@@ -37,137 +37,137 @@
<ul><li>The project must be a software development or documentation
project. Non-software projects to advance the cause of software
freedom, while important and useful, are beyond the scope of
Conservancy.</li>
<li>The project must be exclusively devoted to the development and
documentation of FLOSS. The project's goals must be consistent with
the Conservancy's tax-exempt purposes, and other requirements imposed
on Conservancy by the IRS' 501(c)(3) rules. Namely, the goal of the
project must to develop and document the software in a not-for-profit
way to advance the public good, and must develop the software in
public.</li>
<li>The project must be licensed in a way fitting with software
freedom principles. Specifically, all software of the project
should be licensed under a license that is listed both as
a <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">Free
Software license by the Free Software Foundation</a> and as
an <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical">Open
Source license by the Open Source Initiative</a>. All software
documentation for the project should be licensed under a license on
the preceding lists, or under Creative
Commons' <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-By-SA</a>
or <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC-By</a>
or
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/">CC-0</a>.</li>
<li>The project should have an existing, vibrant, diverse community
that develops and documents the software. For example, projects
that have been under development for less than a year or only a
“proof of concept” implementation are generally not
eligible.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>While any project meeting the criteria above can apply, meeting these
criteria don't guarantee acceptance of your project. The Conservancy
favors projects that are well-established and have some track record of
substantial contributions from a community of volunteer developers.
Furthermore, the Conservancy does gives higher priority to projects that
have an established userbase and interest, but also tries to accept some
smaller projects with strong potential.</p>
<h2>Is our project required to accept membership if offered?</h2>
<p>Not at all. Many projects apply and subsequently decide not to join a
non-profit, or decide to join a different non-profit entity. Don't
worry about “wasting our time” if your project's developers
aren't completely sure yet if they want to join conservancy. If
aren't completely sure yet if they want to join Conservancy. If
membership in Conservancy is currently a legitimate consideration for
your project, we encourage you to apply. We'd rather that you apply and
turn down an offer for membership than fail to apply and have to wait
until the next application round when you're sure.</p>
<h2>What benefits does our project get from joining?</h2>
<p>We maintain a <a href="/members/services">detailed list of services
that Conservancy provides to member projects</a>. If you have
detailed questions about any of the benefits, please
ask <a href="mailto:apply@sfconservancy.org"><apply@sfconservancy.org></a>.</p>
<h2>Conservancy seems to be called a “fiscal sponsor” to its
member projects. Does that mean you give our project money if we join?</h2>
<p>It's true that we would love to fund our member projects if it were
possible, because we believe they deserve to be funded. However, that's
not typically what a fiscal sponsor does. The term “fiscal
sponsor“ is often used in non-profit settings and has a standard
meaning there. But, to those not familiar with non-profit operations,
it comes across as a bit of a misnomer.</p>
<p>In this context, a fiscal sponsor is a non-profit organization that,
rather than fund a project directly, provides the required
infrastructure and facilitates the project's ability to raise its own
funds. Conservancy therefore assists your project in raising funds, and
allows your project to hold those funds and spend them on activities
that simultaneously advance the non-profit mission of the Conservancy
and the FLOSS development and documentation goals of the project.</p>
<h2>What will the project leaders have to agree to if our project joins?</h2>
<p>Once you're offered membership, we'll send you a draft fiscal
sponsorship agreement. These aren't secret documents and many of our
memer projects have even chosen to put theirs online. However, we wait
to send a draft of this document, until the application process is
member projects have even chosen to put theirs online. However, we wait
to send a draft of this document until the application process is
complete, as we often tailor and modify the agreements based on
individual project needs. This is painstaking work, and it's better to
complete that work after both Conservancy and the project are quite sure
that they both want the project will join Conservancy.</p>
that they both want the project to join Conservancy.</p>
<h2>If my project joins the Conservancy, how will it change?</h2>
<p>Substantively, member projects continue to operate in the same way as
they did before joining the Conservancy. So long as the project remains
devoted to software freedom and operates consistently with the
Conservancy's tax-exempt status, the Conservancy does not intervene in the
project's development other than to provide administrative assistance.
For example, the Conservancy keeps and maintains books and records for the
project and assists with the logistics of receiving donations, but does
not involve itself with technical or artistic decision making. Projects
are asked, however, to keep the Conservancy up to date on their
activities.</p>
<h2>Once our project joins, who holds its assets (money, copyrights, trademarks, etc.)?</h2>
<p>The Conservancy holds assets on behalf of its member projects and
manages and disburses those assets in accordance with the wishes of the
project's leadership. Funds received by the Conservancy on behalf of a
project are kept track of separately for each specific project and the
management of those funds is directed by the project. For example, if a
donor wanted to contribute $100 to Project Foo, they would formally make
the donation to the Conservancy and identify Project Foo as the desired
project to support. The Conservancy would then deposit the check and
earmark the funds for use by Project Foo. Project Foo would then tell the
Conservancy how that money should be spent.</p>
<p>Similarly, any copyrights, trademarks, domain name or other assets
transferred to a project can also be held by the Conservancy on behalf of
the project. A significant service that the Conservancy provides its
members is a vehicle through which copyright ownership in the project can
be unified. There are several advantages to having a consolidated
copyright structure, including that it makes enforcement activity easier
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 at any time.
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>