Re: Boosting Friends of GNOME in 2008

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi Lucas,

Coming back to this to get it off my TODO list :)

Lucas Rocha wrote:
> Here are the current ideas:
> 
> 1. Update the mug design
> 
> Doing this already.
> 
> 2. Update the mug design
> 
> Not sure about this one yet but, again, the idea is to have a brand
> new donation gift t-shirt with the equation as well. Same t-shirt that
> was distributed during FOSDEM this year which made a lot of success.

Hmmm... these two look similar ;)

> 3. Prepare a program for long-term donors
> 
> The idea is to provide ways to easily make monthly donations. We'll
> provide ways for donating 5, 10, 20 or 50 per month (this might change
> but that's the general idea) through Paypal.

If you're doing recurrent, regular donations, then it might be an idea
to use direct debits rather than going through paypal, whose fee
structure takes a hefty percentage out of a $5 donation.

> The donor would receive the benefit after the last payment. In other words:
> - If a person donates 5, 10, or 20 per month, he/she would get a mug
> - If a person donates 50 per month, he/she would get a t-shirt

I've said this in the past, but it bears repeating. The gifts are nice,
but I think that people don't give for the gifts. I'd do my best not to
make it seem mercantile if you're doing a subscription model.

> 4. Promoting Friends of GNOME
> 
> After we have everything setup (mugs, t-shirts and long-term donation
> program), make a nice campaign to get short-term and long-term donors.
> The equation (in the mug and t-shirt) would be the "moto" for this
> campaign.
> 
> Comments? More ideas?

Yes, actually!

We have a database of all donors to the GNOME project for the past 5 years.

We should:

 * Send them an email at every release pointing to the release notes
 * Send them a quarterly/biannual newsletter of the foundation's
activities (a text-only email will do)
 * Solicit donations for specific programs when the need arises
 * Inform them about the subscription options

Every donor who has ever made a donation over a certain size (say $500)
should receive a printed annual report or the condensed glossy 4-page
report every year. Think Médecins Sans Frontières, or political parties,
for ideas of how they engage their donors.

We should also regularly have targeted fundraising.

Raise $10,000 to replace server X! (chances are someone will step in and
offer us a server)

Raise $10,000 to support hackfest Y!

Raise $25,000 in our annual end-of-year fundraising drive!

Again, think of how aid organisations match donations up to how it's
being spent - sponsor a child, get a photo every year of the school
you've donated to, buy a zebu that will get loaned to a poor Sahel
farming family, etc...

How about an "adopt a hacker" programme? Get annual photos, reports from
conferences they attend thanks to your donations, things like that (OK,
I'm gone into brainstorming territory here).

It'll come down to a couple of questions: what do we need money for?
What will we do with them when the funds start coming in?

In particular, you need to think of a very novel way to present the
costs of a sysadmin, if you want to raise funds against it. And I think
adopting a hard drive or motherboard or somesuch might actually get you
some of the way there.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org