[Fundraising] Foundation Sponsorship

[Dave McIlhagga (mobile)]

Hi frank,

I have to admit that this has been nagging my brain almost daily -- but I've been absolutely stretched to the max for the past month or so. Sometimes running a company can really interfere with other priorities!!

To be honest -- I think I've been really hopeful that getting our ED would go a long way towards helping getting this off the ground, allowing me to really focus my limited time on getting maximum bang for bucks so to speak!! :)

Jo - you are definitely seeing some of the things to be done. One thing about dealing with the business types -- they write bigger cheques -- but you need to have a rock solid pitch to make with all the supporting material possible to make your case.

I will strive to find some time this weekend to put together some materials -- my apologies for not being able to be more attentive.

Dave



   

-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:16:55 
To:fundraising at fundraising.osgeo.org
Cc:dev at visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Fundraising] Foundation Sponsorship

dear fundraisers, 
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 01:32:24PM -0400, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Do you have thoughts on how we can get the foundation sponsorship program
> into the public eye?  My understanding was that you were hoping to produce
> some documentation on it suitable for publishing on the website, is that
> right?  Any progress?

Was not there talk of a potential-sponsors BOF session at FOSS4G;
this didn't  happen in the end?

What, in general do business-level people need as a "takeaway",
something to flash around within their organisations that will catch
the eyes of others whose support they need to gain? 

One thing i really noticed at EuroOSCON (which was very, very business
development, "so you want to go open source" oriented and short on the
hacker crowd) was that the OSGeo material doesn't really contain
anything very high level - either on the "joy of collaborative
cartography, DIY Google Maps For More Freedom" level or on the
"streamline your turnkey logistics through better integration" level. 
A question about outreach and the Foundation finding its feet past the
inward focus into explaining why the projects make so much sense
together, to people who don't really know the domain yet...

(Perhaps organisations who need this perspective arent being viewed as
potential sponsors, perhaps it would be more fun if they could be..?)

cheers,


jo