[Chapter-delegates] Various fundraising stuff (was Re: ISOC's regional engagement)

[Mohammad A]

Dear all,

I am rather a newbie but support Vint's idea of having a membership fee, at
least for working professionals. As Andrew said, we are up against
governments who have immense resources. We can't carry fight with one hand
amputed. We must have a sustainable revenue stream.

Mohammad
*Secretary, Youth SG*

On Thu, 21 Sep 2023 at 1:42 PM, vinton cerf via Chapter-delegates <
chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> maybe it is time to reinstate some kind of membership dues? IEEE and ACM
> require members to pay dues.
> I know we tried that and it didn't quite work. I had modeled ISOC after
> ACM but that was when I thought of Internet as a domain created by
> engineers - it is much broader now. In some ways, we ought to be able to
> make the case that ISOC is like the US National Institutes of Health - we
> try to cure/prevent diseases of the Internet brought on by its users (!).
> People donate to Cancer charities on the chance that cures might save the
> donor or someone the donor cares about. ISOC is very active in policy
> forums and is also very good at summarizing and publicizing policy issues
> whose outcomes can significantly affect the "health" of the Internet. Users
> of the Internet should see ISOC as a defender of the Internet's core values
> against combinations of deleterious state and private sector policies or of
> bad behaviors by some users (malware, ransomware, phishing, fraud....).
> Could there be membership levels at various scales of donation, for
> instance? I know we hold open the option of becoming an ISOC member and
> paying a voluntary contribution.
> I don't know that we want to make such payments mandatory but could there
> be some incentives to be dues-paying members? Many chapters have dues for
> members who recognize that chapter benefits only come if there is support
> for chapter activities/organization.
>
> I wear my ISOC lapel pin with pride and I try to make an annual personal
> contribution in addition to encouraging corporate support for iSOC's work.
> Plainly there is much to be done to achieve the estimated $13M/year that
> would meet the public support test and increase ISOC's ability to respond
> to its members' needs.
>
> vint
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 10:58 PM Andrew Sullivan via Chapter-delegates <
> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 11:32:46PM +0100, Christian de Larrinaga wrote:
>> >
>> >As an aside the local uk chapter hasn't developed "org" memberships or
>> >sponsorships […]
>>
>> To be clear, the operations of chapters and how they raise their funds is
>> completely outside of this discussion or these considerations, and
>> chapters' funding arrangments have no effect on the Internet Society
>> finances.
>>
>> I think, for what it's worth, that that is a good thing.  There are
>> organizations not unlike ours that have a chapter arrangement in which each
>> chapter (or otherwise-named local affiliate of some description) is
>> required both to raise money and to contribute some of that to the "central
>> organization" as part of the consideration of being a local organization.
>> This is a model we have not contemplated, it is a model I don't think would
>> be consistent with our desire to foster community (especially among those
>> who are least able to afford it and who are most disadvantaged in terms of
>> network connectivity), and it is a model I would personally oppose.  But I
>> want to note it for completeness in the course of this discussion.
>>
>> >A useful description but it does sound rather incestuous. That adage
>> >comes to mind that tax policy shouldn't limit one's horizons but the
>> reality is it almost always does.
>> >
>>
>> I want to be absolutely, totally, crystal clear: there is nothing the
>> Internet Society (or any of its supporting organizations) is doing or would
>> do under any circumstances, so long as I hold this job, that is in any way
>> legally dodgy, strange, or otherwise at odds with the Internal Revenue Code
>> of the United States.  We have excellent legal counsel, both internal and
>> external.  We have excellent finance staff with lots of non-profit
>> experience and excellent auditors.  All of these people ensure we are
>> complying with both the law and the generally accepted practices within our
>> industry, according to legal and accounting norms established by the
>> respective professions.  I am not indulging in any financial adventurism
>> and I would not tolerate such adventures were I to uncover them.  I have
>> total confidence in the staff who work in this area.
>>
>> Wrapping one's head around the way US non-profit arrangements work does
>> indeed take some time and, to an engineering brain, sometimes some
>> adaptation.  But the way we operate is entirely in keeping with non-profit
>> sector norms with a bias towards conservative estimates so that we can be
>> confident that the Internet Society will be here to support the thriving of
>> the Internet for decades to come.
>>
>> >> lot of what people want is specific expertise on specific things, and
>> >> that makes the engagement not a contribution but a fee for service.
>> >
>> >Well that really isn't what ISOC is about. But it is about collecting
>> >support into communities of interest to do things that meet our
>> >principles and through that benefit those engaging in those impacted
>> >operational areas
>>
>> Yes, exactly so.  But that value proposition takes more time than a
>> simple transaction, so we must take that time to attract the
>> contributions.  We have unfortunate timing, in that the organization was
>> not really ready to make these appeals when money was more free-flowing
>> (i.e. prior to 2020), and so we are running into headwinds.  But I believe
>> the attacks on the Internet over the past year or so give us a rallying
>> point around which we can attract supporters.  That takes time, but I
>> believe we are ready to show the value we have to offer supporters.
>>
>> >and so there's hopefully an opportunity to charge a
>> >"membership" or sponsorship supplement for joining in as a prominent
>> >force on those activities both globally and potentially involving local
>> >staff in various countries that have chapters as well?
>>
>> I must note that we do have many generous sponsors of our activities
>> already.  Those of you who have participated in some of our chapter
>> activities over the last couple years will note the sponsors we thank with
>> some prominence.  Many of the larger events we organize have quite
>> significant numbers of sponsors.  We must build on this success, for sure,
>> but I don't want anyone to go away with the picture that there isn't any
>> support.  We just need it to be deeper and broader.
>>
>> >What some UK charities I know do is because there are trading
>> >restrictions on the charity itself is to set up trading companies to
>> handle
>> >trading activities which then if they have a surplus donate it to the
>> >charity. But the US connected organisational chain you cite suggests
>> >that probably won't help.
>>
>> Yes, this doesn't work quite the same way in the US.  For an example of
>> something similar to what you are talking about, have a look at the Mozilla
>> Corporation and Mozilla Foundation.  We are already in something like that
>> situation, however, with the added advantage that PIR is itself a 501(c)(3).
>>
>> So, what we really need is twofold.  First, we need to diversify our
>> revenue (and not just because of the public support test: having all your
>> eggs in one basket is always risky).  But second, we just need to make our
>> financial resources larger.  As I've noted elsewhere in this thread, there
>> are a _lot_ of enemies of the Internet.  Some of them are even
>> well-meaning, but they're still going to harm the Internet.  And we need
>> the resources to take that on.  It means making our community bigger and
>> better able to respond to these threats, but it also means more staff to
>> help with those responses and more resources to mobilize the wider public
>> and to build a movement that really understands the Internet is for
>> everyone.
>>
>> Someone recently asked me, for instance, what the IEEE is doing that
>> we're not.  One thing they're doing is bringing in approximately 10x as
>> much money as we are.  There's a lot more flexibility when you don't have
>> to count your pennies to know whether you can appear at a hearing or a UN
>> event or a community meeting or what have you.  I am confident this is an
>> achievable goal for us, but it will not happen overnight.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> A
>>
>> --
>> Andrew Sullivan, President & CEO, Internet Society
>> e:sullivan at isoc.org m:+1 416 731 1261
>> Help protect the Internet for everyone:
>> https://www.internetsociety.org/donate/
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> _______________________________________________
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