Our strategy for supporting the development of the Global Village Construction Set is threefold: (1), crowd funding methods, (2) sales from products, and (3) standard non-profit sector fund-raising. We have been demonstrating $1500-$2000 monthly budgets generated from crowd donations, including the True Fans (70 in number at present) since over a year now. This modest funding level is responsible for our modest results. We have just begun to tap the power of product sales with the CEB press, but it’s too early to tell what results this will bring. We should know by the end of the year. Regarding non-profit sector funding, we have neglected this route as a matter of priorities. However, it is well-known that non-profit resource development yields $1 for every 20 cents of effort invested – so a 500% return on investment makes this quite a worthwhile path.
With this in mind, we’d like to announce that we are recruiting a Resource Development Professional to the OSE effort. This is the announcement and invitation prepared by Susan, one of our True Fans:
Organization and Mission
Open Source Ecology is a non-profit organization working to create lasting economic development on the local level. This globally linked organization is modeled on the collaborative strategy used by the developers of other open source projects, such as Wikipedia and many types of software. OSE’s mission is to make freely available online instructions for the digital fabrication of sophisticated machines in any local workshop equipped for industrial arts. With the 16 basic toolsets being developed in this way (see Global Village Construction Set on www.openfarmtech.org) any community can create high value manufacturing jobs close to home, while affordably providing the tools with which a thriving local economy can be built, using only local resources and the Internet. This mission has vast implications in a wide range of areas, including the re-education and re-employment of redundant workers, training youth in new career paths, making localities prosperous and self-reliant, lowering carbon emissions, food security, and disaster preparedness.
Job Summary
Responsible for marketing, public relations, and fundraising. Requires a sophisticated communicator able to articulate the benefits offered by the organization’s strategy to a wide variety of stakeholders, from international institutions to geeks in garages. Initiates creative and mutually beneficial relationships within the non-profit, entrepreneurial, government and philanthropic sectors. Plays an integral role in developing the overall strategy of the organization, in a globally collaborative context
Duties and Responsibilities
- Serve as key external spokesman translating and publicizing the organization’s mission to diverse constituencies.
- Design and implement strategies to solicit funds from corporations, the banking community, government entities, influential wealthy individuals, and other sources you identify.
- Manage and optimize ongoing funder relationships.
- Design web-based revenue streams.
- Initiate and implement effective marketing plans for the trainings, capacities and products offered.
- Participate in globally collaborative conference calls.
- Research and master state-of-the-art collaborative communication and conflict resolution methods.
- Maintain a weekly blog on the website describing your activities.
Requirements
- Passion for the mission.
- Deep knowledge of the philanthropic landscape.
- Ability to comprehend diverse worldviews.
- Creative individual able to grasp cutting edge ideas and package them appropriately for targeted audiences.
- Excellent marketing instincts. Knowledge of latest marketing techniques.
- Ability to self-organize proactively.
- Comfortable with a culture of individual excellence combined with a collaborative sense of purpose.
- Exceptional strategic thinking and innovative problem solving ability.
- Comfortable working in a small start-up environment.
- High degree of flexibility and sense of humor.
Compensation and Benefits
- Compensation commensurate with results obtained.
- Health and dental benefits available through the Freelancers’ Union.
How to Apply
Please send a letter giving us a sense of the depth and breadth of your life-experience, your grasp of the organization’s mission, and your familiarity with peer to peer collaborative culture, to: daisychain@netidea.com, opensourceecology@gmail.com
We still need to establish an entity with tax exempt status if we want to pursue this. The applicant should keep this in consideration, and others are invited to help on the incorporation and paperwork. Without your help, this will not happen, as we’re stretched thinly enough already on product development work.
While there are ethical questions and potential conflicts of interest regarding asking Big Brother to help out in the radical democratization of industry and society – we have no reservations about pursuing this as long as this adds to, and does not subract from – our efforts. If other collaborators step in to help in this effort, they are expected to be responsible for bothe the benefits and duties involved. We proceed with the understanding that this dilemma exists and must be negotiated carefully.
At the end of the day, we all want the same thing and we are all responsible – for peace, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
From our email, as requested:
Hey Marcin,
I just read your recent blog post, and I think it is great that there are 70 true fans now. However, I agree that in a sane world there would be way more enthusiasm. Nevertheless, this is getting to a level at which serious bootstrapping can begin to occur.
I read a lot about how to maximize one’s impact in the world through donations, and have come across some good information from Jason Gaverick Matheny (someone who you might want to get in contact with actually, along with that whole crowd of philosopher types… you already met David Pearce)
Basically, fundraising generates obscenely high returns for non-profit enterprises. On average, about 500% returns, which can then be compounded if reinvested back into fundraising.
http://www.supportingadvancement.com/faq/cost_per_dollar_raised.htm
Though obviously the donation pie is somewhat zero-sum, so you will be eating into donations that otherwise would go to other organizations…. but I think we can confidently say that is a good thing anyways. Clearly there would be a tragedy of the commons if everyone did this, and too much marketing can have some negative effects on your public perception by people who might feel pestered by this…. but all the successful non-profits like the ACLU, Greenpeace, etc etc haven’t left me alone since I gave them my emails and such years ago. Hence why they are successful.
The cost of email campaigns and flashy websites are rather low in this day and age. Especially if you stick with open source platforms, creative commons artwork, etc. Outsourcing this work would be a good investment. There are marketing firms that specialize in non-profits that aren’t scumbags and don’t overcharge. You might wish to seek them out. Later, once you have a bigger network you can crowdsource future marketing efforts, like Firefox did with the Spread Firefox campaign, but you need more manpower before that is feasible.
Best Wishes,
Edward