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1) They need to form a 501c3. 2) They need to coordinate with fortune 1000 companies to get their company listed as a United Way alternative. 3) They need to
by droopybuns 13y ago
1) They need to form a 501c3.
2) They need to coordinate with fortune 1000 companies to get their company listed as a United Way alternative.
3) They need to campaign the nerds in the tech community whose companies do United Way donations and ask that their donations are directed to the OpenSSL foundation.
This solves 2 problems: 1 is the immediate need for cash, and 2 is a reliable cash flow. We donate monthly. I currently give to a cancer non profit and a local hacker space. I would move my donations away from the hacker space for the foreseeable future of the OpenSSL guys did this.
- mncolinlee 13y agoA 501(c)(3) is expensive in legal work. Unless they can find a pro-bono lawyer, this puts the plan in the "it takes money to make money" category. Then it still doesn't guarantee they'll increase donations without marketing so people know about it. Until Heartbleed became public, I imagine few companies were aware that OpenSSL had so few resources and such great needs. They definitely need to capitalize and hope the bad press doesn't make large companies seek an alternative.
- pyre 13y agoI dunno. I think the effort might be worthy of the EFF's time if they have the expertise. I don't think that any EFF donors would be upset that they spent time to help OpenSSL setup a non-profit.
- wildgift 13y agoThey could join another nonprofit.
- cwilson 13y agoNot only this, but there is delay/wait-list of over a year to get your 501c3 status approved at the moment.
- davidw 13y agoThe Apache Software Foundation is one of those. Here are some of their (our) public numbers for 2012-13: https://www.apache.org/foundation/records/990-2012.pdf https://www.apache.org/foundation/records/990-2012.pdf