[Osmf-talk] Consultation on fundraising strategy

[Mikel Maron]

Hey everybody
I appreciate the insightful responses here, and want to add some additional context and clarifications.
The OpenStreetMap Foundation currently enjoys a stable financial position with sufficient reserves, which we intend to maintain. Given our newly increased expenses, it is vital to raise our income to sustain this level of expenditure. Should it become necessary to reduce costs in the future, we want to remain well-prepared to do so without jeopardizing the project.
Our costs have primarily increased due to strategic investments aimed at amplifying mapper contribution to OpenStreetMap, on enhancing usage of OpenStreetMap data, and on supporting OpenStreetMap Foundation volunteers. These investments include hiring a few critical personnel and bolstering our infrastructure. This approach ensures more people can volunteer as their time allows, resulting in efficient volunteer time and resource allocation. Despite these investments, the OSMF's budget remains frugal for a project of the size and importance of OSM. You can find the budget at https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02/Budget. Roland and Guillaume are working on making our income and expenses easier to visualise and understand, and on more simple budgetary controls.
We believe our fundraising target is realistically achievable. In 2020, I led efforts that secured over half the 2023 target from companies alone. Previous individual donations campaigns have also reached their goals. We now aim to unite these efforts, which requires substantial organization. To streamline this process, we intend to hire someone to focus on organizing fundraising, and not reduce volunteerism, but foster an environment that encourages anyone to volunteer time towards the effort. We are closely coordinating this community-wide effort together with local chapters to ensure mutual benefits.
We have not yet discussed the strategies, methods, or channels that will be employed for the fundraising efforts, and are interested in community feedback on the effectiveness or appropriateness of certain fundraising techniques.
Please note that individual membership fees would not be considered as part of the funds raised.
Our long-term goal is to establish a sustainable giving model. This entails developing systems for regular individual contributions and organizing substantial gifts into an endowment for multi-year support, which we aim to have set up before the next board election.
Regarding concerns about tile costs and potential incomes sources, such as charging for conference slots: The cost of serving tiles is negligible, thanks to Fastly's generous support. The Operations Working Group (OWG) actively manages access to prevent service abuse ( https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/). Although there is no State of the Map conference this year, its sponsorship income would not significantly add to our overall earnings. We run the conference as a community event without offering dedicated speaking slots for sponsorship.
While the OSMF is a UK-registered company, it does not hold charity status, making donations non-tax-deductable. We plan to address this issue in the future by registering as a charity within the European Union. Guillaume and Sarah are actively working on it, but the process will probably take until the end of the year to complete.
The proposal to use a map visualization to show progress of the campaign and highlight donors is an excellent idea. I would love to collaborate with anyone interested in implementing it.
If you have relevant experience in finance or fundraising and are interested in contributing to the growth and sustainability of OpenStreetMap, we invite you to join our Budget and Fundraising Committee. By lending your expertise, you will play an important role in shaping the financial future of the OSMF and helping us secure the necessary resources to support our initiatives. Your insights and experiences will be invaluable in identifying effective strategies and innovative approaches to fundraising. Get in touch with us about helping at board at osmfoundation.org.
Thanks all for your constructive input and the engaging discussion. We value your feedback, and encourage replies with suggestions or concerns. Your input helps us understand the community's needs and expectations, and enables us to make well-informed decisions.
-Mikel
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