Diversity Scholarships - IndiaFOSS

IndiaFOSS Conference
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I want to bring up a proposal that was discussed in a recent conversation with @wisharya.

We are considering the possibility of accommodating a lower sponsorship tier, Diversity Sponsors (for the lack of a better word) specifically aimed at promoting diversity among our participants at IndiaFOSS.

This initiative would allow organisations ( and even individuals) to sponsor tickets, travel, accommodation etc. for students, women and underrepresented communities, fostering inclusivity and widening access to the conference (and future events).

Key Points:

  1. Flexibility: We propose to keep this initiative flexible, allowing sponsors to choose the number of individuals they wish to support. For instance, an organisation could choose to sponsor 20, 50, or even 100 people.

  2. Variable Perks: It’s important to note that perks for this tier would be limited, in case the total sponsored amount is lower than the current contributor tier priced at 75k

  3. Budget Considerations: To give you an idea of the financial aspect, starting with a minimum of 10 students, it would roughly cost around Rs 15,000
    Ticket costs = 400 * 10 = 400
    Travel and accommodation = 1100 * 10

    The sponsorship amount can increase as we move to higher slabs.

  4. Emphasizing Diversity Tiers: Instead of dividing sponsorship into monetary slabs, we suggest introducing a single “diversity tier.” Sponsors can specify the number of students they can support based on their budget, allowing them to have a more personalized impact.

Benefit of becoming a diversity sponsor

  1. They can get an 80G certificate as FOSS United Foundation is a registered non-profit and donors can claim tax benefits.
  2. The organisation logos/names will be published on the indiaFOSS website

Note: This support can be provided through a donation fund similar to pages.razorpay.com/fossunited.

I personally believe that this approach could attract more sponsors, as it demonstrates a direct impact on our conferences and activities, appealing to their sense of purpose.

Please share your suggestions and thoughts on the same by Sunday midnight. We will share the updated proposal by Monday after considering all the suggestions in this post.

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Little late on this. This is a great initiative. I guess it needs a better name, but I don’t have any better suggestions at the moment.

Does the conference volunteer group have enough time on spread the word, select students and organise this ? I am guessing the answer to this is “yes”, but can’t help asking - for the reason that it will take some time to collect the funds for this effort.

I would suggest having an option to keep the sponsor name anonymous on request.

Beyond that, you’d need to start the outreach for this ASAP. I can think of at-least one sponsor for this already…

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Our Diversity Sponsors initiative is live! Help us champion inclusivity in FOSS. Learn more and join the movement on our donation page

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Applications for scholarship are now open

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Diversity Sponsorships for IndiaFOSS are now closed. We raised Rs 1.55 Lakh which will help over 100 people to attend the conference.

This scholarship program was made possible by the contribution of various organizations and individuals, some of those who chose to remain anonymous. Thanks to their support,we can enable people from various backgrounds to attend IndiaFOSS3.0. Hoping to extend this initiative to our future events.

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