Patrons and Mecenae Program

João Azevedo Patrício Public Seen by 189

As we have already a Bank Account we need to start collecting donations and therefore define for our budget the way we are going to spend it. I believe, but need to confirm, that the definition of spending (using % of budget from donations) needs to be approved by members in general assembly. But after that we can manage the money according with that definitions, showing only accountability reports every year.
So, this discussion server 2 main goals:
1. The definition of donation money spending;
2. The ways and tools used to collect donations.

just to help understand The Patron Program has 2 types of entities, Mecenae and Sponsors. The Sponsor is someone that gives money, in exchange for sponsorship (publicity) and when reaches a determined level, the seat on the Advisory Board of OMA. the Mecenae is someone that gives with no back, is a fully altruistic person, that has just a thanks letter and if authorized a name listed in the list of patrons, if not, the reference to the number of anonymous givers.

I leave my 2 proposals for discussion:

I suggest we show the budget from donations, somthing like this:

the money you donate will be applied by the OpenMandriva Association according to:

20% to Infrastructure
40% to Existing OpenMandriva Projects
10% to Innovation and New Projects creation
20% to Marketing and Publicity, and Events Organization or participation
10% to Other Projects, Associations, that develop tools that we use and that make possible our work

(this applies to donations not sponsorship, money from sponsorship should be treated differently, as sponsors - this refers only to Mecenae)

Payment Methods, for now I suggest to use simple online transfer like Flattr and Bitcoin and direct bank transfer. Also Kate suggest a Paypal account.

Alexander Khryukin Wed 28 Aug 2013 11:22AM

litecoin it’s second popular crypto currency
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litecoin
Need to add it to payment methods

João Azevedo Patrício Wed 28 Aug 2013 1:40PM

@alexanderkhryukin thanks for that. Note taken. :-)

Raphaël Jadot Wed 28 Aug 2013 2:50PM

I agree about having an easy way to pay, maybe flattr is a good solution.
I hate ebay, they are crooks, but if we need them... ok.

About money repartition, I guess all should depend on the needs. Maybe we could check the needs and then see how to allocate?

João Azevedo Patrício Wed 28 Aug 2013 2:55PM

@raphaeljadot I agree on that -check the needs and the allocate. But I believe we should have (we are talking only of donations, money people give of free will) a grid for people to know how we will spend it. The % I used were based on others, but also have a focus on a political view, were 50 goes to projects (inovation and developement) because people gives us money mainly for that, then 40% goes to management and 10% for our own helping of others (like Loomio, KDE eV, other Free Software that we use and that we cannot help with our budget per si). It can be changed of course with time and experience, but now, we have no expenditures, so it's hard to evaluate... So is the first stone, more stones need to be thrown..

Kate Lebedeff Wed 28 Aug 2013 4:04PM

I am not sure, that we want to block ourselves from the very start, fixing % - where and how what is spent. I think it should be flexible and depend on particular current situations mainly.

Anurag Bhandari Wed 28 Aug 2013 6:07PM

Thanks for bringing this up, Joao. It's time to collect some funds :)

About the %age allocation of funds, I share @katelebedeff 's views here. At any rate, for now we can merge the 10% allocate to Other Projects, Associations, that develop tools that we use and that make possible our work with the 20% of Marketing and Publicity, and Events Organization or participation, making it a total of 30% as I feel that is more important in the beginning.

João Azevedo Patrício Thu 29 Aug 2013 9:44AM

@anuragbhandari @katelebedeff @raphaeljadot I guess if atributing % is some how a "constrain" we can had only a list of places where to spend, this means a list, without the %.

Kate Lebedeff Thu 29 Aug 2013 10:33AM

@joaoazevedopatricio1 I think that would be wise, to have just the list, yes

João Azevedo Patrício Thu 29 Aug 2013 11:08AM

@katelebedeff ok. so i'll put a votation on the table.

Poll Created Thu 29 Aug 2013 11:11AM

Donation Money allocation list Closed Sun 1 Sep 2013 1:10PM

Do you agree on this donations money expenditure?

donations money will be applied on:
-Infrastructure;
- Existing OpenMandriva Projects;
- Innovation and New Projects creation;
- Marketing and Publicity, and Events Organization or participation;
- Supporting other Projects, Associations, that develop tools that we use and that make possible our work.