Sponsors.md
# Sponsors
## Main way to sponsor us financially: through OpenCollective
The main way to sponsor DevStaff is through [our OpenCollective page](https://opencollective.com/devstaff), which helps us gather financial contributions via a transparent system. There, you can find the available contribution options such as:
* One-time contribution of a custom amount
* One-time contributions of predefined amounts to sponsor a number of next meetups
After contributing, you can be listed in OpenCollective's DevStaff contributors.
Also, as a thank you for sponsoring a number of the upcoming meetups, we will feature you in those meetups by mentioning you and your contribution.
See the "Awareness benefits" section below for more details.
## Awareness benefits
Devstaff owes much of its success to sponsors like you.
For this reason, a sponsor receives the following awareness benefits in return:
* "Thank you" mention in the announcement of the sponsored meetups.
* "Thank you" message by organizers (not by company) during the sponsored meetups.
* "Thank you" mention in our social media.
* The sponsor may leave leaflets on a table at the entrance during the sponsored meetups.
* The sponsor will be considered to be added in our website's [sponsors page](https://www.devstaff.gr/sponsors).
Note that Devstaff's [meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/devstaff/) is home to over 1780 members and counting.
Each month (except for the summer break), roughly [40-70 talented developers](https://www.meetup.com/devstaff/events/?type=past) gather for engaging meetups, where knowledge is shared, connections are made, and innovation thrives.
With your help, we are able to sustain this momentum and foster our growing community.
## How financial contributions are used
The financial contributions made through OpenCollective may be used by DevStaff for various purposes and activities to support the community.
These activities are decided by the org team and the org meetups which are open to anyone in the community.
The primary purpose is to support the catering of a meetup which boosts the socializing part of the meetups!
Other purposes may include ordering swag to give out to community members, etc.
These activities are expensed in accordance to OpenCollective's policies, including submitting a receipt for transparency purposes.
## Other ways to sponsor
We provide a few other ways to sponsor DevStaff outside OpenCollective, that provides the advantage to a legal entity (e.g., a company) to be directly invoiced. Your contribution will be made aware to our community (e.g., during meetups), but note that it cannot be listed in our OpenCollective page.
### Swag Sponsor
Help the community members wear the DevStaff community name with pride! With this option, you can sponsor the purchase of promotional material with the DevStaff brand, in return for awareness of your own brand. (Please note we do not currently offer a co-branding option, see below for awareness benefits). All material will be made available to community and org team members.
No developer is complete without a dev-friendly cool looking t-shirt or laptop stickers. A "badge of honor" for many, a hipster trend for some... but the reality is that dev t-shirts and laptop stickers are highly sought after! Each swag pack may include a dev-friendly cool looking t-shirt, and/or "Raki" / "Tsikoudia" shot glasses, and/or laptop stickers, and/or any other item that can fit in the budget.
Swag packs may be given to lucky attendees (e.g., through a lottery that can take place at the meetup), or to speakers, or to community members. Your company will be publicly thanked for making this possible.
Get in contact with us (at [info@devstaff.gr](mailto:info@devstaff.gr?subject:Swag%20Sponsorship)) to discuss swag pack opportunities. Please note that depending on the amount, we will publicly thank you in a number of next meetups. For example:
* Around 200 EUR on swag packs - i.e. awareness for you for ONE meetup.
* Around 500 EUR on swag packs - i.e. awareness for you for THREE meetups.
* Around 1000 EUR on swag packs - i.e. awareness for you for SIX meetups.
See the section "Awareness benefits" for more details on awareness benefits. Additionally, we will thank you during any Swag Pack lottery in the sponsored meetups.
Note: the invoices will be issued directly to the sponsoring company by our own suppliers.
### Catering Sponsor
At the end of every meetup we have a networking session that offers - perhaps - the greatest value of our meetups: getting to know other professionals who might be able to advance your career forward, help out with an annoying problem you’ve been dealing with, or, in time, even become your friends.
Get in contact with us to discuss catering opportunities.
As a sponsor, you will enjoy all the standard awareness benefits we offer (see the section "Awareness benefits" for more details), and additionally we will:
The list below describes the awareness benefits that our catering sponsor receives in return:
* All the standard awareness benefits we offer (see the section "Awareness benefits" for more details).
* Online banner on DevStaff website (with back-link do-follow).
* Sponsor's slide in DevStaff Welcome presentation.
### Venue Sponsor
High quality human interactions happen more naturally in a nice setting. The venue is one of the most important factors that go into running successful meet-ups.
We want venues that are accessible, large enough for our size and provide the necessary equipment (e.g. fast internet connection, projector, comfortable seating, etc.) to help our meet-ups run smoothly. You can find more details in [this relevant discussion](https://github.com/devstaff-crete/DevStaff-Heraklion/issues/185). We prefer a venue that is free and without any unreasonable demands.
The list below describes the awareness benefits that our venue sponsor receives in return:
* All the standard awareness benefits we offer (see the section "Awareness benefits" for more details).
* Online banner on DevStaff website (with back-link do-follow).
* Sponsor's slide in DevStaff Welcome presentation.
### How to contact us about Sponsorship opportunities
Depending on the time of year and ongoing sponsor engagements, some, or all, of the above options may or may not be available. Please contact us at [info@devstaff.gr](mailto:info@devstaff.gr?subject:Sponsorship), so you can get in touch with the Org Team and discuss the available options.
### Sponsor Eligibility
We did discuss about whether sponsorship should be open to IT companies at all (so that we wouldn't face any competition / conflict of interest issues), however, we agreed that we will not place any explicit constraints for the time being.
To clarify, this does not mean we are opening our doors to **any** sponsor (for example, in the case where we had a single sponsorship offer from <name-some-unethical-company-here>, we would be forced to accept it), rather that we are not explicitly excluding any companies from offering a sponsorship.
In general, we will only accept sponsorships from companies the Org Team approves. We would prefer not having any sponsors at all (considering we could still run our meet-ups without them) than having some sponsor the community would feel uneasy about.