NPOs.  The <a href="https://fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a> has

  pledged their help in the evaluation of SQL-Ledger,

  and <a href="http://www.gnome.org/foundation/">the GNOME Foundation</a> has pledged their

  help in the evaluation of <a href="http://www.gnucash.org/">GNUcash</a> (which they

  currently use, respectively).</p>

<h4>Phase 1</h4>

<p>Phase 1 of the project will select the preferred codebase from Phase 0,

  and improve that system to create a basic accounting system for

  small-to-medium sized USA NPOs (i.e., Form 990-filers) — including fiscal

  sponsors — with the following features:

<ul>

<li>Basic accounts payable/receivable (with invoicing)</li>

<li>Tracking and reporting of non-profit income types (related business

  income, unrelated business taxable income, donations, etc.)</li>

<li>Basic backup documentation tracking for expenses and payments</li>

<li>Basic bank statement reconciliation reporting</li>

<li>Basic annual audit preparation reporting

  (a <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/tree/next/contrib/non-profit-audit-reports">prototype

  of this portion is already complete</a> and has been relied on for

  real-life audits; but the prototype is just a hack and needs to be

  rewritten)</li>

<li>Ability to easily handle all these features on a project-by-project

  subset of the accounts, and to easily export and excise that subset from

  the system. (i.e., support for temporarily restricted assets, earmarked for

  fiscal-sponsored projects)</li>

<li>Multi-currency support and reporting</li>

</ul>

</p>

<p>We will consider the first year of this project successful <em>only if all these

  functions can be performed by a bookkeeper who is generally qualified as a

  bookkeeper</em>, but not necessarily familiar with standard Free Software tools

  such as GNU/Linux, Emacs, version control, and command line scripts.  This

  requirement is essential: Conservancy's existing system using Ledger CLI

  already provides sufficient functionality to manage non-profit accounting,

  but our system requires a bookkeeper who is also adept with the

  aforementioned tools already.</p>

<p>Finally, while the first year of work focuses on USA NPO needs,

  Conservancy seeks to lead an international effort, and welcomes

  contributions and input from everyone in the non-profit community from

  around the world.  Conservancy has created

  a <a href="http://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/npo-accounting">mailing

  list for discussion of this project</a> and encourages interested parties

  from around the world to join the mailing list and contribute to the

  project!</p>

<h3>Why Conservancy Must Fund This Work</h3>

<p>As it stands, nearly all Open Source and Free Software NPOs either use

  proprietary software, or fully outsource their bookkeeping and accounting

  to third-parties.  Those that don't do so (such as Conservancy and the Free

  Software Foundation) have long complained that existing Free Software in

  this area is inadequate, and have been forced to develop customized,

  one-off solutions in-house to make the systems work.</p>

<p>It's highly unlikely that the for-profit sector will adapt existing Free

  Software accounting systems to meet the differing needs of NPOs (let alone

  the more complex needs of fiscal sponsors; based on

  advice from our auditors and other fiscal sponsors, Conservancy understands that <em>no existing

  solution &mdash; proprietary or Free &mdash; meets the requirements of fiscal sponsorship accounting</em>).  Fiscal sponsors like

  Conservancy must track a separate set of books for every project, keeping

  in mind that a project may leave at any time to another NPO and need to take

  their books with them.  Yet, the books of the entire organization are the

  aggregate of the books of all these projects, and internally, they need to

  be presented as a single set of books for those purposes.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, even if an organization is not a fiscal sponsor, non-profit

  accounting is <em>just different</em> than for-profit accounting, particularly in

  the USA.  For example, for-profit-oriented systems often make problematic

  assumptions about the workflow of accounting tasks (often because NPOs

  rely primarily on donations, rather than fee-for-service or widget-selling

  income).  Also, non-profit income is categorized differently than

  for-profit income, and the reporting requirements vary wildly from their

  for-profit equivalents.</p>

<p>Conservancy's existing system is working adequately, but requires daily

  the relatively more expensive time of a highly technical person to do the

  job of bookkeeping.  Also, the system cannot easily be adapted in its

  current form for another NPO, unless they also have the staff time of a

  skilled technical person to act as bookkeeper.  This project aims to build

  on what Conservancy has learned and produce a non-profit accounting system

  that corrects these flaws.</p>

<p>Finally, Conservancy's mission (as stated

on <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/docs/conservancy_Form-1023.pdf">our Form

1023 with the USA IRS</a>) includes producing Open Source and Free Software.

Thus, this project is a great way to meet Conservancy's mission and address a

specific need that so many NPOs (including us) have.  If no one steps up to create Free Software to replace the widely used

proprietary software, NPOs in aggregate will pay <em>much more</em> money for

proprietary licensing than Conservancy will ever spend in developing a

replacement. Please donate

generously to help us do it!</p>

<h3><a id="quotes" style="text-decoration:none">Statements of Support</a> For This Project from Others</h3>

<p><q>As a national fiscal sponsor with over 3,000 arts and cultural projects

under our umbrella, Fractured Atlas is ecstatic about this effort's

potential. After 15 years wrestling with Quickbooks and other inadequate

options, the idea of an open source tool designed specifically for this niche

of the field is beyond welcome. We wholeheartedly support the Conservancy's

work on this front and look forward to seeing where it leads.</q> &mdash;

<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/bios/staff/1/Adam%20Forest_Huttler">Adam

  Huttler</a>, Executive Director, <a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org">Fractured Atlas</a></p>

<p><q><a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a> is

just one of many organizations that would benefit from a Free Software

accounting system that is useable by non-technical people.  We

enthusiastically support the Conservancy's campaign to create one, and look

forward to using the result.</q>

&mdash; <a href="http://questioncopyright.org/speakers/karl_fogel">Karl

Fogel</a>, Executive Director,

  <a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a></p>

<p><q>As a fiscal sponsor organization with over 30 currently-associated Free

Software projects, Software in the Public Interest shares the Conservancy's

needs and interests in this area, and welcome the opportunity to collaborate

on the development of a Free Software solution to our accounting needs.</q>

&mdash; Bdale Garbee, President,  <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software

    in the Public Interest</a></p>

<p><q>Open Source accounting software specifically tailored for non-profits

    will fill a pretty large need.</q>

    &mdash; <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/calabrese">Thad Calabrese</a>,

    Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Financial Management

    at <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/">NYU Wagner</a>, and co-author

    of <cite>Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit

    Organizations, 4th Edition</cite>.</p>

<p><q>Creating free software specifically designed to address the needs of

nonprofits is a laudable goal and one that Conservancy is extremely well

positioned to achieve.</q>  &mdash; <a href="http://gnomg.org">Karen

Sandler</a>, Executive

Director, The <a href="http://www.gnome.org/foundation/">GNOME Foundation</a></p>

<p><q>The Open Source Initiative has shared the experiences of Software

     Freedom Conservancy in navigating the financial management needs of

     non-profit organisations and shares their concern. We have many NPOs as

     members and we welcome this useful initiative by Conservancy.</q>

     &mdash; Simon Phipps, <a href="http://opensource.org">Open Source

     Initiative</a></p>

<p><q>The <a href="https://fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a> is committed to doing all of its work,

both public-facing and internal, using only free software. We are thankful to

the developers of SQL Ledger for providing the accounting software that has

served us well for many years. As we have grown, so have the complexities of

our finances.  Because of our own needs and our mission to help other

organizations — both inside and outside of the technology sphere

— run their operations on exclusively free software, we wholeheartedly

support this Conservancy initiative.</q> &mdash; <a href="view-source:http://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board#johns">John Sullivan</a>, Executive

Director, <a href="https://fsf.org">Free Software Foundation</a></p>

<p><q>Open source is a great way to solve new problems and make software that

is more flexible and responsive to the needs of the people who use it. That's

as true for the finance industry as it is on the web.</q>

&mdash; <a href="http://blog.mozilla.org/press/bios/mark-surman/">Mark

Surman</a>, Executive

Director, <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/foundation/">Mozilla

Foundation</a></p>

<p><q>As a young free software non-profit, OpenHatch is thrilled to see this

effort; it would let us spend more of our time on programs and less on

paperwork.  I have already personally donated.</q> &mdash; Asheesh Laroia,

Executive Director, <a href="https://openhatch.org/">OpenHatch</a>.</p>

<h3>Some Important Details for this Fundraiser</h3>

<ul>

<li>Donations made are general donations to the Software Freedom

  Conservancy, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charity incorporated in New York.

  Conservancy is committed to doing this work described herein, but cannot

  promise to complete the work if the fundraising goal is not reached.  If

  the fundraising goal is not reached, Conservancy will do its best to make

  progress on the plan above with the resources available.  It's expected

  that work will simply proceed, but more slowly and take more time, if the

  fundraising goal is not reached.</li>

<li>The license for the project is not yet chosen, since Phase 0 might

  prescribe contribution to particular upstream projects, and Conservancy is

  committed to contributing to upstream projects under their chosen license,

  where possible.  However, Conservancy promises that all software that is

  written will be released under a license that is both approved by

  the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses">FSF as a Free

  Software license</a> <strong>and</strong> by the OSI as

  an <a href="http://opensource.org/licenses">OSI-approved license</a>.  New

  documentation that is written will be released under some license

  compatible with <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/">CC BY-SA 3.0 USA</a>.</li>

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