[Chapter-delegates] Day-to-day funding

Wed Mar 13 08:25:24 PDT 2013

Ted,

peer review may be part of the solution.

The 100 KUSD solution for all may not be a solution at all.

Also consider among the practicalities the bad combination of limitations chapters face (small size, lack of a full professional administration including accountants and lawyers, etc.) with the ever increasing controls for money transfer across borders (anti money-laundering measures which one can work with for all legal transfers, but may be too steep a hill to climb for many.)

Some of us have been able to make do with the more punctual funds for events, and the 20th Annniversary funds surely went largely unspent.

But the basis for this cannot be "make do" - we need a larger-scale, sustainable model. It will need contributions from all sides. Fast forward now: let's say we all get to design a solution that goes along Elver's idea of pilot projects for a few. Peer review may be one way to choose, as your question goes. Bring the chapters into the evaluation and selection of proposals (lots of small lettering will be involved of course.)

Also, there may note even be ten viable takers for each of Elver's propositions.

I would also encourage everybody to analyze ICANN's present steps to create regional strategies, with two- or many-directional commitments, to scale and within ICANN's strategy. It is evolving now, so we don't yet know how it will work out, but it is clearly looking to much more engagement than at present. And remember, for ICANN it's an open community, for ISOC the chapters are part of the anatomy, physiology and history.

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
     Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
Facultad de Química UNAM
Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico

+52-1-5541444475 FROM ABROAD

+525541444475 DESDE MÉXICO SMS +525541444475
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---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
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________________________________
Desde: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org [chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] en nombre de Ted Mooney [mooney at isoc.org]
Enviado el: martes, 12 de marzo de 2013 13:29
Hasta: Elver Loho
CC: Chapter Delegates
Asunto: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Day-to-day funding

This is very constructive, Elver.

Some bits are more practical than others., as I'm sure you realize  I'm not sure how to select the 10 (or 20 or five) chapters for any given experiments yet.  Maybe by chapter vote or some such thing.  Here's what I do know:  If we don't know exactly what success looks like or don't have a repeatable methodology from the start, we won't be giving any of these ideas a fair run.  We aren't a start-up but nor are we an aging corporation. I'll bet back to you after some local discussions this week.

For everyone's information, we cannot undo and unwind all the commitments of resources already made through the end of this year, so we will have a look at these ideas - and others - and see what we can do with some and in what time frames.  We have a few ideas of our own which I've floated internally and need some additional energy to take root.

Thanks for your enthusiasm and creativity, for taking the time to think and write this down.  And thanks all who still believe that history is only one component that determines the future.

Best,

Ted

Ted Mooney
Sr. Director, Membership & Services
Cell: 301-980-6446
Skype: ted.mooney3

www.internetsociety.org<http://www.internetsociety.org>

On Mar 12, 2013, at 2:51 PM, Elver Loho <elver.loho at gmail.com<mailto:elver.loho at gmail.com>> wrote:

How quickly could ISOC global roll out various low-cost pilot projects
in this field to see what works in an agile "let's try things" manner?
For example:

- 10 grants of $1000 to spend on local advertising and fundraising
(not salaries) over 3 months and then report back to this mailing list
with the exact measurements on the increase or decrease in donations
and what exactly was done. Followed by another report 6 months later.

- Finding 10 active chapters with very few donations and offering to
match every dollar they raise in donations over 3 months up to $1000.
Followed by another report 6 months later.

- Picking 10 active, but underfunded chapters and having a 10-day
drive on the front page of the ISOC global website, showcasing each
chapter's people and accomplishments for a single day, and asking for
donations for that particular chapter. ISOC global would need to take
care of payment processing and such. This would be by far the easiest
to measure.

- Something like the previous, but an "adopt-a-chapter" approach,
where ISOC uses its publicity muscle to sell the idea that wealthy
individuals could adopt a foreign chapter that's doing something good
and get regular updates via e-mail.

- ISOC global providing funds to 10 active, underfunded chapters to
hire a student journalist or student PR person for the summer as a
paid intern, whose responsibility would be to write about what the
chapter is doing, tweet, blog, facebook, publicize, etc.

- ISOC global sends an ambassador to the governments of a few local
chapters urging the head of state to finance the chapter from the
state budget. Bonus points if you can get a respected elected
politician of a major country to go around doing this.

- ISOC global negotiates with a multinational civil society funding
network (e.g. Open Society Foundations) to make it easier for local
chapters to get regular funding via these means.

- etc.

The focus should be on experimental projects, which cost very little
for ISOC, deal with active, but underfunded chapters, and provide
rapidly measurable results. The aim is to find strategies, which help
chapters become self-sufficient. I have no interest in relying on ISOC
global's fat wallet in the long term, but it would be great to be able
to measure the effectiveness of various fundraising ideas without
having to spend what little cash we have at the moment.

We don't need a corporate approach here, nor a redistribution of
existing funds. We need a skunkworks approach. We need a scientific
approach, based on experiments and data. We're all in it together and
we're in it to learn what works and doesn't work, so that we can make
smarter decisions later.

Best,
Elver
Vice Chair
Estonia Chapter

elver.loho at gmail.com<mailto:elver.loho at gmail.com>
+372 5661 6933
skype: elver.loho

On 12 March 2013 19:41, Ted Mooney <mooney at isoc.org> wrote:
True, Veni,

We would all favor more direct and immediate action.  And there is acute
awareness of the situation among many staff as well as chapter leaders.  My
point in the discussion is not just to vent, but to catalog and come back to
Chapters with the opportunity to prioritize a list of upgraded support
opportunities.  And that is still my intent.  Nevertheless if more
discussion and seeding of ideas is not what you would like at this point,
what advise to do you have for Chapter Support?

Best,

Ted

Ted Mooney
Sr. Director, Membership & Services
Cell: 301-980-6446
Skype: ted.mooney3

www.internetsociety.org

On Mar 12, 2013, at 1:29 PM, Veni Markovski <veni at veni.com> wrote:

I am not so supportive of the discussion.
Every once in a while there's a discussion on that topic, and every once in
a while there are some great ideas, which are being shelved "for
consideration" by staff.
And nothing happens.
We discuss, over and over, and over - the same issues. More or less since
2002, by the way. At least that's what I remember, when several of us, ISOC
Trustees, discussed that in Minneapolis at a Board meeting.

v.

On 03/12/2013 11:53, Ted Mooney wrote:

I support Eric's call for a the views and discussion on this list.  While it
will surprise no one to say that nothing will be done quickly, I would like
to work with Chapter leaders to develop a long term support plan for the
Internet Society that takes these needs and ideas into consideration, indeed
as a foundation.  I'm making no commitment that once a plan is developed it
will be fully implemented.  Such a decision is at the highest levels.
However, without a proposal that is complete and well thought-out, the
likely outcome is quite diminished.  So I am collecting these ideas for the
moment and will discuss alternatives for moving forward with ISOC Execs.

All the best,

Ted
oc.org

--

Best,
Veni Markovski
http://www.veni.com
https://www.facebook.com/venimarkovski
https://twitter.com/veni

The opinions expressed above are those of the
author, not of any organizations, associated
with or related to him in any given way.

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