[Board] meeting prep thread, OSGeo sponsorship and 2018 opportunities

[Jody Garnett]

Jeff you helped set up this current approach
<https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/2015_Sponsorship_Drive_Working_Group> in 2015,
and you make it out to a lot of events, do you have any suggestions for
improvement?

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 10:11 AM Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:

> Although we did not get to it last meeting, it is on the agenda for next
> time - here is the osgeo sponsorship page for 2017: http://www.osgeo.org/
> sponsorship
>
> In addition to raising money the sponsorship program has a secondary goal
> of encouraging sponsors to support our projects, local chapters and events.
> This helps recognize organizations that consistently support OSGeo (rather
> than focus on big sponsors that put all their effort behind one event).
> This has a couple of benefits: it allows sponsors some choice in directing
> their funds to OSGeo activities they believe in. It also allows committees,
> local chapters and projects to raise funds without being in conflict with
> the OSGeo foundation. I think this approach is brilliant and should
> continue and be promoted.
>
> The page lists "Sponsorship Opportunities for 2017", if you hear of
> anything from our projects or committees we can make a similar section for
> 2018. We had some hits (events, travel grant, website reboot, sprints) and
> some misses (UN Hackathon).
>
> How to sponsors (talk to treasurer or use paypal with a note) is working
> well.
>
> The "sponsorship levels" are only working okay, we made a very cheap
> sponsorship level at $500 USD ... and my small consulting shop how2map was
> the only organization to make use of it. Indeed we had groups from outside
> our industry use the low sponsorship level to optimize search results -
> something the board put a stop to in 2017.  I would like to give this low
> sponsorship level another try, especially since the new website can provide
> additional visibility to these organizations; but I would also understand
> if we drop it from lack of use/interest.
>
> I have gotten private feedback, especially after the foss4g sponsorship
> levels were published that OSGeo should raise our rates. I am not so sure
> (in part because the feedback is private), in part because we are a world
> wide organization and comparisons to us and eu organizations are not
> appropriate. Mostly I think there is no need to be greedy - our goal is as
> much to promote these sponsors and build community as it is to raise funds.
>
> We have two discounts available (25% for prior sponsors, 25% for Low or
> Lower-Middle Income Economies). These discounts are being effective with
> prior sponsors, offering getting them just close enough to the next level
> that they provide additional funds. Kind of like we planned. The
> low-to-lower-middle-income discount is not really being used; I expect we
> need to provide more value - or better advertise that local event
> sponsorship counts towards foundation sponsorship.
>
> The "sponsorship benefits" have been passed to us from previous boards,
> and we struggled to understand two of them that required direct management
> from the board - indeed they were difficult and time consuming to implement:
>
> *Invitation to Sponsor Information Exchange Event with Board of Directors
> following annual OSGeo International Conference *- we turned this into a
> sponsorship breakfast with Maria doing the organizing. This was successful
> in giving us a chance to meet meet with sponsors and partners. I think this
> was really important to see what organizations are working with us face to
> face. Sadly the time allowed barely got us passed introductions - resulting
> in a breakout meeting and other follow up activities.
>
> *Invitation to Sponsor Networking Event with OSGeo Board of Directors and
> other invited guests following annual OSGeo International Conference. *This
> was intended to be a chance to thank partners and sponsors in public,
> although the foss4g organizers set us up a stage during the conference
> networking event our board members were not in position act. The
> opportunity to network and build connections/collaborations/contacts was
> a consistent request during the subsequent breakfast meeting - so we missed
> an opportunity here.
>
> *Joint Press Release with OSGeo to announce Sponsorship. *These are a bit
> of a bother to do, generally as a shared google document and then
> coordinate timing with the sponsors. Not all sponsors (example CARTO) went
> ahead with a press release. We also tend to just make a blog post, rather
> than issue a press release to news organizations. This is something we
> could coordinate (with marketing?) to provide better value to our sponsors
> and partners. We may consider bumping the press release up from silver to
> gold.
>
> *Organization name listed in "about osgeo" section of foundation press
> releases. *We are doing this, no feedback so far.
>
> *First Sponsorship Selection for the **Annual OSGeo International
> Conference. *This is interesting as we have not always communicated this
> to our foss4g organizers, we should confirm with the conference committee
> that this benefit is possible before offering it in 2018.
>
> *Key OSGeo marketing materials feature your organization's logo, At
> promotion events, your organization's logo is displayed as part of the
> OSGeo Booth - *We are doing this with the marketing committee, no issues
> so far. For our usual sponsors they often have their own booth and do not
> make use of this perk. Unclear if this applies to local chapters running a
> booth?
>
> *Full-page Promotional Space on a personalized OSGeo Sponsor Page,
> Promotional Space on an OSGeo Platinum Sponsor Page - *Our website design
> does not work like this, but it could?
>
> *Right to use OSGeo Sponsor logo and promote named sponsorship level *We
> have new logos to roll out to sponsors.
>
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>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
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