Why this page?

The purpose of this page is to document how sponsorship issues are being handled across the Barcamp community. It is intended to be a guideline for all you *camp organizers out there. As always, please add your thoughts. Thank you!

Best practices

Coming out of the original BarCamp, a number of guidelines have been established with regard to sponsors and the support they provide.

• Sponsor participation: Try to focus on local sponsors, especially those who can actually attend and participate in some way. (Source)
• Limits: Limit cash contributions
  • Used to be $250, recently was $300 at BarCampBlock, but has occasionally been higher elsewhere
  • This is great because it means that no one "owns" BarCamp, and we get to keep the great community vibe. (Source)
  • Another reason this is a good idea: The little guys (startups, individuals) can contribute on a level playing field with the big guys (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc.)
• Diversity: Many small sponsors are better than a few big ones.
• Encourage in-kind donations: Request that sponsors order food and other food stuff directly, minimizing the organizer's duties and responsibilities as well as the amount of money they touch. (Source)
• Chunking: Chunk (or microchunk) your sponsorships. Break your budget items into manageable chunks that companies can "adopt". For example, let one company pay for the lunch, and another for shirts, etc. Chunking is nice because it means the companies can write checks directly to the vendors, and you never have to touch any cash. This limits your personal liability and makes companies feel safer. (Example: BarCampRDU, Source)
  • Don’t get anyone’s company books involved. Too messy. Either deal in all cash or get a special paypal account. At the end of the day, you don’t want to be holding extra money. Best to get people to sponsor things like chair rentals, a meal, etc, and never touch the money yourself. (Source)
• Transparency: List all incoming donations (cash and in-kind) as well as all outgoing costs on the wiki.
  • Example: BarCampBlock (list of sponsors and costs)

Variations

Additional ways to deal with sponsors that people have developed locally:

• Provide various sponsorship levels, or tiered sponsoring (Example: BarCampLA-4, Source)
• Put sponsor logos on the t-shirts (Example: BarCampDallas, Source

Case studies, success stories

Share your experiences here. What worked? What didn't? What modifications did you have to make in order to get your *camp off the ground?

Name of *camp

Your story here...