Dear all,
I wish to share my experience with running an organization that, at least in some respects, is similar to the Game Philosophy Network. The organization in question is the Centre for Philosophical Research. We aim to organize conferences and publish books that popularize philosophy. The method that we used to keep us afloat is that we function as an official Polish NGO. This means that, while we are not affiliated with any university we can apply for funds from the government or even the private sector.
The main conference we organize is similar to the PCG conference in that it changes the host every year (the difference is that it changes cities and not countries). This is how we finance these conferences:
We function as a host organization that has the right to the name and the right to veto any of the decisions of the local organization committee. Since we are already recognized it is fairly easy for us to apply for funds for the conference and we get them almost every year.
At the same time, the local committee is obliged to apply for funds in their city. We do not care where the money comes from as long as it does not affect the integrity of the conference. For example – during some of the editions we got money from the private sector in exchange for the advertisement of their publications. Since the publications were well regarded academic books, we did not have a problem with this. Still, typically the local money comes from the university or local government.
On top of that, the conference has a fee. It is always fairly low – currently, only 40 euros which is low even for Polish standards. Using these three sources of financing we are typically really well off. To the point where sometimes we had to think hard how to spend the money (as a non-gov organization we cannot turn a profit, additionally no one in the organization gets salaries).
I am not sure if this experience will be easily transferable to the PCG scenario, but I will be happy to provide more details if needed.
My thinking is that affiliating with a particular university is not the only option. Maybe affiliation with a particular country and gaining legal personality in this country could be a better solution for the PCG network. In other words, maybe, instead of affiliating with existing institutions it might be better to become an institution itself?