFiDAOist, @Gitcoin, and@bobanetwork have come together with Future Quest to form a $1M Grant Pool for Innovative Climate Projects! It was due to draw to a close yesterday but the deadline has been extended to Dec 7th! Click below to apply now! 👇

2) Giveth.io

The always open giveth.io has being providing support for positive impact projects since 2017. It's worth verifying your project to make the most of the Giveth ecosystem. Submit yours here!

3) EarthFund — DAO-focused

Under a range of causes, projects can be listed and voted on by the community to receive a grant. Current causes include community-led carbon removal!

4) Protocol Labs Research Grants

With more of a research based focus this looks like one for DeSci or blockchain infrastructure folks! Check it out at https://grants.protocol.ai/

Ecosystem-specific Funds 🦚

Now lets cover some of the sources of funding avilable for projects building or affiliated with specific crypto ecosystems:

1) Prezenti's Celo Community Fund!

Building on Celo? A new grants organization is taking over the helm of stewarding some (800,000 CELO) of the funds from Celo's Community Fund! It is open to all Celo community members across the world for assistance bringing Education, Research and Community Tooling projects to fruition. On-chain governance can be a slow and difficult process, but this pre-approved pool of CELO managed by the Prezenti team provides a quick route to secure much needed funding! More info here!

2) The Solana Foundation Grants Program

Despite the impact of the FTX meltdown, Solana Foundation is continuing to run it's grants program—albeit, understandably they might be a bit more restricted in outgoings compared to a few months ago... Still, their milestone-based funding program supports initiatives aimed at decentralizing, growing, and securing the Solana network. For ReFi folks, Financial Inclusion & Climate Change are included as categories they are interested in funding!

Also given the success of the ReFi Lisbon event at Solana Breakpoint in October, we know personally there is a lot of enthusiasm for regeneration internally at the Foundation from key actors.

3) Polygon x Questbook

A general grant line aimed at onboarding the next 1000 projects to Polygon with cash (upto $15k) and voucher rewards (upto $40k). Applications submission close on the 10th of Decemeber! More detials here.

4) Filecoin Grants

Two opportunities available here:

1. Filecoin Ecosystem Grants: intended to support novel ideas that advance the Filecoin ecosystem, bring significant new usage, or directly advance the Filecoin mission statement. --> https://grants.filecoin.io/
2. Filecoin Foundation Fund - three themes for open request, but ReFi projects might be particularly interested in the Public education piece! See here --> https://ffdweb.org/awards/

5) Chainlink Grant Program

Deploying resources toward the creation of critical developer tooling, the addition of high-quality data (ReFi data maybe?), and the launching of key services around the Chainlink Network. Congratulations to Shamba Network for receiving this grant back in November last year to Bring Geospatial Climate Data On-Chain!

6) Regen Ecosystem Fund (REF)

An ecosystem venture fund aimed towards the rapid and decentralized global growth of the Regen Network ecosystem. More details here -->

That's a wrap!

Hopefully we helped someone get funded this quarter as we come to a close on one roller coaster of a year. To all those builders in ReFi out there—hang tight, focus on the prize of regeneration and no matter what: Don't give up!

Climate change is the most pressing challenge of our time.

It is also the biggest opportunity.

Web3 gives us the power into finance impact with publicly verifiable proof.

LFG! 🔥