[GRASS-PSC] Donations for the GRASS project

[Helena Mitasova]

On Mar 3, 2009, at 9:30 AM, Markus Neteler wrote:

> PSC,
> (cc President of GFOSS.it)
>
> during the last Italian GFOSS/GRASS meeting (last week) we  
> discussed again
> to add a "donate to GRASS" button (via Paypal) to
> http://www.gfoss.it
>
> (also site of the Italian OSGeo chapter).
>
> Given the fact that OSGeo is not interested in small donations (in my
> opinion OSGeo errs here ignoring the potential community donations,
> see for an old proposal: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Microdonations
> and remember how Wikipedia and OSM get money),

I think it is a huge mistake too - it is not just Wikipedia but many  
other
organizations from moveon.org to Obama, hugely benefited from repeated
small donations.

> I suggest to activate
> the button.
>
> The money is obviously hold in trust by GFOSS.it for the GRASS  
> project.
> We could, once some money is accumulated, co-finance bug-squashing
> meetings, hack-sessings, promotional material or even invent our
> own "GRASS winter/spring/... of code" with a competition for the best
> proposals.
> GFOSS.it already does the same for the QGIS project.
>
> When operative, we can clone the button on the GRASS main
> Web site, too.
>
> Any objections to proceed?

I am all for adding the button for small donations.

We just need to make sure that
there is a trusted person designated to manage the money and that the  
spending
is completely transparent - best posted on-line. Especially these  
days, people want
to know where their money is going, even if it is a small amount,

Helena
>
> Markus
>
> On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Markus Neteler  
> <neteler at osgeo.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 4:01 PM, Frank Warmerdam  
>> <warmerdam at pobox.com> wrote:
>>> Markus Neteler wrote:
>>>
>>>> While we are at it: do we have guidelines how to set up a new
>>>> sponsorship program? I want to launch one for GRASS now given
>>>> that we no longer use the IRST server as primary infrastructure.
>>>>
>>>> I see
>>>>  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Project_Sponsorship
>>>> but that doesn't address our needs. We want to collect small
>>>> money donations first which aren't under level regulations.
>>>> Think "donate button".
>>>>
>>>
>>>  Markus,
>>>
>>>  We have no program for this, and the sponsorship program was  
>>> explicitly
>>>  established to handle larger amounts because of a concern that  
>>> small
>>>  amounts would prove to be a hassle to manage properly.
>>>
>>>  Perhaps the finance committee could consider mechanisms for  
>>> handling
>>>  project directed small donations efficiently.
>>
>> At this point we could set up our own mechanism (for now).
>> E.g. the German GRASS Association (a legal entity) could
>> handle the money on a trust basis in a managed account - they
>> do it already for the FOSSGIS.de series of conferences.
>>
>> Of course we need consulations in the PSC and 8if so) with
>> the German GRASS Association first.
>>
>> I just wanted to explore the current situation.
>>
>> thanks,
>> Markus
>>
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