Finances for this project

We held an initial conversation regarding finances on June 15, 2009 (Sue, John A, & Tree attending). We expect to continue discussion of this subject over time as needed.

The "Co-Intelligence Institute" is willing to serve as a fiduciary agent so that donors can receive a tax deduction in exchange for helping to fund the pattern language project. CII will receive a 5% cut of donations handled in this manner.

Expenses under current discussion include: (1) funding people's time to work on the project; (2) events for people to talk over the pattern language in person; and (3) administrative costs such as web hosting.

(1) Funding people's time into the project. We are basically working on this project because we are inspired and not because we expect to get paid. We see it continuing as a mostly volunteer project on an ongoing basis. However, if people are putting significant time into developing the infrastructure to run the project, then we think it can be appropriate to fund some of that time if income is sufficient to cover it.

One way to think about this is to split time spent into categories of board, staff, and volunteer work, the same as any classic nonprofit. Time on conference calls to make decisions about the direction of the project is "board" time, and and no one is expecting to get paid for that. Time spent writing patterns is "volunteer" time too, and will probably be the biggest chunk of time. The time we anticipate potentially funding is "staff" time, which may include Tree's time as project leader, John's time as web developer, or others as things unfold over time.

Tree is aiming to raise $10,000 to fund her time on this project from August 2009 through July 2010. This is a stipend in order to make it possible for her to focus attention on this project, rather than direct hourly compensation. She expects to give the project a major share of her time and attention during this period. So far $2,000 of that has been pledged by specific individuals, so there is $8,000 more to go to reach that goal.

Tree & John A. will stay in touch as things develop, checking in as needed on how much time John is putting in, what his financial needs are, and how much money is available, to see about possibly giving him a stipend for some of his time down the line.

(2) Events for people to gather in person to talk over the pattern language. So far we've held one major in-person gathering, which took place in Eugene in December 2008. Eleven people attended this 5-day session. People paid their own travel, Tree hosted it at her house, and we mostly put people up there and with local friends. By sourcing free and low-cost ingredients from local sources, plus substantial generosity on the part of our cook, we were able to keep costs under $1,000 for this event, which was split among the attendees.

We recognize that future events will not necessarily be able to depend on this particular constellation of factors, so we may well be seeking funding for events in the future.

In addition, Tree tends to meet up with interested participants on her various travels.

(3) Administrative costs such as web hosting. Wagn normally charges $20/month for web hosting. They have waived that fee for us as part of their scholarship program, however the reality is that Wagn is running really tight financially right now and would benefit from any support we can offer.  June 30 update:  Tree has decided to give Grass Commons $120 for hosting the next 6 months.

Have other thoughts about finances for this project? Contact Tree or anyone else associated.