Web3 grant proposal template (copy and adapt)

How to fill in each section

Each section answers one reviewer question. Here is what to put in it and which programs ask for it by name. For the reasoning behind each section, see how to write a Web3 grant proposal.

Header

Name the exact round and track, because many programs run several. The Stellar Community Fund, for example, has an Open Track, an Integration Track and an RFP Track, and only the Open Track adds a community vote. Give the amount in USD even when the program pays in a token; Zcash Community Grants, Kusama's Vision bounties and the Compound Grants Program all set budgets in dollars and pay in tokens (Compound's main Dapps domain has been paused since April 2026, and its future is under review).

1. Summary

Write it last, in one paragraph, and make it work alone: deliverable, users, chain, date, amount, license. If a reviewer reads only this paragraph, they should be able to say what they would be paying for.

2. Problem and 3. Solution

Link evidence for the problem instead of asserting it. In the solution, name what already exists and why it falls short. 1inch's Aqua incubator says novelty is its first screen, and the Stacks Endowment asks applicants to check its grants tracker so they don't duplicate funded work (its Q4 2026 cycle has not been announced).

4. Why this ecosystem

Tie the work to the program's own priorities or RFP list. The Solana Foundation asks why a project needs Solana rather than another chain, and the Gear Foundation asks how the project contributes to Vara Network.

5. Team

List hours per week for each person. Reviewers check capacity, and some programs set a floor: the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship expects at least 20 hours a week (its Cohort 8 dates are not announced). Link shipped work; Btrust's Starter Grant asks for at least one merged, non-trivial pull request, and its Open-Source Cohort asks for three references.

6. Milestones and 7. Budget

Every milestone gets a deliverable, acceptance criteria, evidence, a date and an amount, and the amounts must add up to the budget total. Price people as hours times rate, which is the breakdown Akash's community pool asks for, even though no outside team has won a pool vote there since August 2025. The milestone-based grants and Web3 grant budget guides go line by line.

8. Metrics and 9. Risks

Choose metrics a reviewer can check without asking you, and give each a public source; see grant impact metrics. For risks, list the three to five real ones with a mitigation each. If the work includes new smart contracts, say how they will be audited.

10. Sustainability and 11. Open source

Say who maintains the work afterwards and how it is paid for. State the license precisely, because some programs require a specific one: Filecoin Open Grants require dual MIT and Apache-2 licensing (though their reviews look stalled), and the Monero CCS requires a permissive license at every stage. See open source licenses for grants.

12. Administration

Some programs ask these questions in the application itself. Rocket Pool's committee requires you to disclose conflicts of interest and say whether results will be open source, and Tezos Commons asks whether you requested funding from other Tezos organizations for the same project. Many programs run identity checks before paying; see KYC for crypto grants.

How to fit the template to a program's form

Most foundation programs take applications through a web form, not a document, so treat the template as your master copy and map it onto each form.

1. Open the form and list its fields. Note any character limits and required attachments before you write anything.
2. Map each field to a template section. "Project description" is usually Summary plus Solution; "Impact" is usually Metrics; "Funding request" is Budget plus Milestones.
3. Cut, don't compress. When a field is short, drop background first and keep the deliverable, the numbers and the links.
4. Keep one version per program. Save each adapted copy with the program and date, so you can answer follow-up questions from the exact text the reviewer saw.
5. Re-read the program page last. Eligibility rules, focus areas and status change; every program page on web3grant shows the date it was last checked.

Filled-in example: a fictional project

Batchwell: one-signature token approvals for Chain X wallets

Program: Chain X Foundation Builder Grants, open track. Amount requested: $38,000, paid in the program's token. Duration: 14 weeks. License: MIT.

Summary. Batchwell will ship an open-source TypeScript SDK that lets Chain X wallets batch token approvals into one signature, with documentation and integrations in two wallets, in 14 weeks for $38,000 over three milestones.

Problem. A user who approves three tokens on Chain X signs three transactions. Two Chain X wallets have open issues asking for batching, and approval errors were the most common topic in our own wallet's support tickets last quarter.

Why Chain X. Chain X has native account abstraction, but no SDK uses it for approvals, so wallets fall back to one transaction per token.

Team. Developer A, lead, 30 hours a week, maintainer of an approvals library with 40 dependents. Developer B, 20 hours a week, built the transaction history module in a Chain X wallet.

Metrics. Two wallets in production by week 14. 1,000 batched approvals onchain within six months, on a public dashboard. 25 dependent repositories by month six.

Risks. A wallet partner delays its release: both have sent letters of intent, and a third wallet is the fallback. A bug in the helper contract: it is audited before mainnet, and the audit sits in milestone 2.

Sustainability. Developer A maintains the SDK at about 5 hours a week after the grant, paid through a support agreement under negotiation with both wallets.

Administration. Two individual applicants, ready for KYC. No conflicts of interest. No other applications for this project.

Variant: a DAO governance forum post

A DAO forum post is public, read by token holders and delegates, and ends in a vote, so it leads with a TL;DR and states exactly what a "yes" funds. Copy this shape for programs that take proposals on a forum.

Title: [Grant request] [Project]: [deliverable] for [amount]

TL;DR
- What: [one line]
- Who: [team, with links]
- Ask: [amount, token, payment schedule]
- Timeline: [start date to end date]
- Vote: [what a "yes" approves, for example milestones 1 to 3 below]

Motivation
[Why the DAO should pay for this now. Which DAO goal, mandate or RFP it serves.]

Specification
[Deliverables, milestones and acceptance criteria, as in the main template.]

Budget
[Line items as hours x rate. Recipient address or multisig. Vesting, if any.]

Accountability
[How and how often you report. What happens if you miss a milestone.]

Disclosures
- Conflicts of interest: [...]
- Other funding for this work: [...]
- Open source: [yes or no, and the license]

Feedback
[Invite questions, and say when you plan to move to a vote.]

Programs set their own rules for these posts. CoW DAO asks applicants to read its Process Guide and Grant Agreement Terms, then post the Grant Application Template in the CoW Grants Program category of its forum, as its grants documentation describes. Akash's community pool asks for a TL;DR, timeline, amount and a breakdown of hours, rate and other costs, though no outside team has won a pool vote there since August 2025. RootstockCollective expects one to three weeks of forum feedback and a public AMA before a 7-day on-chain vote, and Nervos's CKB Community Fund DAO runs a 30-day discussion before its vote. The DAO funding proposal guide covers deposits, delegates and timing.

Variant: an RFP response

An RFP response answers a specification someone else wrote, so the core is a table that quotes each requirement and shows how you meet it.

Title: Response to [RFP name and number]

1. The problem in our words
[Two or three sentences that show you understood the RFP.]

2. Requirements and how we meet them
| RFP requirement | Our approach | Milestone |
|-----------------|--------------|-----------|
| [quote the requirement] | [...] | [...] |

3. Approach and alternatives
[Design, the options you considered, and why you chose this one.]

4. Deliverables and timeline
[Milestones with acceptance criteria and dates.]

5. Team
[Experience that matters for this RFP specifically.]

6. Price
[Total and per milestone. What is included and excluded.]

7. Assumptions and open questions
[Anything ambiguous in the RFP and what you assumed.]

The Ethereum Foundation's Ecosystem Support Program asks RFP applicants to explain their approach, methodology, timeline and deliverables, although as of October 2026 it has no open Wishlist or RFP items. TheDAO Security Fund, whose Round Two runs until January 31, 2027, lets you propose either an RFP that teams compete for or a grant for a named team. More in Web3 RFP grants.

Common mistakes when using a proposal template

A template saves time but creates its own errors. These are the ones a reviewer spots first:

• Placeholders left in. A stray "[amount]" or "[chain]" tells the reviewer the text was not read before sending.
• The wrong program's name. A proposal copied from another application that still names the other program or chain tells the reviewer it was not written for them.
• Numbers that don't match. The amount in the summary, the milestone table, the budget table and the form field must be identical.
• A generic ecosystem section. "Fast and low-cost" fits every chain; name the program's priority or RFP your work answers.
• Every section filled, none with evidence. A complete template with no links to code, users or data is still a weak proposal.

Programs that publish their own templates

When a program publishes a template, use it: reviewers compare applications field by field, and some programs, such as Conflux, require their template in full. These programs in web3grant's directory publish one.

Status matters as much as format. As of October 31, 2026, OpenSats is open until November 30, Rocket Pool's Round 42 closes November 7 with funds tight (Round 41 declined every application), and MoonDAO's next intake is expected around mid-January 2027. Filecoin Open Grants also use a GitHub issue template, but reviews there look stalled since April 2026. Find the rest in the Web3 grant directory, and check the grant application checklist before you submit.

FAQ

Can I use this Web3 grant proposal template for any program?

Yes. This Web3 grant proposal template covers the sections most foundation forms and DAO posts ask for, and you can copy and adapt it freely. Rename sections to match each program's field names, delete what the program doesn't ask for, and switch to the program's own template when it publishes one, as CoW DAO, Conflux, Rocket Pool and TRON Builders League do.

Should I submit the Web3 grant proposal template as a PDF?

Submit the proposal in whatever format the program names. The Tezos Foundation wants one PDF, the Stellar Development Foundation's academic grants take a PDF of at most three pages, and Zcash Community Grants use a GitHub form. Many foundations use web forms with character limits, so paste section by section and keep the milestone and budget tables as plain text if tables won't render.

How long should a filled-in Web3 grant proposal be?

When the program sets no limit, two to four pages plus the milestone and budget tables is a reasonable length for a filled-in Web3 grant proposal. OpenSats asks for about one page, and Stellar's academic grants allow at most three pages. Cut background before you cut evidence: reviewers need the links, acceptance criteria and line items more than they need context on the industry.

Does a grant proposal template work for retroactive grants?

Only partly. Retroactive programs pay for work already done, so the evidence, metrics and open-source sections matter and the milestone section does not. Algorand's xGov funds open-source tools already built and in use (payouts currently wait on a treasury top-up and a new Council), and Ronin's Proof of Distribution scores activity automatically. See retroactive public goods funding for how those programs judge impact.

Can you write a Web3 grant proposal under a pseudonym?

Some Web3 grant programs accept pseudonymous proposals, but many still verify identity before paying. OpenSats welcomes pseudonymous applicants, the MAGIC Monero Fund lets you apply under a pseudonym but requires you to identify yourself before payout, and Zcash Community Grants let you stay pseudonymous in public while requiring KYC for approved grants above $50,000. Put the pseudonym in the template's contact line and links to its track record.