Solana Foundation — Developer Grants

Solana Foundation grants range from $5,000 for individual developers and community contributors through to $500,000+ for critical infrastructure projects. Most developer grants fall in the $10,000 to $100,000 range. The Foundation also runs seasonal hackathons with separate prize pools, providing a parallel pathway to non-dilutive funding for teams building on Solana.

Solana Foundation grants are open to Solana developers, dApp teams, infrastructure builders, community educators, and validator operators — essentially anyone building on or supporting the Solana network. The programme funds both technical work (tooling, SDKs, protocol infrastructure) and non-technical contributions (educational content, community building), with the primary criterion being clear benefit to the Solana ecosystem.

No — Solana Foundation grants are non-dilutive. No equity or tokens are taken in exchange for grant funding. Deliverable milestones are required, providing accountability for the use of funds, but there is no commercial relationship or ownership stake created by the grant. This makes Solana Foundation grants particularly valuable for open source contributors and early-stage teams.

Applications are submitted via solana.org/grants on a rolling basis. The application requires a clear project description, technical scope, team background, requested grant amount, and milestone plan. The Foundation also runs seasonal hackathons with defined application windows and competitive prize structures — hackathon participation can serve as a pathway into the grants programme for teams that place well.

Initial review typically takes 4-8 weeks from application submission, though timelines vary based on application volume and the complexity of the proposed work. Larger grants requiring committee-level review may take longer. Teams should apply well in advance of when funding is needed — grant income should not be assumed as a bridge for immediate operational costs.

Yes — the Solana Foundation's grants programme is specifically focused on the Solana ecosystem. Projects building primarily on other chains or on chain-agnostic infrastructure without a meaningful Solana component are outside the programme's scope. Teams building cross-chain infrastructure that includes Solana support may qualify, but Solana-specific benefit must be demonstrably central to the proposal.