Resource Development Strategy

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Introduction

For updates, see Fundraising Strategy Log

First notes - http://piratepad.net/Egu6wQCWS7

this goes on wiki at Resource Development Strategy

Introduction

Here is th e near-term and 2 year plan for resource development. Julia Valentine is heading the resource development effort:

See overview of GVCS strategic development - [[GVCS_50/2/2]


Greetings Open Source Ecology Community!

My name is Julia Valentine and I have the great honor to serve OSE as the Resource Development Director. I came to OSE through my involvement in re-localization efforts in Sebastopol CA, where I live with my family. I am a mother of 3 boys, a Waldorf kindergarten teacher, Permaculture teacher, and a Core Team member of Transition Sebastopol. My work with Permaculture and the Transition Town movement left me feeling that there was something missing in our approach to resilience. Early last year a friend emailed me a link to OSE. I was immediately interested, and knew that the Open Source model of collaboration was the missing piece. Transition Sebastopol booked Marcin to speak to our community in November of last year, and I was inspired to lend my time and energy to the project.

Since that time, I have been working closely with Marcin and Angel Rodriguez to develop a strategy and platform for funding. Thus far we have concentrated on the organizational overlays necessary for growth. This includes partnering with a fiscal sponsor-The Terra Foundation- to obtain 501c3 tax exemption, developing a streamlined mission and values statement, and working with Angel- our Chief Operating Officer- to clarify roles and structural needs within the organization to support the growth we anticipate over the coming months. With this piece recently completed, we will be moving on to the meat of fundraising.

Angel and I will be working together to bring together the nonprofit funding possibilities, as well as develop a private sector business model as another means to fund the development of the GVCS. Both processes will be documented and posted on our wiki and forum as we progress. We will share with you the successes and failures as they arise. Please visit our Resource Development Forum to follow our progress and to lend your valuable input.

Currently the plan for non profit funding is to work toward developing teams of people who work in three major categories: individual donors, grant writing, and awards. In the mean time Angel and I will be pursuing all of these options to the best of our abilities. 75% of all not for profit funding comes from individual donors. This will be our main focus for funding, then splitting our time between grants and awards equally. Isaiah Saxon is in charge of our Kickstarter campaign, which along with the True Fans[a] is the bulk of our crowd sourcing endeavors. We feel confident that this strategy will work for OSE, and we look forward to collaboration from the community at large to move this effort forward. Please feel free to contact me at julia at opensourceecology.org with any questions or comments.

With Gratitude, Julia

Strategy

  • Adrian Hong is serving as OSE business/nonprofit strategy advisor
  • First item is to prepare the Donor Relations Package (DRP)
  • Adrian will facilitate connections within TED community
  • Aligning the opensourceecology.org with DRP
    • Adrian will assist on the message
  • Involve Isaiah Saxon with further media development
  • Secure office equipment for Missouri and California branches of OSE
  • ?Donor visits to Factor e Farm
    • ?Requires preparation of infrastructure
    • ?Mobile Microhouse?
  • CiviCRM - install it immediately; front and back end
  • Crowdmap for viewing developers and extracting value into CiviCRM- Dan, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Sebastopol, etc.
  • Develop a wide array of options with Adrian:
    • True Fans - when Civi up, we'll put all in there
    • Individual donors
    • Website donations
    • Microdonations like Flattr
    • Grants
    • Awards/Fellowships
    • TED community
    • Dedicated Project Sponsorship - with your name attached for posterity
    • Kickstarter

Donor Relations Strategy

  • Donor Relations Package
    • Folder with a few Simple Trifold
    • Website completed and simplified
    • Intro from Director
    • One page overview of mission-like positioning
    • Budget Overall, and for each of the 50 tools, tool by tool; keep adding to Proposal 2012
      • Have individuals sponsor on a tool-by-tool basis
    • Status report - GVCS Tools Status but done properly
  • Produce a full-fledged Documentary about half-way through the project
    • Possibly Ben Zolno, Sebastopol, or Sundance people from TED; fund this properly

Timeline

  • April 26 - first complete draft of Resource Development Package
    • Overall package
    • Tool by tool package (47 packages)
  • April 12 - Civi installed, and first tutorial for Marcin, Julia, Elifarley

Immediate Action Items

  • Introduce Julia and Adrian to set up conference call around Friday April 1
  • Work on securing office eqiupment
  • Meeting with Judith Katz April 11 on database structure
  • Follow up on Civi with Elifarley
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