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<h1>How To Apply to Become a Member Project</h1>

<p>New applications for project membership with Conservancy are considered

  twice a year.  The deadlines for submission of application materials are

  1 February and 1 September each year.</p>

<p>The application process is somewhat informal.  New applicants should

  write

  to <a href="mailto:apply@sfconservancy.org">&lt;apply@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>

  with a very brief description of their project and a URL to their

  project's website.  We'll send back initial questions if we have any,

  and after that, we'll send the full application materials.  Applications

  should be submitted in plain ASCII text via email.</p>

<p>Projects are reviewed by Conservancy's Evaluation Subcommittee (which

  is a subcommittee of Conservacy's Directors), and the subcommittee's

  recommendations are submitted to

  Conservancy's <a href="/about/board/">Board of Directors</a>, who make

  the final decision to offer membership.</p>

<h1>Project Membership Application FAQs</h1>

<p>In order to join, projects need to meet certain criteria, including the

requirement that the project be exclusively devoted to the development of

FLOSS and that it be consistent with the Conservancy's tax-exempt purposes

and the financial requirements imposed by the IRS.  Most FLOSS projects

will meet these requirements.</p>

<p>Additionally, 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>.</p>

<p>While any project licensed under FLOSS licenses can apply, the

  Conservancy seeks in particular projects that are well-established and

  have some track record of substantial contributions from a community of

  volunteer developers.  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

  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 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

  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>

<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>

<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>

<h2>How are &ldquo;product leaders&rdquo; defined with respect to Conservancy?</h2>

<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 will 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

  after your application is approved.</p>