Part 6 of the Catalyst Off-Chain Impact Series

When Cardano needed a deeper understanding of how its flagship funding program converts community capital into lasting ecosystem value, STORM Partners stepped in. Backed by a Fund 12 Catalyst grant in the Ecosystem category, their “Product Discovery for Cardano” RFI project set out to measure not only where funds flow but how effectively they enable projects to deliver, sustain themselves, and contribute meaningfully to the network.

Over a focused three-month cycle, STORM Partners enriched the Catalyst project database with new categories and tags, ran a wide-ranging community survey, and built a scoring framework to assess feasibility, innovation, economics, governance, and alignment. The result was a comprehensive, openly published report that surfaced funding imbalances, highlighted best practices, and offered concrete recommendations—from retention-focused DeFi grants to hybrid evaluation models blending community voting with expert review.

As the sixth in a 12-part series funded under Project Catalyst grant #1300147, this case study provides rare, data-driven insight into how rigorous research and collaborative engagement can transform a single grant into a strategic blueprint for more effective, sustainable funding across the Cardano ecosystem.