Re: Current state of Foundation finances

[Mathieu Duponchelle <mduponchelle1 gmail com>]

Thanks for the answer.

I think the question deserves being asked, I'd be interested in other opinions,
as well as hopefully facts about sponsors' involvement (of particular interest would
be the question to know if they see sponsoring OPW as just a way to help GNOME
at large or if they do have a particular interest in outreach to women).

Cheers

On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 2:36 AM, Germán Poo-Caamaño <gpoo gnome org> wrote:

On Sat, 2014-04-12 at 01:45 +0200, Mathieu Duponchelle wrote:
> I'll play devil's advocate here:
>
> Couldn't GNOME use funds from these various sponsors to fund activities
> more directly beneficial to its future than OPW?

No, for two reasons:

     1. My understanding after reading the FAQ is that GNOME Foundation
        handles the payment for every intern in OPW (not only gnomers),
        but we are not getting the funds from the sponsors and other
        organizations timely. So, these are not transferible funds to
        other activities.
     2. I think embracing diversity is one of GNOME strengths as a
        project, not only in gender equality, but also in other areas,
        like accessibility and non-English speakers.  Diversity enriches
        a community by bringing multiple mindsets that in the long term
        pays off in the software produced.  Dropping OPW not only would
        stop bringing new blood to the project, but it could be also a
        discouraging factor to the current developers.

> The question I'm asking here is really: would these sponsors be ready to
> help on other fronts, and isn't there a situation where certain sponsors
> already help for OPW, and can't consider funding GNOME for other activities
> as they already sponsor OPW?

They are sponsoring OPW, so they are interested in that. The problem is
the GNOME Foundation has not following up with them to cash the promised
funds on a timely manner.

--
Germán Poo-Caamaño
http://calcifer.org/