Suggestion that the Gnome Foundation start accepting donations through Flattr

[Oliver Propst <oliver propst gmail com>]

Hi my name is Oliver Propst
I have a suggestion, namely that the Gnome Foundation start using Flattr for rising founds for the Gnome Foundation.
I also have a basic plan on how to integrate Flattr on gnome.org.





What is Flattr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zrMlEEWBgY.

The user can either donate though a bottom on a homepage or though a








portal on Flattr,com where a Flattr user can browse and search for content to donate to.

https://flattr.com/browse/all/all/1


Why should the Gnome foundation use Flattr
I would ask why should the Gnome foundation not use Flattr.
 

Noticeable free software project that is using Flatttr include GNU, dpkg, phpMyAdmin.
Other charities include Green Pace, Amnesty international, American Red Cross.
The service is gaining momentum.



https://flattr.com/browse/software/all/1
https://flattr.com/browse/charity








How can Gnome benefit from using Flattr.  
Increasing the revenue of of the Gnome foundation.

Allowing people to show their financial support for Gnome.

The Gnome Foundation will be exposed on the Flattr portal.


Connect people who give financial support to Gnome foundation.





The risk that Flattr cannibalize on the Friends of Gnome program.
I am aware of that there is a certain risk that Flattr donations could take revenue from 
the friends of Gnome program but I don't see that being a major risk. 





I also think it is possible that people start donating a small amount of money using  
Flattr and then move over to the Friends of Gnome program, maybe we can promote
that in some way. I also see it as possibility that existing Friends of Gnome members 





donate a small amount of money just to show the world their support for Gnome.
  
Financial details
Flattr takes 10% of the donations as a fee, a fairly standard amount I guess.






The fee is taken when money is withdrawn form the account.

How to implement 




First the Gnome Foundation must of course get a account at Flattr witch is trivial. 
There is basically two ways to implement Flattr on gnome.org, the super easy one and the medium easy one.




The super easy way is to use this Wordpress plugin 

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flattr/



http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flattr/installation/

The medium easy way is to use Flattr api witch of course gives more detailed control, but I am not sure how big the benefit is to use the api on a Wordpress site. That is a decision that the web team has to take.






https://flattr.com/support/integrate
https://flattr.com/support/integrate/js





Where to put the Flattr button
My suggestion is to put a Flattr button GNOME foundation startpage for maximum exposure.

No Flattr button on the homepage
It is also possible to not put a Flattr button on the homepage and only expose GNOME foundation on the Flattr "portal" (my own name). The GNU project has done that , even if I personally think that's kind of boring and will probably led  to 


a smaller amount of donations, and potential Flattr donors will not sign up for Flattr. 
If we chose to do that all that has to be done is basically to set up an account, write (or copy) a description of the foundation, and wait to get flattered (of course we have to do a little more then that but you get it).






Terms of use
https://flattr.com/terms

General FAQ 
https://flattr.com/support/faq






About Flattr .
https://flattr.com/about

I want to make it clear that I have no personal connection to Flattr ltd, I am just a regular user.