Regarding assignment, you're not required to have a work for hire agreement in place, and if you do, there's nothing stopping you from releasing code that you o

Regarding assignment, you're not required to have a work for hire agreement in place, and if you do, there's nothing stopping you from releasing code that you own and paid for under the open source license of the project. Take a look at Django's contributor license agreement (https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/cla/ https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/cla/) as well, as it may be a useful construct in your work. Gratipay may make sense here if you're looking to fund general development toward a specific contributor, where as BountySource is a more feature-specific. If you do decide to go the non-profit organization route, your contributions now will be deductible if / when 501(c)(3) status is granted (http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Charitable-Organizations/Contributions-to-Organization-with-IRS-Application-Pending http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Charitable-Organi...). Either way, your best bet is probably to reach out to the developer behind the project to discuss the details.