Hi Lionel,
Brian has already given a good answer about fundraising. I would like to
offer some ideas from my point of view.
1. We could sell GNOME merchandise on GNOME stores/websites in different
countries around the world. For example we can host a GNOME store in China
using Taobao[1], the largest shopping website in China. Mozilla launched its
Mozilla store on Taobao last month[2]. The profits form this would be
transferred back to the GNOME Foundation for use as sponsorship money for
events in China or elsewhere.
2. We can encourage more local companies to join the GNOME Foundation
Advistory board, especially Asian countries. I personally know many local
companies using various GNOME technologies. They have not joined or
contributed because of various reasons including language barriers and
simply not knowing how to contribute at all.
3. Continual promotion of the Friends of GNOME program, especially to our
regular users. We can do this through local user groups and local
communities. We should translate our promotional materials for Friends of
GNOME to to allow increased exposure to non English speakers. People will be
proud of their personal donations to the GNOME Foundation; they simply are
not aware of the "Friends of GNOME" program.
[1]www.taobao.com
[2]http://firefox001.taobao.com/
Thanks,
Emily
2010/6/2 Brian Cameron
>
> Lionel:
>
>
> I've a question about GNOME business model and sustanability. As we have
>> seen with the fundrising to hire a sysadmin, money is often a blocking
>> point. The current business model seems to be donations.
>>
>
> Actually, The GNOME Foundation acquires money from several sources:
>
> - Advisory Board fees
> - Sponsorship for particular events or programs
> - Profit from events (such as GUADEC)
> - Donations (such as Friends of GNOME and the upcoming mobile donations
> program being discussed on the marketing list)
>
> The GNOME Foundation has invested a fair amount of effort in the Friends
> of GNOME program to increase donations and with good success. However,
> donations are a small overall percentage of revenue.
>
> Also note that The GNOME Foundation is a charity. So, we do need to
> ensure that money that we receive is used in ways that are aligned with
> The GNOME Foundation charter. This does restrict how The GNOME
> Foundation can raise and spend money to a degree.
>
>
> Do you think that donations are good ? Good enough ?
>>
>
> With more money, the GNOME Foundation can do more exciting things, so
> the GNOME Foundation is always looking at ways to improve how money is
> raised.
>
> In the past year, the GNOME Foundation doubled the advisory board fees
> and this was a significant step making the organization more profitable.
>
>
> Do you plan to work on this business model ? Do you have any proposals ?
>>
>
> There is a lot of work going on to improve how the GNOME Foundation
> raises money:
>
> - Statistics show that most money received via Friends of GNOME comes
> from GNOME users, not people in the GNOME development community.
> The GNOME Foundation is planning to start a campaign to more
> effectively reach out to users to make them aware of the Friends
> of GNOME program, and consider donating.
>
> - The board is currently working to develop a program to allow
> companies and organizations to donate money. This program would
> be directed at organizations that are not currently advisory board
> members. This could be something like a "Friends of GNOME" program
> for organizations instead of individuals. This could, for example,
> provide a link exchange, advertising, mention as a sponsor of an
> event, or other forms of recognition as an incentive to donate money.
>
> - By making events more profitable. We are constantly working with
> event organizers to encourage them to find ways to make events
> more profitable, or at least sustainable.
>
> - Typically sponsorship money that the GNOME Foundation receives is in
> exchange for some service, such as by organizing a hackfest to get
> work done in an area that benefits (directly or indirectly) those
> organizations interested in providing sponsorship.
>
> With GNOME 3 approaching, the GNOME Foundation has been working hard
> to organize a rich set of hackfests to focus on work that needs to
> get done for GNOME 3 to be successful. The GNOME Foundation needs to
> continue working hard in this area.
>
> However, more can be done. For example, the GNOME Foundation received
> some sponsorship money last year to upgrade bugzilla. The GNOME
> Foundation needs to continue to find ways to provide services that
> will continue to bring in sponsorship money.
>
> - Currently the GNOME Foundation is organizing a Women's Outreach
> Program. Getting more involved with organizing humanitarian events
> like this could open the doors to finding new sponsors with an
> interest in promoting humanitarian causes.
>
> - Grants are another possible source of revenue.
