[Board] Sponsorship funding and value for money

[Frank Warmerdam]

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
>  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.

Tyler,

I don't think any of the above three items should be allowed to inhibit
pursuing sponsorships.

Tax free status may matter to individual contributors and to some grant
giving agencies but is generally not significant to sponsoring companies
who can just write off sponsorships as a business expense.

A clear message and attractive materials are desirable, but I cannot
see why these need to prevent approaching friendly sponsorship candidates.
In particular, I think it will be hard to hone the "clear message" till we
get more feedback from folks we approach about sponsorship indicating
what things resonate with them and what things don't.  Glossy materials
are nice, but I am dubious about their importance.

Adding value to membership so that members will solicit sponsors seems
very indirect.  Making OSGeo individual membership a reality is
important, and may have some knock on value in sponsorship but I think
it is unnecessary to put this on the critical path to pursuing
sponsorships.

I think that we need to establish our basic message for sponsorship, and
then start knocking on doors.  We should start out with friendly candidates
and even if we don't get sponsorship, we should be asking for feedback on
what could make sponsorship valuable, what resonates and what does not.

I think we might hold off a bit on approaching larger potential sponsors
that might not know us well (some big companies like Google, IBM) until
we get our story straight.  But there is no reason we can approach lots
of smaller/friendly organizations right now.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org