Celo Communities Guild | Season 2 Funding Request

Governance Governance Proposals
,
1

Proposal Key Aspects

  • Receiver Entity: Celo Governance
  • Status: [DRAFT]
  • Title: Celo Communities Guild | Season 2 Funding Request
  • Author(s): Goldo (@0xGoldo), 0xj4an-work (@0xj4an-work), Anthony (@Anthony), Skdt (@skdt)
  • Type of Request: Funding
    • Intent: Season 2
    • Funding Category: Community Operations
    • Funding Request: We are requesting from the Community Fund 55,100 cUSD + 10,000 Celo for six (6) months of operations.

Summary

This proposal requests funding to continue and scale the Celo Communities Guild throughout the period from January to June 2026, supporting its presence across Discord, Telegram, Reddit, and X.

Active since August 2021, the program has played a key role in protecting community channels and fostering meaningful participation. This role has become increasingly critical as the Celo Foundation advances its decentralization efforts. Maintaining a seasoned moderation team while expanding incentive allocations will allow the Guild to improve coordination, reduce the spread of inaccurate information, and support the ecosystem’s long-term development.

During Season 1, we also showed that a program of this nature can operate effectively in an autonomous and self-managed way, validating the sustainability of the model going forward.

Motivation

Strong and active online communities are a key driver of innovation within the Celo ecosystem. Platforms such as Discord and Telegram function as shared public spaces where users exchange knowledge, collaborate, and build relationships. Moderators play a crucial role in maintaining constructive conversations, supporting new members, and preventing fraudulent activity. In addition, they serve as an important coordination bridge between regional HUBs and the broader global community. This is particularly true on Discord, where moderators help ensure that information circulates clearly and that perspectives from all regions are represented. For these reasons, ongoing support for the Guild is fundamental to preserving community trust and sustaining ecosystem growth.

Objectives

  1. Strengthen Community Engagement: Encourage consistent, high-quality, and inclusive interactions across all channels to deepen relationships within the community.
  2. Preserve Platform Safety: Uphold the Code of Conduct and reinforce moderation efforts to limit spam, scams, and disruptive behavior.
  3. Expand Ecosystem Visibility: Promote updates, initiatives, and contributions from projects and regional HUBs to improve awareness across the Celo ecosystem.
  4. Incentivize Participation: Enable community quests, giveaways, and reward programs, including initiatives such as the Celo Community Steward program, to motivate sustained involvement.
  5. Support Community Expansion: Welcome and guide new members, builders, and contributors, providing a clear and accessible entry point into the ecosystem.

Specification

Building on a proven track record of strengthening engagement and maintaining safe community spaces, this proposal outlines concrete actions to further enhance moderation, incentivize participation, and deepen coordination across key platforms including Discord, Telegram, covering the main Celo account as well as selected regional and language-specific channels, and Reddit.

  1. Active Moderation
  • Ensure 24/7 coverage on Discord, Telegram, and Reddit.
  • Uphold the Code of Conduct and address incidents quickly.
  1. Community Hangouts
  • Host bi-weekly calls on Discord.
  • Reward engagement and participation on the call in the form of Celo token.
  1. Engagement Incentives
  • Further develop the Discord and Guild.xyz points system.
  • Run contests, quests, and giveaways designed to stimulate ongoing community activity.
  1. Ecosystem Collaboration
  • Deeper collaboration with the Celo Regional Council to amplify their initiatives.
  • Coordinate with the Celo Foundation and other ecosystem entities for cross-promotion, like the good collaboration we had with CeloPG.
  1. Transparency and Reporting
  • Release monthly reports outlining activities, outcomes, and key performance indicators.
  1. X Account:
  • Operate the @CeloCommunities account to highlight community updates, promote contests, and actively engage with the broader community.
  1. Google Services and Domains:
  • Cover monthly payments for Google Services and domain renewals to maintain operational efficiency

Metrics and KPIs

  • Lower average response time to inquiries.
  • Increase monthly active engagement across channels.
  • Reduce Code of Conduct violations.
  • Track FAQ themes and sentiment trends.
  • Grow participation in Guild.xyz quests.

Current Status

The Guild successfully met its H1 & H2 2025 targets by being a totally autonomous entity for the first time. Detailed spending records and monthly reports are available [here]. Building on that foundation, this proposal requests renewed funding to maintain momentum and add capacity for H1 2026.

Over the past six months (June–December), we have diligently tracked our expenses, which are transparently documented [here]. These records underscore our commitment to accountability and keep demonstrating the program’s value and impact.

Timeline and Milestones (Monthly)

  • Active moderation in Celo Guilds (Discord, Telegram & Reddit), keeping those channels free of spam.
  • Bi-weekly Community Hangout calls.
  • Ongoing Guild.xyz quest campaigns.
  • Regular amplification of ecosystem news.
  • Active coordination with the Celo Foundation, cLabs, and other ecosystem entities to keep roles, access and information up to date.
  • Exercise and enforce the community’s Code of Conduct.
  • Monthly internal moderator meetings and reporting.

Detailed Budget

We are requesting a total of 55,100 cUSD + 10,000 Celo from the Community Fund to support six months of operations. The cUSD portion will be allocated primarily to cover the payments of four full-time moderators and to fund the essential tools required for our work. The 10,000 Celo will be exclusively dedicated to fostering community engagement through contests, quests, giveaways, and similar initiatives.

Payments will be distributed monthly, with performance-based reviews to ensure the program’s objectives are met effectively.

Item Budget Total
Celo Guild Lead Moderator & PM (0xj4an) 3,000 cUSD 18,000 cUSD
Celo Guild Moderator – Security (0xGoldo) 2,500 cUSD 15,000 cUSD
Celo Guild Moderator (Anthony) 1,750 cUSD 10,050 cUSD
Celo Guild Moderator (@skdt) 1,750 cUSD 10,050 cUSD
Subtotal: Compensation — 53,100 cUSD
HashBot Renewal 500 cUSD 500 cUSD
Guild.xyz Plus plan (Membership for One Year) 1,000 cUSD 1,000 cUSD
Google Services * 12 months (In Advance) Paid with leftover funds from past budget 100 cUSD 0 cUSD
Telegram and Discord Premium Services (Membership for One Year) (125 cUSD * 4 Members) 500 cUSD 500 cUSD
Subtotal: Operational Costs — 2,000 cUSD
Community Incentives (Contests, Guld.xyz quests, Community Steward rewards, giveaways) — 10,000 Celo
Total 55,100 cUSD + 10,000 Celo

Any funds left at the end of the sixth (6th) month will be returned to the Celo Community Fund or deducted from the next iteration budget.

The Budget will be managed in a Multi Sign designed to have three members, part of the proposal.

Multisign Address (Threshold 2/3):
0x0B6a6666027d90fD56f4a2E1827296db4d590f4d

Signers:

  • 0xgoldo: 0x33200aF9F9FdE72076B74fAb34fDc91D87257174
  • 0xj4an: 0xFEF5A1A2b3754A2F53161EaaAcb3EB889F004d4a
  • 0xKnight: 0xe1a031170081AadcC869FC25A97c7f5618ED7586

Payment Terms

One transfer covering the full 55,100 cUSD + 10,000 Celo will be sent to the existing multisig 0x0B6a6666027d90fD56f4a2E1827296db4d590f4d.

Team

For 2026 H1, the proposed rotation will have 0xj4an (@0xj4an-work) stepping into the Lead Moderator role, 0xGoldo (@0xGoldo) taking on the position of Security Moderator, and Anthony (@Anthony) & skdt (@skdt) Community Moderators.

Additional Support / Resources

We request continued access to Celo Foundation resources for training and strategic guidance. A full list of official, regional, and language-focused communities maintained by the Guild are the following:

We invite the community to review this proposal and share feedback to ensure alignment with the ecosystem’s goals. Together, we can create a stronger, more engaged Celo community.

Final disclosure: The Celo Foundation will retain ownership of the Discord, Main Telegram, and Reddit channels.

9 Likes
Celo Governance Call #82 | Jan 22th, 2026
2

Strong support for the Communities Guild S2. They’ve been essential in keeping the conversation productive and scam-free. This proposal is lean, transparent, and perfectly aligned with the broader Season 2 intent of optimizing our resources for maximum impact. Let’s move this forward!

4 Likes
3

I was in a Telegram chat, and honestly, scammers are extremely rare there. I mean, there’s really no need for so many admins. You could easily reduce their number and save some money.
For example, about 3–4 months ago I wanted to become an admin myself — and I was totally ready to do it completely for free. I didn’t even know back then that people actually get paid for it.
Because, you know… for such a relatively casual thing as moderating a crypto-themed chat, it really doesn’t take much time. I’d say maybe 10–15 minutes a day at most — just pop in, check the messages, and that’s it. There’s usually very little activity. There’s simply no need to spend hours every day keeping order.
Most of the work is already done by bots and AI anyway (like bot detection, spam filters, etc.).
So overall — from a financial point of view, it doesn’t really make sense to keep funding this many paid admins.
No offense guys, I get it — you just want a lot of free tokens, but I seriously doubt anyone is going to agree to this.

1 Like
4

Hi @Dmitrii007s thanks for taking the time to share your perspective.

A key point to clarify is that the moderator role described in the Season 2 proposal is not limited to passively “watching” a Telegram chat. For a project of Celo’s size, community operations are structured, multi-platform, and require continuous coordination.

Moderation covers several layers of responsibility:

  1. Multi-platform coverage and 24/7 continuity Celo’s community is spread across Telegram, Discord, the Forum, Reddit, X, and Guild.xyz. Activity may look low at certain hours on a single platform, but globally it is continuous. The reason for having multiple moderators is to ensure time zone coverage, redundancy, and fast response in case of incidents, scams, account compromises, or misinformation. This is not something that can be handled by a single person “checking in” once per day.
  2. Active supervision of automated systems Bots and AI tools are helpful, but they are not autonomous. Every day there are false positives, incorrect bans, muted users, and edge cases that require human review. These are not occasional events. They accumulate quickly across platforms and must be resolved promptly to avoid blocking legitimate community members. This workload is shared among moderators to keep response times reasonable.
  3. Community engagement and coordination Keeping a community healthy is not just about removing spam. Moderators actively participate in discussions, surface relevant conversations, answer recurring questions, and redirect users to the correct resources. This human layer cannot be automated and is essential to prevent communities from becoming inactive or fragmented.
  4. Operational and program management work As outlined in the proposal, moderators also handle structured initiatives such as:
  • Organizing and running biweekly moderator and steward meetings
  • Managing the Celo Guild on Guild.xyz, including configuration, monitoring engagement, reviewing leaderboards, and preparing monthly reward distributions
  • Organizing contests for the community
  • Supporting community campaigns and content distribution across platforms like X and Reddit
  • Hosting a Community Hangout call on Discord twice a month.

These tasks involve planning, data handling, coordination with other teams, and accountability. They go well beyond casual moderation.

  1. Experience and reliability Celo is a large, high-visibility ecosystem. Moderation decisions can have reputational, legal, and security implications. This is why roles are assigned to people with proven experience and long-term involvement, and why responsibilities are distributed rather than concentrated in volunteers who may not be consistently available.

Regarding compensation, the proposal does not aim to “maximize tokens” for individuals. It aims to ensure continuity, accountability, and professional standards for a core community function, while keeping the overall budget stable and transparent.

We appreciate feedback on efficiency and structure, but the current setup reflects the actual scope of work required to operate and safeguard a global community at Celo’s scale.

5 Likes
5

I find the proposal interesting and necessary. We need more spaces where communities can come together, information can flow clearly, and a safe environment is actively promoted for everyone.

5 Likes
6

The focus on regional coordination is exactly what Celo needs to scale globally.

Solid team, clear roadmap for 24/7 security, and a smart shift toward autonomous community growth.

Excited to see the Celo Communities Guild leveling up for Season 2! :herb:

4 Likes
7

Will there be a separate funding proposal for the Celo Governance Guild?
→ Some members of the Celo Communities Guild are also in the Governance Guild.

3 Likes
8

Thanks for raising this, @clemens

Yes, there will be a separate and independent funding proposal for the Celo Governance Guild, which will outline its own scope of work, budget, deliverables, and reporting.

While two members of the Communities Guild are also contributors to the Governance Guild, the roles and responsibilities are clearly separated, and there is no double-funding between the two initiatives. Each guild will be assessed independently through its respective proposal.

We hope this addresses your question, and we’re happy to clarify further if needed.

4 Likes
9

Huge thanks to the Community Guild for putting this proposal together. Your dedication to growing and supporting the Celo community is clear. You have my full support on this proposal!

3 Likes