opensourcedesign/funding

:moneybag: Resources, options, and thoughts about funding FOSS projects

Funding

To create legimately usable Free software application that are usable and well designed, funding is of utmost importance. This section of the OSD is dedicated to documenting potential avenues of funding as well as providing resources, options towards funding!

Types of Funding

The main categories of funding that seem most relevant and battled tested in produced decent results are:

• Crowdfunding
• End User Purchases
• Grants
• Industry Partnerships

Non-Monetary Funding

• Employees who are allowed to work "part-time" on personal projects
• People who commit to finishing X, Y, and Z features (not money but just as good?)

funding's Issues

PrototypeFund.de

WEBSITE: https://prototypefund.de/
FUNDS AVAILABLE: €1,2 Millionen
AVAILABLE FOR: "für Open-Source-Projekte"

Information:

"Der Prototype Fund unterstützt Softwareentwicklerinnen, Hackerinnen und Kreative dabei, ihre Ideen vom Konzept bis zur ersten Demo zu entwickeln.
Mit einer Förderung von bis zu 30.000€ könnt Ihr sechs Monate lang Code schreiben und Open-Source-Prototypen entwickeln. Wir fördern Projekte in den Bereichen Civic Tech, Data Literacy und Datensicherheit."

My bad German understanding is this is a fund from the German government which is open to "any open source project".

The fund essentially "wants to fund Prototypes, so ideally something that barely exists but will
exist after these 6 months."

The applicant must "be a German resident during the grant period". The application needs to be submitted in German because the origin of the money is the German government.

I'd like to discuss if this is applicable to something we could work on - some practical project.

Thoughts?

Look into benefits of Open Source Initiative Incubator program

While at FOSDEM this past weekend, I saw a lightening talk by cool project called Snowdrift.coop who are building something exciting- a means to getting sustainable / ethical funding for FOSS projects. Once they launch their platform, we should definitely consider being a project on there to

However, they also mentioned being a part of the Open Source Intiative's Incubator which makes it easy for open source projects to accept donations among other things. It's worth looking into this for our community and projects!

Using this repository to source funding goals and sources

What

Right now, there is not a clear place to discuss funding models. This repo is nominally listed as the place to do that, but there's some discussion and works already happening to move all of the content here to opensourcedesign/organization (see opensourcedesign/organization#42). I think it would be better to have all of the content here, and to streamline how we open issues using better signposting.

How

I would like to propose the following:

• Edit the README to include a note saying that you should open issues if you know of a) an organization or group or project that could use funding, or b) if you know of a place where people could apply to get earmarked funding (which is different from money that comes from normal jobs or client work, I believe).
• Include an ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md for GitHub specifying one of the two suggestions above, so that users could easily fill out forms given what they see. This may not be totally necessary, but it might help.
• Using these labels: meta for discussions like this, source for a source of funding, and recipient (or something better? project?) for a project that can receive money.

What about our current slush fund?

Currently, OSD has $450~ in funds yearly (source). I think that the majority of this is lying fallow - some of it needs to be used to maintain the website URLs, but the rest isn't allotted. What I propose is that every month we divide the annual funds into monthly units (so, 1/12th of the money - roughly $35 a month) - and split that money among the projects people want to support. This would help us get our name out there, help make better FLOSS design tools, and help people feel happier that their money is going somewhere badass.

How do we choose which project?

Any easy way to do a poll on GitHub about how to allocate money is to make a GitHub issue each month with a comment for each open Funding issue (easy to find), and then have people thumbs up each comment as they see fit. We can then divide the money equally, by dividing up the number of thumbs per project versus the total number. There are other ways we could look into too.

Why bother?

Because the more the money is used, the more likely it is that people will realize we do good work, and the more likely others are going to be keen to donate.

Why can't this all be done in the organization repo?

I think that this topic is too large and is an umbrella for a whole bunch of possible conversations about funding. I don't want to limit those to what people think fits within organization.

What about the website?

Well, currently, opensourcedesign.net/organization/#funding isn't the most helpful, and opensourcedesign.net/organization/funding/ doesn't work or I can't find a link to it. I think that having clear sources here will make it easier to make a better website in the end.

Shouldn't we discuss this?

We did! On the call opensourcedesign/events#49 (comment). We can discuss it further here, and in the next call. \o/

New Media Ventures Innovation Fund - deadline Friday March 3

Seen on a mailing list I am on. It may fit with open source, and design orgs/projects which have a social good/civil society interest.

I know nothing more than the below, and the links. Have a look there.

---

"We are excited to announce the 6th Open Call for the New Media Ventures
Innovation Fund!"

The deadline for applications is Friday March 3, at 5 pm PT.

New Media Ventures is a seed fund and network of investors and donors
financing media and technology startups that build advocacy movements,
create new narratives and drive civic engagement. Over the past 6 years,
we have financed such powerful social change startups as Upworthy,
responsible for making social good content go viral, and SumOfUs, a 10
million member movement for corporate accountability.

The New Media Ventures Innovation Fund finances early-stage, for-profit
and nonprofit startups with $50K, participation in NMV’s startup support
program and access to NMV’s network of angel investors.

http://www.newmediaventures.org/6th-innovation-fund-open-call/

During this Open Call, we are looking for companies and organizations working to resist fear, lies and hate as well as those focused on rebuilding, and using this unprecedented moment of citizen mobilization to shape a better future. We are particularly interested in projects in the following categories:

Organizing newly politicized people. This could include organizations that are effectively blending national reach via digital tools with local impact via on-the-ground organizing but also best-in-class technology that can help organizations do that work.
Building better media. We are looking for ways to burst filter bubbles, fight fake news and dark influence. We also want to hear about new business models that reward quality and engagement, solutions that elevate new voices with more diverse perspectives, and creative distribution strategies.

---

Explore "recurring" funding platforms / approaches for projects

Ported this issue with thoughts from #2 to keep things focused, as @davelab6 brought up

I've followed Snowdrift for a few years, and I think their model could be adopted by any project using a simple spreadsheet and gumroad or so; the fact that NO project has tried a 'mvp' approach is worrying.

I think having a dedicated platform / tool / community is often helpful in growing involvement much more so than just isolated "donate" buttons + spreadsheets (hidden from public), something our species brains, mirror neurons, and social feedback loops... I dunno!

Unless I'm misunderstanding "NO project has tried a mvp..." I think a lot of FOSS makers / tinkerers don't have a "product" focus, nor business acumen / interest in raising money and keeping that whole side of things going- but I don't think that means they wouldn't quite their day jobs to work on their passion project, if they could make a decent living!

Exploring these sort of unusual funding / product development models is something i've been interested in since joining this community and open source in general!

"Creative Cloud" fundraiser for Inkscape

I think Inkscape is the tool every free software designer relies on the most. It's really sad that it's only being developed by a handful of people in their spare time, with new releases coming out every 5 years or so.

So here's a crazy idea: What if we all chipped in the equivalent of a Creative Cloud subscription every year? If everyone in this group contributed 100$ or so a year it would give the project some financial stability and it should be possible to get a developer to work on it at least part-time.

I've donated before, but when it's just me it feels like it's just a drop in the bucket. Framing it as the equivalent of a Creative Cloud subscription makes the value we're all getting from it more tangible. If there was a community effort with a lot of people, I think we'd all be more motivated, because it could actually make a difference.

This could also be the start of a closer collaboration between us as designers and the Inkscape developers (there are quite a few things about the Inkscape UI I'd love to tweak :D).

How to post funding opportunities?

The /funding repo seems more focused on a meta-discussion of funding types and their benefits. Might it also take a similar approach to /events and /jobs, and also support listing of currently open funding opportunities to capture information such as #5 (and the upcoming UXFund) ?

Outlandish funding for "open source projects with social impact"

Hi all,

I saw Outlandish mentioned on a mailing list I'm on. They are a funding org that fund projects with social impact.

From their website:

Outlandish is making fellowships available for people who are using the Internet and digital technologies to address social issues. The fellowships include funding and other forms of support to allow participants to start their own projects.

The aim of the fellowship is to support work that matches the mission of Outlandish, and to expand the network of people that we actively collaborate with. The ideal candidates for the fellowship are working on interesting and socially relevant problems, and would also benefit from the expertise and connections that Outlandish has.

We are organising a launch event on March 15th. It will be an opportunity for everybody interested in the fellowship to ask questions and discuss their ideas informally. As we hope to run the application process in a way that is focused more on interaction than paperwork, we encourage everybody interested in the fellowship to attend.

What would it be like to be a fellow?

• Fellows receive financial support allowing them to work part-time or full-time on their ideas. We have the chance to give 10 fellowships of £5,000 and 2 larger fellowships of up to £25,000.
• Fellows will develop their own project related to technology and social change (see below for our focus). The output could be, for instance, a prototype or MVP for a digital service or a piece of open source software.

---

More here: http://www.outlandish.com/fellowship/

Hope this is interesting.

Bernard

Accessnow and Lush "Digital Fund" for "grassroots activists and digital charities"

Hi all,

A possible funding stream for projects with a specific digital security focus:

"The Digital Fund will support grassroots activists and charities protecting freedom of expression in the digital era and fighting to keep the internet free, open and safe."

WEBSITE: http://digitalfund.org.uk/

DEADLINE: January 15. Feel free to write with questions.

More information:

Accessnow is a technology company focused on civil activism, digital rights. They provide tech support, infrastructure for activist and charity organisations.

Lush is the shop that makes smelly soaps and cosmetics!

Background information:
Access Now partnered with the ethical UK-based cosmetics company to raise awareness around internet shutdowns and created a special product called an Error 404 bath bomb.

You can read more about our collaboration here: https://uk.lush.com/tag/keepiton

Profits from the sale of the Error 404 bath bomb -- which are still continuing -- are placed into a Digital Fund, with the aim of raising 250,000 pounds. Grants are a maximum of 10,000 pounds each (about U.S. $12,600 today.)

The first application round is fairly simple. Also note that Lush's funding flexibility allows the company to support small grassroots groups or individuals who do not have official charity / non-profit status. Applications do not need to be focused on internet shutdowns to be considered.

http://digitalfund.org.uk/

The deadline is January 15. Feel free to write with questions.

I have no more information apart from this.