[Debian-sponsors-discuss] Debian fundraising

[Brian Gupta]

We have previously discussed and agreed that in the longer term we
should move to having Debian fundraising more coordinated/centralized,
rather than have each part of Debian potentially speaking separately
to the same companies.

Perhaps it is now time to move in this direction, since it seems that
this kind of problem is now starting to happen more often in practice.
 (Some subgroups have independently reached out to shared sponsors and
asked for separate sponsorship, leading in some cases to a degree of
confusion from the sponsor organizations.)

It has been proposed (by persons other than myself) that perhaps it is
time to move to a project-wide Debian fundraising team (potentially
with a delegation, though this may not be required immediately).

I am not sure if we are ready for this change yet, but do believe we
need to seriously evaluate making the switch at this time.

Issues (that I am aware of):
1) Who would that team consist of? IE: I am concerned we likely don't
have enough folks interested in joining such a team, but would very
much love to be proven wrong. (Fundraising is a really difficult
grind, that can be draining to do year after year, and I don't believe
anyone involved in Debian really enjoys it, including myself.) I will
throw my hand up, as I don't totally suck at it, and feel it might be
one of the more useful ways to spend my Debian time, but really in no
way does one person make a team, especially for a time-sensitive task
such as fundraising. (Basically we need a team of people that are
willing to commit doing all sorts of fundraising year after year.)
2) How would a centralized team handle local fundraising. (My sense is
that local sponsors can be contacted by local organizers, but any
sponsors that have a realistic chance of contributing to global events
should be contacted through a global team, with central records of the
contact details and of responses.)
3) Related to #2. How to deal with language differences, if local
fundraising is also included, which it probably should be outside of
the smallest events?
4) Debian is largely a bottom up organization. This is looking to
change a bottom up process to a top down process. (IE:
centralization.) I'm not sure how I feel about our readiness for such
a change, but do feel that this should be our goal for this particular
set of tasks.

Please discuss.

Thanks,
Brian