[software] OffstageArts and CiviCRM

[Dave Rolsky]

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote:

> The point, though, is that *we* will do the work so that non-profits
> don't need to pay for that.  Ideally, the funding agencies that fund
> non-profits already, that are giving our money (via overhead part of
> grants) to buy Raiser's Edge and other proprietary-licensed stuff should
> fund the improvement of a FaiF replacement.
>
> My belief on the next steps for this project needs to go is that to
> something working well enough (be it through existing software or
> something we write), and get enough different FLOSS organizations behind
> it that we can go and get grant money to make it better.  The problem
> is, that's a hard thing to do (I've been trying off-and-on to get
> funding for this specific project for nearly ten years now), and I am
> convinced we need something that solves some real problems for
> non-profits today before we can expect to get a grant.

I don't think that FLOSS organizations _have_ to fund this to make such a 
thing exist. I'm working on my project (Rapport aka R2) with the goal of 
making money off of it via a hosted service, support, training, 
customization, and initial setup consulting.

It seems like this is a really possibility, even with a totall FaiF 
product, because nonprofits as a whole are not very tech-savvy, and will 
not be capable of installing and managing it themslves. Of course, that 
point doesn't apply to the FLOSS orgs who might be on this list ;)

Given how much money they're spending for things like Raiser's Edge and 
similar products, I would imagine that there is a market for something 
simpler and lower cost, especially for smaller orgs with simpler needs 
that are simply unable to afford the big proprietary services.

Of course, I'd love grant money too, but I'm not going to ask because the 
project just isn't far enough along, compared to the other systems being 
discussed, which are actually usable as-is.


-dave

/*============================================================
http://VegGuide.org               http://blog.urth.org
Your guide to all that's veg      House Absolute(ly Pointless)
============================================================*/