Hey @Lanzer - thank you so much for the thoughtful review and encouraging feedback. I really appreciate the time and care you put into each section. Let me walk through all the clarifications point by point.
Q1: Name of your Grant
Thanks! Really glad the name resonated. Noted your point about wtfisqf.com being a bit misleading. It’s not a Giveth property, but we often use it because it explains QF better than anything. And I thought it would be great to give the explanation what is QF right from start 
Q2: Total Grant Amount in USD ($)
Totally understand the current constraints in the Community Engagement budget. thanks for the transparency.
To clarify our model:
To run a minimum viable QF round, we aim for a $40,000 matching pool. On top of that, Giveth charges a fixed $13,500 operations fee, which covers:
- Round setup & platform infra + branding and any customizations
- Projects onboarding & eligibility review (applicable for newly registered projects)
- Sybil resistance analisys
- Comms (tweets, blog post, threads, spaces)
- Post-round analytics, reporting & fund distribution
This brings the total minimum round budget to $53,500. Since this round will be co-sponsored, each contributor pays a proportional share of the ops fee.
In the case of this upcoming round, we’ll be actively lining up aligned co-sponsors. If the matching pool exceeds $40K, Sandbox DAO’s ops fee will be diluted proportionally, and a larger percentage of your $10K will go directly to supporting projects.
Here’s the estimated breakdown based on a $10,000 contribution:
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Giveth Ops Fee | ~ $2,523 |
| Matching Pool Funds | ~ $7,477 |
You’ll still receive:
- Brand visibility in all round marketing
- Project nominations slots (projects you want to be let into the round)
- Co-marketing (X posts, invitation to Twitter spaces, etc.)
- Impact report + analytics post-round
To clarify the difference between a co-sponsorship and a solo round:
- A $10K co-sponsorship still gives SandboxDAO co-marketing exposure (dedicated tweets, inclusion in recap blog, nomination rights), but the round is coordinated by Giveth and the direction is shaped with multiple sponsors.
- With a $53.5K solo sponsorship , SandboxDAO would fully define the round’s theme, timeline, project eligibility, and branding . You’d be the sole funder and featured partner across all touchpoints.
We’ve also summarized this visually in our co-marketing deck that can give you more insights on different sponsorship levels.
Q3: Evaluation Factor – Specific
That’s a great comparison- Giveth is like a Web3-native, onchain donation platform, closer to GoFundMe or Kickstarter, but focused on public goods and nonprofits.
To clarify a few things:
- While there are 6,000+ projects listed on Giveth, not all of them would fall under the criteria for specific round, and only a curated, eligible set will be included in each QF round.
- Projects must apply for each round and meet the specific eligibility criteria we define (everified status, thematic relevance, eg we decide that this round should be focused on funding projects focused on web3 education, infrastructure etc).
- This allows us to run a clean, focused round- typically with 80–100 projects.
- “Active” and “Archived” rounds reflect our history of rounds run to date- it’s a transparent record of what was funded, who donated, how matching was calculated and who sponsored past QF rounds.
On how your funding gets distributed:
- Sandbox DAO’s contribution forms part of the matching pool.
- Community members donate to the projects they want to support.
- The more unique donors a project receives, the more diverse donors contributions are, the larger its share of the matching pool, that’s the core idea behind Quadratic Funding and also COCM that we will be using to calculate the final matching.
- So for example, a project with 100 small donors could get more matched funds than one with a few large donors- it rewards broad community support, not just deep pockets.
This mechanism ensures Sandbox DAO’s funds go to projects with demonstrated grassroots resonance, and it’s all visible and traceable onchain.
Also, are there any specific themes or causes the Community Engagement domain is especially interested in right now? We can factor that into the project selection criteria.
Q4: Evaluation Factor – Measurable
Great question again. The “matching pool” is the central fund provided by sponsors (like Sandbox DAO), and does not get matched again.
So if Sandbox DAO contributes $10K, that amount is the match and it will be split among the participating projects based on the QF Formula.
Also, to clarify “Define matching pool network, eligibility criteria, and timeline”:
- Matching pool network = blockchain where the matching pool funds will be distributed (e.g. Optimism, Polygon, Base, Solana etc)
- Eligibility criteria = whether projects need to be verified, fit a round theme, be from specific ecosystem
- Timeline = round announcements, application period (10-14 days), onboarding period, round dates (on average we run rounds for 2 weeks), and post-round wrap-up.
Q6: Evaluation Factor – Realistic
Totally valid that it wasn’t fully clear how these layers (QF logic, matching pool, platform) tie together.
Here’s a step-by-step of how Sandbox DAO funds would flow:
- Projects apply to participate in the round by submitting application form, we curate them, to make sure they all fit under the theme and that there are no bad actors.
- Donors contribute directly to the projects they care about and signal who deserves more funding
- The matching pool (seeded by Sandbox DAO and others) is distributed based on how many unique donors each project receives, amounts contributed, etc.
- After the round, we run the data analysis and send out the funds + a produce a final report on the round results.
All this is transparent and onchain, and we’ll keep you updated at every phase.
Would it be useful if I create a quick walk-through of how matching logic works in a past rounds, and how the matching funds have been distributed?
Q7: Evaluation Factor – Timely
This is the one area where I need to request some flexibility. Because this round will be co-sponsored and we’re still finalizing additional funding partners, I can’t yet commit to completing the round before August 30.
That said, we’re actively working to finalize sponsorships (and always actively scouting for the once interested in supporting public goods projects), and we’ll deliver a strong and timely execution once that’s locked. If SandboxDAO is open to supporting this with flexible timing, we’d be thrilled to collaborate. We are targeting another QF round for August and very likely to start it by August 30, but might require a bit more time depending on the exact start date
Let me know if you’d like to chat on a call or dive deeper into any part of this. Really appreciate your time and engagement on this - it means a lot!