Latest / Crypto Altruists: Real-World Stories of Social & Environmental Impact with Web3 / Episode 271 - The Great Funding Reset: Lessons from Web3 Public Goods Funding, Humanitarian Aid Cuts, and What Comes Next

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Episode 271 - The Great Funding Reset: Lessons from Web3 Public Goods Funding, Humanitarian Aid Cuts, and What Comes Next · Crypto Altruists: Real-World Stories of Social & Environmental Impact with Web3

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today you'll discover why impact builders are facing two funding storms at once, a cooling in Web3 public goods funding and the largest drop in international aid on record.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: How public goods funding has evolved from the boom years of ICOs, NFTs, and quadratic funding to the quieter, more uncertain landscape of today.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: The funding innovations that are still working, from yield-based giving to streaming funds and community-owned models, and some strategies for impact organizations to help weather the storm and navigate this challenging environment.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we dive in, please remember that this is not financial or legal advice, and always do your own research on any of the projects or investment opportunities that we discuss.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the CryptoUltras Podcast, and thank you so much for joining me today for episode 271.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: First off, I'm so sorry for not releasing an episode last week for the first time in a while.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, well, life happened last week.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I faced a devastating family loss and had to take a step back for a bit to focus on that and focus on myself.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate your patience, and I'm back now and I'm excited to pick things back up because there is a lot happening in the space and a lot to talk about.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So for this episode, it's a solo episode, one that's been sitting on my mind and percolating for a while.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you work in the impact space right now, whether you're building in Web3 or running a nonprofit or working anywhere in international development, you've probably felt it.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: That feeling like the ground has shifted.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: The public goods funding boom of a few years ago has quieted down considerably, and just this month the funding platform that many projects relied on shut down.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And outside of Web3, international aid budgets are being cut at a scale we've never seen before.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to talk about what I've called the great funding reset for the purpose of this episode.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to look honestly at how we got here, both in Web3 and traditional NGO funding, the challenges this uncertainty creates for many builders and projects, and then most importantly, I want to talk about where we go from here.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because while this is a difficult season, it is not the end of the story.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the most resilient funding models we've seen are being built right now, and there are practical things every impact builder can do to get through this.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So this isn't gonna be a doom and gloom episode, don't worry.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's not really my style, as you may know.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I do think it's gonna be an honest one, and I hope that it will be a hopeful and helpful one too.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because if there's anything we know about building in Web3, it's that it is a roller coaster of ups and downs, and you never know what's gonna happen next.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start by going back a few years, which by the way feels at least 10 years ago, because I think it's worth remembering just how exciting this space was and still can be.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: When crypto first started gaining real momentum, one of the most radical ideas it introduced was that we could fund things differently.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not just companies and products, but public goods.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: The open source software, research, education, and community infrastructure that everyone benefits from, but that traditional markets have always struggled to pay for.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And for a while the experimentation was electric.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: There were ICOs which, for all their flaws and excesses, showed that communities could pool money around shared ideas at remarkable speed.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: There were NFT sales for good causes, where artists and collectors raise enormous sums for charities in crisis response.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there were entirely new funding mechanisms being invented in real time.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Gitcoin pioneered quadratic funding, a model that amplifies the voice of many small donors over a few big ones.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to stop here because it can be easy to forget the highlights, and there are a lot of them.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Gitcoin not only funded many incredible regen projects, some that are still thriving today, but it also funded industry giants.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Plasma Group received a modest quadratic funding grant for early research that grew into Optimism, which has since distributed more than 60 million OP to public goods.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And OneInch, which received a 50,000 grant in its early days, later put 3 million into its own grant program for emerging DeFi builders, and gave money directly back to Gitcoin to use in their funding rounds as well.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a second.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: A small grant helped fund early research that grew into a major Ethereum network, which then turned around and funded more public goods.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: It really is the dream of public goods funding, and we did see it happen there.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Optimism took it even further with retroactive public goods funding, an idea that Vitalik Buterin and the Optimism team introduced in 2021.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: The premise is simple: that outcomes are easier to evaluate than predictions, so you allocate rewards after the work is delivered.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now there are, of course, critics of this who would argue that public goods builders have traditionally worked tirelessly for very little, and that it's unfair to expect them to do all the work unpaid and you know with the hope of being compensated in the future.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to litigate that here because, you know, I think that that is a bigger discussion and a very valid point.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless of where one lands on that, it's undeniable that this experiment was backed with serious resources.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, a total of 850 million OP, which is 20% of its total supply, was reserved for public goods funding.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: This was a really exciting time.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of felt like we were witnessing the birth of a new philanthropic infrastructure that was less small groups of wealthy people making funding decisions to something more democratic, transparent, and experimental than anything that came before it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of what was built in that era is still here, still working, and still worth celebrating.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't go anywhere.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important to take the time to remember that before moving forward.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've been around the space for the last couple years, you've also noticed things have gotten quieter.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: The big rounds aren't as big.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: The excitement of the bull market has faded.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Some programs have wound down or narrowed focus.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: For example, Gitcoin has wound down its grants program and has pivoted to a different vision.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And despite all the innovation, the reality is that a lot of Web3 funding still flows through fairly traditional channels, mostly grant programs from L1 or L2 networks like Ethereum Foundation, Stellar, Arbitrum, fairly traditional, conventional style grant programs.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a challenge that builders in this space know too well, and that's unpredictability.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Even well-designed programs change over time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Changes to eligibility, how projects are evaluated, how often funding rounds happen, reduce predictability and make it difficult for builders to plan around retroactive funding as a reliable income source.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you're running a small project or a nonprofit, that unpredictability can be everything.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's the difference between hiring someone or not, between launching a program or tabling it.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when funding is tied to token prices and market cycles, the bear market affects not only the speculators, but also a lot of the people building public goods too.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this brings me to something that happened just a couple of weeks ago that we need to discuss.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that of course is Artisan, because I think it'd be strange to not talk about it, and because it matters a lot to people in our community.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: For those who aren't familiar, Artisan was a match funding platform for creative, scientific, and technical projects.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Supporters could buy a$10 collectible called an Artifact to back a project, and the platform promised match funding on top, sometimes multiplying the value of a donation several times over.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And earlier this month it shut down.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Artisan paused its active operations as of October 5th, 2026, moving to a payout only model.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: According to a community-maintained resource for affected creators, the shutdown message stated that artifact sales would be paid out, but match funding and cash prizes would not.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to say that I don't know the whole context about what happened.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't done super deep research into it, and I know there are different perspectives on what exactly happened.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to wait into that today as I don't think I'd be able to do it justice, and there are others in the community who are far more informed.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a great community resource, which I will link in the show notes with more information.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: What I will say is that this sucks a lot for a lot of people, and it has had a devastating impact for many projects who were counting on that match funding.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some had built their budgets around it, some had launched their own funds on Artisan, some had rallied their communities, asked their supporters to give, and did everything right, and now that match funding isn't coming.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: For a small project, losing that funding could be a death sentence.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And for donors, I imagine there's a real sense of disappointment too.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: You gave because you believed your contribution would be multiplied, that it would have a bigger impact, and it didn't have the impact it was supposed to.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It just really sucks.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's no other way to say it.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And to everyone who's been affected, whether you're a creator, a project, a fun steward, a donor, I'm sorry this happened to you.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you're okay and I hope you're able to get back on your feet.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we had just started using Artisan ourselves.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, we'd only just begun and had received a few artifact purchases from the community, I believe about$50 worth, which of course isn't nothing, though the impact to us was obviously much smaller than others.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm still sorry to the donors who supported us, and I'll happily return the funds that were donated to us, of course, through Artisan.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it was much, much bigger for many others, as I mentioned, and that's a tough situation for the entire ecosystem.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a platform that so many were excited about, myself included, and that so many people believed in.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: A whole community had been built around it, so it makes it extra hard to see something like this happen.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of thoughtful reflection happening in the community right now about what went wrong and what we can all learn from it.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I'll have more to share on this in the future, including some of the community lessons as they've come together, so I'll make sure to check back on this as well.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were affected in any way, I've linked the community run resource in the show notes that has a lot of great information on what you can do moving forward, and some more information on what happened in the first place.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: It also includes info on a claims portal that opened with the deadline of November 30th.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: But before doing anything, I strongly recommend please read all the terms, carefully check all the latest info before you claim, and I'll make sure to include that link in the show notes, so please check it out.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now moving on back to public goods funding.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a tough year for it, that's for sure.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: If this were only happening in Web3, it would be hard enough.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: But impact builders right now are facing a second storm at the same time, and one that is actually much bigger.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Outside of crypto, traditional funding for social good is going through a historic contraction, and the numbers are pretty depressing, I'll say.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: According to the OECD, official development assistance, which is the international aid that wealthy governments provide, dropped by 23.1% in 2025.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the largest annual contraction on record, and it brings global aid back to where it stood at the start of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, a decade of progress in aid funding was wiped out in a single year.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: The United States loan drove three-quarters of the decline, with its aid falling by 56.9% compared to 2024.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it isn't just one country.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: 26 of 34 OECD members shrank their budgets, including the five largest providers, which is France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and of course the US.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it isn't over either.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: In its latest update this June, the OECD projected that aid will fall further 6.9% in 2026 to$152 billion.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: That would be its lowest level since 2014, and a third consecutive year of decline.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So why is this happening?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the situation in the US aside, a big part of this is a shift in priorities.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: A large chunk of European aid spending has shifted to increased defense budgets, as NATO countries scramble to raise defense spending up to about 5% of GDP.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: More broadly, there is fiscal consolidation in a very uncertain time, heightened geopolitical tension, pressure to increase spending on defense and security, and a push to align public spending with domestic priorities.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: ATA landlocked developing countries and to fragile states are each projected to decline by 34%.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Health funding is projected to fall 29 to 46% from 2024 levels, and humanitarian assistance by 40.3%, representing a drop of$9.3 billion.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Behind those numbers are real people.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Clinics that close, food programs that end, local organizations that have spent decades building trust in their communities, suddenly unsure whether they'll make it to next year.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this will, and has resulted in a lot of death.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one study by UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health estimated that the defunding of USAID will result in more than 14 million preventable deaths by 2030, including more than 4 million children under 5.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And amidst this dramatic contraction in public goods funding, the competition for what's left has gotten fiercer.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: After all, there are more organizations chasing fewer dollars from fewer funders.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've submitted a grant application recently and wondered whether anyone would even read it, you're not imagining things.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's harder than it's ever been to be an impact builder.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: When we spoke with Inestifoy of Egregor a few months back, she talked about the missing middle, that dangerous gap where promising organizations stall because they get caught between keeping the lights on and trying to grow.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: In a moment like the one we are in, this gap is even more devastating.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, we have two storms, one in Web3 driven by market cycles and some hard lessons, one in traditional aid driven by geopolitics and shifting government priorities.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're happening for very different reasons.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: But when I step back, I see a common thread, and I think it's the most important lesson in this whole episode.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that common thread is that both systems depend too heavily on concentrated, volatile sources of funding.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: In Web3, a lot of public goods funding depended on a handful of token treasuries, foundations, or platforms.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: When token prices fell, or when a single platform shut down, everyone downstream felt it at once.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: In traditional aid, a huge share of funding depended on a handful of government donors.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: When a few of the biggest ones changed course, the whole system shook.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's completely different worlds, but it's the same vulnerability.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: When too much depends on too few sources, the system is fragile.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: A single decision in a single boardroom or a single parliament can ripple out and affect thousands of organizations and millions of people.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a second common thread too, and that is unpredictability.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's token volatility, a funding round that changes its rules, or a government budget that gets rewritten every few years, impact builders have been forced to plan their futures on foundations that can shift without warning.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And a final common thread is, of course, trust and verification.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: In both worlds, organizations and donors often had to take things on faith, and the less verifiable a system is, the more exposed everyone is when something goes wrong.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if those are the problems, then the solutions start to come into focus.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We need funding that's more diverse, more predictable, and more verifiable.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the good news is there is still a lot of exciting work happening in funding that hopes to address these issues.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because despite everything we've just talked about, people all over the world are inventing new ways to fund impact.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these innovations come from big foundations, some from governments, and some from the humanitarian sector, and of course some right here from in Web3.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: All these are tackling problems we just discussed of concentration, unpredictability, and trust.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let me walk you through a few innovations that I find really inspiring.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: One is this idea of funders stepping up with flexible trust-based funding.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because when the aid cuts hit, some of the world's biggest foundations made a choice that instead of holding back, they gave more, and they gave with fewer strings attached.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: The MacArthur Foundation is a great example.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: In February of 2025, they committed to increase their payout in 2025 and 2026.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Their original budget for 2025 had been around$457 million, in line with their typical 5% payout.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: But their actual charitable spending came in at an estimated$647 million, a rate of about 7.1%.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But just as important, they committed to use flexible, trust-based models for their charitable gifts when possible, and they've now extended that higher giving commitment all the way through 2028.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's Mackenzie Scott, who has made quite a name for herself and become known for this style of giving.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: In 2025, she dispersed$7.1 billion made up of large unrestricted gifts to historically undercapitalized organizations.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is a huge jump from the$2.6 billion she gave in 2024.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: So why does this concept of unrestricted giving matter?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because unrestricted multi-year funding is the opposite of the unpredictability we talked about earlier.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: It lets organizations plan, hire, and invest in their own resilience rather than getting stuck in an endless cycle of chasing the next grant.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, I have to be honest here.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Philanthropy can't fill the gap on its own.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: According to Candid, private foundations would have to increase their grant making by 282%, roughly tripling what they give today just to make up for the loss of government grants.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this isn't a replacement for public funding, but it shows how funders can change how they give, not just how much, in ways that can also make organizations far more resilient.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: The second innovation I want to discuss is matchmaking and pooled funds that move faster.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to explore this innovation by starting with an inspiring story I came across with a group of people who had just lost their jobs.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: When USAID was dismantled, a group of former staff, including economists who had spent years evaluating which programs save the most lives per dollar, decided to do something about it.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: They launched an initiative called Project Resource Optimization, or Pro.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: They set out to build what they call a lifeboat by matching the most effective stranded programs with new funders able to keep them afloat.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: A year later, Pro has connected about$110 million in donor funding to almost 80 projects in 30 countries.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: What I like about this approach is that it makes it so easy for donors to act by vetting once and sharing the results widely.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And alongside Pro, Pooled Fund stepped up too.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Rapid Response Fund from the Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge raised$13.1 million in six months to fill critical caps caused by the cuts.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: It closed the donations by the end of August 2025, and the work has since continued through a new Catalytic Impact Fund.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: For impact builders, the lesson is that collaboration isn't just for organizations, and that funders are learning to work together too.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And pooled funds can be a powerful entry point for small organizations that might struggle to get noticed by single large donors.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: The third innovation I'd like to highlight relates to this idea of anticipatory action or more proactive financing.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem it solves.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Evidence from a nonprofit out of London called Start Network suggests that around 55% of humanitarian funding goes to crises that are somewhat predictable, like floods and droughts, and yet only 1% of funding is organized in advance.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So most of the time we wait for disaster we could have seen coming, then scramble to raise money after the fact to address it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Start Network's answer is a fund called Start Ready.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: As the first NGO-managed risk pool of its kind, it marked a significant shift in how humanitarian financing works.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It uses climate science to forecast hazards and agree on plans and triggers in advance, so the money is already in place when the forecast says a crisis is coming.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: The latest version, Risk Pool 5, launched on May 1st, 2026, covering 10 countries and 17 anticipatory action frameworks.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: What I love is that it uses the logic of insurance to stretch every dollar further.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how it works: not every flood, drought, or heat wave happens in the same year.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: So by pooling money across many countries and many different hazards, the fund can promise more support than it actually holds in the bank.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Risk Pool 5 went live with 11 million pounds, but thanks to the pooling, it can provide up to 15.9 million when forecast show a crisis is coming.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And previous pools have even secured a bespoke reinsurance product to provide additional financing if funds ran out before the year end, which is essentially a backup insurance policy for the fund itself.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really cool example of how you can build predictability into the design of funding mechanisms.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to spend a moment on the pilot in Kenya with Shamba and BlockBeam that we recently covered on the podcast in episode number 267, because I think it shows how blockchain tools can make this whole approach even stronger.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: The pilot, supported by MercyCore Ventures, brought together BlockBeam, Fortune Credit, Shamba Network, and RiskShield to protect informal market vendors in Nairobi from heavy rainfall.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Climate insurance was built directly into their small business loans, and the triggers were agreed in advance.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: When satellite data showed that rainfall had crossed a predefined threshold, a smart contract automatically reduced the borrower's loan balance.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And better yet, there was no claim to file, no paperwork, and most importantly, there was no waiting.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are two applications of blockchain technology here that made this possible.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: The first is the Oracle Shamba Network, who acted as a decentralized climate data oracle, feeding satellite-verified rainfall data directly into the system, so there was no debate about whether the payout trigger had been met.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: The second is the smart contract, which executed the payout automatically the moment those conditions were met.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there was no human claims adjuster in the loop slowing down the process or unnecessarily rejecting claims either.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: The results from this pilot were incredible.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Settlement time dropped from a traditional baseline of 30 days to just one day, the cost of settling the payouts fell by more than 3,000 times, from an estimated 2170 to less than a single cent.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And because every policy, every trigger, and every payout was recorded on-chain, everyone involved can see the same single source of truth, whether it's the lender, the insurer, the reinsurer, the funders, or most importantly the customers.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is really important for anticipatory financing because one of the hardest things about pre-arranging money for a crisis is trust.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Blockchain helps build trust that the trigger is accurate, that the payout will happen as promised, and that the funds reach the people they're meant for.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oracles and smart contracts make the roles transparent, the trigger is tamper resistant, and the payouts fast and verifiable.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about getting money to people before or during a crisis rather than weeks after it, tools like these could be a big part of helping scale anticipatory action initiatives.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth innovation I want to highlight is governments treating digital public goods like infrastructure.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Those who work in Web3 know that it has always been a struggle to fund open source software.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is the code everyone relies on, but nobody wants to pay for.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is, until one government chose to look at open source software as a public infrastructure problem.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: In Germany, they created the Sovereign Tech Agency, which is the first publicly funded organization in Europe that supports the development, improvement, and maintenance of open digital infrastructures.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Its Sovereign Tech Fund invested 15.25 million euros in 40 projects in its first year alone, and it has since provided more than€24.6 million euros to over 60 open source projects around the world.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: A few things about it stand out.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that it isn't limited to German projects.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: The fund accepts applications all over the world on the logic that if German institutions rely on a global open source project, improving it strengthens Germany too.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it funds people, not just code.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Through a maintainer in residence fellowship model, it provides financial support to individual experts and maintainers.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: The model has caught attention well beyond Germany, and a study by Open Forum Europe, Franhofer ISI, and the European University Institute pointed to the Sovereign Tech Fund and its evolution into the agency as a model for a better funded institution at the European level.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good reminder as well for us that it'd been in Web3 for a while that public goods don't have to depend on charity or token prices, and I hope that this case study is the first of many to follow.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth innovation I want to highlight is solidarity levies.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: What exactly are those?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if traditional A budgets are shrinking, what if we could create entirely new sources of funding that don't depend on annual budget fights?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's the idea behind solidarity levies, something I actually hadn't heard of until researching this episode, but it has a proven track record.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: One example is Unitaid, which was created in 2006 by Brazil, Chile, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and was built on a small levy on airline tickets that it turned into funding for health innovations.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a new coalition is building on that legacy.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: It started at the UN's Financing for Development Conference in Seville in 2025, where France, Kenya, Spain, and a number of other countries launched what they call the Premium Flyer Solidarity Coalition.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Its purpose was to advance levies on first and business class tickets and private jets.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: The idea behind it is pretty straightforward, it's that those who can afford to fly at the front of the plane, or on their own private jet, can contribute a bit more to help fund climate and development.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now it may be hard to conceptualize just how big a program like this could get, but the potential is huge, with research suggesting that a levy on premium flyers and private jets implemented globally could raise 78 billion euros every year.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: What I find powerful about this approach is that it aims to create funding that's more predictable and less vulnerable to the whims of a single donor government.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's about those best able.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: To pay helping to generate the debt-free public finance that developing nations need.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the sixth innovation I want to talk about is shifting power to communities.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So to wrap things up, I wanted to discuss a concept that's been around for a long time, and with that has a proven track record, and that is participatory grant making.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: How it works is that it puts funding decisions in the hands of those impacted, like the citizens or builders on the ground, instead of some centralized body.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a stat that surprised me.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: 83% of large US foundations report some direct stakeholder participation, though only 10% have fully transferred decision-making power to grantees or community members.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a long way to go, but the direction is encouraging, and the evidence shows that proximity is a consistent predictor of trust and impact, with community-led models producing better and more sustainable outcomes.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, as we navigate these funding crises, ordinary people are pooling their resources in new ways.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: It could be neighborhood donation drives, giving circles, mutual aid networks.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's inspiring seeing more people pooling their resources to create shared impact.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same principle behind the savings circles we explore with Shukumu in Tanzania and the co-ops we discussed with DG Safir.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Communities funding themselves is the oldest model there is, likely because it has proven to be a resilient model, and in a moment like this one, it's one that we really should double down on.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of these aren't necessarily Web3 native, but of course a lot of the exciting innovation is still happening in Web3 as well.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking yield-based funding through models like Octin and impact staking that lets organizations fund impact from returns while keeping their principle intact.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or streaming funds like the ones powering good builders through Flowstate, which creates a steady, predictable flow of support for builders.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's conviction voting, which we explore with gardens, where community members put their support behind proposals, and that support grows stronger the longer they keep it in place.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of it like a battery charging up over time.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: All of these are working on the same problems as the innovations I just described.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: They are reducing concentration, increasing predictability, and building trust.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when you put it all together, here's what I see.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I see foundations giving more flexibly, funders and NGOs pooling resources, money arranged before disaster strike, governments treating public goods like infrastructure, new predictable sources of funding, and communities taking the lead.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: None of these are perfect, a lot of them are small scale, and none of them can single-handedly fill the gap that's been left.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: But together they show that there are possibilities to imagine a new funding system that's more diverse, predictable, and trustworthy than the one before.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, where do we go from here?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you're running a nonprofit, an impact project, or a grassroots organization right now, you've probably heard most of the standard advice already.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Things like diversify your funding, build relationships, tell your story.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem isn't necessarily knowing what to do, it's knowing how to do it when your team is stretched thin and you're running low on funds.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: So here are a few things I'd encourage you to think about.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: One, diversify by type, not just by number.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows they should diversify, but a lot of organizations think they're diversified when they're not.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you have five grants but they all come from government-backed sources, or all from crypto foundations whose budgets rise and fall with token prices, those five grants can disappear for the same reason at the same time.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: What you want is funding streams that don't move together.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So a good first step is to map your funding by category.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Institutional grants, individual donors, earned income, in-kind support, and crypto-based yield sources, for example, could be the categories.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then ask two questions.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: What share of your budget depends on your single largest source?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And how many months could you operate if it vanished tomorrow?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: From there, don't try to fix everything at once.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend picking one new category to build out over the next 12 months, then give it real attention rather than spreading yourself through and across all five half-started efforts.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: The second piece of advice I'd give is to manage funder relationships year-round and to use this kind of downtime as an opportunity to really focus on building those relationships.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is easier said than done, especially when you're already stretched thin, but it's important to remember that funding is built on long-term relationships.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: For example, we're seeing large organizations like MacArthur move to a more relationship-based approach, committing to use flexible, trust-based models for their tradable gifts where possible.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important to steward those relationships.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think of it like watering a garden rather than filling a pool.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: You might fill your pool once a year, but you're consistently watering your garden.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: It can be helpful to send your funders short, informal updates between the more formal reports.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you just posted something on socials about the project they funded, send it to them in a quick email.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Also make sure to share challenges earlier before they become crises, because funders tend to respond far better to honesty than surprises.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I have on many occasions myself had to pivot amidst challenges in a grant-funded project, and every time I kept the funder well in the loop and they were always supportive and understanding.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And don't be afraid to be honest with funders who already believe in you about what you need right now, whether that's flexible funding, a multi-year commitment, bridge funding, or introductions to another funder.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: The worst they can say is no, but from my experience, most welcome the conversation.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: The third piece of advice is to build earn income from what you already have.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Many impact organizations are sitting on valuable assets they've never thought of as revenue sources, such as expertise, training materials, research data, or community networks.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when seeking out options to diversify funding, it can be valuable to start from those existing strengths, rather than inventing something new.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some examples, so you know what I'm talking about.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Could your team offer training or consulting to other organizations?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Could your research or content support a paid membership?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Could you offer sliding scale pricing so larger organizations help subsidize access for smaller ones?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: It can be helpful to start small, test with a few early customers, and make sure you aren't mission drifting.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Earned income works best when it reinforces your mission rather than pulling your team away from it and then giving you yet another thing to focus on that they don't have time for.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: As an extra bonus, because it's typically unrestricted, it can give you way more flexibility than traditional grants.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the fourth and final piece of advice is to make your impact easy to verify.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: In a crowded funding landscape, the organizations that can easily and clearly prove what they've achieved will stand out.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean drowning in data, and I'll be the first to tell you that funders often expect too much from impact orgs when it comes to reporting.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it means choosing a small number of meaningful metrics that tie directly to your theory of change, tracking them consistently, and pairing them with the voices of the people you serve.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where you can make your results verifiable by others, whether through third-party evaluations, open data, or on-chain records.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And as we talked about earlier, the more you can show that your work makes other valuable things possible, the more funding doors it can open.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: So there are a couple of ideas, and none of these things are rocket science, and they certainly aren't fixalls.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: They are strategies that can help impact builders weather the storm, but they aren't enough to fill in this massive multi-trillion dollar gap in funding.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: So where exactly does that leave us?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: I won't pretend that this is an easy moment.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Web3 funding boom has quieted.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: A platform many of us trusted has shut down, and a lot of people have been hurt.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And international aid is going through its biggest contraction in history with real consequences for communities everywhere around the world.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I keep coming back to the idea of a reset.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: A reset isn't an ending, it's a chance to rebuild on stronger foundations.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if this moment forces us to move away from fragile, concentrated, unpredictable funding towards models that are more diverse, more predictable, more verifiable, and more community-owned, then maybe, just maybe, we can come out of this stronger than we went in.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think about the savings circles that have helped communities fund themselves for centuries, the co-ops that have weathered every economic storm over the last hundred years, the builders who have kept going through the last bear market and build the infrastructure we rely on today.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hard seasons have a way of revealing what's truly resilient sometimes.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're an impact builder feeling the way right now, I want you to know that you're not alone.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people are feeling this right now, and there are people and organizations out there who want to help.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: On that note, I am co-hosting alongside Sam from Web Through Forget a community space on Wednesday, October 28th at 12 o'clock p.m.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: noon Eastern Time.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a space to hang out with fellow builders, share advice, ask questions, or just be a part of the community.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'll post the details in the show notes and I'd love to see you there.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a nonprofit or impact organization trying to figure out how to navigate this period, whether that's exploring new funding models, thinking through whether crypto or AI could help your work, or just getting a clear-eyed second opinion, we might be able to help.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: We offer full-scale consulting for NGOs and Impact Orcs, so if you want to learn more, just head to cryptoaltruist.com slash consulting or head to the show notes for the link.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And our free Web3 Impact Toolkit, of course, is at Cryptoaltrist.com slash toolkit, and it's a great place to start learning about some of the funding models we talked about today.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to share it with someone in the impact space who you think could use a little encouragement right now.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening today and for all you're doing to build through the challenging times and create a better world.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that wraps up today's episode of Crypto Ultras.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for tuning in.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you're inspired to explore more stories at the intersection of Web3 and Social Impact, be sure to visit us at CryptoAltrux.com for articles, resources, and more.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you love what you heard, it would mean the world if you could rate review and subscribe to the podcast.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your support is huge in helping us reach more listeners like you and keeping the platform going strong.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining us, and I look forward to having you back for the next episode.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, let's keep trying the world, the good of crypto.