100% of grant funds released after lockout period ends, but prior to any project milestones completed

[robliou]

Background: If project is accepted following the voting/ quorum protocols, after the lockout period ends, 100% of the grant requested is released to the proposer before work has 'officially' begun.

Issue: Since funding is often a huge motivator for the project proposer (next to community reputation), if that aspect is removed by granting 100% of the proposal upfront, does it lead to the potential for a lower-quality project delivered? i.e. milestones not hit, project doesn't live up to what was proposed, etc.

Suggestion: As my project was just accepted, this is my first time going through this, however, I'm wondering would it be more appropriate to perhaps release 50-75% after lockout, with the remainder after project is completed (or milestones completed) and accepted by committee members? I understand this might introduce a further formal round of review and effort for the committee (or community), but it may lead to a proposer putting more effort in to ensure they deliver what was promised? This seems to be more in line with how the EcoBoost program works (though admittedly, long-term project monitoring can be quite time-intensive and hard to coordinate between multiple parties, and can also potentially lead to disputes between the proposer and committee, in my experience).

I do understand that the proposal and acceptance phase is also quite rigorous and that there will be some follow-up as the project milestones are completed. Also, many of the proposals that were accepted were made by parties that had an 'established' reputation in the community.