Proposal: 2021 Global Community Sponsorship program

As promised, here is a proposal for a pared-down Global Community Sponsorship program for this year.

This is coming later than intended (we were aiming for January), due to the uncertainty about when in-person conferences will return to WordPress community programs. Also slightly unusual, this proposal is the work of a small group: me, @kcristiano, @courtneypk, with help crunching the numbers from @harmonyromo. When I wrote last year that we’d be making a public call for working group volunteers on a 2021 global sponsorship program, I did not realize that the pandemic’s effect on our team and programs would be so powerful, and last this long. Given the givens, it seemed expedient to simply ask the people who’ve been administrating the program the longest, to draft a 2021 version for community feedback.

This year, we propose offering one package only, available on a quarterly basis. A quarterly offering should help make us nimble, if our path to global in-person events accelerates in ways we don’t currently expect. Offering one single package should make this easier to administrate, which is extra-important right now, as volunteer engagement is (for perfectly understandable reasons) so low.

The one new benefit we’re able to offer this year, is acknowledgement on the meetup.com pages of all WordPress chapter groups. Meetup.com has offered to make this happen for us, once per year for up to 6 sponsors. Therefore, this benefit will only be available to the first 6 qualifying sponsors that inscribe by 26 March 2021, and only those that commit to at least two quarters of sponsorship. Inscription will be opened early to companies that have been sponsors of this program in the past.

EDIT: This version of the program does NOT include direct WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. sponsorship. Unless something changes drastically, WordCamp sponsorship in 2021 will be handled on an “a la carte” basis.


2021 Global Sponsorship benefit package proposal

Cost: USD $10,000/quarter; sponsor limit 6 (due to meetup.com constraints)
  1. Your company’s logo, with a link back to the company landing page of your choice, on all WordPress chapter meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. group pages (as of Jan 2021: 454,482 Members, 745 groups, 109 countries). Available to inscribers by 26 March, who will commit to at least two quarters of sponsorship. 
  2. Acknowledgement in all WordCamp “ticket purchase successful” pages (39,000 in 2020; projected 19,000 in 2021).
  3. Acknowledgement on the WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. home page (over 400k annual views).
  4. Acknowledgment in one program-wide email to all 454,607 members of a WordPress chapter account meetup/user group.
  5. Acknowledgment on sponsor page on WordCamp Central (8,698 views in the past 365 days).
  6. Monthly email with spreadsheet of WordCamps in planning and on the schedule
  7. “Featured” acknowledgment on all monthly meetup organizer newsletters (received by 2,800+ WordPress community leaders every month).
  8. Opportunity to list discounts or free resources that meetup and WordCamp organizers can use for new user workshops, charity hackathons, etc., on the official WordCamp Organizer handbook page for use at community events. This page will be promoted through the Meetup Organizer newsletter, received by 2,800+ WordPress community leaders monthly.

Feedback

Please share any feedback, questions, or concerns you have about this proposal, no later than 26 February 2021. We hope to finalize the program details by 5 March 2021, and activate the program no later than the end of March.

#global-sponsors, #global-sponsorship