Catalyst Treasury Management

Main Deliverable

The main deliverable will be a web interface that allows proposers to manage their project treasuries that have been funded by Catalyst. This may be either a third-party solution or bespoke, created by the developers at Wada and their partners.

Engagements with other Catalyst-funded organisations will be included in the project documentation, in order to gather best practises, challenges and obstacles to good treasury management.

This document will outline the business requirements and product specifications for a collaborative web environment that allows Catalyst funded proposals to:

1. Understand the disbursement process and timelines for funds.
2. Manage their treasuries in a transparent but secure way.
3. Produce reports based on inflows, outflows and balances.

---------IMPACT--------

How does this proposal fit into this challenge?

This proposal supports the Project Catalyst goals of:

1. Becoming a rapid-funding mechanism for entrepreneurs and developers 
2. Improved auditability across the ecosystem
3. Feasibility at scale for the largest decentralised innovation fund in the world

How will this campaign add value to our ecosystem?

As Catalyst matures, proposers require a more sophisticated method of managing their funds beyond spreadsheets.

How does this benefit proposers?

In Catalyst, it is assumed that proposers have sound financial literacy. In many instances, this may not be readily apparent through their proposals. In addition, differing countries have broad interpretations of both financial reporting methods and accounting standards. Let's put a framework in place where we can seamlessly onboard proposers that both assists on the operational side, and provides increased visibility to teams on how budgets are spent.

Extended Use Case: Portfolio management allows those with several funded proposals increased functionalities which go beyond treasury management, by supporting implementation roadmaps and how they relate to cash-flow needs.

---------FEASIBILITY--------

Reference (Past Successes):

Wada has been managing its Catalyst treasury since June of this year. With 10+ proposals funded, they are in a good position to give an educated view on what is necessary for treasury management for organisations in a similar position. Their strong ties to other Catalyst multi-funded proposers who have expressed similar concerns allows them to produce a multi-stakeholder solution with minimal friction.

Roadmap: (after successful funding)

First 60 Days:

• Documentation of the onboarding process for newly funded proposers and the treasury management system currently being used by them.
• BRD created based on interviews and triage sessions with past proposers.
• PSD created by a solutions architect based on the requirements outlined.
• Identification of white-label solution or development team to build a bespoke product.

Next 30 Days:

• Development and configuration of the platform.
• Testing and bug fixes.

Launch Program (June 15th):

• Pilot launch with 5 funded proposer groups, beginning in Fund 8.

Post Launch :

• Feedback gathering + Review stage.
• Catalyst proposal for Phase 2 build-out with wallet integration.
• Pilot stage concluded and platform open to all funded Catalyst proposers.

Core Team & Roles:

• Josh F - Global Lead @ Wada
• Sidney - Projects Lead @ Wada
• Genty - Plutus Developer and Business Initiatives Lead @ Wada
• Daniel -  Back-end Developer and Website Lead @ Wada

+ Additional Wada team support

Main Stakeholder: Wada Alliance (https://wadalliance.org)

Relevant Partners:

• Catalyst Swarm (https://catalystswarm.com/)
• Gimbalabs (https://gimbalabs.com/)
• Gamechanger Wallet (https://gamechanger.finance/)

Other Stakeholders:

• All funded proposers from Fund 3-Fund 7
• Catalyst team
• Cardano Foundation

Budget: 

• Developer Costs: $8000
• Team Costs: $9000
• Treasurer Advisory Fees: $8000
• Platform Costs: $6000
• Community Manager (1y): $5000
• Educational Content: $3000
• Media Content & Videos: $2000

---------AUDITABILITY--------

What success looks like:

Catalyst proposers have an open platform within which to manage funds, provide financial reporting and learn critical treasury management principles. New proposers are on-boarded with a team account, allowing multiple team members to access the dashboard, add comments and track progress.

• 3 months: Documentation is completed and development team has begun work
• 6 months: Development and testing have been completed. Platform is launched in its pilot phase with a select group for further testing and feedback.
• 12 months: Full platform launch, open to all funded Catalyst members. Extended capabilities for connected browser wallets in development.

Key Metrics:

• Number of proposers registered interest
• Number of funded proposers signed up
• % funded proposers signed up (out of total active)
• Number of funded proposers active on platform (at least weekly)
• Approval rating in % (post-launch)
• % recommend the platform (active users)

Risk Management:

Level of interest: Interest has already been expressed across both Catalyst-funded organisations, and individual proposers. Beyond the organisations who have received multiple rounds of Catalyst funding, we will also be triaging the needs of smaller proposers through interviews, in order to ensure the platform serves multiple use cases.

Data protection: All personal information gathered will comply with the relevant international jurisdictions' policy for online data privacy.

Future sustainability: After build out, platform costs will be supported  by Wada, until such a point that a Catalyst community fund becomes available to support such initiatives on an ongoing basis.

Extra Resources:

• Treasury Management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ePz8SPrfw
• OECD 'Financial Literacy for MSMEs' 2020 Report: https://www.oecd.org/financial/education/2020-survey-to-measure-msme-financial-literacy.pdf
• AFI Global: Financial Education For The MSMEs (2020 Report): https://www.afi-global.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/AFI_SMEFWG_MSME_CS_AW2_digital.pdf

Affiliated Proposals:

• Pre-Auditing Proposals, by Wada: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Wada-Start-Auditability-Pre-Funding/382256-48088
• Djangui: Local Savings Account Management: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Djangui-Local-Savings-Account-Mgmt/383394-48088
• Small Change Wallet: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Small-Change-Wallet/382218-48088

Past Proposals (Funded):

• Auditing African Proposals, by Wada: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Auditing-African-Proposals-by-WADA/366865-48088

Project brief:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gfI2Dtve67KXfm_xUlGXFrlyS8VV9ajyVkr9u6XYhy8/edit?usp=sharing

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Interested in contributing or partnering? Get in touch today by contacting team@wadalliance.org

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