Sndbox End of Year Review: Community Hubs, Projects + a Glimpse at the Sndbox Foundation [Pt. 4 of 5]

Sndbox is a Steemit incubator for creatives and communities. We utilize the Steem blockchain to empower impactful projects worldwide.

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Welcome to Part 4 of our End of Year Sndbox review!

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Now that we’ve covered the logistic and statistical details of Sndbox’s growth, membership, and voting, let’s get into the meat of the organization! From the beginning, we’ve been focused on cultivating new and existing members to execute meaningful projects and work from Steemit. This has manifested in a number of ways ranging from community growth initiatives to physical projects and educational curricula. Our members lead and support these initiatives in a number of ways -

Sndcastles

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	Sndcastle's are a collaborative initiative within Sndbox. We work with Steemit community leaders around the world to foster social and creative impact through Steem. Our aim is to grow and promote Steemit through community hubs, encourage meetups, person-to-person onboarding, and physical projects.

We currently have 5 Sndcastles around the world - based in Malaysia @myach, Nigeria @stach, Turkey @tach, the Philippines @steemph.cebu, and Indonesia @indo-community. The leaders of each are currently Sndbox fellows who we work with to brainstorm ideas, graphic design, roadmaps and strategy for impactful projects.

Through programming activities, meetups and campaigns, we hope to create hubs and healthy networks for Steemit development within each region. Providing in-person programming will build more trust and momentum than trying to bolster Steemit’s value in parts of the world without an experienced population.

Sndbox Projects

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Projects are long-term programs and initiatives where members use Steem. After the implementation of Steem Park in Brooklyn, we're actively exploring the huge impact of this blockchain on other domains in which motivated individuals could bring about major change just by sharing their process. To this day, we have a number of projects already going on and number more in the works to launch early 2018.

Here are some of the ones we’ve launched -

	STEEM PARK is a public garden designed and funded exclusively through Steemit.com, a social media website that rewards impactful content with digital currency (STEEM). This garden within Herbert von King Park (in New York City) represents an entirely new way to empower community projects and celebrate special places within our neighborhoods.

	The DIGITAL CURRENCY, REAL DESIGN documentary was sponsored by Steemit Inc. through a Crowdsourced Marketing Initiative designed to empower community oriented projects and ideas surrounding the Steem blockchain. Planters, furniture and installation of the project was funded entirely through cryptocurrency earned on Steemit. Read more here.

	@mintvilla’s posts on landscape architecture and urbanism fundraise for the Von King Park Conservancy. We’ve worked closely with the conservancy park in NYC to campaign through Steemit and tap into a long-term agenda. This includes event programming, cultural planning, and physical development within the park. You can read about the ongoing roadmap here.

	@phillyhistory is an account spearheaded by @kenfinkel, history professor at Temple University. Graduate students will upload their work and assignments onto this account and at the end of the semester, the accumulated funds will empower local programs in collaboration with the Philadelphia History Museum. You can read through the comprehensive launch here.

Looking into 2018 - The Sndbox Foundation

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This is one of the major updates of 2018 that we’re excited to share a glimpse of today. While operating Sndbox for the last few months, we’ve been actively pursuing (and also inversely been asked to do) more physical impact projects around the world. We’ve been in conversation with a number of major university and nonprofit institutions for the purpose of integrating Steem as an avenue to empower education, non-profit crowdfunding and innovative new applications.

To facilitate this growing ambition, Sndbox will establish a registered NYC non-profit in the first half of 2018. We’ll be able to donate and delegate Steem seed funds to support educational and physical projects with partnered organizations. We’ve just begun the process and we are taking the first steps to submit the preliminary forms. We’ll talk a bit more of this plan in tomorrow’s roadmap as well.

Day 4 Tips and Takeaways

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Each day, we want to share a bit of what we’ve learned by operating and growing Sndbox related to the topics covered in this post. Hopefully these can be utilized by other Steemians to help diversify the bright future of the platform and bring the Steem blockchain to the world. Here are three main takeaways for outreach and impact -

1. Make it Physical. Cryptocurrency and blockchain are, at least for this very moment in history, still very difficult concepts to grasp and utilize. The best way to overcome this dissonance is to encourage and make physical activities and projects to tap into their potential.

2. You Win if Others Win. The wonderful part of a Proof of Stake blockchain such as this that the more people you get involved and support, the more substantial your own standing is. Find the most effective ways to onboard and support new users.

3. Treat Steemit as a Starting Point, Not the Destination. Much will change in the coming months concerning Communities and Smart Media Tokens, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do meaningful things with the technology at this very moment. Start by blogging, then by organizing.

The Final Stretch

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Thank you for joining us for our day of the Sndbox End of the Year Review! Tomorrow, we’ll go into the big picture roadmap for 2018! We hope this was helpful in clarifying our organizational growth and if you have any comments, suggestions, or further questions, please let us know in the comment below!

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