Awards Structure & Timeline
Updated 10/5/23
Stellar Community Fund awards (“Awards” or “SCF Awards”) are distributed to eligible developers and startups who are building meaningful products, services, and resources on Soroban and/or Stellar (each, a “Project”). Awards can range anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 worth of XLM and are intended to support the development of short-term (e.g., 1-3 months) Projects.
There are two types of Awards, an “Activation Award” and a “Community Award”. To get started, new Projects will need to request an Activation Award (up to $50,000 worth of XLM* for ~1 month project according to the budget guidelines) first. If the Activation Award is granted, and the deliverables of the Activation Award submission are completed, the Activation Award recipient(s) can then request a Community Award (up to $100,000 worth of XLM* for 2-3 months project according to the budget guidelines). Projects are able to request additional Community Awards according to the resubmission guidelines. The Activation Award is intended to support the completion of the Project’s MVP of their Stellar/Soroban integration, and serves as an opportunity for the recipient(s) to demonstrate its commitment to the overall Project.
Submission deadlines are every four weeks, and depending on the which Award Projects request, submissions go through a specific selection and review process:
Activation
1️⃣ | Activation Award Submission
Take a close look at the Participant and Submission Eligibility Guidelines before submitting your Project for an Activation Award. Each Participant will only be able to make one (1) submission at a time, whether it’s for an Activation Award or Community Award.
To submit a project for an Activation Award, fill out all the required fields on the SCF Awards Submission form hosted on dashboard.communityfund.stellar.org. You’ll need to create an account first, and you can save progress before you submit the form, so you don’t have to complete it all at once.
2️⃣ | Activation Award Submission Review (1 week)
After the submission deadline, your Activation Award submission will be reviewed by a selection panel in accordance with the Official Rules and Guidelines.
The selection panel will consist of SDF employees and certain verified members of the Stellar ecosystem.
If your Project is selected for an Activation Award, move on to step 3).
If your Project is not selected for an Activation Award, you will be notified of the decision and may also receive an email with (anonymous) comments from reviewers. Take a close look at the comments and the Official Rules to improve your original submission or create an entirely new Project for submission.
3️⃣ | Participant Eligibility Check (1 week)
If your Project is selected for an Activation Award, you’ll receive a form to collect certain compliance and tax information required to receive an XLM award. Please complete and return the form within four (4) days of receiving the email.
In order to comply with US regulations, SDF asks that Award recipients complete a Know Your Customer (KYC) check. The KYC information that will be collected can be found in forms linked below:
For Entities or Organizations: https://stellar.org/kyc.
For Individuals or Teams of Individuals: https://stellar.org/kyc-individual.
(Note: If applying as a team of individuals, each individual on the team should complete the form)
Please refer to the SDF Privacy Policy for more information on how SDF uses and retains data.
If your Project passes the required eligibility and compliance checks, move on to step 4).
If your Project does not pass the required eligibility and compliance checks by the specified deadlines, your Project is no longer eligible to receive an Award in that round and may be disqualified from consideration in future SCF Rounds.
4️⃣ | Activation Award Distribution
If you already have a whitelisted Stellar address and have successfully completed all the preceding steps, SDF will be able to send the Activation Award quickly. If you don’t have a whitelisted Stellar address yet, then:
SDF will send a test transaction to the Stellar address (and memo) you provided in step 3) and will notify you when the test transaction is sent.
You will need to check the test transaction and report back the amount to SDF.
Once SDF has confirmed that the reported transaction amount matches the test transaction, SDF will send the Activation Award amount in XLM equal to your requested budget in your Activation Award submission*.
Upon distribution of the Activation Award, you’ll receive instructions on the Community Award submission process. The SCF Award submission form on dashboard.communityfund.stellar.org can be used to apply for a follow-up Community Award, and will also request the necessary information to verify completion of the deliverables as stated in the Activation Submission.
After awards are distributed, we’ll list your Project as an Award recipient on communityfund.stellar.org/projects.
Note: Projects are advised that receiving an ActivationAward in no way guarantees or ensures that the Project will receive any additional SCF Award or any other form of economic support from SDF.
Community Award
1️⃣ | Community Award Submission
Once a project finishes all deliverables of the Activation Award, they can submit for follow up SCF Awards, also referred to as “Community Award”. Take a close look at the Participant and Submission Eligibility Guidelines before submitting your Project for an SCF Community Award. Each Participant will only be able to submit one (1) submission at a time, whether it’s for an Activation Award or Community Award.
To submit a project for a Community Award, fill out all the required fields on the SCF Awards Submission form hosted on dashboard.communityfund.stellar.org, and you can save progress before you submit the form, so you don’t have to complete it all at once.
2️⃣ | Deliverable Review (1 week)
Completed deliverables of the Activation- or previous Community Award will then be shared with the selection panel. The selection panel will review and confirm that all deliverables associated with the Activation- or previous Community Award have been successfully completed. If any significant or material changes are made to the project itself (especially with respect to eligibility), the selection panel reserves the right to reevaluate those changes to determine whether the Project should be selected for additional SCF Awards. The selection panel may reach out directly to the Project to ask questions about the submission if they need additional information.
If the Project passes the Deliverable review, move on to step 3).
If the Project does not pass the Deliverable review, the Participant may choose to make improvements to the deliverables and/or the submission and return to step 1). For the avoidance of doubt, if the Participant chooses to make improvements to the deliverables and/or initial submission and resubmit under step 1) in Activation, they will not receive an additional ActivationAward.
3️⃣ | Community Vote (1 week)
Projects that pass the Deliverable review stage will then be presented to verified members for a community vote. Verified members can vote for Projects to be awarded the full budget amount as requested in their submission. For SCF Rounds in 2023 , the selection panel plans to use the input of the community vote as a signaling mechanism to decide which Projects receive awards, but the community vote will not be dispositive or binding on the selection panel during that twelve-month period.
Note: Once the voting mechanics are established and proven, SCF plans to fully rely on the community vote to allocate SCF Awards.
If your Project is selected for an Award by the selection panel or community vote (as applicable), move on to step 4).
If your Project is not selected for an Award by the selection panel or community vote, you may choose to make improvements to the deliverables and/or the submission and return to step 1). For the avoidance of doubt, if the Participant chooses to make improvements to the deliverables and/or submission and resubmit under step 1), they will not receive an additional Activation Award.
4️⃣ | Award Distribution (1 week)
If your Project is selected as a Community Award recipient, congratulations! We’ll notify you via email and check for changes related to your Stellar address or your previously provided KYC and tax information. If there are changes, you’ll need to submit changes for further verification by SDF. After we confirm that all relevant info is up to date, we'll send the Award amount remaining in full.
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