[Board] Fundraising Committee

[Frank Warmerdam]

Paul Ramsey wrote:
> Frank,
> 
> I think asking for money is inextricably bound to "what do I get for my 
> money" and cuts to the heart of what OSGeo is going to try and make of 
> itself, so putting this to the Victoria meeting makes a lot of sense.  
> The Fundraising folks were, at core, asked to go out and sell OSGeo, and 
> OSGeo has not really made a clear case for what its product is yet, so 
> let no aspersions be cast on FunCom.  In the one case where a product 
> was actually clearly defined (your project sponsorship for GDAL) things 
> worked pretty well.

Paul,

Well, I *think* I know what I would be selling when I make a sponsorship
case to organizations.  I would have two main angles:

For "software user" organizations, I would push the angle that they need
to do something to support the ecosystem that is producing the software
they depend on.  This is clearly a more second order sort of support
compared to direct project sponsorship so it is a bit harder to explain
but the premise is certainly there.

For vendor organizations (whether proprietary software vendors or
consulting/services organizations that use open source) the premise is
that there is a promotional/marketing benefit in sponsoring OSGeo.

I think a big part of why we haven't had much luck fundraising is that
we just haven't really tried very hard.  For GDAL it has come fairly easily
(and as you note the value proposition is more straight forward) but I did
have to get off my duff and ask around.  I haven't done that for OSGeo as
a whole, except for offering OSGeo sponsorship as one option when approaching
people with the GDAL / FOSS4G 2007 / OSGeo sponsorship pitch.  I had one
client of mine that went with OSGeo sponsorship but it mostly ended in
GDAL sponsorships - largely I think because I approached heavy GDAL users.
(hmm, that makes it sound like GDAL is a drug or something).

I know that it was never my intention to carry much of the OSGeo
fundraising burden.  I suspect that is true of others as well.  Until
someone makes a serious effort, or multiple people start making a modest
effort it is unlikely that much will happen.

Of course, you are right that we will be more successful if we can do
a better job presenting benefits of sponsorship.

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