RE: Ideas to get some smaller Hive projects funded

Thanks for your response! I hadn't even thought about big projects like OCD supporting smaller projects. But I love the idea!

The main thing that is important, in my opinion, is that the costs aren't crazy, i.e. a dev asking for ludicrious amounts

True! The way I had thought about it is that projects can pitch their project via a blog in a 'Shark Tank' community. They share their plans or way of work, but don't ask for a specific amount. It is then on the supporters to decide how they support (delegation, upvotes) and how much.
All the bigger and smaller votes and delegations add up in the end, making it possible for these projects to grow.

Same goes for the #hiveproject hashtag. I think that could be an easy way to check out a stream of Hive Projects in case someone has some Voting Power left.
I hope more people will open the #hiveproject stream instead of the trending page to cast some votes.

and that the things are open-source and benefit hive as a whole, not just a small group of layer 2 token holders, etc.

By having an oversight of different projects, you can decide which ones you think deserve your upvote. I hope there will be a large list to choose from.
If you don't see any value in short content, don't upvote that tool.
If you've not into engagement, don't upvote comment curation projects.
It's all up to the voter itself.

It'd also be important that through these posts the logs would be transparent and efforts made to show the costs being transparent to users we can vet are unique/real.

In the Shark Tank community (when I will create it), I will make an introduction post that describes what needs to be in a pitch blog. And being transparent is indeed very important.
But there is also a task for the supporters to check in this.

This will be more difficult to establish with the idea of the #hiveproject hashtag.

Either way, ocd would be happy to help if our voting power allows for it and in this case I think even making exception that posts can be automated/low effort as long as the rewards are used to fund something that benefits all hive stakeholders "equally".

Thanks!
I'm happy you're positive about the idea and willing to support it.

I'll have to see how things work out, but I have good hopes both can contribute to make Hive a better place!
❤️