OpenBSD Foundation 2014/2015 News & Fund Raising
25 February, 2015 by kwesterback@gmail.com | openbsd
2014 was the most successful year to date for the OpenBSD Foundation. Both in the amount of money we raised and in the support we provided for the OpenBSD and related projects. We are extremely grateful for the support shown by our contributers large and small. A detailed summary of the Foundation's activities in 2014 can be seen at http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html But here are some highpoints. We received $397,000 in new donations and paid out $129,000 to support the activities of the OpenBSD and related projects. Some of the things the $129,000 made happen were higher speed network links to the project's machine room; new servers, UPSs, network switches, serial consoles and network monitoring equipment for the machine room; development machines for several developers; participation in GSOC 2014; and hackathons in Lujbljana, Dunedin, Berlin, and Marrakesh. As you can see, 2014 was a very good year for the Foundation. This can be attributed to a number of unique events. A very public finanical crisis at the start of the year generated extensive community support, and the releases of LibreSSL generated significant interest and support. But it is important for us not to rely on one time events for our success. Which brings us to our 2015 Fundraising Campaign, described at http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html The OpenBSD Foundation needs your help to achieve our fundraising goal of $200,000 for 2015. We need both Individual and Corporate sponsorship of the Foundation. Reaching this goal will ensure the continued health of the projects we support, will enable us to help them do more, and will avoid the distraction of financial emergencies that could spell the end of the projects. In particular it would allow us to fund more dedicated developer time for targeted development of specific projects. If $10 were given for every installation of OpenBSD in the last year from the master site we would be at our goal. If $2 were given for every download of the OpenSSH source code in the last year from the master site we would be at our goal. If a penny was donated for every pf or OpenSSH installed with a mainstream operating system or phone in the last year we would be at our goal. As an individual or corporation, the best kind of donation we can receive is a recurring donation. This allows longer term planning on our part, instead of hoping for one time cash infusions. The easiest way for an individual to support us in this way is a recurring Paypal donation, which is our preference. Donations to the foundation can be made on our Donations Page. http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html We can be contacted regarding corporate sponsorship at fundraising@openbsdfoundation.org