Hello,
While trying to recruit new Fellows in Finland, several people have asked me the following questions:
1. Is it possible to donate so that the sum would be directed to the Finnish team or activities in Finland?
If it is possible, please update the IBAN/SWIFT part on http://www.fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html to describe how to do it. (At least Finns are unlikely to use PayPal, since IBAN/SWIFT is free and easy to use.)
2. What is the difference between being a Supporter and a Fellow?
Don't answer me - I know the difference. Please rather reflect the contents of our website and think about why this is confusing to people. Specificly the donation page needs to be updated: http://www.fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
The new contribute page is very nice, but still it does not tell about the differences of becoming a Fellow or just a donator. http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
Additionally, it is confusing that as a Fellow you can choose how much (in €) to contribute - and a donator can do that too. Wouldn't we want everybody to become Fellows and contribute as much as possible rather than donators? Then the donation thing would be relevant only to companies and organisations.
Also one group of people is those who cannot afford the Fellowship fee - they could rather choose to donate a smaller sum. One can earn the status as a Fellow only if they are willing to donate 120€ or more yearly.
A second option would also be to drop the high Fellowship fee and just maximize the number of Fellows we have to increase our political weight. In that case a separate donation possibility would be needed (and marketed).
At the moment I try to avoid the whole donation thing and recommend to individuals only the Join the Fellowship option.
Hi Otto,
* Otto Kekäläinen otto@fsfe.org [2009-12-18 23:51:03 +0200]:
- What is the difference between being a Supporter and a Fellow?
Don't answer me - I know the difference. Please rather reflect the contents of our website and think about why this is confusing to people. Specificly the donation page needs to be updated: http://www.fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
The new contribute page is very nice, but still it does not tell about the differences of becoming a Fellow or just a donator. http://www.fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.en.html
In discussions with Hugo, we had the idea to maybe get rid of "Make a donation" in contribute. But have another page directed to company donations.
Than add an easy possibility for our website visitors to make small one time donations.
I think that it will be clear than that a Fellow is someone who plan to support us a) not only with money but also stands behind our goals b) not only for a short time period -- like some months.
Additionally, it is confusing that as a Fellow you can choose how much (in €) to contribute - and a donator can do that too. Wouldn't we want everybody to become Fellows and contribute as much as possible rather than donators? Then the donation thing would be relevant only to companies and organisations.
Do you think this will also fix that problem?
Also one group of people is those who cannot afford the Fellowship fee - they could rather choose to donate a smaller sum. One can earn the status as a Fellow only if they are willing to donate 120€ or more yearly.
It is 60€ or more. 120€ is the suggested contribution for people who have a job. When you have a good job you could choose 240€. But those are just suggestions. Some fellows choose 80, or 90€. Some felt very generious and choose 600€ :)
For people who do a lot for Free Software, but cannot afford that they can apply for the Fellowship grant [1]. For people who just want to give us some money once, they can than use the one time donation feature.
A second option would also be to drop the high Fellowship fee and just maximize the number of Fellows we have to increase our political weight. In that case a separate donation possibility would be needed (and marketed).
There was a long discussion about that. We now agreed that for the next year we will not start that discussion again. But to focus on making it easier to donate. If someone cannot donate 60 EUR a year, we would rather like him to help us with his time (see other stuff on contribute). (And again, you can point them to the fellowship grant.)
At the moment I try to avoid the whole donation thing and recommend to individuals only the Join the Fellowship option.
Which is good, if they are dedicated to Free Software. With the proposed solution above, we might even be attract some one time donations because people liked the "WIWO declaration", a certain PR activity, or a good transcript.
Best wishes, Matthias
1. http://fellowship.fsfe.org/grant.en.html
Hi,
Am Freitag, den 18.12.2009, 23:51 +0200 schrieb Otto Kekäläinen:
- Is it possible to donate so that the sum would be directed to the
Finnish team or activities in Finland?
this is, in some way, implicit. We always watch where our Fellows and donors come from.
We currently don't have an explicit "accounting per country", and I don't really think we would want that. If you fly to FSCONS, is that a Finnish or a Swedish activity? If Karsten goes to a WIPO meeting in Geneva, is that a Swiss activity?
We always try to be as just, reasonable and effective in the use of our donations, and I think this worked quite well so far.
Thanks, Reinhard
la, 2009-12-19 kello 11:17 +0100, Reinhard Mueller kirjoitti:
Hi,
Am Freitag, den 18.12.2009, 23:51 +0200 schrieb Otto Kekäläinen:
- Is it possible to donate so that the sum would be directed to the
Finnish team or activities in Finland?
this is, in some way, implicit. We always watch where our Fellows and donors come from.
We currently don't have an explicit "accounting per country", and I don't really think we would want that. If you fly to FSCONS, is that a Finnish or a Swedish activity? If Karsten goes to a WIPO meeting in Geneva, is that a Swiss activity?
Ok, so the answer is "no, but..". Next time somebody asks me this I'll answer that all of FSFE's activities benefit Finland in a way or another ;)
Hi Otto,
Ok, so the answer is "no, but..". Next time somebody asks me this I'll answer that all of FSFE's activities benefit Finland in a way or another ;)
Another way to do this is to find specific activities in Finland, i.e. a specific campaign you want to launch, an event to participate in, a project to sponsor, etc. Once you have that, donations could be earmarked for that specific campaign and thus would end up more directly in Finland.
Christian