Sponsorship

This page is a draft only
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on the information on this page. This page is a proposal intended for Board review and discussion.

This page contains information about how commercial entities can sponsor Fedora through direct contribution of services or funding, and what options are available for acknowledging those contributions.

Introduction

Fedora has thousands of regular contributors who give freely of their time and efforts on a continual basis. Sponsorship by commercial entities must never be seen as disenfranchising or sidelining the work done by our many volunteers around the globe. For this reason, only very substantial direct contributions of services, mainly those which empower our volunteers to work more effectively and collaborate more easily, are recognized beyond simple gratitude such as a written "thank you."

Definition

Sponsorship generally occurs in one of two ways:

• One-time sponsorship
  • Funding of part or all of an event
  • Hardware donation
• Recurring sponsorship
  • Continuing service donation

The following are not considered sponsorship of the Fedora Project:

• Donations of personnel in cases where Fedora Project personnel do not have substantial input in the performance management process. Sponsorship allows Fedora to have substantial control over implementation details, such as where hardware is located, how a service is configured, or how funding is used. To be eligible for sponsorship, a personnel donation would require at least the ability for the Fedora Project to manage personnel efforts; make performance and retention decisions; and otherwise administer the position(s) in a way wholly discernible from other volunteer work.
• Providing a public mirror of Fedora software. Many educational, commercial, and public institutions provide public mirrors of Fedora software already, not only as a service to the free and open source software (FOSS) community, but because they realize tangible benefits from the distribution of FOSS.

Levels of recognition

The level system provided here is generally used by Fedora to recognize sponsors. The Fedora Board is ultimately responsible for sponsor recognition, and retains discretion over that work.

Level 1

This level is used for one-time sponsorships of less than $10,000, such as for events, and is recognized by co-branding of an event as agreed upon by the Fedora Project and the sponsor.

Level 2

This level is typically used for larger one-time sponsorships, or recurring sponsorships such as services valued at >$5,000 per year, and is recognized by inclusion on the sponsors web page. It may also be used for larger one-time donations, in which case any branding or inclusion may be limited in some fashion (such as duration), as decided by the Board.

Level 3

This level is used for recurring sponsorships valued at >$1,000,000 per year. Such sponsorships are by definition very rare; the relationship that Fedora has with its primary sponsor, Red Hat, is obviously in this category. Hardware, bandwidth, and personnel contributions from Red Hat (into which the Fedora Project has very substantial decision-making input) are all part of that sponsorship. This type of sponsorship is recognized by inclusion on the sponsors web page in a prominent position, and may also be accompanied by additional recognition such as web page branding or other cooperative work.