“GG23 represents the largest evolution of our program—ensuring early-stage innovators get discovered through Quadratic Funding while mature projects receive Retroactive Funding based on their impact. This multi-mechanism approach empowers builders not just to start, but to scale and sustain meaningful contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem.” - MathildaDV, Grants Program Lead

TL:DR

• Applications open: March 17 - 31
• Donate: April 2 - 16
• Quadratic Funding: For early stage builders
• Retro Funding: Curated round for 30 mature builders
• OSS Program Update: No Hackathon Alumni round
• Community Rounds: 6+ rounds running
• Total Matching Pool: $1.35M

Gitcoin Grants is going Multi-Mechanism

Since its launch in 2019, Gitcoin Grants has distributed over $67M to 6,700+ projects, fueling the Ethereum ecosystem's growth. At the core of our mission has been Quadratic Funding (QF)—a powerful mechanism that helps surface and seed early-stage projects through community-driven support. But as builders have matured within the program, we've seen that QF alone isn’t enough.

Quadratic Funding excels at project discovery, providing smaller grants to a broad range of promising upstarts. However, once a project has demonstrated measurable impact, it deserves funding that reflects its contributions, helping to sustain long-term growth. That’s where Retroactive Funding comes in.

Retro Funding rewards proven impact, allocating funding based on measurable contributions, ensuring that mature projects receive support that reflects their real-world value.

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With GG23, we are taking a multi-mechanism approach to funding:
🔹 Quadratic Funding (QF) remains the discovery engine—ensuring early-stage builders get visibility and support.
🔹 Retro Funding rewards proven impact, allocating larger grants to mature projects that have demonstrated real, objective ROI.

We’re excited to pilot our first Retro Funding Round, where we are rewarding Mature Builders in the Gitcoin ecosystem.

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With GG23, we are taking a multi-mechanism approach to funding:

•  Quadratic Funding (QF) remains the discovery engine—ensuring early-stage builders get visibility and support.
•  Retro Funding rewards proven impact, allocating larger grants to mature projects that have demonstrated real, objective ROI.

"Gitcoin has always been rooted in community. Quadratic Funding only works when a broad network of individual donors participates and directs the matching pool. This retro round is about rewarding the projects that have consistently shown up, rallied their own communities, and, in doing so, made the Gitcoin ecosystem what it is today." - Carl Cervone, Open Source Observer.

For a deeper dive into all the rounds that are running and Community Rounds that are participating in GG23, please read the GG23 Round Overview blog post

A Smarter Way to Fund Builders

This staged approach not only helps builders scale over time but also preserves the integrity of QF, ensuring it remains a launchpad for up-and-coming innovators. By design, projects selected for Retro Funding will not be eligible for QF rounds, ensuring that donor funding remains dedicated to new projects that may not have as much community backing as some of the more mature projects. This reinforces QF’s role as a mechanism that supports early-stage projects while giving high-impact projects the backing they need to thrive.

Our decision to introduce this shift is rooted in data and feedback—from analyzing past round results to listening to builders and the wider community. GG23 isn’t just another grants round; it’s the next era of public goods funding, designed to maximize both discovery and sustainability in the Ethereum ecosystem. And this is just the beginning—we will continue to evaluate and experiment with new mechanisms, evolving alongside the needs of builders to ensure they receive the right support at every stage of their journey.

Gitcoin has hosted all OSS rounds on Arbitrum since GG20. Arbitrum is an ecosystem with shared values. It has consistently invested in public goods, and it’s an ecosystem that is a co-architect to Gitcoin in building the future of web3 funding.

With GG23, we’re not just funding projects—we’re funding their future.

GG23 Features: Empowering Builders & Donors

GG23 goes beyond just funding—it’s about making the funding process more accessible, transparent, and community-driven. We’re continuing to refine and expand key features to enhance the experience for both builders and donors.

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Mint Attestations: Onchain proof of donations that highlights support for funded projects that can be shared on social media. 

‍Quick Bridge: Built in response to donor feedback, this feature removes a major pain point by enabling seamless cross-chain contributions directly on the checkout page. No more need to hold the exact token.

Community-Led Onboarding Program: We are continuing our Community Led Onboarding Program, led by Let’s GROW DAO, to ensure that first time grantees have the education and support that they need to be successful during GG23.

Enhanced Sybil Resistance: COCM prioritizes projects with diverse supporter bases, while Passport Model-Based Detection analyzes onchain data to identify sybil wallets, ensuring fairer fund distribution.

GTC Staking: In GG23, Gitcoin is testing GTC staking to explore new token utility. Users can stake GTC on projects to signal support, with $18k in USDC rewards distributed based on stake share and project performance. This lean experiment aims to boost engagement and learn what drives meaningful community participation.

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Predictive Funding Challenge

The community proposed an exciting addition to GG23, where participants can predict how much funding each project will receive by the end of the round. The ultimate goal is to predict the total funding each project will receive at the end of Gitcoin grants round 23 - both community contributions and the matching fund payouts. The contest goes live March 27; to find out more and how to participate visit the competition page.

Open Source Observer (OSO)

Open Source Observer (OSO) is an analytics suite that helps funders measure the impact of open source software contributions to the health of their ecosystem. OSO collaborated closely with the Gitcoin team in the design of GG23 to design a transparent, data-driven metrics framework to power the Retro Funding Round. 

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Through this collaboration on the Retro Funding round pilot, the teams will continue to work closely together to evolve and iterate moving forward into the next round of funding. 

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The Future of Funding Starts with GG23

GG23 marks the next evolution of deeper support for OSS within the Ethereum ecosystem, and decentralized, community-driven funding. By embracing a multi-mechanism approach, we’re ensuring that builders, whether they’re just starting out or scaling impactful projects, receive the support they need to successfully scale. With Quadratic Funding for early-stage innovators, Retroactive Funding for proven contributors, and expanded Community Rounds, GG23 continues Gitcoin’s mission to fund what matters.