META: Explore connecting Drupal Contribution to Open Collective funding

I think it would be ideal for initiatives like this to use Open Collective as a way to streamline financial support and incentivize contributions. Ideally, the Drupal Association would be able to 'host' this and other initiatives with https://opencollective.com/drupalassoc. If DA wasn't (yet) set up to do that, Open Collective Foundation (Open Collective's 501c3) most likely would. They already host several Drupal events and a few other Drupal initiatives that align with their mission. Another benefit of #ocf is they've really built up their own services and support offering over the past year or so. Skimming through their recent strategy update should provide a good overview.

As a very active member in Open Collective's Slack (and our #drupal channel), I'm happy to do whatever I can to connect and facilitate.

Would this also be applicable when we raise money for mentor appreciation dinners at DrupalCons?

When you set up an Open Collective you can decide what the finding is for, and it is transparent what those funds are used for. I have one set up for the Funding project but I have thought if we got funds I would use them to spur contribution, whether that was buying food for events or possibly some sort of thank you for contributors. OpenCollective can also be set up with campaigns or earmarks so folks can put funds in escrow to a specific purpose (if I remember it right).

As @liberatr mentioned, it's totally up to a collective's admins with regards to raising and allocating funds (see https://opencollective.com/how-it-works). For this type of initiative that could range from paying for hosting, venue, meals, travel, etc; paying folks to mentor or manage the initiative; to providing incentives to contributors (code, marketing, fundraising, docs, etc).

Open Collective is transparent, open source, and has a very small, receptive team trying to manage a community of almost 3200 open source projects (https://opencollective.com/opensource) and over 400 groups (via their Open Collective Foundation fiscal sponsor https://opencollective.com/foundation). A benefit of discussing how to use Open Collective in the #drupal channel they set up for us is we can onboard, connect and collaborate with Drupal and all these other folks (https://opencollective.slack.com/has over 5600 members) interested in sustaining open source projects, groups, events, and initiatives.

Quick followup on #4... IF the group decides to create a collective (don't there's any reason why not), it might make sense to followup with @hestenet (aka @Tim Lehnen in Open Collective's Slack) to see if https://opencollective.com/drupalassoc could host.

@hestenet chatted with the DA accounting team about using https://opencollective.com/drupalassoc to host these types of initiatives. The consensus was it would take too much overhead to provide anything close to the service/benefits of Open Collective Foundation -
https://docs.opencollective.foundation/what-we-offer

That said, I'd recommend the maintainers apply to OCF host should you choose to create a collective
https://docs.opencollective.com/help/collectives/create-collective

Circling back here to summarize some of the related convo we've been having in Open Collective's Drupal channel.

- I think it's important for there to be a collective associated with this initiative (for example it would help sustain the contributions site #3281963: Relaunch drupalcontribution.org
- Based on years of experience helping onboard projects, initiatives, and people to Open Collective, I'm aware of the steep learning curve and time it could take for a large group to evaluate (let alone really use)
- If the group wanted to test the waters before setting one up for the initiative, we could create project(s) (essentially stand-alone campaigns) on an existing collective. As a complementary initiative, what's described in #3280977-8: Outline projects, groups, and initiatives that can be supported on the Drupal collective could be an option.

Looking at the proposed resolution, I think we've explored options on how this could work and have a good sense for next steps. So now what?

Note that the EOWG does not want to provide funding but could suggest ways organizers could get funding.

One of the reasons for setting up a collective for the Contribution Events Initiative would be to raise funds/cover costs for organizers/team members interested/able to commit a regular set of time...if sponsored. That would enable a team to identify and develop a strategy around overlapping goals and priorities #3279806-8: Determine goals for the Contribution Events community project. Much of the ongoing contributions (for both initiatives) could be done by newcomers in collaboration with complementary learning groups #3280977-8: Outline projects, groups, and initiatives that can be supported on the Drupal collective.

Closing this as we've moved beyond exploring this option!