Situation
What are you proposing?
Proposing the funding of Women & Non-Binary of Index Coop Working Group for 3 months ending on 1/14/21. With the establishment of this working group, we plan to build the largest network of female & non-binary contributors of any DAO, helping Index grow our footprint and establish our reputation as the space for making crypto more accessible for everyone.
What is the core problem(s) you want to solve?
As Index continues to flourish and grow, homogeneity is not scalable or sustainable to the Coop’s long-term goals. As a leader in the DAO ecosystem, Index Coop has an opportunity to lead the way when it comes to creating initiatives that foster a diverse group of contributors in an ecosystem that struggles with diversity (see Slide 12 for DAO diversity metrics). The group tentatively called “Women in Index” has already begun creating a space for supporting women and non-binary people in becoming contributors to Index. The group has met weekly since June and we are now discussing how we might continue scaling our efforts in promoting more diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Coop.
Today, the majority of contributors to the Coop are men. While Index has created spaces for fostering cultural diversity with initiatives like the growing Lang Op. WG and APAC communities, the fact remains that building a more inclusive and diverse community requires conscious, concerted effort. The vast majority of us gravitate toward linguistic homogeneity and cultural norms because of how our brains are wired. And while it is true that in DAOs, “you get out what you put in”, barriers like the Confidence Gap impact the likelihood of women, for example, becoming contributors. In order to truly build a more fair, people-first ecosystem, we need to acknowledge these barriers and create initiatives that address them.
Why is this worth addressing today?
Laying the Foundations
As Index Coop grows, laying the foundations for a diverse and inclusive community early is incredibly important. By intentionally experimenting with and building for inclusion, we set the tone for Index as it continues to scale. Not only does this fall in alignment with Index principles and values, but it also creates an opportunity for Index to attract and retain the best talent.
Amplifying Collective Intelligence
DAOs are built on the premise of amplifying collective intelligence – by empowering individuals to contribute, DAOs create an environment for collective creation and collaboration. But to truly amplify collective intelligence, networks need a diverse set of contributors with a wide variety of perspectives. To scale Index and maximize collective intelligence, the Coop needs to intentionally and consistently create conditions for diversity and inclusion.
Making Defi Accessible
Index funds are an important foundation for making defi accessible to everyone. Yet, to do this at scale, we need a diverse set of contributors who represent a variety of perspectives, backgrounds, identities, etc. When a homogenous population holds the majority of the power, leadership runs the risk of not properly representing the people their product serves, which can lead to fatal business oversights. Index has the opportunity to demonstrate and set a precedent for how products can be built by and for a global, diverse community. To do this, we need to recognize that diversity and inclusion is a constant practice, one that necessitates open dialogue about where we are lacking and how we can address those issues.
How will you address it?
The goal of this working group is to perform a series of experiments to understand how we can make Index Coop the most diverse DAO in the ecosystem. Experiments will fall under one of three categories:
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Building Culture
Goal: build a culture of inclusivity and belonging by creating a space for women and nonbinary people to socialize and support one another. -
Educating
Goal: execute on initiatives that help educate women and non-binary people about DAO contribution, Index, and defi more broadly.
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Supporting Path to Contribution
Goal: help support and encourage women and nonbinary people in becoming contributors to Index.
The goal of this working group is not to turn every woman or non-binary person who comes into Index to a contributor – that is not sustainable. Instead, the goal is to experiment with different types of initiatives. In doing so, we hope to uncover tactical strategies that we can use across Index Coop to address challenges of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Since the goal is not necessarily to onboard every woman and non-binary person who is interested in Index into a contributor, we felt it important to define the personas of people who we expect to engage with this initiative:
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Networkers (Low involvement)
- People who come to working groups calls and participate socially
- Help promote Index Coop and build our reputation as an inclusive and diverse space
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Builders (Medium involvement)
- People who act as resources or contribute resources to the Coop
- These people help Index by encouraging collaboration across other organizations, tapping into existing resources, and plugging into the ecosystem
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Contributors (High involvement)
- People who join Index as contributors
- These people help Index by becoming contributors, with the hope that contributors take on leadership roles as their journey in the Coop progresses
What impact will this project have?
- Increase diversity among the Index community and contributors to the Coop
- Use New Joiner form to measure diversity metrics for top-of-funnel
- Establish Index as the leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion in the DAO space
- Create content for establishing Index as a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Increase number of Index token holders who identify as women or nonbinary (increase governance power)
Working Group Leader(s)
- Chase Chapman, @chasechapman
- Co-lead and DRI for Educational Initiatives
- Juanna Zhai, @jujube
- Co-lead and DRI for Social & Networking Initiatives
- Meg Lister, @catjam
- Co-lead and DRI for Coop-wide communication & coordination
- Rashmi Ashok, @rashmiashok11
- Co-lead and DRI for Contributor Rewards
This working group has 4 co-leads, which is unusual for Working Groups at Index Coop but a great fit for this group! Diversity and inclusion initiatives are most successful when they are able to permeate throughout an organization. Having multiple leaders with different skills and involvement in the DAO and ecosystem more broadly helps ensure this working group’s success. Additionally, all of the co-leads and individuals involved with WIC have commitments outside of Index Coop, and having multiple co-leads ensures that we will be able to provide a consistent presence and structure for the group.
Request for funding
Proposed Budget: $50,600
We are requesting a budget of $40.6K contributor rewards and $10K for additional expenses totalling $50.6K (with price of INDEX = $34 USD) over the next 3 months.
The budget will be allocated in the following currencies:
- USDC: $10K
- Fixed INDEX: 900
- INDEX at 20-day TWAP: $10K
The events & experimentation budget will be allocated to a new WIC multi-sig totaling $10K, held in USDC.
The contributor rewards totaling $40.6K (all in INDEX) will be held by the funding council and distributed to contributors per the normal process.
Compensation Details & Use of Funds:
- Working group leads: 900 INDEX
- 75 INDEX per co-leader per month
- Contributor compensation: $10,000
- This is under the expectation of 2-5 additional contributors to this working group during Q4, primarily to launch and facilitate the mentorship program
- We do not intend to compensate mentors or mentees for their participation, but recognize that running the program itself (recruiting, matching, setting up activities, KPIs & reporting) is work that should be compensated
- Event & experimentation funds: $10,000
- We would like to use these funds for events that are open both to WIC and allies of WIC, including discussions with female founders, crypto career advice, and more!
Organization - How will it work?
What will you be doing?
- We will create a frictionless process for potential new women and non-binary IC contributors to find defined initial contribution work (requiring minimal context) based on their functional expertise by collaborating with other Working Group leads.
- Build an IC mentorship program for new women and non-binary IC contributors
- We will create content and WIC-focused manifestos for networkers and influencers to share to promote IC.
- We will collaborate with industry experts and IC experts to host essential on-ramp educational workshops required to build more context on Index Coop Governance, products, and DAOs in general.
- Host weekly happy hour social sessions or educational workshops to engage and empower the community
- Identify opportunities to reach more women and non-binary people, educate them about IC, and onboard them as IC token holders to increase governance representation.
- Build a comprehensive case study on the WIC Initiative to reference similar new initiatives under IC’s proposed new Innovation Labs.
How will you interface with the community?
- Continue holding 1-hour weekly meetings, open to WIC community
- Thursdays at 11am ET (DM any co-lead listed above to be added!)
- We will specify or add 1-hour meetings that are also open to anyone who identifies as an ally of WIC
- As this is a new working group and construct within the Coop, working group leads will also meet together weekly to discuss group progress, activity, and KPIs. We welcome other interested individuals to join these meetings when possible.
- Group co-leads will ensure that the forum and discord channels are monitored with timely responses to all queries.
- Group co-leads will handle inbound inquiries about the group and help onboard new members.
- We will provide monthly updates and announcements via the forum as well as relevant discord channels.
Commitments
I am committed to Index Coop principles
I am committed to serving the entire Index Coop with my work.
I am committed to open, rapid communication: I know that clear, constant, public communication lifts up the entire Index Coop community. I am committed to this style of communication.
Shared learnings: I will share my progress, learnings with the entire community. I will ensure that anything I create is accessible beyond my own tenure for future generations of Indexers to access & build on.
Intellectual honesty: I am committed to growth and improvement. I am open to feedback and will use feedback to improve my work for the benefit of the entire Coop community.
I am committed to making Index Coop a welcoming, fun, diverse, inclusive, and engaging community to work in!
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