Applicant Name: Grace McLain

Applicant ETH Address: 0xaa8F477b69C8f450c230B83b56480c48B3Da5CA2

Organization(s) or Affiliation(s): -

Why do you want to serve as an Expert Evaluator for the Localism Fund?

I’m excited by the Localism Fund’s experiment in connecting grounded, community-led initiatives with emerging coordination tools. My professional background is in evaluating social impact programs and grant mechanisms across nonprofits and humanitarian organizations, so I’m particularly drawn to this effort to merge rigorous evaluation with decentralized governance.

While I’m not a Web3 expert, I’m very interested in how Ethereum-based coordination can make local decision-making more transparent, participatory, and accountable. My contribution would primarily come on the evaluation side: helping to interpret proposals through a learning and equity lens, ensuring that community-led programs have clear theories of change, feasible implementation plans, and meaningful measures of impact. Over more than a decade working in nonprofits, I’ve seen the strengths and shortcomings of traditional funding models, and I’m eager to bring those lessons forward to help avoid old pitfalls while exploring new ways of resourcing communities.

I see this opportunity as a bridge between two worlds I care about - the rigor and integrity of traditional impact evaluation and fundraising, and the creativity and autonomy that decentralized tools can unlock. Participating as an evaluator feels like a natural extension of the work I already do on a daily basis: helping initiatives clarify what “impact” means in their local context and how to show it in a way that builds trust, not bureaucracy.

🪴 Grant-Making Expertise

Program Design & Management: ****1

Evaluation & Impact Learning: 3

Financial Strategy & Fundraising: 3

Governance Systems & Mechanism Design: 1

Experiences, Highlights & Evidence:

Program Design & Management (1)