[OE-core] OpenEmbedded Fund Raising

[Philip Balister]

People of OpenEmbedded, it is time to get serious about fund raising to
cover some basic expenses, such as meeting rooms for OpenEmbedded
related events, travel for people representing the organization etc.
We've been very dependent on the generosity of a few people for our
basic needs.

In the past, we have worked with the Yocto Project to fund things like
space for meetings that benefited both organisations. Over the past
year, the Yocto Budget for these activities has been reduced. The Yocto
Project focus for the next six months is more on expanding membership to
resolve some budget issues.

This highlights a need for OpenEmbedded to actively fund raise now. We
have around 660 usd in our account with Software in the Public Interest.
Our income source is a handful of recurring contributions from a handful
of generous individuals. I'd like to take this chance to thank them.

We'd like to see two things happen to help kick start this process. One
time donations via the donation page are great, but what really helps is
signing up for a small donation each month. This develops a revenue
stream the board can plan around.

I've created a web page explaining how to donate and providing some
resources for obtaining matching contributions and credit for volunteer
hours:

https://www.openembedded.org/wiki/Donating_to_OpenEmbedded

We'd love to talk about corporate donations, but we need to be sensitive
to Yocto Project recruiting efforts. I do feel we should talk with
companies that are too small for the Linux Foundation.

Long term, we have more ideas of projects that require money, but I'd
like to get a baseline in place before larger funding campaigns.

If you have specific questions, send them to board at openembedded.org.

Philip