In order to create a fair and equitable grant process, the Foundation has outlined a series of steps that every Grant application must go through. Our goal is to communicate decisions within 30 days of the application deadline. Please read through the following to ensure that your Grant will have the best chance of acceptance.
Eligibility
There are a few requirements that must be met to be eligible for a Celo Foundation Grant. Make sure you review the Terms and Conditions to understand your eligibility before you apply for a Grant.
Types of Grants
There are four types of Grants that your team can apply for:
Technical & Research Grants: Projects that foster innovation and development of the Celo Platform and Celo Reference Wallet.
Ecosystem Support: Projects that lower barriers to entry to help make Celo as accessible as possible for developers and end-users of subsequent applications.
Education & Community: Projects that educate and expand the Celo community all over the world.
Social Impact: Projects that increase access, opportunity, and impact of Celo.
Discovering which bucket your project falls under is the first step to a successful Grant. Check out our Grant Alumni to see the different projects that have been built.
Apply
Your team has reviewed your eligibility and you are ready to apply to the Celo Foundation Grant program. Go through this checklist one last time before deciding to apply. Once you’ve done that, you are ready to submit your application for the Celo Foundation Grants program!
Here is an overview of the steps that occur when you apply:
Step 1: Submit your Grant Application
Step 2: Your application will be reviewed by the Grant Committee. We will send invitations for interviews if your proposal is a good fit.
Step 3: Acceptance & Pass Notifications
Step 4: Grantee Onboarding & Milestone Setting and Mentor Matching
Step 5: Grant Period Completion & Exit Interviews
Evaluation
The evaluation process for new grant applications normally takes between four and six weeks. Applications are initially vetted to ensure they fulfill the requirements. Applications that pass through the initial review phase are sent to the Grant Committee for technical review and business evaluation. Grants are evaluated across 4 criteria:
Mission Alignment - How do you support the Celo Mission?
Market Opportunity - How does your proposal translate into increased usage of Celo?
Technical Innovation - How does your proposal contribute to the Celo platform?
Ability to Execute - What type of success / traction have you demonstrated to date?
The Celo Foundation Grant program review process includes three steps:
Screening
Pre-Evaluation
Interview & Evaluation
Screening. Every application is screened to ensure the basic criteria are met. The Grants team will review that:
Fields & details complete
Application is in an eligible jurisdiction
Team is an active contributor to the Celo ecosystem
If your application passes the screening phase it will move onto pre-evaluation. Here, the Grant Committee will review & score your application on a 0-12 scale. Only applications that receive a score higher than a 7 move onto the interview process. The four buckets that the Grant Committee looks at are:
Mission alignment
Market opportunity
Technical innovation
Ability to execute
If you are invited to an interview, you will have 15 minutes to present. At this time, the Grant Committee will evaluate and score your project on the basis of which a decision will be made.
Interview
Did you get an email for an interview? Congratulations! Here is what you can expect:
The interview is 15 minutes long and goes quickly.
Have a conversation with the team. Don’t deliver a prewritten “pitch”.
A demo might be useful, but most often we just want to talk about what you’re doing.
Relax. We want you to do well! We love learning new things.
There’s no one specific set type of interview — they can go in many different directions. Don’t worry if the interview doesn’t take the form you expected.
For your presentation, if you need inspiration check out the Celo slide decks and the Celo Brand Kit.