Budget & Deliverable Guidelines
SCF Build Awards are milestone-based. Funding is split into four payments tied to specific deliverables that you set. Your application must include a budget that clearly maps the requested budget to your development timeline and outcomes.
📌 Key Requirements
Awards are capped at $150,000 worth of XLM.
📆 Project timeline should not exceed 6 months.
Budget must be tied to three tranches — we recommend using the following structure, but feel free to adjust as makes the most sense for your project:
Tranche #1 - MVP
Tranche #2 - Testnet
Tranche #3 - Mainnet
Each tranche must be backed by specific, verifiable deliverables.
Costs must support future development — not past work or general operations.
✅ Budget DOs: What to Include
Your budget should focus on the cost of completing specific deliverables. These typically include things like:
Core Development
Writing and testing Soroban or Stellar smart contracts
Integrating external protocols or creating adapters
Building out backend infrastructure or indexing tools
Frontend & UX
Developing a dApp interface (React, etc.)
Connecting frontend to smart contract functions
Capturing end-to-end demos or flows
Testing & Verification
Unit and integration test coverage
QA processes and testnet simulations
Monitoring and alerting stack
Deployment & Release
Mainnet deployment (contract verification, activation)
Public SDKs, APIs, and developer docs
Setting up infrastructure like NAV APIs or alerting tools
❌ Budget DONT’s: What You Can’t Include
Audit costs (covered separately by Audit Bank for eligible projects )
Marketing and user acquisition costs
General bounties, token giveaways, or prize pools
Legal fees or entity registration costs
Reimbursement for past work or unrelated activity
📌 Important: Budget items must clearly relate to deliverables and reflect the actual cost of achieving those milestones.
Sizing Your Budget
When planning your budget, focus on what’s necessary to build and ship your project.
Project Scope
How many people will work on the project?
How long will each deliverable take to complete?
Are you a solo builder or a full dev team?
Your budget should reflect the actual hours of engineering and product work required to deliver the milestones, not operational overhead or unrelated expenses. Requesting the maximum award amount is not expected. Proposals that overreach in cost relative to their scope often perform poorly in review and voting.
Project Impact
How many users or developers will this reach?
Will it unlock new functionality in the Stellar/Soroban ecosystem?
Is this a key piece of infrastructure or a public-good primitive?
Higher-impact projects can justify larger budgets — but only if the work involved matches.
⚠️ Important Note on Award Size
SCF reviewers and voters look for clear justification between:
What you're building
Who’s building it
How long it will take
Over-scoping your budget without a matching team or roadmap may hurt your chances of getting funded.
Start with a realistic estimate that matches your actual build plan.
Tranches & Deliverables
SCF Build Awards are structured around three tranches, tied to measurable outcomes. Each tranche must be clearly defined in your application and completed before funds are released.
What Is a Tranche?
A tranche is a portion of your award linked to a project milestone. The SCF Build application form includes space for three tranches — your full proposal must fit into that structure.
Flexible Journey, Fixed Destination
While every project is different, we expect all SCF Build teams to be ready to build as soon as they receive funding.
As mentioned in the Submission Eligibility section:
Your technical architecture must already be complete at the time of application
Tranche 1 should focus on actual development — not planning, research, or system design
Mapping out the system should be done before you submit
We recommend a structure that follows a typical product lifecycle:
1
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Core contracts on testnet, simple UI, CLI tools
2
Testnet Expansion
Governance, integrations, adapters, feature depth
3
Mainnet Launch
Deployment, docs, SDK, monitoring, go-live metrics
Your Your timeline and deliverables can flex, but the end goal is the same: a functional project live on Stellar mainnet.
✅ What Makes a Strong Deliverable
A great deliverable is:
✅ Clear: It’s obvious what’s being built or shipped ✅ Measurable: There's a concrete metric or success signal ✅ Verifiable: Reviewers can test, view, or validate it ✅ Outcome-based: Focuses on the result
Example: Instead of “frontend done,” say: “End-to-end swap flow demo recorded on testnet.”
💸 How Tranche Payments Work
SCF Build awards are milestone-based. You’ll receive your total budget amount in 4 separate payments. You’ll receive your first payment upon award acceptance. The following 3 are tied to deliverable completion.
#0
n/a (paid upon award acceptance)
10%
#1
MVP
20%
#2
Testnet (or equivalent)
30%
#3
Mainnet Launch (or equivalent)
40%
Payment Process:
Complete all deliverables in your current tranche
Submit for review using the SCF Build Tranche Completion Form (received via email when your Tranche #0 payment has been sent)
SCF team/community delegates review your submission
Are all deliverables complete?
Do they match the success criteria?
Can reviewers test or verify them?
Payment is released
🔁 What If Something Changes?
It’s okay to adjust scope, just communicate early.
Contact the SCF team before submitting a modified tranche
Explain what changed and why
Update your success metrics or proof formats if needed
🧠 Tips for Structuring Strong Tranches
Provide a specific budget breakdown for each deliverable
Avoid vague phrases like “testing complete” without criteria
Don’t front-load all the hard work into Tranche 1 - this should be an opportunity to ship something fast.
Make sure each deliverable has a clear definition of success, both for you and for reviewers to verify.
Disclaimer
*To determine the number of XLM equal to the USD value of any Award, the USD valuation of XLM shall be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR), or, if such settlement price is unavailable or reasonably suspected by SDF to be unreliable, the settlement price as reported on a substantially similar and equally reputable cryptocurrency index provider as determined by the SDF in its discretion. The USD valuation of XLM for any particular Award shall be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price (or other agreed upon settlement price) reported on the day such Award is paid. The Participants acknowledge and understand that XLM is a highly risky and volatile asset, and that SDF does not provide any representations, warranties, or guarantees of its value.
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