Project name: SpiritDAO Launch

Description: SpiritDAO is an on-chain community embracing frameworks of meaning and value informed by cosmology and physics. We serve to spread our message, provide physical and virtual utility for our members, and further the Eight Dignities. Our initial protocol, Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis, is a living document supporting, stewarded, and evolving alongside our community.

Vision: SpiritDAO is a non-profit impact DAO. SpiritDAO represents an innovative approach to leveraging emerging infrastructure. One that casts a wide net and serves a variety of people who might otherwise remain unaware of the web3 space.

Problem: Web3 has a resonance problem; many lack the technological context to participate meaningfully. However, Educational and onboarding opportunities are inaccessible to those with a low degree of technical acumen. We recognize that historically marginalized communities and peoples require a more intimate approach to web3 onboarding. Therefore, our process meets them where they are. Most importantly, we orient our community around self-sovereignty - no giving away your eyeballs to the orb here.

Solution: We believe that our vision and values will resonate greater than the tech to the average individual and have developed an onboarding process to reflect these beliefs. To this end, we’re cultivating an intimate and first-of-its-kind DAO onboarding prioritizing value alignment over quantity of members. This includes a combination of self-guided learning and community gatherings/hand-holding.

We’re applying for this grant to support our efforts in two directions.

• The first is to support the expansion of our initial community through digital infrastructure, specifically a redesign of our website to support membership purchases in various currencies, including our $SELF token and a artifact shop.

• The second is the development of a playbook outlining the organizational structure and logic that we determined to be ideal for non-profit value-oriented DAOs. SpiritDAO has been a 10-month journey of experimenting with protocols to fit together an organization structure intended for non-speculative or product-oriented communities. We believe we’ve created something special, and these funds would support the development of a playbook that we would release as a free public good.

Beyond onboarding, we provide a wide range of resources and weekly communal spaces to help our members upskill and redirect their lives.

For more details about our central philosophies, operations, and on-chain infrastructure see https://docs.spiritdao.org / https://singletruth.org

Validation / Traction / Progress so far Team:

• Sunny Joy Balfour: Co-Founding Member of SpiritDAO
• Ron Rivers: Co-Founding Member of SpiritDAO, Original author Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis
• David Weinstein: Co-Founding Member SpiritDAO, Chief of Staff NEAR Foundation

We have a community of over ~60 members with several active members but are presently in pre-launch with the intent of opening up memberships within the next month.

Grant Amount Target: Amount in USD $20000 What will it be used for?

• Seed funding to formally launch our community and formalize our 501c3 nonprofit status.
• $10000 will be set aside for operational costs (SaaS) and new website buildout
• $1000 will be allocated to expenses of incorporation and Tax Exempt application fees.
• $5000 will be allocated to outreach efforts and funding memberships for low-income women and historically underrepresented individuals.
• $4000 will be put into the community vault to fund initiatives.