Our “Keep Us Going” fund drive for 2007/2008 has ended yesterday. We have raised just a little over €320 over one month, and we’d like to express our sincere thanks to all those who donated.
Surely, this is a far cry from the €2450 we need to fill our yearly budget. But it still covers the biggest part of our web-hosting-related costs. It has also given us a fair amount of visibility - encouraging us to plan a budget one year ahead, and making our accounting public. As for the rest, we can probably finance half of it ourselves, the way we’ve been running so far. The remaining part is still to be found.
So, thank you. Being on the receiving side is a strange experience, when you see money coming from donors part of community projects themselves rolling on budgets smaller than lunch money. Fund-driving is hard, especially when your audience is made mainly of students or computer enthusiasts. So it’s particularly moving when somebody you’ve only known under a username comes up to you after a conference and says: “here’s €50″.
We keep going - we’re crazy.
It already takes some energy to explain that you are into computing, but not exactly programming, when introducing yourself to strangers. Add to this, the concept of free software, and you have to fight your way out of all the stereotypes.
Now, if your listener is still with you, explain that you don’t write software at all, and that you work for a non-profit: you are instantly labeled as a naive well-meaning weirdo.
The final touch is explaining that even after eighteen months of hard work, six of which almost-full-time, you still haven’t earned a cent, but you still firmly believe that your non-profit-based activity has a viable business model. Voilà: you have been promoted to the status of “one of these crazies”.
So yes, we are crazy. We still believe the free software community needs some clear, wide-audience marketing (and not just pretty logos). We still believe we can make a real difference. We know the value of €327 worth of trust from anonymous individuals. May we suggest that your organization sponsor us, too?
So thanks again, we keep going, and let’s now make the most of what we have.
Sincerely,
Olivier, for the GNU/Linux Matters team.
It’s unfortunate you didn’t get more, but it’s great that you can still keep going. So, congratulations. :)
Reading this I wondered about whether establishing monthly subscriptions of some kind would help.. something similar to what FSF does.
Congratulations on getting what you did.
How do you survive the rest of the time? Are you able to receive government benefits/welfare while doing what you do?
Have you applied for any government sponsorship?
Thanks
Thanks for the congratulations! =)
Danijel, monthly subscriptions are not a really efficient way of finding funds (time-consuming accounting, members with very varying budgets) unless we are several hundreds, which is not (yet) the case. A limited-time fund drive was more efficient.
Jon, surviving involves eating lots of cheap pizzas; but in particular, the great generosity of an inspiring friend, who is providing (real life) hosting. It cannot last forever though.
Government sponsorship in France is extremely, extremely time-consuming (I know by experience in another non-profit). We’ll look into it but our international, internet-based nature with lots of English used for internal communication will not help.
All in all, some direct support by donations, as well as sponsorships are the most viable sources, while we work to enable a little revenue on LinuxPreloaded.com.