# How to write a DAO funding proposal that passes a vote

> How to write a DAO funding proposal that passes: forum draft, feedback, vote and reporting, with real deposits, quorums and vote lengths from 9 DAOs.

Last reviewed 2026-10-31. Dates are UTC.

A DAO funding proposal is a public request for money from a community treasury, approved or rejected by token-holder vote or by a committee the DAO elected. To get one through, post a draft on the forum, revise it on feedback, win over the people who vote, submit with the required deposit, and report publicly once funded. Deposits, quorums and vote lengths differ by DAO.

## Key takeaways

- As of 2026-10-31, 20 of the 99 programs in web3grant's directory are run by a DAO or decided by governance, from on-chain treasuries such as Polkadot OpenGov to committees such as Lido's LEGO.
- Costs to submit vary widely: 1,000 AKT on Akash, a decision deposit from 1 DOT to 1,000 DOT on Polkadot depending on the track, and 100,000 ada on Cardano, mostly refundable.
- Discussion comes before the vote: at least 7 days on Polkadot, 1 to 3 weeks plus a public AMA on RootstockCollective, and 30 days with at least two Q&A sessions on Nervos's CKB Community Fund DAO.
- Treasuries are cautious in 2026: no outside team has won an Akash community pool vote since August 2025, and many recent Polkadot treasury requests were rejected.
- A line-item budget is close to mandatory: on Livepeer's community treasury, proposals without one rarely pass.

## What is a DAO funding proposal?

A DAO funding proposal asks a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to pay for work out of its shared treasury. It is public from the first draft, and the decision is made by token holders, their delegates or an elected committee rather than by a foundation's staff.

There are two kinds, and they call for slightly different tactics:

- **Treasury votes.** Token holders vote directly on each request. Examples: Polkadot and Kusama OpenGov, the Cardano Treasury, the Akash community pool, Livepeer's community treasury and the CKB Community Fund DAO.
- **DAO grant committees.** The DAO elects a committee or allocators who decide within a budget. Examples: Compound's domain allocators, Lido's LEGO, the CoW DAO grants committee and Rocket Pool's Grants Management Committee.

Our guide to [blockchain treasury funding](https://www.web3grant.com/guides/blockchain-treasury-funding) covers how treasuries are funded, and the [DAO grants](https://www.web3grant.com/guides/dao-grants) guide compares the programs.

## The path from draft to payout

Most DAO processes follow the same seven steps, with different names and timings.

1. **Read the rules and recent proposals.** Look at the last ten requests, passed and failed, and note what voters objected to.
2. **Talk before you post.** Akash asks you to join its Discord and talk to the relevant special interest group or working group first. At Lido you pitch a LEGO member on Telegram before anything is posted.
3. **Post a forum draft.** Polkadot expects the draft on Polkassembly or Subsquare for at least 7 days. Akash uses GitHub discussions, Livepeer the LIPs category of its forum, and CoW DAO its forum with a set template.
4. **Revise in public.** Answer every comment and keep a changelog at the top of the draft.
5. **Take a temperature check, if the DAO uses one.** A temperature check is an early, often non-binding poll. Many DAOs run it on Snapshot, an off-chain tool where votes are signed messages weighted by token holdings. CoW DAO's committee votes on Snapshot over three days, and 3 of its 4 members must approve.
6. **Submit the binding vote.** Pay the deposit, set the recipient address and the amount, and promote the vote while it is open.
7. **Get paid and report.** Payouts may come at once or in tranches, and reporting is public.

## Deposits, quorums and vote lengths compared

The numbers below come from each program's own documentation as recorded in our directory (checked October 2026). A quorum is the minimum share of voting power that must take part for a vote to count.

| DAO | To submit | Discussion | Vote | To pass |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Akash Community Pool](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/akash-community-pool) | 1,000 AKT deposit | GitHub draft, monthly Steering Committee | 7 days | 33.4% quorum, majority yes |
| [Polkadot OpenGov](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/polkadot-opengov-treasury) | 1 to 1,000 DOT deposit, by track | At least 7 days | Up to 28 days, then confirmation | Set by track |
| [Kusama OpenGov](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/kusama-opengov-treasury) | About 0.03 to 33.33 KSM | Draft on Subsquare or forum | Up to 14 days, then up to 7 | Set by track |
| [Cardano Treasury](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/cardano-treasury-withdrawals) | 100,000 ada, refunded | Intersect budget process | Until ratified at an epoch boundary | 67% of DRep stake and the Constitutional Committee |
| [Algorand xGov](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/algorand-xgov) | 100 + 100 ALGO fees, 3% deposit | At least 2 weeks | 2 weeks | Quorum rises with amount |
| [RootstockCollective](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/rootstock-collective-grants) | 1,000 stRIF staked, KYB or KYC | 1 to 3 weeks, public AMA | 7 days | stRIF-weighted vote |
| [Livepeer](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/livepeer-community-treasury) | 100 LPT, returned if it passes | LIPs forum | About 9 days | 33% quorum, majority |
| [CKB Community Fund DAO](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/nervos-ckb-community-fund-dao) | 100,000 CKB in the Nervos DAO | 30 days, 2+ Q&A sessions | 7 days | 51% yes, turnout 3x the budget |
| [Metaplex DAO](https://www.web3grant.com/grants/metaplex-dao-grants) | Hold 200 MPLX, pass KYC | GitHub | 14 days | Over 50% yes and a quorum |

Some rules in that table deserve a closer look:

- **Polkadot and Kusama tracks set your cap.** Polkadot has six treasury tracks from Small Tipper (up to 250 DOT) to Treasurer (up to 10,000,000 DOT); bigger tracks need bigger deposits and have longer confirmation periods. The [Polkadot wiki](https://wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-polkadot-opengov-treasury/) lists them.
- **Akash keeps your deposit** only if the vote ends in "no with veto"; otherwise it is returned.
- **Algorand xGov** is retroactive: the work must already be built. Proposals are still accepted, but payouts wait on a Foundation top-up of the xGov treasury and a newly elected Council.

## How to write a DAO funding proposal that passes

Write for a skeptical voter with five minutes and no context. A fictional skeleton follows the list.

- **TL;DR.** Akash asks for one at the top. Three lines: what, how much, by when.
- **Why this DAO benefits.** Voters fund their own network, not your startup. Name the users, protocol or metric that improves.
- **Deliverables and milestones.** Each with a date and a way to check it. Nervos requires budgets over $10,000 to be split into milestones.
- **Budget in line items.** Akash asks for a breakdown in hours and hourly rate. Our [Web3 grant budget guide](https://www.web3grant.com/guides/web3-grant-budget) shows the format.
- **Team.** Links to shipped work.
- **Disclosures.** Rocket Pool asks for conflicts of interest and whether results will be open source; RootstockCollective asks you to disclose other funding and past security incidents.
- **Recipient.** Livepeer recipients are usually a team or special-purpose entity multisig. Rocket Pool pays straight to an address and cannot pay invoices.
- **Reporting plan.** Where and how often you will post updates.

```
[Proposal] Indexer API for the network explorer (fictional example)

TL;DR: 3 milestones over 4 months, 42,000 USDC total, open-source indexer
and public API for explorer and wallet teams.
Changelog: v2 cut the mobile SDK after forum feedback (link).
Budget: M1 schema and backfill, 160 h x $90 = $14,400; M2 ...
Recipient: 2-of-3 team multisig (address).
Reporting: monthly forum update; spending log in the repo.
```

For the writing itself, our pillar guide on [how to write a Web3 grant proposal](https://www.web3grant.com/guides/how-to-write-a-web3-grant-proposal) goes section by section.

## How do you win delegates?

A delegate is a token holder who votes with power others have assigned to them; on Cardano they are called DReps. Voting power is often concentrated, so your real audience may be a short list of people.

1. **Find who actually votes.** Read the vote records of the last few treasury proposals and note the largest voters and what they said.
2. **Show up before you ask.** Rocket Pool's committee has said it favors applicants who engaged with the community before applying. Akash has you present at its monthly Steering Committee, RootstockCollective schedules a live public AMA, and on the CKB Community Fund DAO the Stewards hold at least two public Q&A sessions.
3. **Ask early for objections, not support.** "What would stop you voting yes?" gets more useful answers than "Will you vote yes?"
4. **Change the proposal and say so** in a visible changelog.
5. **Start small.** On Polkadot a smaller track means a smaller deposit and, on tipper tracks, a 7-day vote instead of up to 28 days. A delivered small grant is the best argument for a larger one.

Many recent Polkadot treasury requests were rejected, so a detailed draft and delegate support before going on-chain matter more than polish.

## Committee-run DAO grants work differently

When an elected committee decides, you still post in public, but you write for a few reviewers with a rubric rather than for a crowd.

- **Lido's LEGO** approves by tier: one member up to $1,000, two members up to $10,000, the Council up to $100,000, and a full Lido DAO vote above that. Granting slowed in 2026: Q1 used 30% of the quarterly budget and Q2 less than 1%.
- **Compound** has domain allocators who score proposals on Questbook against a public rubric, and asks over $25,000 may need a community call or forum post. New Dapps and Ideas proposals have been paused since April 14, 2026, and the remaining domains fund only exceptional teams while the program's future is under review.
- **Rocket Pool's GMC** is a seven-member committee that runs monthly rounds, posts results two to three weeks after the deadline and leaves a two-week window to dispute an award. Funds are tight: Round 41 declined every application.
- **CoW DAO** pairs each applicant with a steward on the forum before the Snapshot vote.

## Why do DAO funding proposals fail?

The failures in our data share a few causes: asking a cautious treasury for too much, too soon, with too little detail.

- **Treasury caution.** No outside team has won an Akash community pool vote since August 2025, and several 2026 Kusama requests were rejected.
- **No line-item budget.** On Livepeer, such proposals rarely pass.
- **Cost out of line with demand.** Rocket Pool's recent declines above $7,500 were often on cost or unclear demand.
- **Wrong route.** Cardano's treasury suits mature projects and shared infrastructure; cardano.org points small or early-stage work elsewhere.
- **Going on-chain without discussion.** Voters punish surprises, and on Akash a "no with veto" result costs the 1,000 AKT deposit.

## After the vote: payouts and reporting

On Akash, funded teams post status updates and record spending in the Community Pool Spend Reporting folder on GitHub. The CKB Community Fund DAO pays a startup amount of at most 20% of the budget, capped at $10,000, then Stewards verify each milestone within 7 days before a 3-day optimistic vote releases the next payment. RootstockCollective pays a 20% to 30% first tranche, asks for monthly reports, and since September 2026 holds back about 30% until a post-completion impact review. On Cardano, Intersect signs a contract after KYC or KYB and pays by milestone through a smart contract.

Our guide to [grant milestone reports](https://www.web3grant.com/guides/grant-milestone-reports) covers what to post. To compare treasuries with other funding, browse [Polkadot grants](https://www.web3grant.com/ecosystems/polkadot), [Cardano grants](https://www.web3grant.com/ecosystems/cardano) or the full [directory](https://www.web3grant.com/grants).

## FAQ

### How much does it cost to submit a DAO funding proposal?

The cost to submit a DAO funding proposal is usually a deposit, and it often comes back. Akash asks for 1,000 AKT, returned unless the vote ends in "no with veto"; Cardano asks for 100,000 ada, refunded after the vote; Polkadot's decision deposit runs from 1 DOT to 1,000 DOT by track. Algorand xGov also charges two 100 ALGO fees on top of a refundable 3% deposit.

### How long does a DAO funding proposal take?

In the treasuries above, a DAO funding proposal takes roughly one to three months from first draft to payout. Discussion alone runs at least 7 days on Polkadot and 30 days on the CKB Community Fund DAO, and votes last from 7 days (Akash, RootstockCollective) to 28 days (larger Polkadot tracks). Our directory estimates a typical decision time of 12 weeks for the Cardano Treasury.

### What is the difference between a Snapshot vote and an on-chain vote?

A Snapshot vote is off-chain: voters sign messages, nothing executes automatically, and it costs no gas. An on-chain vote is a transaction recorded on the blockchain, and a passing treasury vote can move funds directly. Many DAOs use Snapshot for temperature checks or committee decisions, as CoW DAO does, and keep on-chain votes for binding treasury spends.

### Do you need to hold tokens to submit a DAO funding proposal?

Often yes, at least for the deposit or a minimum stake. RootstockCollective requires 1,000 staked stRIF, Metaplex DAO requires holding 200 MPLX, and the CKB Community Fund DAO needs 100,000 CKB in the Nervos DAO to start a vote. Rocket Pool's grants committee takes applications as forum replies, and our records list no token requirement for it.

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From web3grant: https://www.web3grant.com/guides/dao-funding-proposal. Program details change often: confirm on each program's official site before applying.