Direct Grants

TL;DR:

Direct Grants are simple, top-down funding decisions made by trusted individuals, committees, or multisigs. No voting, no rounds—just targeted support for contributors or projects based on alignment and perceived value.

Direct Grants are the most basic and flexible way to allocate capital. A funder (like a DAO treasury, foundation, or steward council) identifies a person or project they want to support and issues a grant directly. This can happen with or without a formal proposal process.

They’re especially effective in environments with:

High trust
Clear alignment
Known contributors
Urgent or strategic needs

While they lack the open competition of other mechanisms, Direct Grants are valuable for getting things done quickly—especially when evaluators already know who can deliver.

Best For

High-trust environments
Strategic or urgent funding needs
Recognizing known contributors
Seed funding or pilot initiatives

Good At

Moving capital quickly
Avoiding bureaucratic overhead
Enabling funders to act on intuition or strategy
Supporting contributors who don’t fit round-based models

Dependencies / Requirements

A trusted decision-making body (e.g. multisig, council, steward team)
Sufficient context to judge proposals or candidates
Basic documentation or reporting for accountability (optional)

Not Good At

Transparent or participatory funding
Surfacing new or unknown talent
Ecosystems with low trust or unclear leadership
Distributing large pools without strong checks

Who Should Use It?

DAOs or orgs that need to move quickly
Ecosystems that already have clear alignment and trust
Communities that want to support specific contributors without rounds
Grant programs with tight scope or strategy

Example Use Cases

A DAO multisig sends a direct grant to a long-term contributor for continuing essential work
A foundation funds a research team to explore a critical technical challenge, without an open call
A local community gives a small grant to a group organizing an event or civic activation