[GRASS-PSC] Accounting and organization of sponsorship

Wed Mar 17 19:55:19 PDT 2021

Moritz - no need to mail the board, but please do send an email if you would like to offer a concise explanation 
of why GRASS PSC would like to have this set up with OSGeo as fiscal host - I can explain it, but a written note may be helpful.
You are also welcome to join the meeting - here is the time and jitsi link:

https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2021-03-29

Thank you, Helena

> On Mar 17, 2021, at 6:33 PM, Moritz Lennert <moritzlennert at posteo.net> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Helena !
> 
> So no need for a mail to the board on my side, then ?
> 
> Moritz
> 
> Am 17. März 2021 14:40:16 MEZ schrieb Helena Mitasova <hmitaso at ncsu.edu>:
>> I put it up on the upcoming OSGeo board agenda - there has a been a new initiative setting up sponsorship infrastructure so it is a good timing,
>> 
>> Helena
>> 
>>> On Mar 17, 2021, at 8:24 AM, Veronica Andreo <veroandreo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thanks for looking at all this, Moritz, and for the explanation, of course :)
>>> Asking OSGeo to be fiscal host then seems the way to go
>>> 
>>> Vero
>>> 
>>> El mié, 17 mar 2021 a las 8:40, Moritz Lennert (<mlennert at club.worldonline.be>) escribió:
>>> Most foss4g projects are not legal entities, just a bunch of nice people 
>>> organizing to create beautiful software. As they are not legal entities 
>>> they cannot open a bank account, provide invoices, etc. This is what 
>>> fiscal 
>>> hosts are for. They are legal entities that allow groups to act like a 
>>> legal entity by allowing them to open accounts, etc. For more info: 
>>> https://opencollective.com/become-a-host. 
>>> <https://opencollective.com/become-a-host.> 
>>> 
>>> OSGeo is already playing the role of fiscal host for GitHub sponsoring: 
>>> https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo. <https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo.>
>>> 
>>> For our current banking account our fiscal host is OSGeo.eu.
>>> 
>>> OSGeo could become a fiscal host at opencollective and so allow all OSGeo 
>>> projects to organize sponsoring through there. I'll ask the board.
>>> 
>>> Otherwise we could use another fiscal host. Fiscal hosts can ask for a fee for their services, usually around 5%, but they don't have to.
>>> 
>>> Opencollective uses stripe for credit card payments and also allows payment via PayPal. Those payments generally also come with a small fee, so a few percent of the money people give is lost on the way.
>>> 
>>> Moritz
>>> 
>>> Am 16. März 2021 21:35:57 MEZ schrieb Michael Barton <Michael.Barton at asu.edu>:
>>> I believe that a 'fiscal host' is a place where you can deposit money and keep it until needed or moved to a different local. It could be a bank account or other account. 
>>> 
>>> Michael
>>> _____________________________
>>> C. Michael Barton 
>>> Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>>> Director, Network for Computational Modeling in Social & Ecological Sciences
>>> Associate Director, School of Complex Adaptive Systems
>>> Professor, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>>> Arizona State University
>>> Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
>>> USA
>>> 
>>> voice: 480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-965-8130/727-9746 (CSDC)
>>> fax: 480-965-7671(SHESC), 480-727-0709 (CSDC)
>>> www: http://shesc.asu.edu, https://complexity.asu.edu, http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>>> 
>>>> On Mar 16, 2021, at 12:12 PM, Veronica Andreo <veroandreo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi Moritz, 
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks a lot for this initiative! Open collective seems like a pretty cool complement to other existing ways of collecting money.
>>>> 
>>>> I was inspecting a bit which other organizations are there, and I found many well known companies and NGOs (See for example: https://opencollective.com/babel). Furthermore, it seems it also allows for recurring contributions with different categories.
>>>> 
>>>> I do not understand the fiscal host part, but as you say maybe OSGeo can become a fiscal host. Would you ask them too? 
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Vero
>>>> 
>>>> El sáb, 13 mar 2021 a las 16:34, Moritz Lennert (<mlennert at club.worldonline.be>) escribió:
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> 
>>>> FYI, for our accounting I have created a continuous ledger in 
>>>> https://nextcloud.osgeo.org/ -> GRASS-PCS -> Accounting and have filled 
>>>> it with all transactions in our PayPal and bank account since 2018. The 
>>>> idea is to use this as our central accounting tool and note all coming 
>>>> transactions in this ledger. This will allow to easily extract annual 
>>>> accounts and follow our current financial situation.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> As already discussed we should also review the way we collect 
>>>> sponsorship money, for different reasons:
>>>> 
>>>> - The current PayPal Money pool runs over my personal account which is 
>>>> not very bus-factor resilient.
>>>> 
>>>> - Venka's experience has shown that from some countries it is not easy 
>>>> to contribute without a PayPal account, e.g. with a credit card.
>>>> 
>>>> OSGeo uses a Github sponsorship system which we should advertise as 
>>>> people can dedicate their contribution to a specific project. However, 
>>>> AFAIU, the Github sponsorship system is limited to people with a Github 
>>>> account and only allows deciding on a continuous (monthly), not a 
>>>> one-shot donation.
>>>> 
>>>> In light of this, I would suggest the following for our sponsorship system:
>>>> 
>>>> - https://opencollective.com/ for flexible one-shot, credit-card based 
>>>> sponsorships, including a series of different options and advantages 
>>>> (ex: receipts) for sponsors. How we organize this exactly (via fiscal 
>>>> host) is still to be determined (maybe OSGeo can become a fiscal host 
>>>> for all OSGeo projects ?).
>>>> 
>>>> - https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo for recurring sponsorship.
>>>> 
>>>> - Our bank account for direct money transfer, mostly within Europe.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Does this sound reasonable for everyone ? If yes, I will look into the 
>>>> details of Open Collective and create our system.
>>>> 
>>>> Moritz
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
>> Helena Mitasova
>> Professor at the Department of Marine, 
>> Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
>> Associate director and faculty fellow at the Center for Geospatial Analytics
>> North Carolina State University
>> Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
>> hmitaso at ncsu.edu
>> 
>> "All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.” 
>> 
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Helena Mitasova
Professor, Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty Fellow,
Center for Geospatial Analytics
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
hmitaso at ncsu.edu

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