[Qgis-user] QGIS in the commercial world

Tue Apr 14 23:56:21 PDT 2020

Hi Ian,

In addition to what Anita and Paolo already said, I'd like to add, that 
depending on the country you live (don't know about Australia) 
memberships in associations can be tax deducted. On the receiving end, 
membership fees are not subject to VAT in Switzerland.

As mentioned, QGIS.ORG is not a charity. Registering an Open Source 
project as charity turned out to be not so easy as expected (at least in 
Switzerland) and also limits out our ability to decide ourselves how we 
can spend the money we get through donations and memberships. E.g. in 
Switzerland as a charity we would be limited in the ways we can invest 
into QGIS as a software. E.g. we could spend our funds strictly only for 
non-commercial purposes (e.g. not easily pay a company of our choice  to 
improve QGIS or our infrastructure according to our wishes).

Another open source project registered in Switzerland had to split up 
into two entities: one non-profit that deals with all strictly 
non-commercial aspects (such as managing the community, legal stuff, 
etc.) and a commercial part that handles improving the software. In most 
parts of Switzerland, anything related to software development is 
regarded as a commercial activity, no matter if it is open source or not.

However, if there are better countries where QGIS.ORG could be 
domiciled, we could investigate. But we'd have to have a look at all of 
the implications, such as stability, formalities, support or repressions 
from authorities, limitations, tax situation, etc

I think OSGeo is registered as a social welfare organization in the US 
(US 501(c)(4) legal status). But it also took them more than one attempt 
to get there, and from what I heard they tried in more than one state in 
the US. Finally, I think the travel grants they hand out to FOSS4G 
conference participants each year, convinced the authorities that they 
can get the social welfare status. (disclaimer: it might be slightly 
different, but this is from what I remember from discussions).

BTW: we have transparency how we spend our money. Have a look at our 
finance section at 
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/governance/finance/index.html

Having said all that, please contact us at finance at qgis.org should you 
be interested in becoming a sustaining member.

Thanks and greeting,

Andreas

Am 15.04.20 um 08:18 schrieb Paolo Cavallini:
> Hi Iain,
> let me add: this is not only an ethical choice, but a very practical
> one: the support you can give us will translate into very real
> improvements (especially bugfixing), so that you'll enjoy a better QGIS
> in the near future.
> All the best.
>
> Il 15/04/20 07:47, Anita Graser ha scritto:
>> Dear Iain,
>>
>> Yes, QGIS has an entity: QGIS.ORG is the worldwide association of QGIS
>> users and developers. QGIS.ORG is constituted as a Swiss ‘association’
>> (https://qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/governance/charter.html) but it is
>> not a registered charity.
>>
>> To help support QGIS, organizations are invited to become sustaining
>> members of QGIS.ORG. The details of our sustaining membership program
>> are described in:
>> https://qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/governance/sustaining_members/sustaining_members.html
>>
>> You can also see who's already supporting QGIS:
>> https://qgis.org/en/site/about/sustaining_members.html
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Anita
>>
>>
>>
>> On 15.04.2020 02:13, Iain at jcis.net.au wrote:
>>> Andreas wrote
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> /It was also good to see that 103 out of 1691 respondents represented
>>> an organization with >100 users. I expected a lower number in this
>>> category and was quite surprised./
>>>
>>> / /
>>>
>>> This observation triggered in me a thought that as the organisation I
>>> work for is moving towards formal use of QGIS throughout its team – we
>>> should be donating to the QGIS project as that would seem to be the
>>> ethical thing to do. The directors would be quite open to the idea.
>>> There are some questions I have.
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> Is QGIS a registered charity?
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> Is there an entity which we can donate to?
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> What would be a suitable donation?
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> Most business would write off ESRI products through their accounting
>>> system as some form of tax deduction as it is a something you can buy.
>>> A donation to QGIS by business would need to be structures in some way
>>> to obtain a similar benefit.
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> Has anyone any experience in this area?
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> *Dr Iain Stuart*
>>>
>>> */JCIS Consultants /*
>>>
>>> P.O. Box 2397
>>>
>>> Burwood North
>>>
>>> NSW, 2134
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>> (02) 9701 0191
>>> (0413) 380116 (m)
>>>
>>>   
>>>
>>>
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