EnDAOment : Endowment Framework

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

As more projects begin to build on Cardano, it will be vital to have frameworks for common DAO elements. One such element is the management of an endowment or treasury that utilizes Cardano's Proof of Stake (POS) mechanism to generate yield. This will be achieved through the combination of tool development, legal inquiries, and establishment of best practices. 

The output of this solution would be a pre-constructed framework that any DAO can use to setup and manage an endowment that leverages the power of POS. This will be achieved through the utilization of tooling such as Roundtable (by ADAO), Staking portal (by ADAO), governance token minting, on chain governance via AGORA and more. 

The first application of this solution will be used to build the ShelterPets Endowment. ShelterPets is a charity project developed on Cardano who has been working to onboard charities and provide financial support. However, the plan is to turn the charitable aspect of ShelterPets into an endowment controlled by those who contribute. This endowment will then use the yield generated from staking to provide support to shelters chosen by on chain governance. But this is only just one of many use cases for how a Cardano endowment can be utilized. 

Therefore, this solution can have great impact by making these types of funds more feasible, promoting use cases such as charities, scholarships and more. 

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

One of the biggest ways to increase the amount and quality of DAOs on Cardano is to provide easy to use tooling and best practices that make onboarding easy. With the establishment of endowment management tooling, DAOs and other organizations can safely and effectively manage funds while generating yield via Cardano’s POS protocol. Not only do DAOs benefit from the use of staking their treasury funds. They are never locked and can provide instant liquidity in times of financial need.

This feature of Cardano (consistent yield/liquidity) along with an endowment management framework will be an enticing feature for a lot of DAOs in and outside of Cardano.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Loss of Endowment Funds

The worst thing that can happen to an Endowment fund is that the funds could be drained/stolen via an exploit in the storage method (smart contract/script address), careless team member(loss of keys), or unhonest member of a team (embezzlement). However, through the recommended use of tooling such as Roundtable (by ADAO) and best practices laid out previously and developed through the successful funding of this proposal will mitigate the risk of losing the endowment funds significantly. 

Lack of interest/Participation

One thing that you can never guarantee is that people will be interested or want to participate in the testing and development of new tooling. Tools that are impactful and useful can only come about through the thorough testing and utilization of users who care.. To help promote participation in building this endowment framework we plan to let users have direct say in how things progress. We also plan to educate the average user while also learning ourselves from other projects in the space to best develop a model that can be widely used and provide a rewarding experience for users.

While other risks my occur, implementing our goal of being transparent and open about everything will help mitigate many issues or problems that could be faced. The best way to avoid or overcome problems is through collaboration and open source efforts.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

The end goal is to produce a framework that can be deployed and built upon by any organisation looking to leverage an endowment fund and use the ShelterPets Endowment proof of concept.

Step one: Build a team/ learn the needs/ make a plan

The first step in the process would be collaborating with as many DAOs and no DAO organizations as we can to begin learning what tools would be most optimally used. It is also vital to begin the search for legal guidance on the matter to further steer the development of a successful frame work. We will also seeking out collaboration with other DAOs as well as looking for dedicated full stake developer to help bring our ideas to fruition.

The hope would be to have a plan in place two weeks following funding. laying out the full and more exact timeline.

Step Two: Execute the Plan

Once the people and organizations have been gathered to begin the process. Many aspects of our proposal can be worked on in parallel which will help us speed up completion.

ShelterPets Endowment:

ShelterPets is currently a project that provides support to animal shelters through the use of NFT sales, open source code development, and educating them on accepting ADA donations as well as staking any ADA they may receive.

The goal is to continue the current trajectory of ShelterPets while building a decentralized endowment aspect that can continue to provide real meaningful impact while allowing users/ supports to directly impact how and when the funds will be used. The yield from this endowment will be generated through a ShelterPets stake pool or staking to similar minded, mission driven stake pools.

Endowment Tools:

A single interface to use and learn about all available tooling for DAOs is vital when it comes to onboarding and innovating Cardano DAO capabilities. Below is a list of open source tools that we plan to integrate and utilize to establish a fulling functioning endowment.

ADAO's Vesting (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/419917)

ADAO's Roundtable (https://github.com/ADAOcommunity/round-table)

AGORA (https://github.com/Liqwid-Labs/agora)

CardanoPress (https://github.com/CardanoPress/cardanopress)

Legal Clarity:

While there is almost an infinite amount of ways to deploy and utilize a DAO based endowment, it is important to fully understand the legal aspects that affect how and where an endowment can operate. This is increasing important when it comes to charities (ShelterPets), innovation funds (catalyst), scholarships, grants and more.

The goal is to leverage community members knowledge as well as hiring and consulting with experts to fully grasp the legal ramifications of a charity based endowment. As well as lay out a framework and best practices for other common uses for endowment models.

Step Three: Evaluate

Following the (hopefully) successful deployment of the ShelterPets endowment, a thorough review of the process and outcome will be made. This will provide vital first hand experience that will benefit any other DAOs who have similar goals to run an endowment treasury.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Educational/writing:

the most essential part of making a framework for DAO tooling is providing clear and concise educational material that allows inexperienced users to fully grasp the high level use cases. While still providing enough detail to fully explain how and why decisions were made and how things work. It is also important to provide promotional/instructional videos/guides attract new users.

Research/Writing: $25 per hour, 250 hrs, part time, 10-15 hrs a week

videos/tutorials: $25 per hour, 250 hrs, part time, 10-15 hrs a week

total: $10,000

Tooling development:

Develop a framework and central hub to utilize the many (and ever growing) number of open source application to improve the abilities of DAOs to operate smooth and easily.

Full Stack Developer or bounties as part of ADAO:

3 months part time or equivalent funding through open source

total: $15,000

Legal inquiries:

Legal insight into the many aspects of DAOs with a focus being on getting clarity on multisig/SC based endowments/treasuries

Funding will be used to explore legal guidance, estimating 150 hrs at $100 per hour

total: $15,000

Endowment Funding:

Initial funding for the ShelterPets Endowment. These funds will be locked into the ShelterPets Endowment and will be used to illustrate the functionality of an Endowment based charity.

Funds will be used to buy ADA to setup the initial ShelterPets endowment which will be used to provide direct relief to shelter through staking rewards of said endowment.

total: $10,000 USD

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Trevor Wilson - Founder of ShelterPets, PhD Candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. An extensive academic and research background and experience developing and running an NFT project from the ground up.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-wilson-615277226/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cyBGvUcAAAAJ

Additional team members will be sought after for their experience with charities, legal background, passion for animals, and a full stack developers.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

No, the scope of this proposal is to get the ShelterPets Endowment operational. After that is the case, it is hoped that ShelterPets can remain self sufficient and others can build off of the Endowment framework released to make their own projects and improvements.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

• GitHub commits and publication of open source code/resources
• Publication of details regarding legal aspects of endowments controlled by DAOs
• Successful deployment of ShelterPets Endowment as a proof of concept.
• On chain donations made from an endowment solely from the use of on chain governance.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success for this project starts with the successful deployment of ShelterPets as an Endowment based DAO charity. This would mean that ShelterPets could provide financial support to shelters through on chain governance.

Success would also entail the development and release of a framework for how to best run an endowment for a DAO. This would include open source tools, educational material, and legal insight into the best practice for different use cases of endowments on Cardano. 

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

No previous funding has been used or received by ShelterPets.