Gitcoin Grants 2025 strategy features a multi-mechanism future, increased builder support, and improved governance to empower developers and enhance decentralization. Discover what lies ahead for the Ethereum ecosystem.
“By aligning our strategies with builder needs, we’re doubling down on our mission to fund what matters in the Ethereum ecosystem while scaling innovation and deepening community engagement.” - MathildaDV, Grants Program Lead
As we enter 2025, we’re excited to share our vision, priorities, and updates for the year ahead. We remain dedicated to supporting open-source software (OSS) and Community-led rounds, leveraging innovative strategies and insights from community input and builder feedback to enhance and expand our funding impact.
Our strategy for 2025 is built on three core pillars:
Empowering Builders: Strengthening the Ethereum ecosystem by offering mentorship, long-term incentive programs, and tailored funding opportunities to support builders at every stage of their journey.
Innovating Funding Mechanisms: Introducing metrics-based and dynamic Quadratic Funding models to ensure fair, transparent, and impactful resource allocation across diverse builder needs.
Scaling Decentralization: Expanding community-driven funding through enhanced governance structures, new decision-making frameworks, and broader ecosystem engagement.
In 2025, Gitcoin Grants will continue to prioritize Open Source Software (OSS) funding as the cornerstone of its grants program, with plans to distribute over $4.29M across three major OSS rounds. These rounds are now structured to support projects at any stage of growth, ensuring sustainable funding for the digital public goods that form the foundation of the Ethereum ecosystem. To meet the evolving needs of the builder community, OSS rounds will include both Quadratic Funding (QF) for early-stage projects and metrics-based retroactive funding for mature, high-impact initiatives. We will also be experimenting with Futarchy! By refining funding categories and introducing innovative mechanisms, we aim to better align with ecosystem priorities and provide impactful support to a diverse builder community.
Community Rounds are rounds run by external parties, funding their own ecosystem or a specific cause through inviting grantees to participate that meet certain eligibility criteria. These are not managed by Gitcoin.
In 2025, we will strengthen the scalability and governance of Community Rounds by electing a new Community Council in Q1. This council will use Grant Ships, a competitive allocation model on Allo Protocol, to vote and review transparently while tracking metrics onchain for greater accountability.
Each Community Round will have a funding pool of $130K per round, with funding towards these rounds possibly incrementally increasing throughout the year. These improvements aim to empower more communities, broaden participation, and ensure funding decisions align with ecosystem priorities.
These dates and funding amounts are subject to change, as each round will be ratified through governance ahead of time.
Community Momentum
Strengthening ties within our builder community is central to Gitcoin’s strategy. We’ll introduce grantee showcases, weekly demos, and community-led initiatives to inspire collaboration and amplify success stories.
Ecosystem Growth
Positioning Gitcoin as an ecosystem growth engine, we’ll test new funding mechanisms, refine our governance models, and expand partnerships with protocols and ecosystems looking to leverage Gitcoin’s expertise.
Innovating Funding Mechanisms
To stay at the forefront of public goods funding, Gitcoin Grants 2025 will pilot multi-mechanism funding models tailored to builder maturity and project impact. To ensure fairer distribution of matching funds, Dynamic Quadratic Funding will adjust eligibility and caps, benefiting emerging builders.
We plan to release GG Round dates earlier in 2025, giving builders and donors more time to prepare while allowing the internal team to plan more efficiently for rounds. With three major rounds planned for 2025, this schedule will promote higher-quality participation, provide greater funding opportunities for both early-stage and mature builders, and help alleviate donor fatigue.
Fostering deeper builder engagement between GG rounds remains a top priority for the Gitcoin team. In 2025, we’re focused on strengthening support systems, creating educational resources, activating vibrant community spaces, and providing builder care that encourages innovation and collaboration year-round—not just during GG rounds. No one understands the needs of developers better than developers themselves.
Stay tuned for more updates and join us in driving the future of open-source innovation with Gitcoin Grants in 2025!