@@ -120,32 +120,39 @@
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
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 to join Conservancy.</p>
<p>Once you're offered membership, Conservancy will send you a draft
fiscal sponsorship agreement (FSA). A template
of <a href="/members/apply/ConservancyFSATemplate.pdf">Conservancy's FSA
is available in PDF</a> (and
in <a href="/members/apply/conservancy-fsa-template.tex">LaTeX</a>).
Please note that the preceding documents are <strong>only
templates</strong>. Please do not try to fill one out and send it to
Conservancy. The final FSA between Conservancy and your project needs
to be negotiated between us, and as can been seen in the template, the
Representation section needs substantial work. If your project is
offered membership, Conservancy will work with you adapt the FSA
template to suit the needs and specific circumstances of your project.
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 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