OpenBSD Journal

OpenBSD Foundation 2014/2015 News & Fundraising

Contributed by tbert on from the donate-now-operators-are-standing-by dept.

Ken Westerback (krw@) wrote in on behalf of the OpenBSD Foundation to let us know what happened last year, and what's in store for us now:

2014 was the most successful year to date for the OpenBSD Foundation. Both in the amount of money we raised and in the support we provided for the OpenBSD and related projects. We are extremely grateful for the support shown by our contributers large and small.

A detailed summary of the Foundation's activities in 2014 can be seen at

http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html

But here are some highpoints.

We received $397,000 in new donations and paid out $129,000 to support the activities of the OpenBSD and related projects.

Some of the things the $129,000 made happen were higher speed network links to the project's machine room; new servers, UPSs, network switches, serial consoles and network monitoring equipment for the machine room; development machines for several developers; participation in GSOC 2014; and hackathons in Lujbljana, Dunedin, Berlin, and Marrakesh.

As you can see, 2014 was a very good year for the Foundation. This can be attributed to a number of unique events. A very public finanical crisis at the start of the year generated extensive community support, and the releases of LibreSSL generated significant interest and support.

But it is important for us not to rely on one time events for our success.

Which brings us to our 2015 Fundraising Campaign, described at

http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html

The OpenBSD Foundation needs your help to achieve our fundraising goal of $200,000 for 2015. We need both Individual and Corporate sponsorship of the Foundation.

Reaching this goal will ensure the continued health of the projects we support, will enable us to help them do more, and will avoid the distraction of financial emergencies that could spell the end of the projects.

In particular it would allow us to fund more dedicated developer time for targeted development of specific projects.

If $10 were given for every installation of OpenBSD in the last year from the master site we would be at our goal.

If $2 were given for every download of the OpenSSH source code in the last year from the master site we would be at our goal.

If a penny was donated for every pf or OpenSSH installed with a mainstream operating system or phone in the last year we would be at our goal.

As an individual or corporation, the best kind of donation we can receive is a recurring donation. This allows longer term planning on our part, instead of hoping for one time cash infusions. The easiest way for an individual to support us in this way is a recurring Paypal donation, which is our preference.

Donations to the foundation can be made on our Donations Page.

http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html

We can be contacted regarding corporate sponsorship at fundraising@openbsdfoundation.org

(Comments are closed)


Comments
  1. By Anonymous Coward (84.251.119.212) on

    Hi,

    I was wondering if we the people who support OpenBSD could get a run down of the OpenBSD server farm basement, and the supporting stuff Theo has in his house, and explanations on what and why something is done in some way. Would be really nice to see what makes OpenBSD tick.

    Comments
    1. By Anonymous Coward (209.181.89.124) on

      > Hi,
      >
      > I was wondering if we the people who support OpenBSD could get a run down of the OpenBSD server farm basement, and the supporting stuff Theo has in his house, and explanations on what and why something is done in some way. Would be really nice to see what makes OpenBSD tick.

      You probably mean a cost breakdown for past years to see where the money goes. New charges explained separately. That would provide a good degree of transparency for the foundation.

      Comments
      1. By Just Another OpenBSD User (77.85.128.116) on

        When was the last time you got _that_ from your spouse? Or _your_ local state representative? Or your _favourite_ media publisher?

        Write your question again in your next donation note. Or even better in your code commit comment.

        Comments
        1. By Anonymous Coward (209.181.89.124) on

          > When was the last time you got _that_ from your spouse? Or _your_ local state representative? Or your _favourite_ media publisher?
          >
          > Write your question again in your next donation note. Or even better in your code commit comment.

          Wow, it is almost like my donation doesn't matter.

          Comments
          1. By Just Another OpenBSD User (95.42.53.30) on

            Details how donations helped the project in the OpenBSD foundation activities report for 2014:

            http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html

            Thanks to all developers who dedicated their time and work, the foundation for the fundraising campaigns and all the contributors for making this possible.

      2. By Anonymous Coward (84.251.119.212) on

        > > Hi,
        > >
        > > I was wondering if we the people who support OpenBSD could get a run down of the OpenBSD server farm basement, and the supporting stuff Theo has in his house, and explanations on what and why something is done in some way. Would be really nice to see what makes OpenBSD tick.
        >
        > You probably mean a cost breakdown for past years to see where the money goes. New charges explained separately. That would provide a good degree of transparency for the foundation.
        >

        No, I mean that a picture on how things happen. Like that rack2009.jpg, but a bit more explanation. Jeez, you can't request anything nice without some people jabbering about money.

    2. By Anonymous Coward (77.85.128.116) on

      Oh, that would be the rack2015.jpg image, right? If you try to keep up your contributions of quality code, eventually you will get the _picture_.

      As for the hardware details, surely you can check drivers in the manual pages. Alternatively, if you keep checking the wanted hardware page, there is a pretty good chance the specification will magically appear in your head.

      Comments
      1. By Just Another OpenBSD User (95.42.53.30) on

        This is not a show-me-you-shack article, there are plenty of those in the journal and the project resource pages. Plus regular and very insightful hackathon reports and papers published.

        This is an update on the OpenBSD foundation activity report for 2014 and a fundraising campaign announcement to help extend this further in 2015:

        http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/campaign2015.html

  2. By Just Another OpenBSD User (77.85.128.116) on

    Thanks to Ken and everyone involved in the project for the detailed 2014 activity summary and all contributions.

    The planned hackathons, project infrastructure and dedicated developer
    time goals for the 2015 campaign would be made possible entirely by donations,
    especially recurring ones by employers & clients of happy OpenBSD users:

    http://www.openbsdfoundation.org/donations.html

  3. By Anonymous Coward (93.38.34.122) on

    Right as we speak... $40000 have been raised!

  4. By Just Another OpenBSD User (95.42.212.65) on

    $65,000 raised (32.5%) towards the goal for 2015.

    "If a penny was donated for every pf or OpenSSH installed with a mainstream operating system or phone in the last year we would be at our goal."

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