The Pillars of Value help the DAO decide what is worth funding.
A farm proposal can look promising on paper and still fail to create durable community value. The Pillars of Value are Kokonut’s evaluation lens for separating short-term financial return from deeper, lasting value. They help DAO members, Guild Stewards, grant reviewers, farm operators, and contributors answer one question before funding, operating, or reporting on a farm:Does this farm create genuine value for people, land, governance, and public goods — or only revenue for funders?
Use this page when reviewing farm proposals, preparing a Kokonut Development Proposal, writing grants, or translating farm activity into annual impact reports.
What the pillars do
The pillars convert a farm story into a reviewable case for community funding.The Common Data Schema provides the farm record. The Pillars of Value interpret that record. The 8 Forms of Capital help measure the value created. MRV turns operational activity into evidence.
When the pillars are applied
The six pillars
1. WHAT — objective, goals, and benefits
Core question: What is the farm trying to produce, restore, teach, or prove? This pillar establishes the farm’s reason for existing beyond financial return. A strong answer explains what agricultural, ecological, economic, and community outcomes the farm is designed to produce.A strong WHAT answer includes
- Crop mix and why it fits the land, climate, community, and market
- Ecological restoration goals such as soil regeneration, biodiversity, water retention, or native species propagation
- Community development goals such as jobs, food access, training, or local ownership
- Development phase and expected timeline
- How the farm supports the Kokonut mission
Adelphi example
Adelphi establishes a 15,725 m² regenerative agro-ecological production model in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic. It combines short-cycle lettuce, medium-cycle passion fruit, long-cycle coconut, native species conservation, organic education, and market access into one working farm system. See Adelphi Summary →2. WHO — direct and indirect beneficiaries
Core question: Who is affected if the farm succeeds? This pillar maps the full circle of stakeholders: not only farm founders and investors, but workers, neighboring communities, market customers, learners, DAO members, local ecosystems, and future farms that will reuse the methodology.Beneficiary categories to document
Adelphi example
Adelphi directly supports Yanny and Neury Hernández, seven community jobs, and the batey and Haty communities near Gonzalo. Indirect beneficiaries include Monte Plata organic market customers, DAO members, neighboring communities receiving native seedlings, and future Kokonut farms that learn from Adelphi’s implementation.3. HOW MUCH — quantitative impact
Core question: At what scale will the farm create value? This pillar turns broad impact claims into numbers. A proposal that says “we will create jobs” or “restore land” is not enough; reviewers need measurable baselines, forecast assumptions, and actuals that can be tracked over time.Metrics to quantify
Adelphi example
Current Adelphi planning metrics include a total area of 15,725 m², 13,838 m² of agricultural area, 7 jobs, 110 hens producing about 100 eggs per day, 12+ at-risk native species, and projected annual gross revenue based on crop forecasts. Read the harvest forecast →4. CONTRIBUTION — tangible ecosystem contributions
Core question: What does the farm add that would not exist without it? Contribution captures value that does not always appear on a balance sheet: ecological restoration, community learning, cultural continuity, shared tools, local infrastructure, open data, and governance capacity.Contribution categories
Adelphi example
Adelphi contributes biochar soil regeneration, free native seedling distribution, community workshops, weekend education programs, a women-led farm governance story, and a reference implementation for future Kokonut farms.5. RISK — risks and mitigation
Core question: What could fail, and what has the farm designed to reduce that risk? A strong proposal does not hide uncertainty. It identifies risks early and provides reviewers with a practical mitigation plan.CRISP and EBF can support risk and impact assessment, but farms should avoid treating carbon or ecological claims as verified until the methodology, field data, and reporting process support them.
Adelphi example
Adelphi’s risks include delayed long-cycle coconut revenue, weather variability, certification timelines, market access, and execution complexity. Its mitigations include short-cycle lettuce revenue, multi-crop diversification, syntropic soil cover, on-site bioinputs, poultry integration, and public MRV records.6. PUBLIC GOODS — community benefit allocation
Core question: What community benefit is built into the revenue model? Kokonut farms should not treat public benefit as an afterthought. The public goods pillar documents which community activities are funded, who they serve, and how they are reported.Public goods funding can support
- Community workshops and agro-ecological training
- Free native and endangered seedling distribution
- Endangered species nursery operations
- Educational programs for children, elders, and nearby communities
- Maintenance of shared community spaces
- Environmental restoration beyond the farm boundary
- Open documentation, data, and methodology improvements
Adelphi example
Adelphi allocates 10% of gross revenue toward public goods, including workshops, native species distribution, education programs, the gazebo, and biodiversity nursery operations. These activities should be reported separately from commercial revenue and tied to the Data Hub or annual impact reporting.How the pillars connect to the Framework
Relationship to the 8 Forms of Capital
The Pillars of Value define what to evaluate. The 8 Forms of Capital define how to measure the value that appears across a farm system.
Read the 8 Forms of Capital →
Proposal readiness check
A farm is not ready for a DAO funding proposal until it can answer every pillar with enough specificity for review.Common weak answers and stronger alternatives
Next steps
Common Data Schema
The 13 fields every farm needs before it can be funded, governed, verified, or compared.
8 Forms of Capital
The measurement framework that turns broad value into capital-level metrics.
MRV Methodology
How farm activity becomes structured evidence, public records, and impact reports.
Proposal Templates
Use the Farm Funding template to turn these six pillars into a reviewable DAO proposal.
Adelphi Farm Summary
See how the pillars show up in Kokonut’s first live farm implementation.
Ecological Impact Frameworks
Explore CRISP and EBF as supporting frameworks for risk and impact reporting.