Sponsorship

Plone is 100% powered by the Plone community.  We have no corporate backers, no venture capital, no lucrative advertising deals with Google.  And yet, we are among the largest, most successful and most vibrant open source projects in the world, thanks to you and the thousands of other people who are Plone.

Become a sponsor of the Plone Foundation, and help us continue to protect and promote Plone.

Plone Foundation sponsorship is currently open to Plone consulting firms and consultants.  The Foundation also accepts individual contributions.

Sponsorship rates and benefits

We have two tiers of sponsorship: Standard and Premium.  Each tier is priced according to the number of billable FTE (full-time equivalent) people doing Plone work in your firm.

Standard sponsors

Benefits

• A banner on your highlighted Plone.net provider listing
• A Plone Foundation sponsor badge you can display on your website
• Recognition in the Foundation section of Plone.org
• Pride in supporting the work of the Plone Foundation to protect and promote Plone.

Small Firms  (2 or fewer FTEs ): 41.67/month ($500/year)
Medium Firms  (More than 2, up to 7 FTEs):  $125/month ($1500 year)
Large Firms (More than 7 FTEs):   $208.33/month ($2500/year)

Premium sponsors

 Benefits

• Priority listing order in Plone.net provider search results.  
• A banner on your highlighted Plone.net provider listing
• A Plone Foundation sponsor badge you can display on your website
• Recognition in the Foundation section of Plone.org
• Pride in supporting the work of the Plone Foundation to protect and promote Plone.

Small Firms  (2 or fewer FTEs ): $125/month ($1500/year)
Medium Firms  (More than 2, up to 7 FTEs):  $375/month ($4.500/year)
Large Firms (More than 7 FTEs):   U$625/month (7.500/year)

• Firm size is based on billable FTE (full time equivalents) doing Plone work.  A firm with one full-time Plone consultant and 8 half-time contractors would thus have 5 FTEs. 
  
• We will not verify a firm’s size (number of FTEs); however, we will display the size of firm that a sponsor claims to be (small, medium or large) on their Plone.net listing, to promote transparency and honesty.
• In future years, we may consider a separate rate tier for firms located in developing countries, but we won't be able to do this until next year at the earliest.

Become a Plone foundation sponsor

What your sponsorship dollars will support

The mission of the Plone Foundation is to protect and promote Plone.   Since 2004, the Foundation has operated on the initial $100,000 startup grant from Computer Associates, supplemented by a modest stream of individual contributions.  To date, the Plone Foundation has been extremely conservative about spending money, and its expenses have primarily been related to:

• Legal work to secure Plone’s intellectual property in the Foundation’s “software conservancy”
• Registration of Plone’s trademark in countries around the world.
• Paying the Plone release manager a stipend of ~US$5000 per major release and US$2500 per minor release.

The Plone community has grown tremendously in the past few years.  It is time for the Foundation to step up to a higher level of activity and to more actively fulfill its mission of promoting Plone.  In order to support this work, the Plone Foundation needs to develop a reliable stream of income that grows along with the community.  Plone.net was created to provide that stream of income to the Plone Foundation by showcasing the vibrant world of Plone consulting firms and projects.

We hope to raise a US$40-75k in 2010, which will allow us to fund professional marketing materials, sponsor sprints to drive forward key elements of Plone development work, and more.

Questions?

If you have questions about becoming a Plone Foundation sponsor, please email the Plone Foundation board of directors: board <at> lists.plone.org. 

Become a Plone foundation sponsor