RRC-XX: RARI Foundation 2025 Operational Budget

Proposals Parent DAO Proposals
#1

This is the first draft, published for community review and discussion. Please share any feedback in replies or during our community calls.

Authors: JanaBe

Reviewers: Campbell Law, Autonomous

Abstract

This draft proposal outlines RARI Foundation’s funding needs for 2025, along with laying out high-level objectives of what the team will be focusing on. The budget estimated for 12 months of operations is 2,260,000 USD and it enables continuity of operations and team & vendor growth as it reflects on the RARI ecosystem growth.

Motivation

The RARI Foundation works on behalf of the RARI DAO and helps it achieve its mission of building decentralized NFT infrastructure to power innovative NFT use cases. In doing so, the Foundation deploys resources that span contractor salaries, vendors, legal, and marketing costs, amongst others, that ensure a smooth continuation of operations and allow for the expansion of the Foundation’s efforts to help grow the RARI ecosystem. The assumption is that the Foundation will continue working with the most skilled and professional contractors in the market, and it is necessary for the Foundation’s success to be able to offer compensation in stable coins or fiat money instead of $RARI in order to be competitive.

Rationale

The Foundation has been actively expanding the RARI ecosystem in 2024, seizing new growth opportunities.

Most notably, it spearheaded the launch of RARI chain, initiated Treasury diversification, completed the technical decentralization of the Rarible protocol, aided increased governance participation, and embarked on governance upgrade to minimize barriers to participation in the RARI DAO and to enable multichain governance of the Rarible protocol.

In doing so, the Foundation proposes a budget that will allow for accomplishing of the following goals:

  1. Governance
  • Transition governance to RARI chain as the governance hub
  • Support the DAO in efforts to enable RARI token staking for governance
  • Adopt Multichain governance (flexible voting governor contract) & aid the DAO in efforts to collect cross-chain revenue by designing for multichain fee collection
  • Assist in decommissioning of veRARI and Mainnet DAO
  • Transfer ownership of RARI chain to the DAO
  • Relaunch the delegate launchpad program & run 2 cohorts
  1. Ecosystem growth
  • Support key ecosystem projects in driving user acquisition that will benefit protocol transaction volumes
  • Collaborate with partners in developing growth initiatives and activating RARI ecosystem
  • Targeted grant deployment to drive adoption of RARI tech stack
  1. Marketing
  • Raise awareness of RARI ecosystem, and drive acquisition via the usage of owned channels, PR, co-marketing, ambassadors, IRL events, and sponsorships
  • Focus on Q1 and Q3 as tentpole moments
  1. Finance
  • Execute Treasury diversification strategy per the mandate given

Note: the Foundation will publish an end-of-year transparency report that will summarize the results of 2024.

cohorts

Key Terms

Rarible Protocol - multichain indexer and order book with SDK

RARI Chain - royalties enforcing L3 built with Arbitrum Orbit

RARI Ecosystem - applications utilizing the Rarible Protocol and/or the RARI Chain

$RARI - ERC 20 token, used in the RARI DAO governance

Specification

The proposed 2025 budget of 2,260,000 USD reflects the above goals, team, and resource needs. It’s roughly one-third higher than the 2024 operational budget, which reflects on the growing operations and RARI ecosystem.

Budget area USD amount
Salaries 1,190k
Legal costs 170k
Vendors 255k
Marketing 340k
RARI chain 80k
Security audit 150k
Others 75k
Total 2,260k

Specifics:

  • Salaries cover 8 FT and 2 PT contributors

  • Legal fees include Cayman Island counsel, US counsel, and a paralegal

  • Vendor fees include administration costs (Director of the Foundation and the Supervisor of the Foundation, both roles are required for the set up of the Foundation under the Cayman law), professional delegate fees, Security Council compensations, accounting services, engineering vendors

  • Marketing costs cover sponsorships, production, and marketing agency fees (to be incurred ad hoc as needs arise), and ambassadors

  • RARI chain costs include infrastructure vendor fees

  • Security audit costs include review of smart contracts related to multichain fee collection for the DAO

  • Other costs include travel costs to crypto conferences, and miscellaneous expenses such as office supplies, subscriptions, and event tickets.

Notes:

  1. The Director of the Foundation is responsible for the budget. They may opt to delegate day-to-day budget management tasks to the Foundation team.
  2. Budget spending shall be monitored by the Foundation’s appointed accountant.
  3. Periodic budget spending reports shall be shared with the community quarterly, no later than 45 days after the end of the quarter. The community may request budget updates at any point. In such event, the Foundation shall present the budget status no later than in 15 working days.
  4. If there are unspent funds at the end of the budget cycle, the Foundation may propose to keep the amount in an operational reserve. Otherwise, it shall be returned to DAO’s treasury within 90 days of the budget cycle’s end.
  5. The Foundation team shall respect the budget allocations as specified in the subtotals. It is understood that variations may occur. However, transfers between the budget groups should not exceed 30%. Budget reallocations larger than 30% will require DAO approval.
  6. Should $RARI price deviate from the USDC conversation rate at the date of the proposal submission, the Foundation shall either submit an additional proposal to request funds to cover the exchange loss or report the excess funds at the end of the budgeting cycle.
  7. Contributors (Team) are to be paid once a month in USDC unless otherwise agreed in their contracts.
  8. Legal and Administrative costs are to be paid upon receiving invoices from the Foundation service providers as per engagement letters or agreements with such entities.

Steps to Implement

Upon the budget approval, the full corresponding $RARI amount will be transferred to the Foundation’s operational wallet (0x2a83d2891Ef3df6967E3C2e9b69cCc7aD029736B), the Foundation will convert it to USDC to reduce the exchange rate fluctuation risk and the exchanged amount will be stored on the operational wallet (0x2a83d2891Ef3df6967E3C2e9b69cCc7aD029736B).

The Foundation may opt to halt conversion to USDC, should the exchange rate start falling below the desired conversion rate, and resume when the desired rate is met or if a conversion must be made in order to meet Foundation’s payment obligations. Payments within the approved budget in accordance with signed contracts are to be made by the Foundation administration, who will be responsible for the budget.

8 Likes
#2

thanks for putting this up, Jana!

Just a quick question from my end

Please who are these marketing ambassadors? Just curious and please let me know if that is private info

2 Likes
#3

thanks @WinVerse! The estimated ambassador program consists of 30-40 ambassadors of 3 different tiers of social media following. The actual names are not confirmed yet, but the idea is to have ambassadors reach our diverse audiences: creators, collectors, traders, token holders, builders etc.

6 Likes
#4

Would love to be an ambassador! If it will happen or not, I’ll always be doing my best to spread awareness and generate some boosts on social media.

Does that mean we’ll relaunch Delegate Cohort 3?

Besides all this, 2025 is going to be an exciting year!

4 Likes
#5

i’ve been working in a prop that i’ll drop this days thinking how to growth RARI ecosystem, make RARI name sound loud and obtain benefits from this.

2 Likes
#6

Thanks for putting up this comprehensive proposal and using the formatting from the Governance framework!

We are very excited to see the development of the Rari ecosystem in 2025. We do also appreciate the Transparency reports, which help the DAO reviewing the economic performance with the goal of achieving sustainability in the long run.

As StableLab’s delegate activity compensation is included in the Foundation’s yearly budget, we will vote abstain once this proposal goes onchain. We encourage all $RARI holders and Delegates to vote this proposal in order to reach sufficient quorum.

1 Like
Firm Opposition to RRC-XX: Rari Foundation 2025 Operational Budget Proposal
#7

At a time when Rari DAO is struggling with immense expenses and minimal revenue, proposals like this feel completely out of touch with reality. I am firmly against this proposal, and my detailed response can be found here.

1 Like
#8

The proposal looks good, @JanaBe. My only concern is the marketing spend. $340K seems like a significant allocation. How did the foundation make this decision, and what factors were considered?

#9

@JanaBe, I’m curious to hear your response to @dzonson.eth’s concerns. Perhaps sharing a list of KPIs would help?

2 Likes
#10

To make it clear, my primary concern is seeing the Treasury funds deplete while we lack tangible results. Specifically, at the end of last year, we had around 7.5M $RARI tokens in the Treasury. Now, before voting on this proposal, we’re down to 4.6M. That’s only about $11 million—assuming the unrealistic scenario of selling tokens with 0% price impact. Realistically, it’s likely less than $10 million.

Additionally, I’ve noticed that the operational budgets of the Rari Foundation have been growing exponentially year over year. Two years ago, it was $1 million, last year $1.6 million, and now we’re at $2.3 million.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this trajectory suggests we have 2-3 years of runway left. What happens after that? What becomes of the remaining funds?

To summarize, my main concerns are poor performance and the precarious state of the DAO. Expenses are massive, while revenue is almost negligible. There’s a saying: “Measure twice, cut once.” I firmly believe we need to establish clear KPIs for proposals like this, set concrete goals and plans, and address the significant mistakes made over the past few years.

1 Like
#11

Thanks @JanaBe for putting this up, and sorry for my late response. A couple questions for my understanding, please correct me if I didn’t understand something correctly:

  • The operational budget is a share of the total expenses, meaning proposal requests, grants, ecosystem growth etc. will come on top?

  • Are there any income streams, e.g. from RARI chain or Rarible, and if so, what were they totaling this year?

  • According to the Q3 Transparency Report, the treasury is about $8 Mio USD, is that correct? As @dzonson.eth is pointing out, this would only give the DAO a runway of 2, maybe 3 years, which is REALLY concerning.

Besides, as general questions:

  • I would appreciate a more detailed overview of the budget areas, how the buckets are going to be ditributed (like the one from 2023)

  • E.g. who is on the team and do you plan on hiring next year (120k per contractor including two part-time people is high, even for industry standards), where’s the 150k security audit coming from?, how much from the marketing budget is allocated for ambassadors?

  • I wasn’t aware that Stable Lab (@Jose_StableLab) is compensated as a delegate, what is the arragement there are are there any other paid delegates? That should be transparent information from my understaning.

  • After reviewing @dzonson.eth post opposing the budget: Not everything went badly this year, but I guess we can agree that the products we should govern didn’t develop as we hoped. Therefore, I would agree with the call for KPIs and recommendation for a reform.

Would appreciate, I you could give feedback on the questions. Have a happy new year!

3 Likes
#12

:star2: 2025 Rari Foundation Budget – Strong Roadmap for Growth and Decentralization

I’ve had a chance to review the first draft of the 2025 Rari Foundation budget proposal, and I have to say – it reflects a well-thought-out, forward-looking approach that aligns with the rapid expansion of the Rari ecosystem.

Key Highlights:
:small_blue_diamond: Strategic Growth – The proposed 33% budget increase is justified by the Foundation’s scaling efforts across governance, infrastructure, and marketing. The addition of RARI Chain infrastructure costs and expanded legal efforts reflects the complexity of managing a multichain ecosystem and decentralizing governance.

:small_blue_diamond: Governance Evolution – I’m particularly excited to see the focus on transitioning governance to RARI Chain and introducing multichain fee collection. This shift feels like a natural progression toward more resilient, community-driven governance.

:small_blue_diamond: Marketing and Ecosystem Expansion – Allocating $340k for marketing demonstrates the Foundation’s intent to push hard on awareness and ecosystem growth. The focus on IRL events, sponsorships, and co-marketing could be a game-changer for driving more traction to the protocol.

:small_blue_diamond: Transparency and Accountability – The structured approach to quarterly reporting and community-requested budget updates (within 15 days!) strengthens the relationship between the Foundation and the DAO. This level of openness is crucial for building trust as we scale.

Constructive Suggestions:

  • I’d love to see more granular KPIs tied to the marketing budget – maybe around growth metrics or community engagement.

Overall, this proposal reflects a strong commitment to the long-term success of the Rari ecosystem. Big kudos to the authors for putting together such a comprehensive plan. I’m looking forward to seeing how the community engages with this and what refinements come from the feedback process!

:fire: Onward to 2025!

2 Likes
#13

thanks for the feedback @forexus

I’ll refer you to the right people leading the ambassador program - excited to see your interest!

Relaunch of the delegate program will be focused on RARI chain based governance and will affect cohort 3 and their new delegations to kick off the RARI chain governance transition.

#14

amazing! pls ping us with your ideas or let’s discuss in the next community call!

1 Like
#15

Thanks for the feedback, @andreitr. The bulk of the marketing budget is allocated to the ambassador program with the rationale that end-user adoption of RARI ecosystem products is the key objective, hence the focus on using marketing to break out of our own channels and reach net new audience.

We can unpack this in more detail in our next community call!

#16

adding KPIs is a good suggestion @andreitr - we can certainly do that!

#17

Thanks @JanaBe for butting this together.

I think its good proposal and generally agree. I would suggest couple of things as mentioned KPIs and success metrics.

Also, consider adding staged conversion or split payment in Rari / USDC to not impact the price.
I would increase marketing budget and add separate section for ecosystem growth and incentives for builders or projects building on top of Rari.
Its a bullrun now so its good time for marketing. To summarise consider adding the following:

  1. Funding amount for grants/builder incentives
  2. Growth targets for protocol transaction volumes (perhaps %)
  3. Metrics for ecosystem project success
  4. User acquisition goals
  5. Partner / user activation KPIs

The “ecosystem growth” section only lists general activities without allocated budget or measurable outcomes.