# Commitment Pooling

Conditional pledging mechanism where participants signal willingness to contribute before money moves — if enough commitments align, the pool activates; if not, nothing moves.

**Commitment Pooling** is a funding mechanism where participants signal their willingness to contribute to a shared cause before money actually moves. If enough commitments align, the pool is triggered and funds are collected. If not, nothing moves. It solves the coordination problem: many people support a cause but hesitate to act without confidence that others will too.

## How It Works

Commitment Pooling reduces coordination failure by allowing conditional pledges.

1. **A cause or project is proposed** with a defined funding threshold and timeframe  
2. **Participants signal commitments** — non-binding or soft-binding pledges of specific amounts  
3. **Commitments are tracked transparently** — everyone can see how close the pool is to activation  
4. **If the threshold is reached** — the pool activates and funds are collected from all participants  
5. **If the threshold is NOT reached** — no funds move, and participants have risked nothing

## Advantages

- Eliminates up-front financial risk through conditional pledges  
- Reveals true community preferences by gauging authentic support  
- Prevents over- or under-funding by activating only when critical mass is reached  
- Enables collective action across fragmented actors with low friction

## Limitations

- Not suited for urgent funding needs that can't wait for pledge accumulation  
- Ineffective with low-engagement communities where thresholds are rarely met  
- Poor fit for projects requiring guaranteed funding regardless of community response  
- Unnecessary for simple one-off grants where a single funder can decide

## Best Used When

- Multi-DAO ecosystem coordination where multiple actors need to align  
- Public goods funding initiatives testing community support before committing capital  
- Climate or cause-based campaigns that need coalition building  
- DAOs assessing treasury deployment intentions before committing resources

## Examples and Use Cases

### Multi-DAO Climate Coalition

Ten DAOs align on a reforestation initiative — each pledges $10k, but funds only move once all ten have committed.

### Community Threshold Funding

A local DAO funds a food sovereignty project only if $20k+ is pledged by community members, ensuring genuine community support.

### Retroactive Contributor Funding

A protocol signals retroactive contributor funding that activates once $50k in community commitments is reached.