Leverage and Extend the FundOSS fundraising format

[gusaus]

FundOSS is a fundraising initiative that leverages Open Collective and the Democratic Funding model to support open source projects and programs.

Objective/Purpose

Democratic Funding (also known as Quadratic Funding) is a mechanism designed to distribute funds in a fair and democratic manner. It leverages the principle that matching smaller contributions proportionally incentivizes broader participation. By implementing Democratic Funding, the WordPress Community can allocate matching funds to projects, groups, and strategic initiatives based on a formula that rewards grassroots support. This model not only encourages individual contributions but also fosters collaboration and community engagement.

Potential Funding Rounds

Each quarterly round can have multiple focus areas with their own match fund.

• WordPress project and community - Participants could include any Make Team, Working Group, Community project, or program on Open Collective (stand-alone collective or project on the WordPress Collective).
• Specific interest areas (could be coupled with do_action #21)
  • Education
  • Arts & Culture
  • Civic Tech
  • Mutual Aid
  • Publishing & Media
  • Music

Action items/todos

NextGen Event

Initial Proposal and review

• [x] Have Community Team members do an initial review and provide feedback on questions and suggestions in the Google doc and Canvas
• [x] Submit as a NextGen Event (via the application referenced in this post)
• [ ] Address any questions/concerns about the proposal
• [ ] Work with the Community Team to refine during the planning stage (if the proposal is accepted)

Planning and implementation

• [ ] Determine and secure resources needed to move forward
• [ ] Create organizer guides
• [ ] Set up on Open Collective (see below)
  • [ ] Test/improve the Open Collective funding flow
  • [ ] Advise/train Open Collective users and admins
• [ ] Test/improve the FundOSS platform
  • [ ] Advise/train platform users and admins

Participation in 'WordPress' Democratic Funding rounds

• [ ] Create a "WordPress" project on FundOSS or a stand-alone Fund
• [ ] Create a “WordPress” collective

[gusaus]

Prompted by @hellojuliarose in Slack (see below) I went ahead and submitted what we've outlined in the Google doc as a Next Gen event via https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/next-generation-of-wordpress-events

You don’t need to have the final form of your event in mind; it can be a rough idea that you continue to refine during the planning stage.

The application question about timing prompted this answer:

Ideally we'd start with a limited pilot and begin the initial fundraising phase during the balance of Giving Season (i.e. the last few weeks of this month!). The inaugural two week funding round would commence in January or February.

Regardless if that's realistic, we now have (at least) one event format we can solidify in collaboration with multiple teams!

[gusaus]

Due to the fundraising component @hellojuliarose checked with Harmony, who manages finances for the WordPress Foundation and WordPress Community Support, PBC, about the feasibility of a fundraising event. This was her initial response (with some initial attempts at clarification):

This is something that is geared more towards WPF fundraising versus an event

While there is a fundraising component, this is very much an event format that would involve multiple teams, create/extend a variety of tools and resources, provide training opportunities, and grow the local and global community.

....seems like this is a fundraising campaign where WPF would not only request funding but also fund other outside projects through Open Collective to gain exposure.

IF either of these WordPress entities were involved, the scope/commitment would primarily be limited to finding sponsors/funders for the matching pool. This is because (once set up on Open Collective) we'd be leveraging/extending an existing program (see the details and FAQ for the FundOSS pilot) where the FundOSS team and partners provide everything from the platform, training, organizer guides, Democratic/Quadratic funding model (see https://www.wtfisqf.com/), and mechanism to allocate/distribute funds to WordPress participants (via Open Collective, the FundOSS Fund and Open Source Collective).

I tried to provide more details about Open Collective and Team roles/requirements in the proposal.

[gusaus]

I liked many of the ideas you have proposed, including Google Summer of Code and FundOSS frameworks, the only challenges is finding contributors to work on these projects, given the extremely limited bandwidth we have, and the fact that many of us are volunteering in their free time.

I wanted to follow up on this bit of Slack discussion with @harishankerr as the fundraisers referenced in this issue would enable additional contributors and/or contributor time.

While it's not (yet) clear if/how the Community Team and/or the WordPress Foundation would officially support (think we could make a stronger case if we could make it a Contributor Working Group project https://github.com/WordPress/wp-contributor-working-group-tracker/discussions/11)), FundOSS would provide a way for projects, initiatives, teams, and working groups on Open Collective #24 to test an innovative funding model using an external program/platform they can opt into.