<aside> ℹ️ As established, the Dream DAO will revolutionize philanthropy by...

• Bringing people from different generations and sectors together to collaborate, build community, and invest in future leaders together
• Closing the chasm between the giver and the grantee
• Decentralizing the process of grant-making

However, it can also revolutionize philanthropy by combining proactive funding and retroactive funding in an incredibly complementary way.

</aside>

Two Current Funding Models 🤔

• Proactive funding is when you fund people for the PROMISE of what they will achieve. This is what we've been doing at CU so far, and it's what venture capitalists and foundations do by default. They give you startup investment so that you can achieve what you say you will achieve. This type of funding rewards entrepreneurs that are good at marketing/selling a vision.
• Retroactive funding is when you fund people for the RESULTS of what they achieved. This is arguably not done enough in the not-for-profit space. And it is just starting to gain traction in the web3 community thanks to Vitalik Buterin's (founder of Ethereum) evangelizing of it. This type of funding rewards entrepreneurs that have built things that have proven to be public goods.

Utilizing Retroactive Funding for the Dream DAO 💸

As described in Dream DAO Programs + Grants, members of the DAO will be able to collectively decide on who they want to award grants to. Dream DAO grants can be best described as a mix of...

• Proactive funding ("we are funding the promise of what you will achieve in this next Season of your leadership development journey"), and
• Retroactive funding ("we are rewarding you for having meaningfully contributed to the CU community + humanity at large").

Dream DAO grants are not the only way we will leverage the power of retroactive funding. As explained in The Dream DAO Roadmap, the Dream DAO will evolve in "Seasons", lasting somewhere between 2-6 months. We will host an NFT auction to commemorate the end of each Season, and raise capital for the DAO treasury to enable us to build the next Season. In short, we ask the public to retroactively fund the public good that is the Dream DAO.

Why is the end of a Dream DAO Season a good time to launch an auction that retroactively funds the DAO? Tying DAO fundraising to proven accomplishments within a Season would incentivize grantees and the wider community to actually have accomplished great things in a given Season.

The NFT would be auctioned to the public on an NFT auction platform like Foundation. Groups (including Champions of the Dream DAO) could collectively pool funds (via a platform like PartyBid) to bid for the NFT.

One idea of how to distribute the proceeds is as follows: 50% of the proceeds go to the DAO treasury, with the rest go to active Dream DAO Builders in the form of a basic income. It is TBD what "active" would mean.

A key point about the NFT auction ritual is that it would also serve as an excuse to bring the community together every few months to build toward something big and exciting. These kinds of collective projects are essential for the health and longevity of a growing community.