Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Stormy Peters sto...@gnome.org wrote: On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 7:52 AM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Stormy Peters sto...@gnome.org wrote: We could definitely do a student supporter. The Linux Foundation does this and recently added a Christmas option for them. This is nice to know. Thank you. Are you proposing one? I am sorry I could not comprehend the question. What I intended to convey that perhaps the Marketing team could create a 10 USD contribution aimed at students. The usual question that crops up is how do we know that they are students, I'd say that let's not care. Having an easy way to let someone contribute a small amount to a project they love should allow us to reach out to a larger base of people via friends, neighbors, social network loyalty than worry about validating a student identity. The only question is whether 10 USD would be an amount that would bring in a contribution after processing fees. I confess I am not sure about an answer to that. Another aspect that struck me was that the Friends aspect is somewhat messaged towards an individual. Friends can logically also help in community building by allowing local GNOME UGs or, groups to band together and raise funds. Is there a chance to send out that message ? Just propose how ... I don't think we can send much email to our contributors but we can definitely put out the message in other ways like webpages, Planet GNOME, GNOME Journal, Foundation list, etc. The above was a thought that came to me when I was reading the content of the page. It appeared to be focused on the individual contributor rather than a pass this message to those who will find it useful. Frankly, I don't have a suggestion off the bat about how to wrap the content other than perhaps p.g.o and GNOME Journal for starters. -- sankarshan mukhopadhyay http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog Sent from Brisbane, Qld, Australia -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 6:21 AM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.comwrote: I am sorry I could not comprehend the question. What I intended to convey that perhaps the Marketing team could create a 10 USD contribution aimed at students. The usual question that crops up is how do we know that they are students, I'd say that let's not care. Having an easy way to let someone contribute a small amount to a project they love should allow us to reach out to a larger base of people via friends, neighbors, social network loyalty than worry about validating a student identity. The only question is whether 10 USD would be an amount that would bring in a contribution after processing fees. I confess I am not sure about an answer to that. So you can give $1 right now. I would think something targeted at students would have some benefit for students or a discount. Stormy -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
Hi, sankarshan wrote: I am sorry I could not comprehend the question. I think that Stormy was asking if you had ideas for what the student option would be. What I intended to convey that perhaps the Marketing team could create a 10 USD contribution aimed at students. What the Linux Foundation have done is donate, and pick a student to become a member for free. They're not reducing their prices, they're running 2 for the price of 1 - a standard marketing trick. This works nicely for the Linux Foundation, because they've negotiated some nice partnership deals - members can get reduced price lenovo laptops, for example - and membership includes some things which in theory could be sought after (a Linux Foundation member email address, for example). The usual question that crops up is how do we know that they are students, I'd say that let's not care. It is a fact that many people who want to give will give at the lowest level available. If it's $25, they give $25. If you make it $10, they will give $10. So you're reducing your revenue by doing this, because the number of 25s that go to 10 will outweigh the number of people giving 10 that wouldn't otherwise donate (IMHO). If there are benefits to being a donor which don't cost us much, having a 2 for the price of 1 deal gives added benefits to us too - adding another contact to the university contacts the foundation has, growing our advocate base, etc. And we don't lose any of the existing donors, and we might gain some new ones. The only question is whether 10 USD would be an amount that would bring in a contribution after processing fees. I confess I am not sure about an answer to that. In reality it's the smallest amount that is worth anything to us. After fees we end up with maybe $8.50. Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary GNOME Foundation member dne...@gnome.org -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Stormy Peters sto...@gnome.org wrote: We could definitely do a student supporter. The Linux Foundation does this and recently added a Christmas option for them. This is nice to know. Thank you. Another aspect that struck me was that the Friends aspect is somewhat messaged towards an individual. Friends can logically also help in community building by allowing local GNOME UGs or, groups to band together and raise funds. Is there a chance to send out that message ? -- sankarshan mukhopadhyay http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 7:52 AM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.comwrote: On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Stormy Peters sto...@gnome.org wrote: We could definitely do a student supporter. The Linux Foundation does this and recently added a Christmas option for them. This is nice to know. Thank you. Are you proposing one? Another aspect that struck me was that the Friends aspect is somewhat messaged towards an individual. Friends can logically also help in community building by allowing local GNOME UGs or, groups to band together and raise funds. Is there a chance to send out that message ? Just propose how ... I don't think we can send much email to our contributors but we can definitely put out the message in other ways like webpages, Planet GNOME, GNOME Journal, Foundation list, etc. Stormy -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
Hi, Stormy Peters wrote: So we could experiment. An easy first experiment would be to change the Associate level to $50-500. I'm for that. What do others think? That's a wide band. It's the difference between eating out once groceries for a month for the family. How about $50 - $250? Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary GNOME Foundation member dne...@gnome.org -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 12:31 AM, Stormy Peters sto...@gnome.org wrote: We have two pieces of data: 1) Many people give $25. 2) $25 is the minimum you can give and get a gift. Do many people chose Yes for the gift as well ? And some anecdotal data: 1) A handful of people have told me they would give $50 (instead of $25) if it was the minimum. But, would they expect a gift ? So we could experiment. An easy first experiment would be to change the Associate level to $50-500. I'm for that. What do others think? To me that looks a bit scary. The ceiling is 10x the floor, that would probably scare away folks who come across the Support page with the idea I cannot afford much, but will they be accepting this amount - looking at that wide a range would be counter productive since a potential 50 USD contributor will not automatically increase the amount to say a 300 USD. Lastly, in most developing nations, the USD - local currency rate is a mess (I can very much see in India), is there a way to consider a Starter contributor that can be pitched to students ? -- sankarshan mukhopadhyay http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog Sent from Brisbane, Qld, Australia -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:49 AM, Dave Neary dne...@gnome.org wrote: That's a wide band. It's the difference between eating out once groceries for a month for the family. How about $50 - $250? Right now it is $25-$500. I agree that's a wide band. If we make it $25-$250, we need to add a $250-500 and I'd rather decrease options than add them ... Stormy -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:55 AM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.comwrote: To me that looks a bit scary. The ceiling is 10x the floor, that would probably scare away folks who come across the Support page with the idea I cannot afford much, but will they be accepting this amount - looking at that wide a range would be counter productive since a potential 50 USD contributor will not automatically increase the amount to say a 300 USD. Many people do give more than $25 and less than $500 at the moment. (The data for amounts is in the spreadsheet I put on the wiki every month if anyone wants to do analysis.) It would be interesting to know how many people give $25 and want a gift versus how many give $26-$500 and want a gift. Lastly, in most developing nations, the USD - local currency rate is a mess (I can very much see in India), is there a way to consider a Starter contributor that can be pitched to students ? We could definitely do a student supporter. The Linux Foundation does this and recently added a Christmas option for them. Stormy -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
Hi, Stormy Peters wrote: Interesting thoughts and data on the Eclipse fundraising program: http://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/a-successful-open-source-fundraising-campaign/ It raises an interesting question - how much does the FoG campaign net? How much has it cost us in gifts postage for that $26K? Do you think the gifts help pull people up to the next donor level, or is someone who wants to give 50 dollars give 50 dollars? Another interesting thing for me is whether the levels are a net benefit or deficit to us - if we had a $100 button, would we get more than half the people who click at $50 upgrading? We'd undoubtedly get some of the $50 people jumping to $100 when they wouldn't go to $250, but when do we hit the paradox of choice, where the number of donors will go down if we have too many levels to choose from? So many interesting questions... Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary GNOME Foundation member dne...@gnome.org -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Friends of Eclipse
On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 2:30 AM, Dave Neary dne...@gnome.org wrote: Hi, Stormy Peters wrote: Interesting thoughts and data on the Eclipse fundraising program: http://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/a-successful-open-source-fundraising-campaign/ It raises an interesting question - how much does the FoG campaign net? How much has it cost us in gifts postage for that $26K? Do you think the gifts help pull people up to the next donor level, or is someone who wants to give 50 dollars give 50 dollars? We have paypal fees, gift costs and postage. I haven't run the numbers recently but we could do it for 2009 at the end of the year. (The gifts are optional and some donors do choose not to receive them.) Another interesting thing for me is whether the levels are a net benefit or deficit to us - if we had a $100 button, would we get more than half the people who click at $50 upgrading? We'd undoubtedly get some of the $50 people jumping to $100 when they wouldn't go to $250, but when do we hit the paradox of choice, where the number of donors will go down if we have too many levels to choose from? We have two pieces of data: 1) Many people give $25. 2) $25 is the minimum you can give and get a gift. And some anecdotal data: 1) A handful of people have told me they would give $50 (instead of $25) if it was the minimum. So we could experiment. An easy first experiment would be to change the Associate level to $50-500. I'm for that. What do others think? Stormy -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
