[Koha] Proposal for fund raising for Koha - to discuss/vote at December General Meeting.

[Marc Véron]

+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
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