[Linux-aus] Grant Request: Contribute to the Drupal 8 Accelerate fund

[Donna Benjamin]

Date: 16 March 2015

Project Name: Drupal8 Accelerate initiative

Aim of Project: To unblock the issues holding up the release of Drupal8, from beta, through release candidate to 8.0.

Person Responsible for Request: Donna Benjamin

Request: That Linux Australia, as fiscal sponsor of the Australian Drupal Community, make a contribution to the Drupal 8 Accelerate fund.


Hi Everyone!

The Drupal Association will shortly be launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise US$250,000 for the Drupal 8 Accelerate program.

This is a grants program created to support the community to get Drupal8 done. We are in beta now with about 50 critical issues blocking a release candidate.  The remaining issues are difficult ones with many moving parts, and deep knowledge from a small number of people is needed to nail them.  The funding program will support developers to come together in person for dedicated sprints, or free them to commit time they'd otherwise need to spend working to pay the rent.

Way more information on the program is available at https://assoc.drupal.org/d8accelerate for those interested.

As a board member of the Drupal Association, I have pledged to personally raise money for the fund.

The Drupal Association itself is matching donations of up to US$62,500 and members of the board need to secure another US$62,500. Plus, we're hoping to raise another US$125,000 from the broader community.  

Many of my colleagues on the board run large Drupal companies.  Those companies have all pledged anchor funding for the matching amount. I'm not in a position to do that, so I had initially planned to run a chookraffle to raise my share of it (around AUS$7,500) - but then the board decided to run it's own crowdfunding effort, so I shut down my chookraffle on pozible to wait for our crowdraise platform to be set up.

I would like to ask the community, and council to consider making a contribution to the Drupal 8 Accelerate program in my name, on behalf of the Australian open source community.

If you've got any questions, concerns, suggestions etc - please don't hesitate to ask.

cheers
Donna