[Debconf-team] Proposal: Earmarked fundraising for travel sponsorships
Hi,
A while back, when I started fundraising for DebConf I looked on-line
for some training material on fundraising (ping me if you want some
links ;-). One of the things I read was that it is always easier to
raise funds for specific, earmarked purposes than general "save the
world" type of things.
So, without further ado, here's a proposal to get all our hard-working
top-contributors attend DebConf:
* This proposal is given as an option for people in the waiting list
to voluntarily come forward and expose themselves to the world to seek
out funds for traveling.
* Participation in this separate fundraising doesn't change the
position of a person in the queue nor stops them from receiving
regular travel sponsorship if it becomes available (but if their
travel needs get covered by this, they'll free up space for people who
remain in the queues).
* We raise funds for a number of people at a time (say, 5) and we
invite people to participate in this program in the order of the
travel queues.
* When a person has raised enough funds to cover their travel
requirements, we invite again the remaining people, giving priority
based on the travel queues.
* The people requesting sponsorship make very clear how much money
they are requesting and do a good write up (the fundraising team can
help) explaining the things they have done for Debian and what they
expect to accomplish by coming to DebConf.
* This is key: the fundraising is for a person in particular and only
up to the money needed to cover the travel sponsorship request. After
donating, the donor can request feedback at the end of debconf. Each
of the receipients of this special earmarked donations can then
receive an email from the DebConf attendee thanking them in person
(same email goes to all donors, of course) and explaining them what
their sponsorship helped them accomplish at DebConf.
* We can bring some new volunteers to implement this as some extra
pages at the website plus a link to click&pledge with the comment
field already filled in. The key part here is: this can be implemented
*very* quickly __with no penta hacking required__.
* This proposal will allow people with real economic needs (so as to
come forward in a webpage saying they need help) and contributions
that touch a large number of people involved in Debian (I'm thinking
about them adding a link to their email signatures, for example) to
benefit from this, more or less independent of the position in the
queues assigned by the travel sponsorship team.
We can discuss it here by e-mail or we can discuss it tomorrow at the
global team meeting, but I wanted to let people time to think about
it.
P.
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