Re: [Debconf-team] Planning the announcement of DC15's sponsorship drive
On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 8:37 AM, Richard Hartmann
<richih.mailinglist@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> we already talked about this within the DC15 team, but just to make
> sure that we are all on the same page:
>
>
> I think we should spam DPN, the -announces, reddit, friendly press
> publications, etc once we have:
You might run into pushback if you start this before DC14 happens. (I
know of at least one company that would probably get confused and drop
plans to contribute to DC14, if this was kicked off prior to DC14.)
I would also get clear signoff from vorlon and harmoney, that they are
ok with an unconventionally early publicity drive for DC-N+1, before
DC-N happens. I personally will go with consensus, but my instinct
says we can certainly start preparing prior to DC-N, but the earliest
global fundraising/publicity should be kicked off is during or shortly
after DC-N. This would still put you way ahead of the curve.
> * non-profit status
> * basic sponsorship info
Feel free to kick off a separate thread. I'd suggest kicking off an
initial thread on debconf-sponsors-team titled something like "DC15
tiers and benefits?" and when that team comes to consensus, kick over
to debconf-team for "ratification".
> * website with reasonably appealing design and sponsorship section
Do you have volunteers to do this?
> The reason being that larger companies will most likely finish their
> budgets for 2015 in Q3 of 2014.
Perhaps in Germany, but Q4 is generally ok for US companies. In any
case, we've only really been able to kick off fundraising in the prior
year twice before, so even if you started right after DC14, you'd be
ahead of the curve. If DE budgets are finalized in stone in Q3, maybe
consensus can be found to begin private targeted outreach to DE-only
companies, before the full global DC15 fundraising effort kicks off?
> Given that the first point will hopefully be done within the next two
> weeks (see my mail to dc15 list), is there a somewhat reliable ETA for
> the other two? Does anyone need help? Does anyone have free time and
> is able to offer help?
>
> I know both sponsorship and website are being worked on and have/will
> send status reports to the dc15 list today, but we should try to add
> deadlines for "good enough" for all vital parts, as well. Based on
> that, we should plan for maximum exposure of the sponsorship drive.
There have historically been one of the two blockers for starting fundraising.:
1) sponsors brochure. [1] - Pretty much lays everything out, including
tiers, and why to sponsor. This is written by the team for which the
funds are being raised, with help and advice from Global team. The
good news is once can largely "cargo cult" previous versions from
repo, while adding in some local color, and updated #s.
2) Final report. [2] - This has become expected by returning sponsors,
as it shows where their money went. Some of our anchor sponsors need
it to reauthorize a new round of funding. Technically the
responsibility for this lies with the DC-N team, but there is
precedent for DC-N+1 helping drive coordination. In any case, we can't
finish this prior to DC-N.
In the past we have allowed private outreach to "new leads", before #2
is done, but in all cases (that I am aware of) #1 was complete before
kicking off any fundraising. I'll also add that it can't hurt to say
to our anchor sponsors (especially to those we have personal contact
with), "here is the sponsors brochure. I just wanted to get it to you
so you had the updated sponsorship tiers for preliminary budgeting.
We'll have the final report soon." Please understand we shouldn't
press for an answer until after they've gotten the final report and
had a chance to review it.
> Thanks for the hard work of all involved,
> Richard
[1] - http://media.debconf.org/dc14/sponsors/DebConf14_SponsoringBrochure.pdf
[2] - http://media.debconf.org/dc13/report/DebConf13-final-report.en.pdf
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