Web3 Foundation — Grants Programme

Web3 Foundation grants are tiered: Level 1 grants are up to $10,000 for straightforward contributions; Level 2 grants up to $30,000 for more substantial work; and Level 3 grants exceed $30,000 with committee approval for significant infrastructure projects. Grants are denominated in USD but paid in DOT or other approved currencies. The tiered structure provides a clear pathway from initial small contribution through to substantial ecosystem-building work.

Web3 Foundation grants are open to teams building within the Polkadot or Kusama ecosystems — specifically covering Substrate pallet development, cross-chain bridges, wallet and UX infrastructure, DeFi on Polkadot, developer tooling and SDKs, and network security research. Projects must contribute meaningfully to the Polkadot or Substrate ecosystem; work on other chains is outside the programme's scope.

No — Web3 Foundation grants are non-dilutive. No equity or tokens are taken, and the programme is structured around milestone-based delivery rather than commercial terms. The open GitHub-based process makes this particularly transparent — all grant terms, milestone commitments, and disbursement schedules are publicly visible in the Grants Program repository.

The Web3 Foundation runs a fully open, GitHub-based grant process — applications are submitted as GitHub pull requests, reviewed publicly, and discussed in open issues. This transparency is unusual in the grants world and creates genuine accountability: reviews are public, community members can contribute feedback, and the rationale for approval or rejection is documented. Teams comfortable with open-source transparency culture will find this process well-aligned with their norms.

The public GitHub review process typically results in initial feedback within 2-4 weeks, with final decisions on Level 1 and Level 2 grants following soon after. Level 3 grants requiring committee approval take longer — potentially 6-8 weeks from submission to decision. The public nature of the review process means applicants can track their application's status in real time via GitHub.

Applications are submitted via GitHub at github.com/w3f/Grants-Program — the repository contains detailed guidelines, milestone templates, and examples of previously approved applications. Community discussion of applications is encouraged. Teams should review accepted applications in the repository to calibrate their proposal's scope and detail level before submitting.