Solana Foundation

Grants

The Solana Foundation Grants Program provides milestone-based funding to support initiatives aimed at decentralizing, growing, and securing the Solana network.

Solana Grants
Table of Contents

Guidelines

Solana is an open-source, public blockchain. In that spirit, we support open-source projects that generate public goods for the community and give other ecosystem participants the opportunity to learn from and build on your work.

Anyone can apply for a grant from the Solana Foundation. That includes individuals, independent teams, governments, nonprofits, companies, universities, and academics.

Here is the list of initiatives we are currently looking to fund. However, these are only exemplary and we welcome all ideas that fall under the broader scope of the Foundation’s mission.

As you consider ways to get your project off the ground, we recommend you also check out Alternative Funding Sources.

Request for Proposals

Below are a few categories of projects we’re interested in funding. You can also see a running list of specific project ideas in our active RFP database.

  • Censorship Resistance
  • DAO Tooling
  • Developer Tooling
  • Education
  • Payments / Solana Pay
  • Financial Inclusion
  • Climate Change
  • Academic Research

Process Overview

Application

In your application, be sure to clarify how your project creates a public good for the Solana network, typically through furthering decentralization, open sourcing code, or helping to secure the Solana network.

Grants are milestone-based. Thoughtful applications include suggested milestones for funding.

Application Review

Our team will review all applications on a rolling basis, determine if more information is required, and then schedule a call with the team if necessary. At that point, we may revert with additional questions or ideas.

We receive many applications and work as quickly as we can to process them. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible with next steps, typically within 2 weeks.

Decision

Applicants will be notified via email whether their proposal has been accepted or not.

Criteria For Evaluation

We love to see a broad diversity of ideas in grant applications. But, there are a few things we look for in all grantees. When determining whether your project proposal fits the bill for a Foundation grant, be sure it meets the following criteria:

  • Open Source: Not all projects require code, but they should be built in the spirit of open sourcing your learnings for everyone to learn from.
  • Public Good: We want to see a clear connection between your proposal and the value it generates for the broader Solana or global community.
  • Ability to Execute: Show us how your team has the skills and potential to bring your proposal to life.
  • Unique Contribution: We’re inspired when we see projects that are additive. You don’t have to be the only one working on your project, but we encourage you to veer away from well-trodden ground and work on something relatively novel.
  • Clear Use of Funds: We encourage you to be thoughtful about how much you’re requesting and present a clear plan for how the funding will help you accomplish your goals.

Grants are not:

  • NFT marketing budgets: We love seeing the growth of the Solana NFT ecosystem, but grants aren’t for promoting individual drops.
  • Substitutes for venture funding: We do offer grants to venture-funded companies, and some grantees may eventually seek venture funding for their ideas. However, grants are not wholesale substitutions for a round of funding. They are aimed at enabling discrete projects that create a public good for the Solana ecosystem.
  • Free money: We believe passionately in the potential of open-source, decentralized blockchain technology, and specifically in the potential of the Solana network. We want to support people who are genuinely excited about that potential too, and want to dig in further. Please don’t abuse that.

Alternative Funding Sources

There are many sources of funding available to projects in the Solana ecosystem. Depending on your proposal or progress, some might be better suited to your needs than others.

Solana Ventures

Solana Ventures is an independent venture capital firm that is not affiliated with the Solana Foundation. Solana Ventures' mission is to accelerate the growth of the Solana blockchain and adjacent ecosystems by providing capital and business support to the most promising teams building in the crypto ecosystem. Solana Ventures invests primarily in the pre-seed or seed stages of companies and is more heavily weighted towards token-based investments. Contact Solana Ventures.

Hackathons

Solana Hackathons allow anyone with an internet connection to jumpstart their next project on Solana and join the fastest ecosystem in crypto.

Past prizes have exceeded $10,000,000 and have been distributed to projects in DeFi, Web3, and NFT.

Moreover, teams that have participated in these hackathons have often attracted the interest of investors keen on supporting strong new projects -- even if they were not ultimately selected for a hackathon specific prize.

For more information on the latest Hackathon see the Hackathon Hub here.

Ecosystem Funds

The Solana Foundation partnered with different stakeholders across the world and launched ecosystem funds dedicated to nurturing the Solana developer ecosystem. Multiple ecosystem funds are actively investing in projects building on the Solana blockchain. Their main goal is to provide projects with various resources, such as: funding, strategic advisory, industry connections, go to market strategy, and other extensive support to build meaningful products.

You can find a list of active ecosystem funds browsing the “funds” tab on the Ecosystem page.