Hi, Follow up on this:
> - A long discussion went on about fundraiser models, based on doubts > expressed that money is given out personally to developers, without > any guarantee it will end up with something. Ton will consult other OS > foundations if there's experience and policies for this. I've consulted some people in other foundations, here's a quote that summarizes the topic well: (note: a 501(c)3s is the US legal name for a "foundation") ------------ *in the USA*, specifically, this is a legal minefield for 501(c)3s. In order to fundraise for development you'd need to ensure that: a) Nobody deciding what features to fund was in a position to benefit from them financially b) Either you'd need to do "general funds" and not fundraise for specific features, *or* you'd need to ensure that donors to specific features didn't derive business benefit from them (good luck on that) ---------- Similar practices are valid here in Europe too. BF can accept donations tax-free only if there's no service or compensation related to it. A "pay for feature" system would be regarded as a commercial activity, with strict legal & tax regulations for all parties: for the donator, collector and the receiver's side. A potential minefield. This is why the common practice for Foundations is to stick to general funding targets, aimed at topics that provide public benefit according to their goals. -Ton- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation [email protected] www.blender.org Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands On 6 Feb, 2011, at 19:00, Ton Roosendaal wrote: > Hi all, > > Here's a summary of today's meeting: > > 0) General notes > > - Terry Wallwork added Blender Gamekit2 now entirely in wiki: > http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Books/GameKit_2 > > - the server with svn and FusionForge (trackers) is having hardware > troubles. It's being monitored full time, and if problems persist it > will be moved to new system. > > - Luca Bonavita is working on the wiki migration to a dedicated > server, new install and css and skin updates together with Francesco > Siddi. Expectation is that it goes live in a week. > > 1) Blender 2.5x proceedings > > - Sergey Sharybin notices that usage of symmetric brush and "crazy > space" sculpting (on deformed meshes) still has issues. He'll work on > it. > > - The Python script registry discussion is still unresolved. > > - We have a couple of GPL conflicts in our code base (GPL 2, 2 or > later, and 3). Ton will contact the C code authors, Luca checks the > the addon scripts and fixes template: > https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-extensions/contrib/dev-tools/ > gpl.py > > 2) Other projects, branches > > - No branches news! > > - A long discussion went on about fundraiser models, based on doubts > expressed that money is given out personally to developers, without > any guarantee it will end up with something. Ton will consult other OS > foundations if there's experience and policies for this. > For as now, BF prefers to have community driven bounty systems > organized independently, and involve volunteering or paid developers > on equal basis. > > -Ton- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation [email protected] > www.blender.org > Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The > Netherlands > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-committers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
