Fundraising in KDE

[Karl Ove Hufthammer]

Nicolas Fella skreiv 24.09.2020 11:42:
> I would be cautious about creating a system that allows targeted
> donations for specific features/requests. I don't want the e.V. to be in
> a position where work is done/prioritized because it brings in money. 

I agree. KDE has a list of goals (https://kde.org/goals), which have 
been selected using a democratic process. It would, IMHO, be better to 
say that donations from companies will be used to hire developers to 
work towards KDE’s goals. Then the companies can decide if they think 
this a good thing or not.

There are really three possibilities – a company wants work done that is 
a) aligned with KDE’s goals, b) against KDE’s goals or c) orthogonal to 
KDE’s goals. For (a), the above communication is fine. For (b), 
receiving money so the e.V. can hire people to work *against* the 
communities explicit goals seems like an extremely bad idea. For (c), 
there are no technical problems, but why should KDE e.V. actively spend 
money on something that really isn’t in KDE’s interest? There are other 
companies (https://ev.kde.org/consultants/) that the company can hire 
instead.

So if a company donates/sponsors to KDE e.V., this should mean that 
they’re saying that they want to support KDE (and its goals). Currently, 
what the get back is very vague. But it can also be made explicit, e.g., 
‘if you support the e.V. with x amount of euros/dollars, the e.V. 
(promises that it) will hire a developer in a 20% position for a 
year/month to work towards KDE’s current goals’.


-- 
Karl Ove Hufthammer