We’ve been raising funds for a system administrator for GNOME. Yesterday we added a ruler to the top of various GNOME websites to show people our progress and it’s been a tremendous success.
Since yesterday we’ve gotten almost $1,000 in donations from individuals and another $5,000 match from a company!
That’s in addition to the money we’d already raised and all the company matches we’ve received so far.
We’ve only got $5,843 to go before we hire a system administrator. (And put up a new goal!)
Why are we hiring a system administrator?
To help GNOME developers be able to write more code, documentation, etc. There’s a lot of system administration work involved in keeping a project like GNOME and an organization like the GNOME Foundation running. We have an awesome team of volunteers that keep it running day to day but it would help to have someone dedicated to the system administration team, able to manage projects, tackle some of the bigger projects and to stay on top of the day to day requests.
Why are we raising money for this?
We’re a nonprofit and all of our budget comes from donations from individuals and companies and any profit we run from events.
What are you going to do when the money runs out?
Hopefully we’ll continue to be successful with our fundraising efforts so that we can continue to enjoy the benefits of having a system administrator. The money we raise should cover at least a year of a part time system administrator.
How do I apply?
Stay tuned. We will be announcing the application process soon. You can check out the job page for more information.
How can I help?
Spread the word! You can promote Friends of GNOME on your website or by blogging about it or by mentioning it during your talks.
What’s your fundraising tip 101?
Well, right now, it’s let people know what the progress is. Put up a ruler! Thanks to everyone who worked on the ruler … Lucas Rocha, Vinicius Depizzol, Andreas Nilsson, Paul Cutler, Shaun McCance and many more.
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far! GNOME rocks!
The ruler looks great! One small problem, though: it “bleeds” into the sidebar (e.g. on 2.28 release notes), covering the sidebar’s contents with the right edge of the bar and the “Donate now!” button. Not everyone browses with their window maximised. 😉 I imagine that it could be fixed if the bar was “flexible” instead of a fixed size, but I’m not a Web wizard…
Thanks! We know what the problem is and will get it fixed. (The ruler code is in the wrong part of the page.)