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2+title = "Announcing: Urbit Grants Program"
3+date = 2019-08-06
4+author = "Robert Mariani"
5+description = "Announcing Urbit Grants, a way to earn stars through contributing."
6+aliases = ["/posts/essays/announcing-urbit-grants"]
7+[taxonomies]
8+posts = ["Updates"]
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10+
11+We’ve long been grateful for the hard work of our open-source community, so we’re pleased to announce Grants, a program that gives contributors the opportunity to be compensated for their efforts. It’s in beta right now at [grants.urbit.org](https://grants.urbit.org/).
12+
13+The Grants program will reward valuable contributions with Azimuth stars in one of three ways: Gifts, Bounties, and Proposals.
14+
15+### Gifts
16+
17+We’ve periodically announced gifts for important contributions to the project – like in [2018](https://urbit.org/posts/2018-2-17-update/) and [2019](https://urbit.org/posts/urbit-grants-and-mid-2019-gifts/) – but we wanted to make this more formal.
18+
19+Not everyone always works on structured projects, so the lack of formal criteria for receiving a gift is meant to reward contributors who work outside of the bounty and grant system.
20+
21+Going forward, gifts will be awarded semi-annually (every six months). They’ll retain the informal and arbitrary nature of the awards that came before: Tlon will determine who gets what. We’ll work hard to make sure these payouts are fair.
22+
23+To see the gifts that have been awarded so far, check out the [History section](https://grants.urbit.org/history) of the Grants website.
24+
25+### Bounties
26+
27+Bounties are discrete projects in search of a champion. Tlon will define a clear deliverable, and some number of stars as their reward. Larger bounties will often have their star reward spread across multiple milestones.
28+
29+Contributors can apply to claim a bounty by clicking the “Request to work on this” button. Once a contributor is selected to work on a bounty, nobody else will be able to apply.
30+
31+Bounties are listed in the [Bounties explorer](https://grants.urbit.org/rfws). Play around with the explorer by filtering bounties using the Tag and Category features.
32+
33+### Proposals
34+
35+Proposals are a way for contributors to pitch their own ideas, with a targeted number of stars. Proposals can be accepted, rejected, or accepted with changes. Unlike bounties, a proposal can only be completed by the individual or group who submitted it.
36+
37+Proposals don’t need to be fleshed out like a bounty does, at least not initially. Submit an idea and Tlon will work with you to refine it.
38+
39+You can see the list of accepted proposals in the [Proposals explorer](https://grants.urbit.org/proposals).
40+
41+### What can you do?
42+
43+[Sign up](https://grants.urbit.org/auth/sign-up) on our Grants website page, then set up your profile so we know who you are, linking your GitHub, Twitter, and your Azimuth point: reputation is a factor in determining eligibility for a grant.
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45+Also, check out the [Grants section](https://urbit.org/faq/#grants-1) of the new Urbit FAQ for more information.