Proposal: Update PSF Sponsorship Levels

An oft-discussed topic over the past few years has been converting the PSF's sponsorship levels over to a more conventional "gems & metals" based naming scheme, as well as adding additional levels for larger and smaller organisations.

The Marketing WG proposes that the changes to the sponsorship program be implemented for 2016 as described below.

Sponsorship page

Update text for the "Sponsorship levels" section in https://www.python.org/psf/sponsorship/ as outlined below:

New text

Companies, divisions, groups, and organizations of various sizes can benefit from PSF sponsorship. The PSF suggests guidelines for choosing an annual sponsorship level based on the number of employees using Python for development, data analysis, process automation and other activities:

• Diamond: $100,000/year – 2500+ employees
• Platinum: $50,000/year – 1001 – 2500 employees
• Gold: $20,000/year – 501 – 1000 employees
• Silver: $10,000/year – 251 – 500 employees
• Bronze: $5,000/year – 101 – 250 employees
• Copper: $2,000/year – 26 – 100 employees

• Iron: $500/year - < 25 employees

Divisions or groups within a larger organization can choose to sponsor the PSF as a group, and should choose a sponsorship level appropriate to the level of usage of Python within that group. However, if you belong to such a group within a larger organization, we urge you to consider whether the larger organization as a whole might be interested in helping the PSF and letting the world know about its support.

Individuals who wish to contribute at a higher level than a Supporting Membership may also become sponsors of the PSF, at whatever level they feel is appropriate. Moreover, we certainly welcome smaller organizations who want to sponsor the PSF at more generous levels. Determine what is best for you and your organization: the PSF, like the Python language, trusts its users.

Old text (for reference)

Companies, divisions, groups, and organizations of various sizes can benefit from PSF sponsorship. The PSF suggests guidelines for choosing an annual sponsorship level as follows:

• Benefactor: $20,000 (suggested for organizations of over 500 people)
• Patron: $10,000 (suggested for organizations of 100-500 people)
• Principal: $5,000 (suggested for organizations of 25-100 people)
• Member: $2,000 (suggested for organizations of fewer than 25 people)

Divisions or groups within a larger organization can choose to sponsor the PSF as a group, and should choose a sponsorship level appropriate to the size of the group. However, if you belong to such a group within a larger organization, we urge you to consider whether the larger organization as a whole might be interested in helping the PSF and letting the world know about its support.

Individuals who wish to may also become sponsors of the PSF, at whatever level they feel is appropriate. Moreover, we certainly welcome smaller organizations who want to sponsor the PSF at more generous levels. Determine what is best for you and your organization: the PSF, like the Python language, trusts its users.

Sponsor listings

Sponsor listings on python.org should be grouped by level to raise competition among them.

The sponsor page should be made more prominently visible on python.org (it's currently only a hard to find link on the PSF page).

Sponsor benefits

This section is currently still a draft for discussion.

Since trying to sell warm fluffy feelings is not a lot harder than tangible benefits, we also need to add some real benefits for each level.

This is list of benefits we could assign to each level:

• x% discount on PyCon US sponsorship (with x depending on the level, e.g. 20% for diamond level, 10% for platinum, etc.)

• x% discount on up to n PyCon US tickets (with x and n depending on the level; this would be useful for lower levels)

• Text link on python.org sponsor page (for lower levels)
• Link with logo on python.org sponsor page (for higher levels)
• Logo on PSF conference signage (e.g. banners and displays)
• Joint press release (one per year)
• Introductory posting on PSF blog (one per year)
• Show up as sponsor on PSF blog posts (one per post, frequency depends on level)
• Permissions to use a special "PSF sponsor level badge" on their websites (with link back to python.org)
• Pinned job board listings (postings are displayed at the top of the listing for a certain while)
• Heavy rotation success stories (shown more frequently on python.org front-page; we already had one sponsor who was interested in this)