[FINAL] Celo Europe H2 2024 | Regional DAO

[NikoG]

Funding Request: Celo Europe H2 2024 | Regional DAO
Authors: Niko da Costa Gomez, Joan de Ramón, Luuk Weber
Budget Request: $78.000,00
Proposal Type: CPG Funding Request | Regional DAO

We’re excited to share our draft proposal for Celo Europe H2 2024, which aligns with the Celo Public Goods Funding proposal for stakeholder input and early collaborations.

Summary
This proposal aims to fund the Celo Europe DAO from July 1st, 2024, until December 30th, 2024, for $78.000,00 cUSD to accelerate Celo’s growth and awareness at key global events. Building on the successes and learnings from Seasons 0 and Season 1, we will focus on three main pillars: Events and Community Development, Ecosystem Support, and Content Production. By organizing and supporting key events, developing ecosystem bridges, expanding investor networks, and producing media content, we aim to drive meaningful growth and engagement within the Celo ecosystem. For H2, we will hyper-focus on our strengths and eliminate less effective areas, further solidifying cross-regional partnerships.

Motivation
After a successful Season 1 of Celo Europe DAO, we see significant value in continuing our efforts into 2024 with a refined focus. Our motivation comes from growing the ecosystem by supporting the community and builders in reaching their potential and vision. These areas are where we believe there’s an opportunity to move the needle into a new season:

1. Increasing Regional DAO and ecosystem alignment ahead of CEL2
2. Foster CEL2 x Superchain community relationships
3. Supporting CEL2 Launch with our event and production capacity

Specifications

Focus Area 1: Events and Community Development

Building on the success of the event vertical in S0 & S1, we aim to continue accelerating the Celo Ecosystem by organizing and supporting event creation that fosters community development. Our proposed initiatives for H2 will enhance our supporting role for other parties looking to join this movement. Within Europe, we plan on sponsoring 4 local events and providing up to 6 hours of event support & consultancy to give a helping hand to new initiatives.

Outside Europe, we have received immense interest in replicating our successful Celo Gather by Celo Africa DAO. Therefore, we’ll assist them with technical support, event design capacity, and operation at their community-led Celo Gather during ETH Safari. We’ve also been working in collaboration with KohCelo to provide support with their DevCon-related event planning.

Additionally, we will host three online workshops in collaboration with field experts. Two of these workshops will cover European-specific topics, such as MiCA and its implications for the future of crypto in Europe, with the second topic still to be determined. The third workshop will address a broader topic, focusing on CEL2 and what builders should expect when navigating the Superchain ecosystem. To wrap up the year, we’re planning a virtual Celo Gather to recap 2024 and celebrate with everyone who contributed to making this year a success.

Key Performance Indicators:

• A. Organize a fully online Celo Gather event with at least 150 virtual attendees by the end of 2024.
• B. Assist Regional Dao’s organizing and participating in at least 2 Celo-focused events at ETH Safari and DevCon.
• C. Produce and distribute at least 3 pieces of content (videos or articles) highlighting Celo’s participation and impact at ETH Safari and DevCon.
• D. Sponsor up to 4 local events within Europe and provide up to 6 hours of event support and consultancy to new initiatives.
• G. Host three online workshops with field experts: two on European-specific topics (e.g., MiCA and its implications for crypto in Europe) and one on CEL2 and navigating the Superchain ecosystem.

Focus Area 2: Ecosystem Support

In H1, we focused on business development and now have a solid foundation from which to operate. We aim to shift our focus to more long-term, collaborative plays supporting existing and new projects and programs. As such, we’ve created a lean Ecosystem Support plan that focuses on producing supporting content, growing the network of potential partners and investors, and realizing programs with (institutional) partners.

Key Performance Indicators:

• A. Create and distribute at least 3 new high-quality educational resources focused on Celo ecosystem.
• B. Expand the database of investors by adding at least 20 new interested investors and connecting them to existing Celo ecosystem programs.
• C. Explore and realize program collaborations with (institutional) partners

Focus Area 3: Content Production and Storytelling

Building on the success of the content production vertical, we aim to continue creating media assets that provide insights and showcase the potential of Celo’s ecosystem. We also plan to keep the builder’s story series by producing two new episodes. One of the most requested episodes has been Minipay. We intend to create a mini-series about Minipay, incorporating coverage from EthSafari. Additionally, we see Devcon as an excellent opportunity to produce a documentary similar to our previous video with Marek. To further promote cross-regional collaboration, we plan to create two after-movies highlighting Celo’s involvement in EthSafari and Devcon.

Key Performance Indicators:

• A. Create a CEL2 Launch Video following Rene in a mini-documentary format, similar to the Exploring CEL2 video.
• B. Produce Builder’s Story series focused on Minipay, incorporating coverage from EthSafari.
• C. Create an after-movie reflecting Celo’s involvement at EthSafari & Devcon
• D. Record at least 8 videos throughout H2 at the leading conferences.

Timeline and milestones
Our timeline is seasonal and tied to EthSafari and DevCon. Below is an estimated month-by-month rundown.

Month	Milestones
July 2024	Wrap up Brussels deliverables.
	Begin H2 2024 operations.
	Initial team meetings to outline detailed action plans
	Setup Hats Protocol
August 2024	Continue development and refinement of event plans
	Content production development for EthSafari
	Prep for Minipay Production
	Release educational piece
September 2024	Finalize preparations for EthSafari
	Attend and participate in EthSafari
	Produce and distribute content from EthSafari & Minipay
	Release educational piece
	Begin preparations for DevCon
	Submit the Q3 progress report
October 2024	Continue preparations for DevCon
	Start production of the second builder’s story
	Finalize logistics and promotional strategies for DevCon
November 2024	Attend and participate in DevCon
	Continue content production from DevCon
	Produce one Builder’s story
	Produce and distribute content from DevCon
	Release educational piece
December 2024	Final preparations for the fully online Celo Gather event
	Host the Celo Gather Virtual event
	Finalize and distribute the remaining content
	Conclude H2 2024 operations and prepare end-of-year reports

Operation and Accounting
In addition to the three pillars, we aim to strive for operational excellence by supporting coordination among various Celo Community Treasury-funded groups and providing clear reporting and accounting. This season, we will work with hatsprotocol to help define roles and responsibilities and connect to the existing CeloPG Tree. By implementing this system, we align ourselves for success if we bring on external contributors. This approach will ensure smoother collaboration and more efficient project management.

Budget & Payment Terms
Below is a breakdown of the Celo EU budget per category. A more detailed breakdown with estimation and lead per item can be found in this sheet. We propose to receive the funding in two installments: the Q3 budget at the start of the proposal and the Q4 budget at the end of September after submitting a Q3 progress report on the Celo Forum.

Item	Q3	Q4	Total
Regional DAO Services	$5.000,00	$4.500,00	$9.500,00
Event Development	$2.000,00	$2.500,00	$4.500,00
Event Sponsorship	$3.000,00	$4.000,00	$7.000,00
Virtual Workshops	$2.000,00	$1.000,00	$3.000,00
Ecosystem Services	$7.000,00	$6.000,00	$13.000,00
Socials and Web design	$1.500,00	$1.500,00	$3.000,00
Manage Celo Europe DAO comms	$3.000,00	$3.000,00	$6.000,00
Video Production Budget	$8.000,00	$7.000,00	$15.000,00
DAO Ops and Admin	$3.000,00	$3.000,00	$6.000,00
Software, Travel and other Misc	$6.000,00	$5.000,00	$11.000,00
TOTAL	$40.500,00	$37.500,00	$78.000,00

Any funds left on December 31st will be returned to the Celo Community Treasury as we did in the previous seasons.

Team & Multisig
Joan de Ramon Brunet has stepped down as Celo EU’s lead and is replaced by Niko da Costa Gomez, who will formally lead Celo EU. Marco Barbosa, founder of Impact Market, has resigned as multisig signer and will be replaced by Joan. Quinn King and Enrique Badarraco will join us as core contributors to facilitate content production and design capacity.

The following three people will manage the Celo EU multisig and coordinate the resources through a 2 out of 3 multisig Safe (0x50ec572933CCd7Bd35D947D99482F2dd0f447EeB).

Niko da Costa Gomez, Creative and Events Lead 0x50111E51Cf97d6165e1A88D5CA0d4a4fa5d6c47E

Joan de Ramón Brunet, Ecosystem Developer
0x5d1ed874ea2f4269c2e1D075973c7fdb7b39154A

Luuk Weber, Strategy and Program Advisor
0x59095AD114D2Fc24077ccC77db7eD04B082af11E

Resources

- Celo EU Website
- Celo Europe DAO S1 Report
- Celo Europe on Twitter
- Celo Europe Telegram Group

[LuukDAO]

Thanks for applying with such a detailed proposal. As I’m still and Advisor to Celo EU - I will refrain from voting on this proposal!

[Joan_DeRB]

Let’s do it!

Congrat to @NikoG for taking the lead of the upcoming season!

[NikoG]

After further elaborating on this proposal, we’ve identified opportunities to include more European initiatives. Consequently, we’ve adapted the proposal to reflect this by adding the following:

1. Sponsoring at least four local events within Europe.
2. Providing up to six hours of event support and consultancy to new event initiatives.
3. Hosting two online workshops focused on European-specific topics, such as MiCA and its implications for crypto in Europe.
4. Hosting a third workshop on the broader topic of CEL2 and navigating the Superchain ecosystem.

These additions aim to enhance our support for European projects and foster greater community engagement while keeping the budget unchanged.

[MontyMerlin]

Celo Gather Berlin was one of the most well put together and personally impactful events I have been too this year.

This looks like a great proposal for H2 in the build up to CEL2. Has my full support.

Grateful for this community

[pcbo]

I was generally optimistic about the Celo Europe H2 2024 proposal but, considering this addendum, I feel 10x more positive! This a case where the team has been delivering consistently… so it’s kind of a no-brainer to rally behind it

@NikoG I also would like to drop a word of encouragement for you as you’re now taking on a leadership role, the stakes are super high but know that you’re not doing this alone. Not only you’re backed by @Joan_DeRB and @LuukDAO, you’re also backed by the incredible community of Regenerates and Celorians.

Let’s do this!

[Phufdcicsltd]

This project is wide and it’ll create a cooperative extension of business portfolio that will seriously impact the community leaders to be more focused and commitment to bring out their best to make this very project to explode celo forum a first class project package second to none in the entire ecosystem and promote celo networking and the coin more appropriating in a short distance time. I’ll appreciate the initiators of this project.

[NikoG]

Hey @MontyMerlin & @pcbo

Thank you for your feedback and supportive comments on the Celo Europe H2 2024 proposal. Your support and belief in our team and the broader community of Celorians means a lot!

The proposal thread has been active for over seven days, and after receiving both of your inputs, I think we are ready to move the proposal to the Voting stage according to the CPG Funding Process.

I will update the proposal title to [FINAL] and will await a Celo Public Steward to submit our proposal to the Public Goods Snapshot.

Thank you once again for your encouragement and backing. The times behind us were great but it’s only getting more exciting from here! Let’s make H2 2024 a remarkable period for Celo Europe and the entire Celo ecosystem!

[LauNaMu]

Hi everyone!

I know it’s overdue, but wanted to make sure I shared my feedback for future proposals.

I think the proposal could use more clarity for example: is this 6 hours of event support an consultancy per month? per quarter? Only for the events in Europe? Or also for the events in Devcon and during EthSafari?

I compared the budget for Season 0 and the current budget and some of the costs (events in Europe) seem to be much higher this time around. Is there a reason for that?

It would be good to have more detailed information shared on the budget breakdown, specially after the proposal was updated to include new items. Could the team please share an updated breakdown? This one does not include the new information and is also the same info as on the initial post rather than shed more insights.

Some additional questions that came up and would be great to have clarity on,

1. Why is Celo Europe DAO Comms separated from admin and Ops budget for Celo EU Team? You’ve broken down the number of hours for ops and admin, so it would be good to have consistency between teams on the info provided. If someone can share insights into how Comms works and what is the workload to understand this better it would be ideal

On the file too, what is understood as owner? Is this person is the owner of that KPI?

2. What is the logic behind hosting a Celo Gather right after Devcon? Might it not be best to host a Celo Gather at Devcon? It makes me wonder how many new things they’ll actually be to share after such little time. But would love to listen from others.

3. Are the CeloAfrica team and KohCelo also requesting funds for the Celo Gather at EthSafari and at DevCon? If so, how does this overlap with CeloEU’s request of 24k? Also considering this doesn’t include the costs for recording and production of video footage of those events, nor the teams travel expenses both which are listed as separate items.

In this same line, @NikoG can you please share what does “assist the regional DAO’s” mean?

There’s room for improvement for the team to map their KPI’s to the budget which will be great to see in the Q3 report in advance of the release of the funds for Q4.

This is a great start! I think the online workshops focused on European-specific topics are super valuable to ensure the Regional DAO is serving its local audience! I think partnering with EuCI would be ideal to this end, and am happy to make an intro if useful.

I will abstain from voting on this one but look forward to see the outcome of the proposed strategy!

[NikoG]

Hi @LauNaMu ,

First, I’m glad to see you on the forum and hear you providing great feedback. Let’s jump right into it! Here are our responses:

1. Clarity on 6 hours of event support:
   The 6 hours of consultancy are intended for events organized in Europe, from when we approve the sponsorship until the event is executed. Depending on each event, this period could range from 2 weeks to 2 months.

2. Budget differences:
   Without accounting for DAO services, the total budget for Season 0 events, including partnerships and sponsorships, was $40,000. This proposal allocates $24,000 for Event Development, covering sponsorships, partnerships, and DAO services.
   The only item we believe is higher this time is “content production and storytelling”. The videos we produced in H1 received extremely good reviews, and various Celo stakeholders have requested that we continue producing this type of content. This increase in the budget is due to plans for a more extensive Minipay documentary and CEL2 Launch video, which require a better-equipped team.

3. Detailed budget breakdown:
   We have updated the budget breakdown in the original spreadsheet and forum to include more detailed information and new items.

4. Separation of Comms from Admin and Ops:
   Admin and Ops cover financial and operational management. The Comms budget is for a social media manager responsible for:

   • Engaging with the community on Telegram and Twitter.
   • Posting regular updates and content.
   • Creating and scheduling tweets.
   • Responding to comments and mentions.
   • Distributing shareable content.

5. Definition of “owner”:
   The owner is the person responsible for specific KPIs.

6. The logic behind hosting a Celo Gather after Devcon:
   Hosting a physical event during Devcon would overlap with KohCelo’s plans and is not aligned with the purpose of an end-of-year ecosystem-wide gathering. The exact format of KohCelo’s event has not been established yet, but we are supporting them in figuring this out and executing it.
   Not everyone will be attending Devcon, so our logic was to host a virtual Celo Gather to retrospectively cover 2024, align the global ecosystem, and discuss plans, especially with the upcoming L2 launch. Last year, Celo hosted a year-end virtual Kuneco meetup, which had great attendance and left everyone feeling accomplished to finalize the year.

I’m happy to chat about how you think we can make this more valuable.

7. Funding requests by CeloAfrica and KohCelo:
   CeloAfrica and KohCelo are planning separate events with different names. CeloAfrica’s event will be a conference setup, and KohCelo is still in the ideation stage regarding what format they will pursue. CeloAfrica may request funds for its general operations to close the year but not specifically for its event. Regarding KohCelo, we’re not sure.
   We’ve broken down the item cost more clearly based on the new, more detailed budget. CeloEU’s request for supporting these two initiatives is about ~10K. If split evenly between the two groups would boil down to ~5K per DAO in the form of organizational services & support. Most of the video budget is allocated for Minipay and CEL2 documentaries, with about 20% for after movies and recordings of CeloAfrica and KohCelo’s events.

8. Assisting regional DAOs:
   We have met weekly with Celo Africa and KohCelo, providing event design support, advisory, and strategic assistance, such as sourcing venues, creating pitch decks, and drafting event content.

Regarding your last note about making an intro to EuCi, I would love to discuss this further on Telegram.

Thank you again for your critical feedback and for helping us refine this proposal. I hope this answer helped clarify everything. Please feel free to let me know if there’s anything else we should clarify!

[LauNaMu]

Thanks for your response @NikoG !

This is very useful to understand the proposal better

On point 1. Is this 6 hours per approved event? Or for all of the events? I’m sure this will be useful information for the event organizers. The explanation on how long it spans over time is clear!

2. This makes sense, I was referring not to the budgeted amounts for Season 0, but to the actual spent amounts. However, since we’ve already seen that the team will return the funds if un-used I feel comfortable with this.
3. This is a good start Could you please share where the “Monthly Reward” amount is coming from? It’s not that clear in the Transactions tab.
4. Thanks for specifying on the doc how may hours are going to Comms. I see this is 15 just as for admin and ops, I’m wondering here if it makes sense to pay these different members the same amount for very different type of work completed. I’ve seen in most DAOs that different types of work are rewarded differently, food for thought.
5. It would look like the “Owner” is linked not to the KPI on the forum, but to the item on the spreadsheet. It might be easier for accountability to only link to either the KPI or the Objective and only have one person responsible for either the KPI or the Objective. That way it’s clear for the operator and clear for retrospective accountability.
6. This makes a lot of sense!
7. It’ll be great what is the type of support new Regional orgs need to make it scalable and create some blueprints or handbooks others can easily use to replicate
8. Oh this is very interesting, it’ll be good to take note if any of those end up being duplicated tasks covered by both teams so we can identify how to be more efficient in next Q’s.

RE: EuCi Sure thing! Please send feel free to send me a DM, my handle is the same as here.

This was super helpful and I’m very grateful for the work your doing and your openness for feedback I’m sure this will support Celo Europe’s efforts to be a leading example for any new Regional DAOs.

[NikoG]

No problem, @LauNaMu. These were all valid points, especially considering your extensive experience in governance. We recognize the importance of being as clear as possible. Let me provide extra clarity on the remaining points:

1. Event Hours: The 6 hours approved will be per event. We’re preparing a communication and application process to ensure this is clear for everyone involved.

2. Season Efficiency: As with previous seasons, we will continue to prioritize efficiency and return any leftover funds, ensuring responsible budget use.

3. Monthly Reward Source: As we’ve divided the budget into smaller sub-KPIs, we’ve overlooked the category section. We’ve now updated the spreadsheet to indicate where the monthly reward comes from, addressing the overlooked category section within the budget.

4. Budget Utilization: We’ve based some budgeted numbers on past experience, but actual spending often varies. For instance, Comms spent for this month was $500 instead of the budgeted $1000 due to less time spent on these fronts, reflecting our commitment to efficiency.

5. KPI Ownership: Your suggestion about linking ownership more clearly to KPIs or Objectives is well received and will be incorporated in future cycles.

6. Covered

7. Regional DAO Scalability: We’ve identified key structures to make regional DAOs scalable and efficient. While we haven’t yet published an article on this, partially due to having our hands full with the current scope, we see value in creating a retrospective case study at the end of this cycle, potentially in collaboration with other regional DAOs.

8. Avoiding Duplication: We don’t see this as an issue yet. We minimize overlap or duplication through extensive communication and scoping before collaborations begin. This ensures alignment and efficient resource use.

Thank you once again for your critical feedback and attention to detail. Your participation in governance helps us improve our legitimacy within the ecosystem and sharpen our collective efforts! Please let me know if there are any further questions we can help clarify.