Hi @cp0x,
Thanks for your question, it’s a good one.
It’s taken a few iterations to workout appropriate pricing, and how to navigate the Foundation, the DAO, sponsorship to be funded.
The first GovHack in Denver cost $200k to produce, I personally made a loss of $10k going into debt to run the event of this quality. The funds supplied from the Foundation + Sponsorship didn’t cover what was required and I paid out of pocket to ensure a high quality event.
GovHack ETHcc with expanded scope we requested $309k including contingency, $262k was the actual final cost, full breakdown in the transparency report. Unspent funds have all been returned to the DAO.
Full cost breakdown for GovHack ETHcc here
Each time around it requires hundreds of hours pre, during, post GovHack by myself and a dedicated crew to produce a event of this nature, complexity and quality, often in new countries which we need to scout and adapt to. At Hack Humanity, we have the capabilities after years in the industry to execute, but I want to make it known that this is a non-trivial thing to do, particularly given the last events were produced in 3.5 and 4.5 weeks from when the green light and funding was accessible and produced in new cities we had not operated in before (Denver & Brussels).
With respect to am I satisfied with the current funding of these events, I believe we have now hit on a sustainable model, there is no “current funding”, this is a request for additional funds to continue funding future events.
Running large events have a lot of cost and low margins, yet the current structure used to deliver GovHack ETHcc is now in the right configuration where Hack Humanity can have our expertise covered and the DAO can have transparency of costs and trust we are fiscally responsible as evidenced by us returning unused funds from the original $309k budget.
Every new country where a GovHack needs to be run will have different supplier costs, the model we now have is to 1) ask for at least what is needed to ensure we are never caught short without enough funds to run the event, 2) have the DAOs trust and understanding we transparently report costs and return the unspent funds, this allows Hack Humanity to effectively operate and GovHack ETHcc proved the model works.
Why 3 events? either 3 or 4 Core/Open events in some combination we believe covers accessibility for people across multiple continents and is a good periodic IRL synchronisation cadence for remote digital workers to balance building trusted relationships in person.
Exact number and type of events is very much open for discussion.