I just did a bit of a brain dump and after doing so realised that the meeting notes are largely for a specific type of fundraising campaign. Some of my points below are more to develop a fundraising strategy which I would love to do if it would be helpful?
I have left the points as a few touch on elements which might help your end of year fundraiser. I have added a few specific points about a regular giving campaign at the end.
Fundraising
Great fundraisers are great story tellers.
People give for a number of reasons, but you can largely say they give to affect the change they want to see in the world.
Examples: End world hunger, Give the gift of water, Help teach a child
What is the positive impact that Gnome has on the world? What story do we want to tell? It would seem Gnome has a few it could possibly tell.
Off the top of my head I could see:
Stories of liberty, freedom and privacy
Appeals to libertarians
Stories of bringing computing to people with disabilities
Appeals to disabled advocates and organisations
Stories about bringing computing to the disadvantage as software is free
Appeals to many social groups and organisations depending on framing
Stories of how OSS is bringing software to 2nd and 3rd world countries
Appeals to organisations and individuals that want to fight poverty
You can also tell these stories in the inverse, for example imagine a world without Gnome. Highlight the impacts of the loss of Gnome on the world or an individual’s world.
One of the story ideas in the notes was reaching out to Sam Hartman, a blind user. What impact would the loss of Gnome have on Sam?…emotion and feelings is what gets people to give.
Your marketing manager will likely want to have a say on the framing of the stories as framing has an impact on the brand. I’m sure there are other story angles, identifying this area will help expand the fundraising efforts beyond the Gnome community.
The Gnome community is certainly the best place for a regular giving program which seems to be the focus. Do we have any information on why FoG currently donate?
The meeting notes seem to suggest that it’s to be part of a community?
A great message for certain and likely very important for some but it does limit fundraising efforts to the Gnome community only, Gnome’s impact on the world is far bigger so other messaging is needed if the goal is to reach beyond the core community.
When it comes to fundraising, there are a number of areas which can be tackled to bring in additional funds such as:
- Grants
- Donations
- Regular Giving
- Crowdfunding
- Membership/Alumni
- Events
- Sales/Earned Income
- Community-Business Partnerships (Sponsorships)
I believe there are a lot of opportunities that could be developed in this space.
I’m not to clear on what work is needed given Gnome brings in 800k which means other fundraising activities are happening?? Or is this largely from the supporting organisations and there is scope to do other fundraising activities?
Sorry for all the questions, would enjoy developing a fundraising strategy but wouldn’t be able to do it in isolation as don’t know enough about the community, brand and objectives of Gnome.
End of Year Regular Giving Campaign
Signing up regular givers online is some of the hardest fundraising in my experience so you really want to use every tactic you can.
A charity that does this type of fundraising really well is Charity Water. They are currently running an appeal called spring for new regular givers which I believe to be the focus of your end of year fundraiser.
Charity Water: https://www.charitywater.org/#
Spring Appeal: https://www.charitywater.org/donate/the-spring
Things to note on Spring appeal:
• Clear call to action
a. “Join our community of monthly donors bringing clean water to people in need” What is Gnome?
• Clear mission statement
a. “brining clean water to people in need”
• Great story to engage you
a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdBG5VO01e0&feature=emb_title
• Dollar handles (the impact your $10 will have to the mission)
• Engaging pictures, humans looking directly at you and generally smiling or showing cause work best
• Positive impact displayed in proof section
• Quotes from regular givers on why they are part of it with pictures
• 2nd call to action to sign up to newsletter to capture some those not ready to donate yet but maybe in the future
General Notes / Thoughts on Support Gnome Page
https://www.gnome.org/support-gnome/
To really make this page pop a clear organisational mission statement needs to be developed with a why, as this will frame the visuals and messaging.
Currently the mission statement listed is “to create a competitive free desktop” but there is no why? The why is what makes people support you.
An example might be “We believe the power of computing should be available to everyone regardless of wealth or position in society which is why we create a free competitive desktop operating system for the world”
This would then lend itself to different messaging throughout the page.
For example:
Become a Friend of Gnome
With a monthly contribution, Friends of Gnome help bring free desktop computing to the world. Become a Friend of Gnome and be part of a movement that helps to build amazing free software for everyone.
CTA: Join Us
Donate to Gnome
Help give the power of free computing to the world
$25 dollar donation keeps Gnome infrastructure running for 5 mins.
$50 dollars pays for a conference pass for a developer
$100 dollars helps rent the tables at a conference to help spread Gnome
CTA: Donate Now
*Above examples need to based on actual facts and numbers, just made these up for effect. Also tone might be totally off for the current community. Would need guidance on this.
The first one surely would not be too hard to work out and gives donors something tangible however.