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

[Till Adams]

Dear board,

I know that there have been some discussions around this already, but
perhaps it's time to think about how to get OSgeo sponsorship and FOSS4G
sponsorship under one umbrella?

If two independent "groups" request the same potential group of
sponsors, this may lead to confusion.

My ideas go in this direction: If you sponsor OSGeo (FOSS4G) at a
certain level (or with a certain additional charge) you are automaticaly
named as sponsor of FOSS4G (OSGeo).

In the end the money goes in the same pocket.

Just a quick thought, that perhaps is worth to thin about.

Till


Am 09.11.2017 um 07:18 schrieb 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
> <mailto: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
>     <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.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     --
>     Jody Garnett
>
>
>
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