Re: recruiting sponsors

[Dave Neary <dneary gnome org>]

Hi,

Alberto Ruiz wrote:
> 2009/5/26 Dr. Michael J. Chudobiak <mjc avtechpulse com>:
> > > So what about
> > >
> > > 1000$ < 10 employees
> > > 2500$ < 25 employees
> > > 5000$ < 100 employees
> > > 10000$ < 1000 employees
> > > 20000$ > 1000 employees

I just want to put this in perspective.

If you have (say) 8 employees, your annual expenditures are likely to be 
in the region of $800,000 to $900,000. Even if you only have one, you're 
probably spending around $150,000.

Put like that, $1000 is not very much money for a company (especially if 
they can write it off). And for companies between 50 and 100 employees 
(that is, with annual expenditure of at least $4,000,000, and perhaps up 
to $10,000,000) we will actually be reducing their advisory board fee 
from $10,000 to $5,000.

I'm not against a sliding fee - in fact, I was the one who introduced 
the $5,000 level back in 2005 - but I think we probably need to adjust 
the totals upwards.

> > +1. That would dramatically increase the odds of getting money from small
> > companies, speaking as a <10 company person.
>
> +1. Totally agree. These days you see a lot of GNOME small shops, I'm
> pretty sure such approach would a) reduce the pressure for the current
> (small) members and 2) increase the number (or at least the chance of
> increase it) of overall small companies that are part of the
> foundation.

Let me ask: what are you "buying" with this fee? If we're talking about 
sponsorship, then these levels correspond to something, don't they? A 
certain presence on the site, a certain size logo? But if we're talking 
about advisory board seats and the associated dues, don't we run the 
risk that the advisory board grows uncontrollably?

There's a trade-off here:
 * We want an influential advisory board with big supporters of GNOME
 * We want more money

Currently, we have the influential advisory board, and all the members 
(with the possible exception of Google, SFLC) are involved in 
distributing or developing GNOME and the GNOME platform. We don't want 
to lose that, but we want to increase funds available. One possible way 
is to increase how much we receive for the advisory board dues from each 
member. Another way to raise more money is to have a corporate 
sponsorship program where people get a reward for giving a certain 
amount of money. But I think it's vital to keep the two absolutely, and 
completely, separate.

Cheers,
Dave.

--
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
dneary gnome org