chartered by Conservancy's <a href="/about/board/">Board of

  Directors</a>.</p>

<h1>Project Membership Application FAQs</h1>

<p>The following are various questions that we typically get from project

  leaders that wish to apply to Conservancy.</p>

<h2>I sent in my inquiry letter and/or application a long time ago.  Why haven't you replied?</h2>

<p>Conservancy receives an overwhelming level of interest and we have very few

  meet the interest and demand

  services</a> to its member projects.  Meanwhile, Conservancy always

  prioritizes needs of

  projects</a> over new inquiries and applications.  Therefore, it

  sometimes can take quite a while to finish the application process and

  be offered membership, but please note that such delays mean that should

  your project ultimately become a member project, your project will then

  be a beneficiary of this policy.</p>

<h2>What are the key criteria our project must meet to join?</h2>

<p>In order to join, projects need to meet certain criteria.  A rough

  outline of those criteria are as follows:</p>

<p>

<ul><li>The project must be a software development or documentation

    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

      or

   <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 doesn't guarantee acceptance of your project.  Conservancy

  favors projects that are well-established and have some track record of

  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>New Conservancy members are required to pay 10% of their revenue that

  Conservancy processes to Conservancy's general fund, which primarily is

  used to pay staff.  (Details on how Conservancy spends its funds,

  including salaries of key employees, can be found

  annual filings</a>.)</p>

<p>Historically, Conservancy allowed projects to give less or nothing at

  all to the general fund, but we unfortunately discovered that without

  this requirement, Conservancy was not able to offer the myriad of

  services to all its projects, particularly to larger projects that

  have more income and therefore need more attention from staff.</p>

<p>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, Conservancy

  remains open to discussion on a case-by-case basis for smaller projects