[Osmf-talk] Consultation on fundraising strategy

Fri Mar 17 17:15:38 UTC 2023

Perhaps it is time to look at costs.  Ten years ago the cost of electricity
for a Windows server running 24 / 7 / 365 a year for three years was
greater than the cost of the hardware and I don't believe that has changed
much.  Some other vendors say their systems are better than this but when
you look at the cost per MIP their cost is higher.  The machines themselves
are more expensive.

ARM based servers with their RISC architecture might do a little better.

So probably our greatest cost is electricity either directly or including
cooling.  There is a reason why many data farms are located where they are
and the cost of electricity is one of the reasons.

Servers are difficult to size, in general you buy one with more capacity
than you need.

Would running OSM in the cloud be cheaper?  I'd probably go with Microsoft
and switch to SQL Server but then we all have our personal preferences but
mine are based on leading a team of DBAs looking after more than 100
servers running a variety of operating systems and databases.

The second thing I'd look at is the efficiency of getting money from
donators to OSM.  PayPal takes a cut on the way and a more hidden cut in
the exchange rate.

Bank wires are expensive at both ends.  Within Canada we can do low cost
interact transfers, within the UK again payments into a bank account are
low cost and very fast.

One thought would be talk nicely to one of the charities that gives us some
funds today.  Sometimes these funds can be earmarked for a particular
project.  Mapping?  Perhaps and let people wishing to donate to OSM donate
via. xyz charity.

Cheerio John

On Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 10:24 Allan Mustard <allan at mustard.net> wrote:

> Well, I must disagree with you, Steve. The conference is a side issue and
> was not a function of the Board of Directors or its members, so it's not
> fair to pin lack of a SOTM this year on the Board.
>
> Now, as to the costs, the community survey conducted in 2021 showed that
> just over 81 percent of respondents approved or strongly approved of the
> Board’s decision to begin raising funds via large donations.  Only 4.3%
> disapproved or strongly disapproved. The reasons for this attitude were
> reflected in the priorities the community voted for, with the top priority
> being reliability and stability of the platform. This community response
> drove the Board's decision to contract for services of a site reliability
> engineer (to ensure system reliability) and to take over the cost of a
> software developer (the ID developer contract) when previous sponsors of
> that work withdrew. Just over three quarters of respondents to the survey
> approved of the contract to engage a full‐time iD maintainer. About 5.9% of
> respondents disapproved or strongly disapproved. In short, there was
> overwhelming support for the Board decisions that created these financial
> obligations.[1]
>
> As an aside, support from Foundation members mirrored support from the
> community as a whole. The differences in mean responses amounted to a few
> hundredths of a percent.[1]
>
> Further, 81.4% of respondents approved or strongly approved of the Board’s
> funding of short‐term grants to upgrade Nominatim, osm2pgsql, and
> Potlatch.  Slightly under 4 percent disapproved or strongly disapproved.
> This was the least controversial feedback question in the 2021 survey. [1]
>
> I don't see here a "bailout" but rather a concerted effort to a) establish
> a better budgeting process so OSMF can better support community and
> Foundation member priorities, b) better stage ourselves to be a "map of the
> world that anyone can use" that is the first map of choice, while adhering
> to the proven concepts of crowd sourcing and volunteerism (for which we
> thank you, Steve), and c) constrain growth in financial obligations, based
> on the draft strategic plan on which Craig Allan, Sarah Hoffman, and I are
> working, the outline of which has been out for public comment since
> 2021.[2] [3]
>
> My two manats' worth.
>
> cheers,
> Allan Mustard
>
> [1]
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/4/44/2021_OSMF_survey_summary_stats.ods
> [2] https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan_2023_Cycle
> [3] https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan_Outline#Preamble
>
>
> On 3/17/2023 9:02 AM, Steve Coast wrote:
>
> I’m also highlighting the incompetence of the OSMF. If they can’t run a
> conference, or cut costs, does it make any sense at all to send them boat
> loads of money?
>
> It’s pretty clear to some audiences at least that we need to rethink the
> OSMF, not bail them out:
>
> The @openstreetmap Foundation seems to in some kind of zombie/failure
> state and needs a reboot. Agree? https://t.co/GWMlJ4pHYO #OpenStreetMap
> [image: twitter.2.ico]
> <https://twitter.com/stevec/status/1636525391350480896?s=46&t=puDs0lWV9Yc38mk7hFGn-Q>
> stevecoast.eth
> <https://twitter.com/stevec/status/1636525391350480896?s=46&t=puDs0lWV9Yc38mk7hFGn-Q>
> twitter.com
> <https://twitter.com/stevec/status/1636525391350480896?s=46&t=puDs0lWV9Yc38mk7hFGn-Q>
>
> <https://twitter.com/stevec/status/1636525391350480896?s=46&t=puDs0lWV9Yc38mk7hFGn-Q>
>
>
> Best
>
> Steve
>
> On Mar 17, 2023, at 1:25 AM, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch> <simon at poole.ch>
> wrote:
>
> 
>
> Steve is just being snarky.
>
> - historically the surplus from conferences was essentially the OSMFs sole
> source of non-earmarked funds. However that hasn't been true for quite a
> long time.
>
> - corporation tax is due on all such activities (conferences, merch etc),
> and yes when you are selling something to somebody you have to provide them
> with the goods etc. (aka more expenses).
>
> Conferences are not likely to go away as one source of funds for the OSMF,
> however scaling the activities so that they could conceivably produce half
> a million post tax would seem to be a very tall order.
>
> Simon
> Am 17.03.2023 um 01:26 schrieb john whelan:
>
> I think this idea has merit.  I also think there should be a way for even
> a small business to use OSM to display their location.  That way it can be
> a business expense rather than a questionable donation?
>
> Are we set up as a charity in any country?  Normally I would expect to get
> a deduction on my tax bill if I donate to a charity but only if it is a
> Canadian registered charity.
>
> Cheerio John
>
> On Thu, Mar 16, 2023, 20:15 Steve Coast <steve at stevecoast.com> wrote:
>
>> My idea would be to have some kind of conference event, where sponsors
>> could pay to get priority speaking slots and booths.
>>
>> They could get their logo prominently displayed on the website, and on,
>> say, a conference t-shirt. The pricing could be set to both cover the
>> conference but also there could be large leftover funds to run the
>> foundation if it were well managed.
>>
>> One of the many advantages of this is that companies often find it easier
>> to fund something if there is a reason, something they get in exchange,
>> like conference slots and so on, rather than throwing money in to an
>> eternal black hole, with nothing to show for it.
>>
>> Perhaps someone has had this idea already or even implemented it in the
>> past?
>>
>>
>> Another idea could be to somehow lower costs, perhaps by removing
>> unnecessary or superfluous costs which may have grown dramatically over
>> time. Or perhaps by making sure OSMF costs only directly benefit OSM,
>> instead of, say, offering mapping services for free to the entire internet,
>> or paying for people and associated costs which could be replaced by
>> ChatGPT or Excel.
>>
>>
>> A good starting point for such discussions could be, what is the money
>> specifically going towards, and why is OSMF spending it that way?
>>
>> If OSMF got a very large donation, say in the form of cryptocurrency,
>> that donation could be used to hedge cost variations over time and ensure
>> continuity.
>>
>> Best
>>
>> Steve
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 16, 2023, at 12:17 PM, Mikel Maron <mikel.maron at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> For 2023, the OSMF Board has decided to target a balanced budget. Given
>> our expected income and expenses, there is a gap of approximately 500K GBP
>> that we need to fundraise for.
>>
>>
>> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02-09#On_2023_budget
>>
>> In the fall, we started planning for this by taking part in a workshop on
>> fundraising strategy and operations Board/Minutes/2022-10 -
>> OpenStreetMap Foundation
>> <https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2022-10#Fundraising_workshops>
>> .
>>
>> What has been clear is that we need a diversified campaign engaging wide
>> community for small amounts, and target larger asks to businesses and major
>> giving from individuals. This needs to be organized and executed
>> effectively – there is a lot of communication, outreach, development of new
>> mechanisms for giving, etc.
>>
>> We are considering contracting an experience consultant who is already
>> engaged in OpenStreetMap community to assist us in this process. The usual
>> set up for such is a small percentage fee of what’s raised. They would work
>> closely with the Board and fundraising committee, as well as share details
>> of process publicly in regular diary entries. All of this is designed in
>> mind to make the fundraising campaign reflect how we work as a community.
>> We think this is low risk, high reward, and that dedicated attention to
>> fundraising is necessary to make it successful.
>>
>> We’ll need everyone’s help as well – from getting the word out,
>> creatively engaging potential donors, to making asks, to of course kicking
>> in a bit of money too.
>>
>> Please share viewpoints here, or if you prefer directly with
>> board at osmfoundation.org. We will receive your input over the next week
>> until March 22.
>> -Mikel
>>
>> * Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron
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