Name of Event/Project
Dream DAO Regenerative Web3 Youth Scholar Fund, with Harmony as our Founding Sponsor 
Application type
Non-profit grant, scholar fund
Proposal overview
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is an invitation to Harmony to be the founding sponsor of an initiative within Dream DAO called the “Dream DAO Regenerative Web3 Youth Scholar Fund.”
This fund—which we are requesting to be seeded with $25,000— will enable 10+ leading web3 Gen Z builders to travel the world and:
- Spread the word about the regenerative / social impact side of web3 at conferences
- Increase the diversity of conferences and the regen web3 ecosystem, thus strengthening it
- Host builder onboarding events with Harmony
Join and contribute to Harmony ecosystem projects - Help create a global community of young web3 builders
There will be an application and interview process to identify “Scholars”. Each “Scholar” will receive a stipend of up to $2,000 (depending primarily on the price of travel) to help cover travel for at least one conference
The criteria to be a scholar include:
- Must be 18 and have proper travel documentation
- Have been an active contributor to the Dream DAO for at least four months
- Have received intensive civic innovation training from civic leadership training organization Civics Unplugged
Harmony would be deemed the founding sponsor of the Dream DAO Regenerative Web3 Youth Scholar Fund, and we will release a joint blog post and video announcing the partnership.
During the period of the sponsorship (four months from May 1st to August 31st), Harmony and Dream DAO will have monthly joint Twitter spaces about onboarding diverse, civic-minded builders into web3. Dream DAO will also host 2-3 “Learning Together” sessions (essentially, masterclasses in some aspect of web3 x social impact) with leading impact entrepreneurs in the Harmony ecosystem.
To ensure the longevity of the Harmony ecosystem, we need to bring in the next generation of builders and developers to maintain functionality and establish robust infrastructure.
BACKGROUND ON DREAM DAO
The Dream DAO is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization building a web3 x social impact ecosystem for Gen Z.
The DAO’s pre-operations design phase launched in November 2021 with the launch of the SkywalkerZ NFT collection, on Ethereum Mainnet.
The DAO’s Season 1 launched in January 2022.
The DAO consists primarily of Gen Zers aged 15-20 years with mentorship from experienced professionals in web3 and social impact. Each “Season”, we assemble small cohorts of exceptional Gen Zers from around the globe and give them community, education, funding, mentorship, internship opportunities, and decentralized governance experience. Some young members of our community include:
- Ale Borda: 20-year-old UPenn drop out from Peru who just published a book on impactDAOs with Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki
- Madison Adams: 19-year-old Oklahoman who co-founded the climate innovation fellowship at Civics Unplugged already a key contributor at Gitcoin
These Gen Zers are mentored by “Champions,” established leaders representing a range of industries who seed the Dream DAO with SkywalkerZ NFT purchases and direct donations to the DAO treasury, and lend their expertise, networks, and other resources to the mission of Dream DAO. Current Champions include leaders of Gitcoin, Ethereum Foundation, Yield Guild Games, Friends with Benefits, Angel Protocol, Coinbase Ventures, X Development, Polygon, and more.
Our goal at Dream DAO is to transform students into builders, ready to leverage web3 to secure a brighter future for humanity.
We are helping build the web3 x social impact ecosystem by investing in three complementary areas of focus:
- EMPOWERING LEARNING COMMUNITY: The Dream DAO cultivates an empowering, intergenerational, global community and offers a range of learning + mentorship opportunities that help young people gain confidence and experience at the intersection of web3 x social impact. The core “product” of the learning community is the “Learning Together” series, which is hosted twice a week and features a community member or guest hosting a lecture on a web3 concept and spreading the word on the Solarpunk future we envision will come with web3 x social impact. Past guest hosts have included Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki, renown web3 educator Samina, co-founder of Constitution DAO Graham Novak and many more web3 luminaries. Click here to see the recordings.
- WEB3 X SOCIAL IMPACT INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: A two-month internship program called the Dream DAO Explorers Program—for 15-20 year olds seeking to be and build the future of web3 x social impact. For the pilot program starting June 2022, Dream DAO youth will be placed in web3 organizations making social impact (e.g. Harmony, Gitcoin, ReFi DAO, Toucan Protocol), and will produce one knowledge artifact a month. Learn more about the program here.
- LAUNCH YEAR: Starting in Fall 2022, a subset of the graduates of our Explorers program will be offered a larger stipend ($12,000, paid out at $1k/month for a year) as part of a program called Dream DAO Launch Year. This program is intended to enable the most promising and committed Explorers to have the financial freedom to pursue a career in web3 x social impact full-time for a year (and pave the way for far more young people to dive deep into web3 full-time).
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED
We believe that one of the best investments in humanity is Gen Z – the builders of the future. And, within Gen Z, we believe the highest leverage opportunity to realize their potential is to teach them how to leverage the most powerful emerging technology: web3.
The Dream DAO is the first organization to build a pipeline of Gen Z talent and to equip them to work effectively at the intersection of web3 and social impact. We aspire to attract the best young talent and to channel significant crypto capital to develop thousands of Gen Z civic innovators by 2030.
After all, Gen Z are the ones who will inherit the challenges we face today. They are also the ones who will need to address the challenges that have yet to emerge. We believe they are more than ready to start working on the solutions, to disrupt entrenched power structures, and set empowering precedents for web3.
The issue is, web3 (and the conferences it hosts) greatly suffer from diversity issues, which will prevent web3 from realizing its potential to be the generator function for a better future that we know is possible.
Web3’s ability to impact the world positively depends on the web3 builder community collectively looking a lot more like how the world looks like, and being more driven by social impact purpose.
As a majority non-male, majority non-white community, Dream DAO is poised to be the pipeline of diverse builders who can help make this a reality.
PROJECT MISSION
The Dream DAO Regenerative Web3 Youth Scholar Fund will…
- Supercharge the healthy development of the regen web3 space
- Supercharge the careers of Gen Zers looking to go into regen web3 full time or at a significantly increased capacity
- Elevate blockchains / web3 orgs (such as Harmony) who care about regenerating the world and/or empowering Gen Z
Team
Gary Sheng
Hey everyone! I’m one of the cofounders of Civics Unplugged, a 501(c)(3) that empowers leaders of Gen Z with the training, funding, and network they need to become the civic innovators their communities need. We have 1500+ alumni across 70+ countries. Before co-founding CU, I was a Software Engineering Team Lead at Google (on Google Cloud).
In January, we at CU launched the Dream DAO to develop web3-powered civic innovators. The excitement from the web3 community in what we’re doing has been nothing short of exhilarating. And I’ve never been more excited about the potential of supporting and growing the regenerative web3 ecosystem.
You can connect with me on Twitter at @garysheng.
Proposal ask
We are requesting $25,000 for a first tranche of funding for the Dream DAO Regenerative Web3 Youth Scholar Fund.
Justification
Educating and onboarding the next generation of web3 builders is of growing importance.
We’re asking for $25,000 to see if this is an effective and impactful initiative, so we know whether to scale this further to advance the Dream DAO mission in the Harmony ecosystem.
Metrics for success
[FIRST TRANCHE KPIs] By August 31st, 2022…
- 10 trips were funded and taken, and each trip produced a “knowledge artifact” (e.g. blog post, YouTube video recap) that inspires more people to travel to web3 conferences and build in web3
- Two “Learning Together” sessions with inspiring, impactful builders from the Harmony ecosystem
- Two joint Twitter spaces hosted by Harmony and Dream DAO about onboarding diverse, civic-minded builders into web3 have been held
- Every attendee will log what they accomplished, learned, and how they felt as a result of the conference
If all KPIs from first tranche of funding are hit, these would be the metrics for the second tranche of funding:
By December 31st, 2022…
- 20 trips were funded and taken, and each trip produced a “knowledge artifact” (e.g. blog post, YouTube video recap) that inspires more people to travel to web3 conferences and build in web3
- Four “Learning Together” sessions with inspiring, impactful builders from the Harmony ecosystem
- Four joint Twitter spaces hosted by Harmony and Dream DAO about onboarding diverse, civic-minded builders into web3 have been held
- Every attendee will log what they accomplished, learned, and how they felt as a result of the conference.
External links
Website: https://dreamdao.xyz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dreamdao_
Discord: https://discord.dreamdao.xyz
to have the Harmony community participate to ask questions and provide feedbacks.