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

Thu Nov 9 10:23:11 PST 2017

Thanks for the feedback Jeroen (both now and in previous planning cycles).

In 2017 we tried to list opportunities for sponsorship up front, to help
sponsors plan and to showcase community activities that may be of interest
to sponsors.

I am not quite sure how to simplify:
- many regional events were not yet planned, or had not yet defined their
sponsorship levels
- events, providing strong exposure and publicity attract the vast majority
of sponsorship
- not all community activities were set up for sponsorship (will to accept
funding, but not having a plan for exposure)
- only a handful of projects got direct sponsorship in 2017, activities
like sprints with a good exposure story faired better for fundraising

Like it would be great to have slider on a donate page to adjust between
advocacy and maintenance, but I do not think that would match the control
 of exposure you get by funding events appropriate to your customer base.

--
Jody Garnett

On 9 November 2017 at 06:07, Jeroen Ticheler <jeroen.ticheler at geocat.net>
wrote:

> +1
> As a major sponsor of OSGeo and FOSS4G (if I can say that) I fully agree
> with this. What we really wish to do as GeoCat is to support both the large
> and small /local events under the OSGeo umbrella. Now we are kind of forced
> to calculate and strategize what to do where in order to get the best
> exposure _and_ have the biggest impact on the community with the resources
> we invest. It would be nice if this was simplified as it makes our lives
> easier and the result more predictable.
> My 2 cents. Cheers,
> Jeroen
>
> GeoCat Bridge for ArcGIS allows instant publishing of data and metadata on
> GeoServer, MapServer, PostGIS and GeoNetwork. Visit http://geocat.net for
> details.
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>
> Op 9 nov. 2017 om 08:36 heeft Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de> het
> volgende geschreven:
>
> 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>
> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jody Garnett
>>
>
>
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