+1 for a fund raising organization Marc
Am 09.12.2014 21:57, schrieb Brendan Gallagher: > Hello All - > > After discussing with many of you within the Koha project for many years > and countless times, I'd like to bring forth the idea of having a > fund-raising organization for Koha. It's about time the project raised > money to help meet the needs and goals of the community. This idea and > concept can only be a strong option with the support and help of many of us > in the community. We believe that we have great organization to stand > behind this great proposal in Horowhenua Library Trust (HLT) as a > non-profit-organization (NPO) to help manage the funds for the Koha > community in the most responsible way (For the good of the community). > > Please read below for some of the ideas and thoughts - and I would like to > bring to this to a vote at the next General Meeting on if we should all as > a community move forward with creating a Koha-Fund to use towards and only > towards Koha. These are just thoughts and ideas and we can all move > forward and work on the details and rules and laws etc after we get a "YES > LET'S RAISE MONEY HOWEVER WE CAN TO SPEND ON KOHA". > > > http://blog.bigballofwax.co.nz/2014/10/09/kohacon-14-day-3-funding-the-koha-project/ > > > *Organization for Fund raising:* > > Currently the Koha project generates more patches for enhancements and bugs > than the collective community has time to work on. There is a need to > raise funds so that more resources can be purchased to accelerate > development. All funds that are raised via the project are to be used for > improvement in the project. > > Koha has become a large international free software and open source > software project. There are many projects and needs for a project this > large. Many of the responsibilities that are needed for the future need to > be funded and can not rely on the volunteer hours of the many participants > of the project. For example, the current number of patches to be tested > far outnumbers the amount of volunteer hours that we as a project are able > to put towards that. Also in the future there are many software fixes that > need to be completed that need funding, which can not be expected to be led > by the users of the project. The current method of development and fixes > of the software are led by the funding from the users, I propose that we > fundraise from within the community and external to the community for being > able to solve many of these large un-met needs. > > The fund raisin entity should be a non-profit organization so that all > donations are not taxed and if possible the donors can have tax-deductions > (if that is applicable for your local tax laws). The goal of this fund > organization is to gather many many small donations to lead to an effective > pool of funds available to support Koha development. > > Some thoughts so far towards identifying the appropriate fund raising > entity is using the Horowhenua Library Trust (HLT) (Which we now have the > full support of and Joanne can fill us in more about that). > > > *Governing board:* > > This new fund should be governed by a board. That board should be made up > of volunteers, that are interested to continue/champion fund raising > efforts for the Koha project. The most important aspect of any board > member would be to introduce new avenues for pursuing donations. Ideally > the board would be representatives from all around the world so that board > members could lead fund raising efforts in their local regions. This board > will also be responsible with managing the funds that are donated, and will > look for recommendations from the general meetings in Koha. The board > will also be responsible for reporting the status, funds available, and > goals of the Fund during each general meeting. > > > *Grants Committee:* > > The Board will establish a Grants Committee, with the purpose of making > decisions about the allocation of funds to advance the work of the Koha > project. > > Members of the Grants Committee may be members of the Board or other > persons with suitable qualifications and experience as determined by the > Board. The Board will determine a Charter for the Grants Committee that > will describe the procedures to be followed to promote efficacy, > efficiency, equity and transparency in the allocation of funds. > > The Board will publish at least annually the details of grants allocated > with sufficient detail to ensure transparency. > > > *Goals:* (These can all be adjusted based on recommendations from Koha > Community) > > First goal should be to hire a person to complete sign-offs and only > sign-offs for the community development process. > > Further goals will be decided in time and as funds increase. Board members > will decide on future improvements with recommendations from the Koha > community general meetings. > > Another longer term possibility - is that the fund can sponsor some > community members for attendance at international conferences/hackfests, > students for attending local KohaCons, and sponsoring schools/universities > with leading 2 week Koha academy sessions for getting more people > interested/involved in the Koha project. > > > *Avenues for Fund Raising:* > > Donate money now button on the homepage of Koha - and code for that button > will be made available for anyone to put that on their own home pages, etc. > > Reach out to all support companies that are listed on the Koha community > website for donations to help seed the fund. > > Board members from around the world will be responsible for leading > local/regional fund raising campaigns > > Board members will pursue and write grant proposals for alternative fund > generation. Think Mellon grants here. > > This paper is presented to the community for endorsement of the idea, so > that we can move forward promptly toward this goal. Let's definitely > discuss during the December General Meeting and we can vote then or if the > community decides - vote in January. This will only be a vote on YES move > forward, NO do not do this (nothing about structure etc.). > > Regards, > Brendan Gallagher, Bob Birchall and Paul Poulain > _______________________________________________ > Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org > [email protected] > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha > _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org [email protected] http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
