Changeset - 63405c1dee8a
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Brett Smith (brett) - 7 years ago 2016-08-31 20:27:39
brett@sfconservancy.org
npoacct: Remove fundraising references from page body.
1 file changed with 4 insertions and 128 deletions:
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www/conservancy/static/npoacct/index.html
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@@ -238,40 +238,24 @@ evbind(document.getElementById('bank-account-form'), 'submit',
 
</div>
 

	
 
<div class="content-with-donate-sidebar">
 
<!-- begin campaign text -->
 

	
 
<h2>Fundraising Campaign: Non-Profit Accounting Software</h2>
 
<h2>Non-Profit Accounting Software</h2>
 

	
 
<img src="/img/conservancy-accounting-campaign-logo.png" alt="Conservancy accounting campaign logo" style="float:left;" />
 

	
 
<blockquote>
 
<p><strong>Update on 2014-12-03:</strong> As can be seen, Conservancy sadly
 
  never reached our fundraising target for this project.  However, as we
 
  promised below, we <a href="http://npoacct.sfconservancy.org/">continue to
 
  work on this project</a>.  We'd really appreciate more donations, as we've
 
  needed to make a lot of compromises in our plans since we didn't reach our
 
  fundraising goal.  We did complete Phase 0 described below
 
  (<a href="http://npoacct.sfconservancy.org/">results are on our wiki</a>),
 
  and Phase 1 now comprises the development of an REST API for double-entry
 
  accounting  which many applications (including this one) can use.</p>
 
</blockquote>
 
<br/>
 
<hr/>
 
<p>Conservancy has a plan to help all non-profit organizations (NPOs) by
 
creating an Open Source and Free Software accounting system usable by
 
non-technical bookkeepers, accountants, and non-profit managers.  You can
 
help us do it by donating now.
 
</p>
 

	
 
<h3>What is the Non-Profit Accounting Software Project?</h3>
 

	
 
<p>To keep their books and produce annual government filings, most NPOs rely
 
on proprietary software, paying exorbitant licensing fees.  This is
 
fundamentally at cross purposes with their underlying missions of charity,
 
equality, democracy, and sharing.</p>
 

	
 
<p>You can help Conservancy fix this problem by <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donating now</a>.  We seek to
 
raise $75,000 to employ a 
 
developer for one year to make substantial progress on this project.</p>
 

	
 
<p>This project has the potential to save the non-profit sector
 
millions in licensing fees every year.  Even non-profits that continue to use proprietary accounting
 
software will benefit, since the existence of quality Open Source and Free
...
 
@@ -283,13 +267,6 @@ will increase the agility and collaborative potential
 
for the non-profit sector &mdash; a boon to funders, boards, and employees &mdash;  bringing the Free Software and general NPO communities
 
into closer collaboration and understanding.</p>
 

	
 
<p>Thanks in advance for <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">helping us</a> develop Free Software to benefit all
 
non-profit organizations, and the 
 
populations they serve.</p>
 

	
 
<p>Donors of $500 or more will be acknowledged in the THANKS file and other
 
  appropriate places in the codebase itself.</p>
 

	
 
<p><a href="#endorsements">Endorsers of this effort</a> include April, Fractured Atlas, The Free Software
 
Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, GNOME Foundation, OpenHatch, Open
 
Source Initiative, QuestionCopyright.org, and Software in the Public
...
 
@@ -356,83 +333,6 @@ Foundation</a>, The <a href="http://www.gnome.org/foundation/">GNOME Foundation<
 
  and Conservancy therefore believes a solution that handles fiscal sponsors
 
  will also handle the simpler case as well.</p>
 

	
 
<h3>The Plan</h3>
 

	
 
<p>Conservancy proposes to hire a software developer for one year to
 
  accomplish the first two phases of this project.  Conservancy seeks to
 
  raise $75,000 toward this project to help cover salary and benefits for a
 
  full-time staffer to work on this project.  We ask that you give generously
 
  via the donation buttons on this page to support our work.</p>
 

	
 
<h4>Phase 0</h4>
 

	
 
<p>Some Free Software accounting systems do exist.  A previous informal
 
  survey of these systems that Conservancy conducted in 2007 led us to the
 
  conclusion that, in general, these systems were heavily geared toward
 
  for-profit endeavors, ignored the unique needs of NPOs generally, and
 
  were completely hopeless for the specific needs of a fiscal sponsoring
 
  organization.  Conservancy's assessment at the time was that these
 
  challenges could be addressed only with a large rewrite of one of these
 
  systems.  Conservancy chose
 
  <a href="http://www.ledger-cli.org/">Ledger CLI</a> precisely because
 
  it provided flexibility and configurability not present in any other Free Software
 
  double-entry accounting system.</p>
 

	
 
<p>However, while that previous informal survey informs Conservancy's
 
  existing hypothesis that Ledger CLI is the right base system here,
 
  Conservancy will first test that hypothesis.  The first phase of this
 
  project (estimated to last approximately 6-8 full-time weeks) will produce
 
  a written survey of all known Free Software accounting systems, and
 
  indicate what challenges exist to adapt such systems for the needs of
 
  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) &mdash; including fiscal
 
  sponsors &mdash; 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>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
 
  a <a href="http://npoacct.sfconservancy.org">Wiki for collaboration</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
...
 
@@ -552,31 +452,7 @@ effort; it would let us spend more of our time on programs and less on
 
paperwork.  I have already personally <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donated</a>.</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>
 
</ul>
 

	
 
<!-- end campaign text -->
 
<!-- closes div.content-with-donate-sidebar -->
 
</div>
 

	
 
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