On 25 April 2014 13:40, Alex G.S. <alxgrtnstr...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Yes it's a challenge, but I really do think that it is essential. It's >> really not cool to accept money from people and not keep them >> informed. > > > This sort of direct-to-donor communication is a requirement and whether it's > a newsletter or some other type of communication some sort of follow-through > is needed. > >> We also need to encourage the Board of Directors to post >> more about what they are doing. It's a shame that we the board doesn't >> have a public face like this. > > > People donate to the Foundation, they don't donate to individual GNOME > projects. So the newsletter should a GNOME Foundation newsletter. The > ones that should be communicating directly to donors should be the Board of > Directors. The newsletter will have to be a platform for Board members to > communicate directly to donors.
Uhuh, and where do you propose that the board find the time to do this? Under normal conditions, on average, each board member does spend around 10 hours per week on board duties on top of their projects and paid work. It's already quite a hefty time commitment and, due to other issues, some of the board members are currently spending a second job worth of time on board work as well, which is likely to continue for the next month or so. Until a new employee is hired, the board also has to do a number of fundraising and administrative duties too, which is likely to push the average board member work up to 15 hours per week indefinitely. It's also worth keeping in mind that the board does not have anything to do with the technical direction of the Foundation, which is where most money is spent. It would probably be a better idea to delegate this to someone who is interested in working on it and let the board concentrate on getting back into shape and being able to provide all the relevant information in a timely manner (board minutes, account summaries). Ideally, the information which you want to be in the letters should be freely available anyway, which is what the board is currently working on doing better. Most of the Foundation money is spent on employees, followed by conferences and hackfests. I think event organisers will also be better placed than the board to provide information directly to whoever puts together a newsletter. > On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 6:15 AM, Allan Day <allanp...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Karen Sandler <ka...@gnome.org> wrote: >> ... >> >> So, some general thoughts: >> >> >> >> * One of my main issues with Friends of GNOME right now is that we >> >> don't do enough to engage with existing donors. If people donate, the >> >> least they should get back is regular updates about how we are >> >> spending their money. Right now, Friends of GNOME is a black hole - >> >> people make their donations and that's pretty much it. This is not an >> >> effective way to encourage people to keep donating or to get them to >> >> donate more (see below). One obvious thing we should be doing is >> >> sending regular updates to donors, probably as an email (I wonder if >> >> this could be tied in with the annual report somehow - eg. quarterly >> >> donor updates could be used as the basis for each annual report). >> > >> > I like the idea of a newsletter - the main thing is that we actually >> > commit >> > to write something on a regular basis. Given how hard it was to get >> > quarterly reports together I think this is non-trivial. >> >> Yes it's a challenge, but I really do think that it is essential. It's >> really not cool to accept money from people and not keep them >> informed. >> >> I would at least like to have the conversation about how we can make >> this happen, before we discard the possibility. We should look into >> ways that we can be clever about generating the required content. For >> example, we could: >> >> * Recycle material that we generate for news posts. eg. When we write >> news posts about events, fundraising campaigns or releases, we could >> repurpose the same copy for the newsletter, or generate emails from >> them directly. "eg. GNOME 3.12 released today: thanks for helping!", >> "Greetings from GUADEC", etc. >> * Recycle the copy from blog posts about events (from those who have >> been sponsored). >> * Automatically sends emails to donors on the anniversary that they >> started to donate. Maybe these could have a link to a page with >> information about what we've been doing with the money. >> * Use the annual reports as a way to generate the copy. Each time we >> write the report, we can have an article about Friends of GNOME which >> can get turned into a newsletter. >> * Automatically contact donors if their direct debits stop coming in, >> in some way. It could be a mistake or, if it is deliberate, we need to >> find out why. >> >> >> * We ought to be looking to existing donors as the potential source >> >> of additional cash. If someone is making a regular donation, the >> >> chances are that they will also be willing to donate to periodic fund >> >> raising campaigns. This is the way a lot of charities operate - once >> >> you are a donor they will contact you about their campaigns. One thing >> >> we need to do here is separate Friends of GNOME and our fund raising >> >> campaigns into different entities. >> >> >> >> * It doesn't seem like the adopt a hacker postcards and the t-shirts >> >> are being tracked and distributed very effectively, and I'm not >> >> convinced that we have the administrative capacity to do a good job of >> >> these. I wonder if we should drop them in favour of other incentives >> >> that don't have the same administrative burden. Ideas: discount >> >> vouchers, vouchers to spend on GNOME merchandise, freebies at >> >> conferences, membership badges you can download and print at home. >> > >> > Actually, thanks to Tobi, this has gotten much much better. Reminder >> > emails >> > are reliably sent. I know that at least for the postcards I'm asked to >> > send, >> > I get nagged periodically until they are sent (though I usually send >> > them >> > right away - I swear!) >> >> I think the issue is that it is failure-prone. Not everyone will send >> them straight away. We just aren't going to send them on time, every >> time - and when these items don't arrive on time, it can potentially >> take the shine off the whole experience. >> >> I've repeatedly heard complaints from people about late post cards or >> t-shirts, or items that never arrived. Sometimes they complain >> publicly - that isn't good. When something doesn't arrive, there's no >> way to check on what's happening either - there's no easy way to check >> if you're still a part of the scheme, whether we have the right postal >> details, when the item was due to be sent, whether it has been sent, >> etc. >> >> >> * It's time to be thinking about another campaign. When that happens, >> >> we need to be certain that we will be able to use the money fairly >> >> quickly - this hasn't happened in the past, and that is potentially >> >> damaging. (Again, people need feedback about how their money is being >> >> spent, otherwise they might not donate again.) We should think about >> >> what we actually need money for, and I'd like the board to provide us >> >> with some advice here. There are outstanding sysadmin tasks, for >> >> example, like upgrading Bugzilla, or maybe we need to improve our >> >> infrastructure in some way. I think this has benefited us in the past. >> > >> > I like this a lot, but we should also consider that the campaigns are >> > also a >> > way to state our ideals. >> >> Yes, and I've been in favour of that in the past. My concern is that >> we could end up making our values look hollow if we don't visibly >> follow through on our promises. At the same time, direct, practical >> goals can also be attractive for donors - our sysadmin campaign was >> very successful, for example - and if there are areas where we need >> the money for something important, that seems like a valuable >> contribution the Engagement Team could make. >> >> > Also, I >> > think maybe just keeping people posted about the plans would help. We >> > don't >> > really have an informal way to communicate officially. The closest we >> > have >> > is the GNOME Twitter feed, I guess, but there's nothing on the website >> > where >> > we can post small updates and musings, etc. >> >> I'd like to make gnome.org/news more informal - the main thing it >> needs is to expose peoples' user accounts, so they can post as >> themselves. We also need to encourage the Board of Directors to post >> more about what they are doing. It's a shame that we the board doesn't >> have a public face like this. >> >> >> * Aside from the funding campaigns, we don't actively promote or >> >> publicise Friends of GNOME. This is a basic error - we should be >> >> routinely inviting people to join, posting about the scheme, and >> >> advertising what we are doing with donations. This should be part of >> >> the Engagement Team's regular activities - not just when we happen to >> >> have a campaign running. A good way to start here would be to come up >> >> with a plan for what kinds of posts we should be making and how often >> >> we should be making them; this is something we can check ourselves >> >> against at each team meeting. >> >> >> >> * It seems to me that the Foundation's money goes into a central pot >> >> - I don't get the impression that particular income is earmarked for >> >> specific uses. I wonder if the finances could/should be organised in >> >> such a way that we can definitely say where Friends of GNOME money is >> >> going, or even channel it to areas that we think are more interesting >> >> to donors. Again, that's something for the board. >> > >> > The money technically goes into a single account but the funds are >> > tracked. >> > For example, I'm pretty sure the GF is still spending down the Sysadmin >> > FoG >> > campaign amounts. >> >> Oh great! Those are details that I'm sure people would really like to >> hear about. >> >> >> * Finally, we need data about our existing donors. There needs to be >> >> a system where we have email and postal addresses so we can contact >> >> them. We need to know how much they donate and how long they have been >> >> members for. We need to know how many people are joining/leaving over >> >> time. We need to know why people are joining/leaving. This will >> >> require new infrastructure, and we need advice from the board about >> >> what is technically required and how we can get it. >> > >> > We started to implement CiviCRM, but there were a few reasons why this >> > wasn't a great solution for GF, including the fact that we have >> > indefinite >> > donors. Tobi's scripts are capable of generating this data. For example, >> > he >> > was able to generate a list of donors who had been giving for two years >> > or >> > more. Perhaps it's not the most ideal solution but it's something and >> > he's >> > surely work with us to create regular reporting scripts if we want them. >> >> OK, it would be good to have a conversation about that. I wonder if >> Tobi could join us for a meeting some time, or maybe I'll just ask him >> when I see him next. :) >> >> We also need to figure out a good way for the Engagement Team to get >> access to the data when it is generated. >> >> Allan >> _______________________________________________ >> engagement-list mailing list >> engagement-list@gnome.org >> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/engagement-list > > > > _______________________________________________ > engagement-list mailing list > engagement-list@gnome.org > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/engagement-list > _______________________________________________ engagement-list mailing list engagement-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/engagement-list
