and more effective.  However, copyright, trademark, and domain name

assignment is not a requirement in order to join the Conservancy, rather,

it is an option for those projects that ask for it.</p>

<h2>If our project joins, must it be a member project of Conservancy forever?</h2>

<p>All agreements between member projects and the Conservancy stipulate

clearly that the member project can leave the Conservancy with a few

months' notice.  Federal tax exemption law, though, states that projects

must transfer their assets from the Conservancy in a way that is

consistent with the Conservancy's not-for-profit tax status —

meaning the assets cannot be transferred to an individual or a for-profit

entity.  Generally, a project would either find another fiscal sponsor or

form their own independent tax-exempt non-profit.</p>

<p>We fully expect that some Conservancy projects will ultimately wish to

  form their own non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations; that's why we design

  our agreements with projects to allow them to leave to another 501(c)(3)

  organization.  Typically, projects join Conservancy because the project

  leaders don't want the burdens of running a non-profit themselves.

  Often, as projects grow, leaders get interested in the non-profit

  management and organizational side of the activities and are then

  prepared to take on the additional work themselves.</p>

<p>How leaders are chosen for projects varies greatly from project to

  project.  Our goal is to do our best to embody the “natural”

  leadership structure that evolved in your project into the formal

  agreement with Conservancy.  As part of the agreement drafting, we work

  carefully with you to understand your project's governance and write up

  formally with you the decision-making process you use. Most project

  contributors find this process of formalizing the leadership structure

  helps them clarify in their own minds the governance of their project,

  even though the process can be difficult.  Since it can be a complicated

  process, we suggest that you prepare your project community for this

  discussion once your project is accepted.</p>

<h2>How much does it cost us financially to join Conservancy?</h2>

<p>After your application is approved, as part of the negotiation of the

  formal agreement, we'll discuss this issue.  Typically, we ask that

  member projects voluntarily choose to donate some percentage of their

  donations received to support Conservancy's general operations servicing

  all its member projects (including yours).  We do understand that,

  particularly for small projects that only receive a few small donations,

  that donating a percentage of your income back to Conservancy can be a

  high burden.  Therefore, this is not a mandatory requirement.  We thus

  suggest that you be prepared to discuss this issue with us in detail