8 ms·

Anonymous donor donates $500k to FreeBSD Foundation

95 points by tachion 10y ago

tachion 10y ago
So, they/she/he did his job, but have you? ;) FreeBSD needs your support[0], every donor counts, no matter what's the amount you can spare! [0] https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/ https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/
- craftkiller 10y ago
  Also, the FreeBSD Foundation is one of the charities available on https://smile.amazon.com https://smile.amazon.com, so you can automatically donate a tiny fraction of your Amazon purchases for free.
- protomyth 10y ago
  For tax purposes they need to show a large number of people donating, so for their nonprofit status a lot of $5 donations would be a very good thing.
  - eganist 10y ago
    Charity novice here. Specifically why does the quantity of people matter? i.e. what's the tax-specific impact which results e.g from 100,000 people making $5 donations v. one person making a $500,000 donation?
    - protomyth 10y ago
      A 501(c)(3) in the US needs to prove "Public Support". A 100,000 people making a $5 donation shows public support, whereas 1 person making a $500,000 makes the IRS think its a trade group or something else. 501(c)(3) is pretty complicated, but its not the only non-profit type.
- akerro 10y ago
  I donated 0.5BTC when BTC was twice cheaper :(
  - eganist 10y ago
    Well hey, hopefully they sat on it!
pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
more like, "FreeBSD launders stolen bitcoins"
hackuser 10y ago
I've always thought that often the best way to give is anonymously and I understand I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but in this case the 'horse' analogy might be appropriate. This isn't a criticism of the FreeBSD Foundation; I'm just raising a question about this gift and similar gifts for other FOSS projects: FOSS projects thrive on transparency; are such large anonymous gifts good for them? Think of a similar anonymous gift to a politician - in that case, humble anonymity isn't a good thing (it's a very imperfect analogy; I'm just trying to relate the issue to something familiar). I assume, maybe incorrectly, that the FreeBSD foundation knows who the donor is; should the wider community know who wields such influence? Will the donor want something in return, now or later? Is it a corporation or corporate leader who may want FreeBSD's cooperation later, perhaps to stay out of or to support a certain market segment or technology? A U.S. government entity such as In-Q-Tel, or an entity controlled by a foreign government? FreeBSD and the donor may both say, and even mean, that there are no strings attached, but it's similar to a parent saying they won't favor their own children; when that donor calls with a request, it is very hard to say no. Likely the donor is being very generous and should be thanked, not questioned. And of course, if the FreeBSD Foundation said they were turning down the gift for the reasons above, many would question that decision too.
- tachion 10y ago
  There is one very important thing here: FreeBSD != FreeBSD Foundation. FreeBSD Foundation accepts donations and pledges to support FreeBSD Project, but FreeBSD Project is an open source technical initiative that gets support from many sources, one of which is FreeBSD Foundation. Giving money to the Foundation with 'bad intent' has no influence on the FreeBSD Project, so, yeah, no stings attached here.
  - hackuser 10y ago
    > Giving money to the Foundation with 'bad intent' has no influence on the FreeBSD Project Maybe in theory, but that sounds very doubtful in reality. I'm sure the people who run the project know well what is going on in the Foundation, and know where their critical resources - including money - are coming from. Also, to be clear, I'm raising the issue more generally; this isn't about the FreeBSD project in particular.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
readhn 10y ago
I often give money anonymously. I dont expect anything back. Its just extra zeroes for some people. If you have $5,000,000 then giving $5000 to some worthy cause is not a big deal at all. Its like going to Starbucks... chump change. if you have $500,000,000 then $500,000 becomes chump change. Someone who made lots of money in the recent tech bubble could easily swing this much $ with no strings attached.
- symbolic 10y ago
  $500k is never chump change, not even to a billionaire. That kind of money is not trivial to transfer. I'm no expert but I imagine it requires solicitation via an accountant who has to request permission from your bank, which in turn has to manually authorize and clear the money on both ends according to anti-money laundering laws.

95 points by tachion 10y ago

So, they/she/he did his job, but have you? ;) FreeBSD needs your support[0], every donor counts, no matter what's the amount you can spare! [0] https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/ https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/

craftkiller 10y ago
Also, the FreeBSD Foundation is one of the charities available on https://smile.amazon.com https://smile.amazon.com, so you can automatically donate a tiny fraction of your Amazon purchases for free.
protomyth 10y ago
For tax purposes they need to show a large number of people donating, so for their nonprofit status a lot of $5 donations would be a very good thing.
- eganist 10y ago
  Charity novice here. Specifically why does the quantity of people matter? i.e. what's the tax-specific impact which results e.g from 100,000 people making $5 donations v. one person making a $500,000 donation?
  - protomyth 10y ago
    A 501(c)(3) in the US needs to prove "Public Support". A 100,000 people making a $5 donation shows public support, whereas 1 person making a $500,000 makes the IRS think its a trade group or something else. 501(c)(3) is pretty complicated, but its not the only non-profit type.
akerro 10y ago
I donated 0.5BTC when BTC was twice cheaper :(
- eganist 10y ago
  Well hey, hopefully they sat on it!

pg_is_a_butt 10y ago

more like, "FreeBSD launders stolen bitcoins"

hackuser 10y ago

I've always thought that often the best way to give is anonymously and I understand I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but in this case the 'horse' analogy might be appropriate. This isn't a criticism of the FreeBSD Foundation; I'm just raising a question about this gift and similar gifts for other FOSS projects: FOSS projects thrive on transparency; are such large anonymous gifts good for them? Think of a similar anonymous gift to a politician - in that case, humble anonymity isn't a good thing (it's a very imperfect analogy; I'm just trying to relate the issue to something familiar). I assume, maybe incorrectly, that the FreeBSD foundation knows who the donor is; should the wider community know who wields such influence? Will the donor want something in return, now or later? Is it a corporation or corporate leader who may want FreeBSD's cooperation later, perhaps to stay out of or to support a certain market segment or technology? A U.S. government entity such as In-Q-Tel, or an entity controlled by a foreign government? FreeBSD and the donor may both say, and even mean, that there are no strings attached, but it's similar to a parent saying they won't favor their own children; when that donor calls with a request, it is very hard to say no. Likely the donor is being very generous and should be thanked, not questioned. And of course, if the FreeBSD Foundation said they were turning down the gift for the reasons above, many would question that decision too.

tachion 10y ago
There is one very important thing here: FreeBSD != FreeBSD Foundation. FreeBSD Foundation accepts donations and pledges to support FreeBSD Project, but FreeBSD Project is an open source technical initiative that gets support from many sources, one of which is FreeBSD Foundation. Giving money to the Foundation with 'bad intent' has no influence on the FreeBSD Project, so, yeah, no stings attached here.
- hackuser 10y ago
  > Giving money to the Foundation with 'bad intent' has no influence on the FreeBSD Project Maybe in theory, but that sounds very doubtful in reality. I'm sure the people who run the project know well what is going on in the Foundation, and know where their critical resources - including money - are coming from. Also, to be clear, I'm raising the issue more generally; this isn't about the FreeBSD project in particular.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

readhn 10y ago

I often give money anonymously. I dont expect anything back. Its just extra zeroes for some people. If you have $5,000,000 then giving $5000 to some worthy cause is not a big deal at all. Its like going to Starbucks... chump change. if you have $500,000,000 then $500,000 becomes chump change. Someone who made lots of money in the recent tech bubble could easily swing this much $ with no strings attached.

symbolic 10y ago
$500k is never chump change, not even to a billionaire. That kind of money is not trivial to transfer. I'm no expert but I imagine it requires solicitation via an accountant who has to request permission from your bank, which in turn has to manually authorize and clear the money on both ends according to anti-money laundering laws.