Council on Foundations

Today, I went to a Council on Foundations meeting in San Francisco on “How to host a Summit”. You can read more about the Council on Foundations here. COF provides a lot of resources for corporate and private foundations in the United States regarding issues like event planning, governance guidelines, strategic planning, and networking. It was a valuable meeting because I observed how many other different, traditional foundations are addressing issues when it comes to planning summits and meetings for their constituents. However, I am not sure how much will apply to what we are doing with Community Giving. The seminar also reinforced that what we are doing at Mozilla, with both the Community Giving Program and the overall mission of the organizations, is truly unique and different from just about everyone else out there.

Accessibility

I had a productive call today with Aaron Leventhal, the module owner of Mozilla’s accessibility efforts. We talked about the various ways that the Giving Program might support an effort like accessibility. Aside from just providing things like hardware to volunteers, we will sponsor part of the meet-up that the accessibility team will be having in mid-October. This is another example of how Community Giving can give back to our volunteer contributors. Even if it is just paying for something like the meals at a get-together, we are happy to consider. Other groups, like the members of the Camino volunteer group, have responded about meet-ups and we are finding ways to work together. If you have an idea, please email me.

Mozilla Meet-ups

Another idea that has been circulated…

We should help fund get-togethers for volunteer contributors, so everyone can meet each other face-to-face and discuss important issues related to their work. It seems like a lot of people think this would be a worthy cause to support and we are ready to do that. So, we are putting out a call for ideas. If you are a volunteer who wants to try to schedule a meet-up or event, please contact us.

We could definitely fund something like the following:

–> a regional event or gathering for volunteers
–> travel to a major conferences
–> a BOF-like meet-up at an big conference

Whatever gets scheduled, we’d encourage that the content and local planning be driven by volunteers, focusing on the subjects that volunteers want to discuss. We are here to help, but will definitely need someone on the ground helping with logistics, which can be hammered out once proposals are submitted and agreed to by the planners and participants.

If you are feel like you have enough people in a region who would come together, please send me an email and we can begin the discussion.

An Explanation of the Selection Process

A critical question that continues to surface relates specifically to how the Community Giving Program decides who receives funding. Because we are still early, this is not permanent, but here is how we are processing our first test cases.

1) We find possible recipients through research done on internal web tools (like Bugzilla), by surveys sent from the giving program, or through referrals from Mozilla employees or volunteers who have followed the development of this program closely. We are also finding people who respond directly to me through my blog.

2) After discovering possible recipients, we research their level of contribution by looking at the work each individual has done (which should be found in Bugzilla or Bonsai) and by checking in with module or team leaders at Mozilla who can speak to a volunteer’s participation. This is a critical part of determining how we will support each individual.

3) If it seems appropriate to move forward, we will reach out again to the individual contributor, asking what Mozilla might provide to remove any barriers to the day-to-day volunteer work a person is providing.

4) We see if what is requested is reasonable (i.e. the volunteer is not requesting something completely unrelated to the Mozilla project like a $10,000 gaming machine…)

…

5) The volunteer and I will discuss and agree upon how the support will be used and then look at three different sources to research what is available and most affordable.

6) We do a little more internal fact checking and final approval, and, if all is well, we distribute the proposed support.

Program Update

This week, the Community Giving Program moved forward in providing specific support to various members of the QA community who responded to our survey. We used that first piece of communication to uncover some of the barriers that key volunteer contributors are facing on a day-to-day basis, and then worked directly with those people to find out what we could provide. Today, we shipped some hardware and software to individuals who are dedicating a good portion of their personal time to work on Mozilla-related project.

Types of support we have now provided or will consider providing:

• –> Hardware
• –> Software
• –> Travel to professional development related experiences
• –> Grants to individuals who are running Mozilla related projects and present a need for direct financial support
• –> Scholarships to academic programs for those who might use their learning experience to improve their abilities as a volunteer contributor
• –> Funding for local meet-ups of volunteers

This list is not comprehensive and we are open to various suggestions that may not have been included. Please feel free to post your suggestions to this blog. And, if you feel that you have been a dedicated volunteer contributor who could use some support, please email me or contact me through this blog.

Finally, it might be understood by everyone already, or maybe it should be stated again, but this program has initially been about supporting key volunteer contributors to the Community, which some consider everyone and everything that comprises Mozilla. The Community includes the employees of Mozilla, the Mozilla Foundation, the Mozilla Corporation, the users of our software, the volunteers who are helping to make this open-source project a success and probably much more that I have accidentally left off. This giving program is focusing its early efforts on supporting one very critical element of the community, the volunteers who are working on the various elements and projects of Mozilla. It will likely grow to include something more, but that is where we are focusing right now.