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I have an open source project that's in an early stage, and I'm trying to figure out whether structuring it as a nonprofit is a good idea. I'm quite curious to

by japhyr 11y ago

I have an open source project that's in an early stage, and I'm trying to figure out whether structuring it as a nonprofit is a good idea. I'm quite curious to hear more about the reasoning behind this decision as well.

rectang 11y ago
Creating your own foundation is a huge amount of work. I think you would benefit from doing this research, and I'm not going to tell you "don't do it" because it won't be convincing, but I predict that in the end you will not choose to start a foundation. There's a chapter in Van Lindberg's Intellectual Property and Open Source on this topic. (It ends with a discussion of umbrella foundations like Apache, Eclipse, Software Freedom Conservancy.) Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-Protecting/dp/0596517963 http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-Prot...
- japhyr 11y ago
  I've never thought of a nonprofit as a foundation. Are they equivalent? The primary appeal for me as a nonprofit is declaring unequivocally that profit is not the goal of the project, and to facilitate donations to support ongoing development. I am aware of the need to establish a board; I've been a board member on a nonprofit, and I've been involved with nonprofits in a number of other roles as well. I think of a foundation as an umbrella organization, much different than a small nonprofit. Is there anything fundamentally off about my understanding?
  - Sanddancer 11y ago
    "Foundation" is just a part of a name, in the US at least. There are definite connotations to using Foundation in your name, like those you described, but anyone can use it. Conversely, nonprofits can be of near any side, from a local community entity doing volunteer work, all the way up to big entities like planned parenthood. So, they're not equivalent, and do in fact have tendencies for a large amount of overlap.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
Backing your FOSS project with a non-profit organization is a great idea. Creating your own such organization, on the other hand, usually isn't unless you're a very large project (on par with LLVM, Apache, etc). Instead, consider joining one of the several umbrella organizations that support FOSS projects (including managing donations and legal issues), such as Software Freedom Conservancy (which covers projects like Git, Mercurial, QEMU, Samba, Boost, Inkscape, and PyPy), or Software in the Public Interest (which covers Debian, PostgreSQL, ffmpeg, LibreOffice, MinGW, Arch, freedesktop.org, and others).
- jordigh 11y ago
  I would like to add the Free Software Foundation, which covers Octave, gcc, Emacs, Mediagoblin, and the GNU Scientifc Library.
johnny22 11y ago
why not join an existing umbrella organization?

by japhyr 11y ago

rectang 11y ago

Creating your own foundation is a huge amount of work. I think you would benefit from doing this research, and I'm not going to tell you "don't do it" because it won't be convincing, but I predict that in the end you will not choose to start a foundation. There's a chapter in Van Lindberg's Intellectual Property and Open Source on this topic. (It ends with a discussion of umbrella foundations like Apache, Eclipse, Software Freedom Conservancy.) Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-Protecting/dp/0596517963 http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-Prot...

japhyr 11y ago
I've never thought of a nonprofit as a foundation. Are they equivalent? The primary appeal for me as a nonprofit is declaring unequivocally that profit is not the goal of the project, and to facilitate donations to support ongoing development. I am aware of the need to establish a board; I've been a board member on a nonprofit, and I've been involved with nonprofits in a number of other roles as well. I think of a foundation as an umbrella organization, much different than a small nonprofit. Is there anything fundamentally off about my understanding?
- Sanddancer 11y ago
  "Foundation" is just a part of a name, in the US at least. There are definite connotations to using Foundation in your name, like those you described, but anyone can use it. Conversely, nonprofits can be of near any side, from a local community entity doing volunteer work, all the way up to big entities like planned parenthood. So, they're not equivalent, and do in fact have tendencies for a large amount of overlap.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

Backing your FOSS project with a non-profit organization is a great idea. Creating your own such organization, on the other hand, usually isn't unless you're a very large project (on par with LLVM, Apache, etc). Instead, consider joining one of the several umbrella organizations that support FOSS projects (including managing donations and legal issues), such as Software Freedom Conservancy (which covers projects like Git, Mercurial, QEMU, Samba, Boost, Inkscape, and PyPy), or Software in the Public Interest (which covers Debian, PostgreSQL, ffmpeg, LibreOffice, MinGW, Arch, freedesktop.org, and others).

jordigh 11y ago
I would like to add the Free Software Foundation, which covers Octave, gcc, Emacs, Mediagoblin, and the GNU Scientifc Library.

johnny22 11y ago

why not join an existing umbrella organization?