DonateWC Aims to Provide Travel Sponsorships to Attend Large WordCamps

DonateWC is a new initiative by Ines van Essen, Happiness Engineer at Automattic, that aims to provide an opportunity for less fortunate people to attend large WordCamps. Essen was inspired to create the non-profit organization after realizing how expensive it was to attend WordCamp US 2015. “As I did not work for a company that could send me there, I had to pay for travel, accommodation, and food/drinks myself,” She said. “All in all, I spent a full month’s worth of income to attend.”

While many WordPress focused businesses purchase and give away WordCamp tickets, DonateWC sponsorships include the following:

A WordCamp ticket

Door to door transportation

Accommodation

Food and drink money

Internet access

To be eligible for a sponsorship, you can not work for a company that is involved in WordPress or known to sponsor employees to WordCamps. You must be active in the community and either a speaker or volunteer at the WordCamp you’re attending.

Essen has a crowdfunding campaign through GoFundme and is asking for 1,000€. The initial 1,000€ will be used to design a logo, register the non-profit in the Netherlands, customize the theme for the site, and commercial plugins. However, if you can help out with providing any of the above, the savings will go towards sponsoring more people. Once DonateWC officially becomes a non-profit organization, a call for sponsors will go out.

If DonateWC is an initiative you believe in, consider donating to the campaign.