Back when DebConf10, we even sent a press release asking for donations:
http://www.debian.org/News/2010/20100519
Some people donated after this, but we didn't exactly track the
donations
and we didn't have any proper way of thank you back.
I think this should be done again as soon as we have the sponsorship
material ready.
So this leads to the first possibility: utilize crowdfunding to fund
DebConf. E.g. we can calculate how much money is to sponsor food and
accommodation to say 15, 30, 45 and 60 unamed contributors and try to
raise that incrementally.
This would take some time to do and also some money depending on
what we give back. But I think it is worth considering.
Usually the crowdfunding places take a part of the money as fee, but
maybe we could negotiate with them sponsoring us that amount.
This also came to my mind the other day. I'm in favour of further
pursuing this idea. Do you already have an overview of different
crowdsourcing services and their conditions?
For the KDE Randa Meeting we are using pledgie to raise funds:
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/18045
They take 3% for their 'service'. pledgie has also been used for raising
money for LGM11 in Montreal.
A realistic target could be to raise ~ 10k through such a platform, imho,
The general success formula for these is that people have to see their
money will make some discrete, distinctive outcome succeed, e.g. when we
raise $1million, we will launch a satellite running Debian. The
significant thing to note here is that if the goal is NOT reached, if we
only get $900,000, all pledges are refunded and there is no satellite.
Do we want to take such a strong approach with DebConf?
e.g. if the minimum amount to secure the venue is $10k, we tell people
we are raising $10k and if people don't pledge by 30 September, there is
no DebConf at all?
Or could we create optional things for DebConf, things that only happen
if pledge targets are achieved?