True Fans Status

by Marcin Jakubowski

We have begun the True Fans program in 2009 - see [original blog post http://blog.opensourceecology.org/2009/01/towards-1000-global-villages-factor-e-live-distillations-part-1/]. This is based on Kevin Kelly's 1000 True Fans concept. This concept is: cultural creatives fund their difficult-to-monetize-work via the support of a crowd of people where each person contributes a small amount. So I started the True Fans in 2009 - with donations of $10/month for 24 months, when we were running on a budget of $2,000 per month, as I was committed to this full time and had no revenue streams outside of donations.

In 2010, we increased donation options from $10 to include $20, $30, $50, and $100. By the time of the TED Talk in 2011, we had about 200 subscribers, and currently, we have about 500 (if counting as "True Fansships", ie, units of $10. We now have about 7 subscribers at the $100 level, plus others at the other amounts, with the majority at the $10 level. As we went towards the end of 2012, our True Fans numbers were no longer climbing exponentially. I attribute this to our growing pains, and possibly to the fact that we have gotten significant funding from other sources, such as $360k from the Shuttleworth Foundation, which supports open projects.

I still think that the True Fans program fills a need for many to contribute a small amount if they cannot help in other ways, and we believe that this is a great investment for people to make. Therefore, OSE leadership thinks that the program is worth continuing as part of a diversified revenue strategy. If managed properly, the program can grow significantly. Current needs are:

1. A manager to communicate with the True Fans and to provide regular updates to True Fans. This has been a constant pain for me - as with all my other responsibilities, I simply could not keep up with True Fans communications as much as I would have liked. I used to know all my True Fans initially, and now I have lost track. There are many contributions from True Fans that we are not leveraging properly
2. A social network or platform for True Fans, where a synergy of support and inspiration is created. One initiative is shown at True Fans Platform Log.
3. There is an initiative on the OSE App that we are considering.
4. Integrate other payment means other than PayPal, maintain a database of other crowd donors, and link this to a tax-deductible option in the USA (possibly for other countries as well)

In summary, there is great room for growing financial support via the True Fans, and an effective platform - for communication, updates, inspiration, development - should be created. The True Fans have a special place in my heart because they pulled the project through when we had no funding - and the crowd-contribution method is core to our philosophy of funneling energy towards the common good. We need to take our True Fans platform to the next level as we stabilize the organization - as part of an integrated communication, media, and collaboration strategy. As we refine our methods for crowd-based collaboration, we intend to facilitate a much greater involvement in this by our True Fans.