Community Contributions EXTRA NOTES --- the Allocation Poll [WAS: Please allocate funds for Community Contributions!]

The Allocation Poll is located here and ends on Sept. 1, 2024.

****** OVERALL NOTES ********  ******  ********  ********

A Few Notes (“Yes, and:”)

For those people who like to know the details… I share them here for full transparency. Perhaps, I have anticipated your questions.

THE AMOUNT FOR COMMUNITY ALLOCATIONS.  When we asked you for contribution ideas, the Finance Working Group learned that Social.Coop is not paying £400 annually to Loomio, which is the standard amount for an organization of our size, according to the Loomio fee structure. So, we decided to make a donation this year and to budget it properly next year. Thus, this amount is deducted from the amount that we anticipated for the community allocation budget for this round. [The math looks like: £1,700 - £400 = £1,300]. The next Community Contribution budget round (for the other half) will be for the amount of £1,700.

NUMBER OF ORGANIZATIONS TO FUND. The Finance Working Group has not yet set a maximum number of organizations for us to contribute to. One thought is to avoid making multiple small donations as part of determining our own administrative overhead. This determination will make more sense as we practice participatory budgeting for Social.Coop. Let us learn together.

MAKING THE PAYMENTS. The beneficiaries of this Allocation Poll will receive donations from Social.Coop. The Finance Working Group (FWG) members can make the payments most easily using the Open Collective platform, where Social.Coop puts its own funds. Someone has to take responsibility for those contributions that can’t be done directly on Open Collective, which will involve submitting a reimbursement request. The FWG would appreciate your willingness to carry out such a contribution, especially if you nominated an organization or project that is not on Open Collective. We are willing to support the part of the federated web that uses other financial vendors. Let’s talk!

ANOTHER WAY TO DO IT? Our initial invitation to Community Contribution Budgeting lead to a suggestion that we use Back Your Stack, which is a tool from Open Collective that makes it possible to identify open source projects that companies and groups depend on that also need funding. I haven’t tried it yet, but you can check it out and share what you learn:  

THE ANNUAL BUDGET. In case you missed it — because GOSH there are a ton of Loomio threads— participatory budgeting has been discussed around here for years [See December 2022  and February 2019 ]. This 2024 is the first year that Social.Coop has had an Official Annual Budget, and it was created by the Finance Working Group. A second annual budget will be in the works soon; and, the new Organizing Circle will be involved in financial strategy. You can anticipate that we will seek your recommendations and encouragement for putting our money to work in the fediverse.

@caitlinwaddick Wonderful work, thank you!