Re: How we can improve our fundraising efforts

[Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com>]

On 25 April 2014 15:53, Allan Day <allanpday gmail com> wrote:
> Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com> wrote:
> ...
> > > > We also need to encourage the Board of Directors to post
> > > > more about what they are doing. It's a shame that we the board doesn't
> > > > have a public face like this.
>
> I hope I didn't sound unappreciative of the board - I know you do a
> huge amount of work already!

You were completely spot on here, the board does need to get our
collective backsides into gear and tell people what's going on. It's a
bit of a problem that our work tends to bounce between nothing
interesting going on to too much to do, not enough time to write with
pretty much nothing in between.

> > > People donate to the Foundation, they don't donate to individual GNOME
> > > projects.   So the newsletter should a GNOME Foundation newsletter.  The
> > > ones that should be communicating directly to donors should be the Board of
> > > Directors.  The newsletter will have to be a platform for Board members to
> > > communicate directly to donors.
> >
> > Uhuh, and where do you propose that the board find the time to do
> > this? Under normal conditions, on average, each board member does
> > spend around 10 hours per week on board duties on top of their
> > projects and paid work. It's already quite a hefty time commitment
> > and, due to other issues, some of the board members are currently
> > spending a second job worth of time on board work as well, which is
> > likely to continue for the next month or so. Until a new employee is
> > hired, the board also has to do a number of fundraising and
> > administrative duties too, which is likely to push the average board
> > member work up to 15 hours per week indefinitely. It's also worth
> > keeping in mind that the board does not have anything to do with the
> > technical direction of the Foundation, which is where most money is
> > spent.
> >
> > It would probably be a better idea to delegate this to someone who is
> > interested in working on it and let the board concentrate on getting
> > back into shape and being able to provide all the relevant information
> > in a timely manner (board minutes, account summaries). Ideally, the
> > information which you want to be in the letters should be freely
> > available anyway, which is what the board is currently working on
> > doing better. Most of the Foundation money is spent on employees,
> > followed by conferences and hackfests. I think event organisers will
> > also be better placed than the board to provide information directly
> > to whoever puts together a newsletter.
>
> Right - the board need to be focused on board stuff. I wonder if we
> could work towards having someone extra attached to the board to
> handle publicity and public relations? Not sure who that would be or
> how it would work...

That would be the engagement team, but the board can be a bit sucky at
remembering to tell you (succeeded on one account and completely
failed on another recently). I don't think this would be as much of an
issue if minutes were published on time.

> A.