Re: Q to all candidates: future of Debian finances

Pierre-Elliott Bécue <[email protected]> Wed, 09 Apr 2025 23:02:44 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.vote
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Hello,

Lucas Nussbaum <[email protected]> wrote on 09/04/2025 at 08:59:22+0200:

> Hi,
>
> On 04/04/25 at 19:48 +0200, Pierre-Elliott Bécue wrote:
>> We didn't receive enough sponsorship for the recent Debian events (both
>> DebConf23 and 24 made a significant dent in our funds), and we needed to
>> buy hardware (the time where some companies gave it to us seems far
>> away).
>> 
>> The main issue, sponsors, might be something that can be solved easily,
>> if potential sponsors realize that their help is still needed.
>
> I've been wondering for a long time if our fundraising strategy is
> optimal.
>
> We are mainly fundraising in the context of DebConf. It is useful when
> fundraising to be explicit about a specific goal (organizing a
> conference), but it also means that the convincing work needs to be done
> every year.

Yes and no.

Most sponsors just need a mail to accept to continue, but some don't
(change in management, budget constraints, us coming too late to ask).

Some even contact us before we contact them.

But true, if some sponsors were to just support us periodically on their
own, it'd reduce the burden.

> Maybe we should also have a plan to raise funds directly for Debian (not
> specifically for DebConf). It might provide a path to convince
> organizations to allocate a yearly budget to Debian, and turn an opt-in
> scheme (per-DebConf sponsoring) to an opt-out scheme (annual Debian
> contribution, that continues by default every year). In large
> organizations, it might be easier to do the convincing work once and
> then get that sponsorship written in recurring yearly expenses.

Always wanted to learn how to do SEPA Direct Debit :D

(don't hit me, that's a joke)

> Benefits of sponsoring Debian could include "be mentioned as a Debian
> sponsor at official Debian events, next to event-specific sponsors".

Yes, but I guess some companies are better off asking for a budget for a
specific thing.

Others, though, might be fairly interested as they heavily rely on
Debian. But if we don't tell them that money might be an issue, they
can't guess (I don't espect Debian sponsors or companies relying on the
project to read -vote).

> An important challenge with such a setup would be to build a team
> responsible for organizing that fundraising. It looks like, currently,
> we push that responsibility to the DebConf team (with the
> motivation/hammer that if they don't do well at fundraising, it directly
> limits their ability to organize a nice DebConf).

Whatever happens, as usual, Debian France will happily try and help.

Bests,
-- 
PEB
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