The two-week flurry that was Gitcoin Grants 21 (GG21) wrapped up this week. Nearly US$190,000 donated by 7,700 unique donors across 11 grants rounds and 517 projects. US$742,000 in matching funds will be distributed over the next few weeks.

CARBON Copy participated in two of the rounds: Climate Solutions and Asia. A huge thank-you to those that contributed!

While undoubtedly positive, the numbers are down across the board compared to GG20: a fifth of the unique donors, a quarter of the total donations, and half the matching pool funds.

Grants Program Lead at Gitcoin, @mathildawrites, made an interesting point on the matter in an X post:

Firstly, GG21 is a vastly different round than GG20, specifically due to the absence of an OSS round. GG21 is the first fully community-led round, signaling a major evolution for Gitcoin as we aspire to enable communities to fund what matters to them.

Even still If we look at the Climate Solutions round in particular, the reality is that there isn't enough to meet the needs of all the grassroots projects doing real-world impact work. We need to unlock other, larger sources of funding.

Where will that funding come from? We can't help but think that the door is wide open for development finance to start taking platforms like Gitcoin Grants seriously as funding distribution mechanisms. They are the solution to chopping up US$10 million into US$10,000 tranches without the associated costs, to getting funds to the people on the ground without the wastage.

The onus is on us in the ReFi space, however. As we stare at development finance from across the chasm, it's time we start focusing on building the bridge.

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Much has been said about Web3's potential for helping us achieve the UN's Sustainability Development Goals by 2030, but no one seems to be keeping track of how well that's going. Our Trinity Morphy dives deep into what's actually being done and asks whether Web3 should be getting more recognition for its track record so far.

https://carboncopy.news

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An overview of the work being done in Web3 to make the world a better place.

ReFi News

KlimaDAO launches Carbon Capital podcast
Bloom Network introduces $FLO for its regenerative economy
Unchained Elephants launches $ELiZ on Base
Giveth announces September GIV-a-Palooza QF Round on Base
Unergy introduces uWatt yield-bearing token
Karma GAP launches impact report PDF feature for grantees
ecoToken lists carbon credits from St. Elmo Preservation Project

Knowledge

Jon Ruth interviews Bloom Network co-founder Magenta Ceiba
Ocean Blocks looks at voluntary vs. compliant carbon markets
EIT Climate-KIC and Briter Bridges examine the state of climatetech development in Latin America in a Salesforce-funded report
Aida Regen of ReFi Lagos writes about combating plastic waste in Nigeria
Crypto Altruism talks to Mark Pascall of The Wellbeing Protocol about scaling localism with decentralised tech
Karma provides its Weekly Grant Roundup for the Web3 space
GreenPill Network podcast about Filecoin's first retroactive funding round
CDR.fyi's monthly recap from the world of durable carbon removal

Project Impact Reports

Rifai Sicilia's Q3 Impact Update
GainForest's 2nd Annual Impact Report

Opportunities

Trusted Seed's 6-week mentorship program
Metagov is looking for a new Executive Director
Circles Node campaign in Ghana
Help ClimateCats with its research for the REGEN THE MOVIE documentary

Impact Stat of the Week

US$3,506.31

Total amount donated by philanthrophic USD stablecoin Glo Dollar. Unlike Tether and Circle, Glo Dollar allocates a majority of its reserve revenue to fund poverty reduction and public goods.

Want to learn more?

Visit us at https://carboncopy.news to get more news, analysis, and data from the Web3 regenerative finance (ReFi) space.

The ReFi Recap: Putting a bow on GG21 and building a bridge for development finance