[Board] Sponsorship funding and value for money

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Hi all,
Thank you for a good thought-provoking thread to help inject some  
focusing energy into my Monday ;-)

Anytime the word funding comes up, I mentally check it against our  
budget.  What we want to do with our money this year should be clear  
in our budget - but only if it is an item that requires money that we  
want to spend this year.  This isn't perfect because some of the  
items in our budget do not always provide good fuel for a fundraising  
discussion with a potential sponsor.  I think this touches on some of  
your initial concerns Jo.  There are some valuable tasks or ideas  
that are not encompassed in the budget - maybe we need a shadow  
budget for other items that _could_ use funding if a sponsor is found  
beyond our current year revenue goals.  This might (?) help when in  
your situation, Jo, and want to tell a sponsor what they money goes  
toward in very clear terms.  I'm not suggesting looking for a sponsor  
for a particular project, like building a binary distribution of  
OSGeo software for example, but it is an intriguing idea.  However,  
having that your radar may help give you some meat to talk about when  
marketing material, web sites and talks at shows, etc. aren't enough  
of a halo to offer.

The E.D. position does a bit of everything which can look like  
nothing monumental in particular depending on your perspective. While  
I do have certain particular tasks on my list, at a broader level I'm  
primarily doing marketing, promotion, education outreach, community  
assistance, sponsor dialogue, promotion and extension through the  
journal, presentations to would-be users/sponsors, etc.  So you can  
always divide the E.D. costs into those kinds of categories and use  
them to describe what the funding will go toward.  When I tell  
sponsors, or potential sponsors, where their funds go, I personally  
don't see it as going into financing a staff position, but toward  
these higher level OSGeo mission/goals which sponsors appreciate.   
How they are delivered is less of a concern for most of them.

Local Chapter roles in fundraising will be very interesting to  
watch.  The Brazil and Japan events were very interesting and, I  
believe, will be quite typical.  The  local chapter organises  
outreach events in a local style and venue, with an appropriate set  
of presentations, gathering toward an appropriate audience.  They  
then invite an international speaker to come and help make their  
local sales pitch more credible.  This is primarily to build their  
local case and extend the reach of OSGeo in the region.  In several  
cases organisers have/will help finance my trip and stay - which  
makes it possible for me to do even more with the travel budget.   
Sponsorship discussion will likely happen after I am gone, but I  
certainly give the pitch and let the local chapter follow up with  
more discussion.  If I had a marketing package to leave them, it  
would help.  More on this later...

As for fundraising specifically, I can assure you this is a very real  
situation for me to appreciate, having had lots of discussions with  
Autodesk over the past year about the future of funding, strategy,  
etc.  I'm comfortable with the approach you are outlining Dave and I  
feel we are still wrapping up the first steps of being able to  
adequately do fundraising solicitation.  From my own perspective, I  
know what I'm waiting for and what is holding me back, but feel it is  
definitely moving more than last year.  Here are a few of the  
dilemmas and the current solutions that I have on my own list to help  
make fundraising happen:
* Finalise tax-free status.  Needed to save OSGeo from taxes, and to  
benefit our US sponsors/donors. Needed for many grants.  The 501c3  
application is actively underway.
* Approach potential new sponsors.  Need a clear message in an  
attractive sponsorship/marketing "package" to help the face-to-face  
or email pitch.  Marketing material development underway.
* Add value to membership.  So they feel they can also help solicit  
sponsors/donors and be more actively involved.  Need signup and  
donation systems. Donation system available now, waiting for time to  
work on public approbation for donors, badges/icons for members,  
etc.  Development of a management system for members is not seriously  
started, but needed for membership sign up at events, online, in  
person, etc.  This gets us basic interaction systems for enumerating  
members, which then provides a basis for engaging them more  
meaningfully.

These are just three areas that, I believe, are key to getting us  
past the start-up phase of OSGeo and that others and I have been  
active on.  Of course much more is happening at the same time:  
conferences, talks, journal, sponsor communications, magazine  
articles, finances, software project systems support, etc. including  
many other things that are done primarily by volunteers.

More below...
On 17-Dec-07, at 11:40 AM, Dave McIlhagga wrote:
> I and hopefully others will be happy to mentor and support this  
> effort (fundraising does have some overlaps with marketing and  
> sales after all) but Tyler - we need you to be the owner of the  
> initiative, or it will slip through the cracks again this year, and  
> that is a risky proposition for the organization.

This makes sense to me and I feel I do own this.  Hopefully the above  
3 items help to give a glimpse on where we are at on this.   
Reflecting on it today has sure helped me.  Essentially I want  
marketing material ready before I start seriously soliciting, but of  
course we can do some more now.  Also the 501c3 is of critical  
importance now as we talk about taxes and grants.  So, as Journal v3  
goes out the door today/tomorrow, I'll be shifting more toward these  
tasks.

Sorry for the scattered response, hope it helps.
Thank you,
Tyler