Re: A $60/year Friendship option for students

[Osama KM <osamak wfm gmail com>]

On Thursday 01 April 2010 18:41:55 Stormy Peters wrote:
> What varies is the gifts. It wouldn't be cost effective to send a tshirt to
> people in India donating $10/year. Especially since we currently ship from
> the US.

My guess is that $10/year is less than the average of what students may spend, 
and I understand that it won't be cost-effective at all, but $60/year seems to 
be very reasonable.

People who cannot spend $60/year can give as 'normal' donors, and we may think 
of a 'Friendship grant' similar to FSFE's 'Fellowship grant'[0], which is a 
program to select limited number (three in FSFE) every month by a committee to 
get paid for by a sponsoring company and to get the same advantages of a 
"normal" friend.. A program that'd benefit everyone and make the low-income 
person a potential contributor when things get better--Let's focus on the 
$60/year option for now anyway.

> But I don't think people are concerned about the gifts. What are people
> looking for with a "student level"? Right now you can donate any amount and
> be a "Friend of GNOME."

It's nice to get a 'thank you' for the yearly contribution, it's even nicer to 
give people with less income the same 'thank you' as the higher level 
($120/year). A simple one-time 'thank you' would make them continuous  
contributors.

[0]: http://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.html

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Osama Khalid
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