Hi everyone,
Overstand is a 501c3 non profit organization based in California. We were born out of the movement to protect Jackson Demonstration State Forest from commercial logging, California’s largest state forest. While we have had many successes, as a grass roots movement, we see many ways to improve our community organizing to combat climate change with a decentralized autonomous organization.
Here’s the idea:
Create a DAO: Distribute tokens to the current movement participants who, through relentless efforts tree sitting, blockaing roads, protesting, and lobbying, have put us on the trajectory of preventing millions of tons of CO2 emissions by 2050
Offer DAO tokens for sale: We would like to offer a set amount of tokens for sale to begin raising initial funds for the organization. There are many possibilities of how we spend these funds; studies to support the movement (economic studies, ecological, hydrologic, archeological), media, lobbying, litigation, movement materials, etc.
Sell digital art as NFTs: This will be another revenue source for the DAO, we are in contact with a network of NFT artists interested in participating.
Future: We have various ideas for NFT utilities to continue engaging and raising funds from a broader audience.
New Tokens: New tokens will be minted as compensation for participating in movements. Ex) Write a letter to politicians, get a reward. Participate in a protest, get a reward. Participate in the massive amounts of research it takes scouring timber harvest plans and forest management plans to combat greenwashing and misinformation from the industry captured department of forestry, get a reward. Write a killer article as a scientist backed with citations and get it published in the San Francisco Examiner (Thanks JP and Evan), get a reward.
Decisions: We would like the community, movement participants, and financial contributors to work together to best decide how and where to allocate resources. We believe this will provide the most efficient use of resources to maximize environmental action.
To do this, we would like to incorporate a list of apps and integrate the DAO into our website (the ability to view and interact with some of the basic functions of the DAO). We are currently looking for developers to join the team and help with the technological aspects of this project.
What we do have is a thriving movement with an abundance of highly engaged community members including scientists, attorneys, foresters, long time activists, and the general public. The movement has been featured in the LA Times, SF Gate, SF Examiner, The Press Democrat, and countless local outlets including online, print, and radio.
Check us out at overstand.earth. Reach out to collaborate, looking for short and long-term members to add to the team.
