(For this I also include our new Finnish team. Background: We had a brainstorming about fundraising ideas for the ned of the year. Now we want to see what we could realise.)
* Matthias Kirschner mk@fsfe.org [2009-11-05 10:34:23 +0100]:
- Tell our fellows and advertise on our website that people can support FSFE by purchasing books through bookzilla.
I think we should definetly blog about that and advertise it in our newsletter.
- Tell our fellows and advertist on our website that people can also donate to us through purchasing at amazon through a referral program.
I think we should set up such a shop so people buying other stuff than books can also support us through that (but make clear that we do not encourage buying at amazon, but that when you already buy there you should use our shop / or plugin).
- postcards and give x of them to every fellow to send to their friends as invitations to the fellowship.
I think for a European wide things we have too less time. But I will talk with Edgar who already sent some (german) drafts to germany@ if we can finalise them and sent them to the German fellows at least (problem is that the picture contains a German word in the picture itself). But if someone can come up with a good design until end of next week we might be able to do it European wide.
- Have special "I supported FSFE for Christmas" T-Shirts that we source through someone like spreadshirts.de.
For that we need a design very fast. Someone willing to do that? And I think we need a slogan which is a bit more "hackerish".
- Auction off (on ebay or through our website) a dinner where FSFE staff is cooking for you.
I think that is possible and might also give us some good media coverage as this is not done by many people. And it doesn't have to be a very expenise dinner. We could do it in Berlin or dependin on the winner somewhere else. And I think cooking is associated possitive.
- Auction off (on ebay or through out website) donations to FSFE.
Might be difficult to explain that message to a wider audience.
- Sell special Free Software Presents which include a CD with Free Software, the Free Software Book, and other goodies to be used as presents for people.
I think this is a good idea for the future in cooperation with other organisations. But we have to less time to do that for this year.
- Free Software Diet: You eat less over Christmas and donate the difference.
Still think this is a funny idea. Disadvantage: People don't like diets. Possibility to combine it with the FSFE dinner to include it is a funny note: "if you cannot win the dinner we suggest the FSFE diet "don't buy too much food over new year and donate that money to FSFE".
- Offer Fellows that for a donation of x EUR we write a Christmas postcard for them to their grandma / grandpa
We could offer that everybody. E.g. donate 120 EUR, we buy a Christmas or new year card and sent it to a friend, family member, etc. . Could also offer to write things like "XY asked us to sent you a Christmas card. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. He also asked us to explain to you what he is doing in his main job. Well he writes software that everybody gives the freedom to... " (of course better). Advantage: This might also give us good media coverage as it is a new idea.
- Fellows and FSFE donating IT support hours to elderly people in the cities where they live; i.e. we ask the larger groups and larger cities to go to an old-people home and help them with IT stuff. This could be nice in the press...
Good press coverage, but I believe it is difficult to implement until Chirstmas.
- Same as above, but go to boarding schools, or other social institutions
Same here.
- We could also offer "rescue packages" which people can order. There are only a few leaflets and stuff in it. It is like the rescue packages for the banks
Perhaps too black humor? Else the idea of sending packages with an FSFE t-shirt + some stickers, etc. as a Christmas special might be cool. What do you think? Should we make special deals? Should we call them "rescue packages" and announce them in the hacker community?
Rainer, Penny: What do you think?
- dedicate one working day (or some working hours) to FSFE and donate the income. We'll publish your story of what you did that day and how it relates to FSFE, along with your picture (if you like).
I like that idea. Donate one working day. If we do not want to run that on Christmas we could do that at another day. For example Docuemnt Freedom Day or Software Freedom Day. Might also be good for the press.
- auction off merchandise signed by FSFE staff
I think for that we are not well know enough. That would work with stuff signed by Richard, but I have doubts about stuff signed by us.
- auction off one day of FSFE staff person to visit you and do $whatever (talk about Free Software to you/your friends/teachers/colleagues)
That could also be realised in our time frame. Not much needed. Only problem. If it is bought too cheap we have more travel costs than what comes in.
- Wikipedia-style fundraising progress bar on our website? Just temporary, until the end of the year? I've always found this a nice way to provide feedback to donors.
I think our web team could implement it (Reinhard please correct me). Animates people who see it. Problem I see here: Wikipedia is visited by _a lot_ of people. Our pages is not visited by that many people and we want to reach more people than those who visit our website. I think our fundraiser has to raise visibility from outside. So we have to combine it with something.
- pin up calendar
Oh yeah :) Good occation to wear my Fellowsip thong. But for taking good pictures we are too late.
- rms dartboards for sale
Although I think a lot of people might buy it I think we might get problems with our sister organisation.
- get christian a santa suit
And do what?
- (girl scout) cookies
Could be an option that country teams bake cookies etc. and sell them. But we need good events for that. Are there events before christmas where that would be possible?
- pay us not to sing the freedom song under your window at 3am
I am not sure about that. Perhaps too much of a blackmail character. Not sure if it is strong enough as message on their own. One possibility might be to include some ideas we had in the PR like "we also thought about asking for donations so we do not sing songs under your window"
- plussie plushies
Rainer? But for this year it is definetely too late I think.
Best wishes, Matthias
Adding some comments:
Am Donnerstag, den 05.11.2009, 11:07 +0100 schrieb Matthias Kirschner:
- Free Software Diet: You eat less over Christmas and donate the difference.
Still think this is a funny idea.
Hm. If I was to eat less over christmas and donate the difference, I think I'd rather give the money to starving children or something more related to eating.
- dedicate one working day (or some working hours) to FSFE and donate the income. We'll publish your story of what you did that day and how it relates to FSFE, along with your picture (if you like).
I like that idea. Donate one working day. If we do not want to run that on Christmas we could do that at another day. For example Docuemnt Freedom Day or Software Freedom Day. Might also be good for the press.
I also like the idea. Software Freedom Day seems to be a good opportunity for that, but it's too far away...
- auction off one day of FSFE staff person to visit you and do $whatever (talk about Free Software to you/your friends/teachers/colleagues)
That could also be realised in our time frame. Not much needed. Only problem. If it is bought too cheap we have more travel costs than what comes in.
We would have to define that travel costs have to be paid on top of the auction price.
- Wikipedia-style fundraising progress bar on our website? Just temporary, until the end of the year? I've always found this a nice way to provide feedback to donors.
I think our web team could implement it (Reinhard please correct me).
I have no clue how this works, but I've never looked closely. I guess it's not rocket science, but if we want it, please give me a week or so to implement it.
Would you consider it sufficient to update it once a day?
A requirement for the progress bar is defining where we put the 100% mark.
Thanks, Reinhard
Reinhard Mueller wrote:
- Wikipedia-style fundraising progress bar on our website? Just temporary, until the end of the year? I've always found this a nice way to provide feedback to donors.
Yes I like it very much as well.
A requirement for the progress bar is defining where we put the 100% mark.
I think the idea of progress bar also came up when discussing to making donations more focused and 'project-specific' (i might be wrong)
For this general progress bar, we could identify our main financial concern (e.g. covering travelling costs for our EEC) give a rough estimation (40000 EUR) and set it as a 100%. (I believe the 100% shouldn't be too high. I'd rather see it reaching the 100% quickly, rather then seeing it remaining at 20%)
cheers, gp
On Thu, Nov 05, 2009 at 12:11:45PM +0100, Giacomo Poderi wrote:
Reinhard Mueller wrote:
- Wikipedia-style fundraising progress bar on our website? Just temporary, until the end of the year? I've always found this a nice way to provide feedback to donors.
Yes I like it very much as well.
A requirement for the progress bar is defining where we put the 100% mark.
I think the idea of progress bar also came up when discussing to making donations more focused and 'project-specific' (i might be wrong)
yes, it would work for specific projects as well, though the Christmas fundraiser is for general FSFE activity.
Of course, a progress bar is not in itself a fundraising action. It's a support tool. The real fundraising work needs to happen through thinking up cool ideas (which we've done), implementing them (which we're working on) and promoting them in the press (which we'll do).
Reinhard, could you maybe start finding out how much work it would be to implement a progress bar?
Updating it once a day is fine. We can say so below the progress bar, so people won't be disappointed when they send money and the bar doesn't jump forward immediately.
For this general progress bar, we could identify our main financial concern (e.g. covering travelling costs for our EEC) give a rough estimation (40000 EUR) and set it as a 100%.
Our main financial concern is very clearly personnel cost.
(I believe the 100% shouldn't be too high. I'd rather see it reaching the 100% quickly, rather then seeing it remaining at 20%)
Yes, we need to find a number that we can reach. That's the upper limit. The lower limit is what we need to sustain operations at the present level.
Best regards, Karsten
Am Donnerstag, den 05.11.2009, 13:16 +0100 schrieb Karsten Gerloff:
Reinhard, could you maybe start finding out how much work it would be to implement a progress bar?
OK. I'll start by asking people on web@ whether they have a good idea to start from :-)
Yes, we need to find a number that we can reach. That's the upper limit. The lower limit is what we need to sustain operations at the present level.
Yes. Actually I think that after the fundraising, we should have enough money in our accounts to cover the first half of 2010.
Thanks, Reinhard
hi,
Matthias, thanks for compiling and annotating the ideas! Everybody, thanks for having them!
There's some great stuff in here.
We should select three ideas that will be effective, and which we can get to work quickly.
Ideally they should combine to cover different types of target groups and donors:
- something for people who want to donate < 50 EUR
- something for people who want to donate 50-500 EUR - something for people who want to donate > 500 EUR
Another factor definitely is the amount of attention we can get from the idea in the press. This could also mean doing one really cool thing which most people won't give money for (like auctioning off FSFE staff to cook) in order to get attention for something less original that they *will* give money for (e.g. T-Shirts).
Matthias, can you select a few ideas that are promising, original and practical, check and group them on the above criteria, and check how to implement them?
Best regards, Karsten
It would be great if we could launch our Christmas fundraiser at FSCONS. Anything later will be too late, really.
Matthias, who needs to do what when to make that happen?
Best regards, Karsten
On Fri, Nov 06, 2009 at 09:16:43PM +0100, Karsten Gerloff wrote:
It would be great if we could launch our Christmas fundraiser at FSCONS. Anything later will be too late, really.
Matthias, who needs to do what when to make that happen?
Just to be clear:
We should focus our available resources on this for the coming week.
So Matthias, you don't need to do everything yourself. Please delegate to Hugo, Thomas and Alina, as well as myself.
Best regards, Karsten
Hi Karsten,
I suggest the following:
- PR: "FSFE offers cooking for biggest donation" pr issue 289 https://roundup.fsfeurope.org/pr/issue289 as PR to sent out. - E-Mail to Fellows, who conviences the most people who think about joining the Fellowship to actually join gets an invitation to cook with us, so we can learn how he did it: pr issue 290 https://roundup.fsfeurope.org/pr/issue290 to sent to all Fellows. - DUS proposes a "Christmas package" "End of the year package" with some nice merchandise which you can order in the shop.
Best wishes, Matthias
Hi Matthias,
On Sun, Nov 08, 2009 at 11:34:26PM +0100, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
- PR: "FSFE offers cooking for biggest donation" pr issue 289 https://roundup.fsfeurope.org/pr/issue289 as PR to sent out.
- E-Mail to Fellows, who conviences the most people who think about joining the Fellowship to actually join gets an invitation to cook with us, so we can learn how he did it: pr issue 290
As we discussed on Saturday, I very much like these two.
We should do just one PR for both of them, though. We also need to talk through the details of how we'll actually do the cooking and logistics, just to make sure we don't burn our mouths here (pardon the pun).
https://roundup.fsfeurope.org/pr/issue290 to sent to all Fellows.
- DUS proposes a "Christmas package" "End of the year package" with some nice merchandise which you can order in the shop.
This is also something we should do. But since not everybody will want the same package, there's got to be some flexibility.
@DUS: what would you suggest to put in the package?
I'd also like us to do something that explicitely targets companies. Any ideas?
Best regards, Karsten
On Monday 09 November 2009 12:45:34 pm Karsten Gerloff wrote:
We should do just one PR for both of them, though. We also need to talk through the details of how we'll actually do the cooking and logistics, just to make sure we don't burn our mouths here (pardon the pun).
First step is finding out who of the team have culinary pretensions (I do). Map out which bits of Europe are doable for whom in terms of travel cost (e.g. for me, nl be de uk fr are within reason, fi no se around 200 EUR). Make sure that we have liability coverage and an idea of people's schedules (for instance, if I get whored out to cook for someone on my birthday, my family will not be pleased).
[ade]