In 2018, 58 community members applied for scholarships to attend OMRS18 in Nairobi. Thanks to IMO, we were able to support 19 amazing community members to join us.
This year, we’d like to make a goal of raising $30,000 to support such scholarships - as well as reach out to more sponsors.
We currently offer four sponsorship packages (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) and with each one, sponsors get a few additional perks - think complimentary registrations, name/logo on a t-shirt, etc. You can find what we have traditionally offered outlined in our Sponsorship Packet.
We’d like your perspectives and input on two questions:
What criteria do you think we should use to identify companies to contact about sponsoring scholarships?
Are there companies or organizations that you think we should contact about sponsorships?
-i would think of companies that directly or indirectly benefit from openmrs.
probably like Jembi Health systems , PIH . that is as far as i understand anyway.
True. In fact, we have business sponsorships where companies, like Jembi and PIH, that purchase 3+ registrations receive a reduced price on a 4th. Perhaps we could include an option where that 4th reduced price registration goes to a scholarship recipient?
I’ve heard also heard suggestions that we approach other companies, such as IBM, Gates Foundation, Facebook, Google, etc. If we were to approach private sector companies or foundations like these, then how do we decide who to approach and who not to approach? Are there criteria, such as reflecting our values or demonstrating that they are socially responsible, etc, that we would want to consider using?
Thank you @jennifer and team for putting this together. Last year in Nairobi I saw some organisations showcasing their products/ services at the conference like RTI , could they be willing to sponsor too. This link provides a number of Tech companies that sponsor developer events. We could checkout with them and see if they could sponsor our conference too.
Thanks, @tendomart and @irenyak1. That website is a great resource! So nice when someone else helps you do your homework (like analyze event sponsors).
After looking at the site that @jwnasambu shared, here’s a list of five possible sponsors for us to consider:
Google
IMO
Jetbrains
GitHub
Balsamiq
What do people think about approaching the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Facebook), who (very generously) supports Andela?
We have a history with Google and IMO, so this means we’ll expand our outreach to three, possibly four new organizations. Any other suggestions?
We’ve also offered business sponsorships in the past, where those businesses who cover the registration fee for X people receive a discount for an additional registration fee. Perhaps for those companies that typically send 3-4 people to our meeting, we could ask them if they are interested in donating the discounted registration fee to a scholarship recipient?
Just like sometimes I mix up @jennifer and @janflowers , Its the same way Jennifer and Cynthia sometimes mix up @jwnasambu and @irenyak1.
It’s fine we are all descendants of Adam.
