The Ultimate Guide to Contributing to DAOs

How to get active in and get the most of your community or DAO

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7 min read

The Ultimate Guide to Contributing to DAOs

Even though I’ve only been in web3 for a minute (which is like a decade in web3 time), I have been able to learn, grow and meet so many amazing people. Contributing to DAOs like Womenbuildweb3 and DeveloperDAO accelerated my growth and made my onboarding process so smooth and easy.

There are amazing communities and a ton of ways to contribute to them, but community in web3 is also a hit or miss. Your experience largely depends on whether or not the community you are in is a good fit for you.

If you’re wondering how to get started with DAOs and get the most out of them, this article will be a great read for you.

Here’s the 9-step guide I wish I had when I started contributing in web3:

1. Set a goal

Before you start contributing to and joining the many communities and DAOs that are out there, it’s important to have clarity on why you’re joining them and what you’re looking to gain from them. Some of these things could include being in a safe space, gaining experience so you can get a full-time job, building with other ambitious devs, learning to code, or just having fun.

Determining these things will help you find the right communities for you and also find the right ways to contribute when you join them. Periodically check in with yourself to see if your needs or goals have changed and be sure you're constantly in alignment.

If you aren't sure of what your goals are, or what they should be, it’s okay. You can take some time to explore a few communities and keep track of how they make you feel. You can also try joining the town halls or weekly syncs and see if any of the guilds or projects they have interest you.

2. Set boundaries

Communities come in different shapes and sizes but one thing that web3 communities have in common is that everything moves so fast and there’s an endless amount of things to do. There are meetings happening all day every day, a ton of messages coming in and there's always something that needs to be handled.

Without having clarity on your goals and setting boundaries, you may find yourself doing things that you don’t like or that don’t help with your goals. It’s also very easy for you to get burned out so it is important to set those boundaries and communicate them with others. And if you need certain accommodations to thrive, please ask for them.

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Your inbox and mental health will thank you for having those boundaries.

3. Say YES to opportunities

There will be plenty of opportunities, to build, create or play a role that helps with running the DAO and achieving its goals. When you are offered an opportunity to play any role, you should take it if it aligns with your goals.

Don’t hold yourself back because you feel undeserving, or because you don’t have prior experience in the role. You’re never going to gain the experience if you keep doing that. You also don’t need to know everything to contribute to a DAO and you'll learn a lot on the job.

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When you get an opportunity to contribute and there's a conflict with your other responsibilities, you don’t have to outrightly reject it. DAOs and communities are pretty flexible and you can work together to find a way for you to contribute that works fine with your schedule.

4. Create opportunities for yourself and others

If you join a DAO or a community that you love, but you can't see yourself doing any of the bounties they currently have. Or you don’t really see any current opportunity you can contribute to. Feel free to create a new opportunity or project that you and others can work on.

Make suggestions on ways you can add value to the DAO and fill a gap you've noticed or give feedback on how things can be done better. Also, take ownership of projects and don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do.

If you have no idea where to start with this, you can reach out to a core team member, guild lead, or whoever onboarded you to the DAO and ask them about the needs of the DAO. Start a conversation on the additional ways you feel you can contribute to the community and see how it goes.

5. Collaborate with others

This one was a bit hard for me as I was used to being an individual contributor. I had also been burned by inactive teammates from group projects in school so I had to learn to collaborate and work in a team. And I’m glad I did because it's so much easier to work with others and we do amazing work because our strengths complement each other.

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In web3, a lot of the people you will be working with are all over the world and in different time zones and so you would have to navigate working with them as well. Proper communication and documenting processes, contributions, discussions and workflows are important in working with as little friction as possible.

Some tools that help with this include Lettuce meet (for scheduling meetings), Craig bot (for recording meetings), Google docs , and Notion (For note-taking, planning, editing, etc), Dework (For tracking tasks and contributions), Mint Kudos(To recognize and celebrate contributors) and more.

Don’t limit your collaborations to just working for the DAO. You can find accountability partners from your community, pair code together, host spaces, join hackathons, and more.

6. Leverage the DAO’s resources

Don’t sleep on the resources or programs in your DAO!! If there are travel scholarships for events, Apply! If there's a mentorship program, Join! If you need help and there are people within your DAO that can assist you, Reach out to them! If there’s a partnership your DAO has with another organization you’re interested in, Go for it!!

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It’s so much easier to take advantage of existing offerings in your community.

7. Document your experience and contributions

If you are looking to transition to Web3 full-time or are actively job searching, it is important for you to document all your contributions and learnings from being active in a DAO. You should add them to your resume and portfolio and refer to them during interviews. You can also go a step further by tracking the metrics and impact of your contributions.

Publicly share your contributions as well. If you received Kudos or an NFT for contributing to your DAO, you can tweet about it. You can also share your learnings and the things you do or plan to do for your DAO on Twitter. It is great visibility for you and your DAO and a good way to get people interested in your DA. Your future employer might even see your contributions.

8. Build relationships with people

Don’t be a stranger! Being in a DAO or community gives you at least one thing in common with all the other people in that DAO, and common ground is a great basis for building relationships. You can start by showing up at town halls, weekly syncs, coworking sessions and just generally being friendly and having conversations within your DAOs discord or telegram.

But your “networking” shouldn't end there. Keep up with the people you meet and interact with them outside of your DAOs communication channels too. You can hop on zoom or gather, tweet at them, etc. When in doubt, just send a meme!!

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Just like with taking opportunities, don't wait to be invited to the conversation. If you see people you know from your DAO having a conversation that you’re interested in, feel free to comment. If you see a new member in your DAO struggling to find their place, be their first friend or guide.

Don’t be scared to reach out to people you admire whether they are in your DAO or not. A lot of them are open to help and connecting especially if they've seen you around or have had prior interactions with you.

Ultimately the people you build relationships with are the people you get Alpha from and there are a lot more opportunities and interesting conversations you will be exposed to by building those relationships.

9. Get rid of FOMO

There will always be things you will be unable to do, events you can't attend, and projects you can’t work on and that’s okay. Don’t worry too much about what you think you may be missing.

You should be having too much fun contributing to and making friends in your DAO(s) to care anyway!!

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Finally, have lots of fun while you are contributing, gaining skills/ experience, and hopefully getting paid. Happy Merge Day!!

If you would like to learn more about DAOs and how they operate, this article from Muna Menuga on DAOs is a great read.

Let me know in the comments what DAOs you’re a part of and how you contribute to them. Have you met really cool people or gotten opportunities yet?