Re: Targeted Donations?
Ross , Is there a policy for paid bug repair ? Greetz Fernand On 12 September 2011 19:56, FR web forumooofo...@free.fr wrote: Hello, If AOOo did this, it would be completely new (and IMHO the Board would have to agree to it). My query is just to have a formally answer to give at our users on the french forum. We have sometime this question: I want to donate, how can I do this? What should I say to them? It depends on what they means by a donation. If it is a significant donation then they should look at the sponsorship programme, see http://apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html If it is a small donation from an individual user we do not currently have a means for accepting such. Every now and then someone decides they are going to put a process in place to accept small donations. Each time it progresses a little further but at the time of writing it is not (as far as I'm aware) complete. Of course, if someone from OOo would like to help make this happen then we need to talk to fundraising@ to see what can be done. In the meantime perhaps the community could put together a list of external charities relating to the OO.o project and list these on the OO.o site? Ross Ross
Re: Targeted Donations?
On 13 September 2011 08:23, Fernand Vanrie s...@pmgroup.be wrote: Is there a policy for paid bug repair ? Yes. The ASF does not pay for code development. There is nothing stopping someone doing something outside the ASF as long as it conforms to the trademark rules and contributions are handled just like any other. Ross Greetz Fernand On 12 September 2011 19:56, FR web forumooofo...@free.fr wrote: Hello, If AOOo did this, it would be completely new (and IMHO the Board would have to agree to it). My query is just to have a formally answer to give at our users on the french forum. We have sometime this question: I want to donate, how can I do this? What should I say to them? It depends on what they means by a donation. If it is a significant donation then they should look at the sponsorship programme, see http://apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html If it is a small donation from an individual user we do not currently have a means for accepting such. Every now and then someone decides they are going to put a process in place to accept small donations. Each time it progresses a little further but at the time of writing it is not (as far as I'm aware) complete. Of course, if someone from OOo would like to help make this happen then we need to talk to fundraising@ to see what can be done. In the meantime perhaps the community could put together a list of external charities relating to the OO.o project and list these on the OO.o site? Ross Ross -- Ross Gardler (@rgardler) Programme Leader (Open Development) OpenDirective http://opendirective.com
Targeted Donations?
I'm seeing some members say on the ooo-users list that targeted donations are not permitted at Apache. But a cursory investigation calls this statement into question. For example, the contribution website at Apache [1] says, If you have a specific target or project that you wish to directly support, please contact us and we will do our best to satisfy your wishes. And I see an old ASF Board resolution explicitly enabling the acceptance of targeted donations [2]. What is the situation? Is this just what is true of any US-based non-profit, that we can only officially accept official contributions at the foundation-level, but that the Board does a best-effort attempt to use the funds in a way that respects the donor's wishes? I don't think the project should solicit donations to the project alone. Our project creates non-trivial load on infrastructure staff, hardware and bandwidth, and that is best remediated by general, unencumbered donations to ASF. But if someone came along and wanted to donate specifically for the benefit of the project, would we really be required to turn them away? -Rob [1] http://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html#Financial [2] http://www.apache.org/foundation/records/minutes/1999/board_minutes_1999_09_22.txt
Re: Targeted Donations?
Hi Rob, I think the problem is that ASF doesn't have a policy of paying for development. Additionally, monies that do come in through the Sponsorships is *not* earmarked for a specific project. There are currently no mechanisms to deal with this. At ConCom we've seen the Meetup communities raise money for specific events and ConCom is working to figure out best to support self-organizing targeted funding for events...but again this isn't the same as accepting donations for coding. If AOOo did this, it would be completely new (and IMHO the Board would have to agree to it). There is the added dimension that the larger OOo/LO communities have long been accepting donation monies earmarked for specific things (such as SoftwareAG taking money to sponsor travel to OOo-related events). These have always completely separate from the code copyright owner and might be useful to divert donation inquiries towards. Good news is there are alternative well-established pots of money that donors can be directed to. Of course SoftwareAG is only tax-exempt in Germany, as the ASF is only tax-exempt in the USA... My $.02 Danese On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Rob Weir robw...@apache.org wrote: I'm seeing some members say on the ooo-users list that targeted donations are not permitted at Apache. But a cursory investigation calls this statement into question. For example, the contribution website at Apache [1] says, If you have a specific target or project that you wish to directly support, please contact us and we will do our best to satisfy your wishes. And I see an old ASF Board resolution explicitly enabling the acceptance of targeted donations [2]. What is the situation? Is this just what is true of any US-based non-profit, that we can only officially accept official contributions at the foundation-level, but that the Board does a best-effort attempt to use the funds in a way that respects the donor's wishes? I don't think the project should solicit donations to the project alone. Our project creates non-trivial load on infrastructure staff, hardware and bandwidth, and that is best remediated by general, unencumbered donations to ASF. But if someone came along and wanted to donate specifically for the benefit of the project, would we really be required to turn them away? -Rob [1] http://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html#Financial [2] http://www.apache.org/foundation/records/minutes/1999/board_minutes_1999_09_22.txt
Re: Targeted Donations?
Hello, If AOOo did this, it would be completely new (and IMHO the Board would have to agree to it). My query is just to have a formally answer to give at our users on the french forum. We have sometime this question: I want to donate, how can I do this? What should I say to them? Thanks
Re: Targeted Donations?
On 12 September 2011 18:18, Danese Cooper dan...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Rob, I think the problem is that ASF doesn't have a policy of paying for development. Additionally, monies that do come in through the Sponsorships is *not* earmarked for a specific project. There are currently no mechanisms to deal with this. At ConCom we've seen the Meetup communities raise money for specific events Those donations have not been to the foundation. They have been sought, secured and accounted by external organisations that have been a part of the event. More below.. On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Rob Weir robw...@apache.org wrote: I'm seeing some members say on the ooo-users list that targeted donations are not permitted at Apache. But a cursory investigation calls this statement into question. The ASF does not generally accept targeted donations, at least I have never heard of it doing so whilst I have heard many people that says it cannot do so. The reasons for this are many, Danese listed a few. The ASF does not pay for development and is unlikely to ever do so as it is a core part of what makes the Apache Way successful. The ASF already provides whatever reasonable infrastructure resources a project asks for (where reasonable means that we can actual support them in the long term). Therefore the idea of asking for money for a specific project is difficult, all ASF resources are centrally controlled. For example, the contribution website at Apache [1] says, If you have a specific target or project that you wish to directly support, please contact us and we will do our best to satisfy your wishes. And I see an old ASF Board resolution explicitly enabling the acceptance of targeted donations [2]. The resolution says RESOLVED, that the acceptance of a targeted donation does not constitute a commitment by the Foundation to any more than a best effort in good faith to apply the donation as requested; and be it further What is the situation? Is this just what is true of any US-based non-profit, that we can only officially accept official contributions at the foundation-level, but that the Board does a best-effort attempt to use the funds in a way that respects the donor's wishes? Essentially, yes. Where best effort means that the foundation discourages project specific contributions and requests they be made to the foundation as a whole. I don't think the project should solicit donations to the project alone. Our project creates non-trivial load on infrastructure staff, hardware and bandwidth, and that is best remediated by general, unencumbered donations to ASF. +1 But if someone came along and wanted to donate specifically for the benefit of the project, would we really be required to turn them away? We would be expected to explain that it is not possible to accept targeted donations but to reassure the donor that the foundation provides all necessary infrastructure resources and the donation will go into that pot and thus benefit the project as expected. Should this prove to be a blocker, for example, if a donor would like to fund something that is not normally provided by the ASF then they should be point towards fundraising@a.o along with our recommendation/request. We should not, under any circumstances, assume that the ASF can change it's existing policy on this for the OOo project. On the other hand, as with most things in the ASF, unless the law prevents us from doing something there is always possibility of policies being modified if it makes the foundation as a whole a better place. Ross
RE: Targeted Donations?
There are ways to make small (or larger, within-credit-limit) personal donations to the ASF. PayPal is accepted [;). I haven't tried it to see if one can even make a comment to indicate that the donation is in honor of ASF accepting the OOo incubator. That is not the same as making or accepting a targeted donation, of course. - Dennis -Original Message- From: Ross Gardler [mailto:rgard...@opendirective.com] Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 13:35 To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org; ooofo...@free.fr Subject: Re: Targeted Donations? On 12 September 2011 19:56, FR web forum ooofo...@free.fr wrote: Hello, If AOOo did this, it would be completely new (and IMHO the Board would have to agree to it). My query is just to have a formally answer to give at our users on the french forum. We have sometime this question: I want to donate, how can I do this? What should I say to them? It depends on what they means by a donation. If it is a significant donation then they should look at the sponsorship programme, see http://apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html If it is a small donation from an individual user we do not currently have a means for accepting such. Every now and then someone decides they are going to put a process in place to accept small donations. Each time it progresses a little further but at the time of writing it is not (as far as I'm aware) complete. Of course, if someone from OOo would like to help make this happen then we need to talk to fundraising@ to see what can be done. In the meantime perhaps the community could put together a list of external charities relating to the OO.o project and list these on the OO.o site? Ross Ross
Re: Targeted Donations?
On 12 September 2011 22:17, Dennis E. Hamilton dennis.hamil...@acm.org wrote: There are ways to make small (or larger, within-credit-limit) personal donations to the ASF. PayPal is accepted [;). So it is. Seems I missed that one being completed. See http://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html#Paypal Thanks Dennis. Ross
RE: Targeted Donations?
I tried it. I clicked Pay before my eye caught the tiny Note to Seller click to Add link, so I didn't get to tell ASF anything I wanted them to know. The donation process works easily. -Original Message- From: Ross Gardler [mailto:rgard...@opendirective.com] Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 15:09 To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org; dennis.hamil...@acm.org Subject: Re: Targeted Donations? On 12 September 2011 22:17, Dennis E. Hamilton dennis.hamil...@acm.org wrote: There are ways to make small (or larger, within-credit-limit) personal donations to the ASF. PayPal is accepted [;). So it is. Seems I missed that one being completed. See http://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html#Paypal Thanks Dennis. Ross
