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OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

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Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

#31

Post by cheez »

swalsh wrote: post #25
riquito wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a legitimate request, and it shouldn't be even necessary to ask for it, for any project that accept donations or publicly funded. It's annoying, but it's important.

"It's a legitimate request" I don't think it is personally. Their transparency is in the updates to their software. If you think the updates don't correlate well with the level of contributions, than don't contribute. Having to justify every expense would be extremely burdensome, and would only detract from running a productive foundation in my opinion. Would we ask Microsoft how it spends all the money we give it in…

I think the analogy to MSFT shareholder is more apt and if the OpenBSD foundation is a foundation that has to report to some government bureau somewhere, there will be a report of some kind that the donors can use.

Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

#32

Post by keithpeter »

wcchandler wrote: post #23

I know OpenBSD sells books and install media, but could they possibly sell other "swag" to help bring in stable money? I'm sure they could partner with one of the dozens of nerd shops (This is why i'm broke, thinkgeek, etc.) and sell $7 shirts with an OpenBSD logo on it for $12 + shipping. The partner shop takes $1 for overhead, OpenBSD takes $4. In fact, I wonder if this could be a feasible startup? Selling FOSS swa…

This was raised on the OpenBSD Misc mailing list. The response from OpenBSD team members was along the lines of: this stuff takes time/effort away from the development work.

Recall that the original funding request was asking for a Canadian company to basically pay the electricity bill, i.e. one or a small number of large sponsors.

Now: I'd like a laptop that will work with the *BSDs no fiddling. No blob wifi, no need for acpi daemons to control fans &c

Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

#33

Post by michael_h »

michaelt wrote: post #27
swalsh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a legitimate request" I don't think it is personally. Their transparency is in the updates to their software. If you think the updates don't correlate well with the level of contributions, than don't contribute. Having to justify every expense would be extremely burdensome, and would only detract from running a productive foundation in my opinion. Would we ask Microsoft how it spends all the money we give it in…

In my experience it's not so much a matter of "legitimacy" or "transparency" so much as pragmatism; charities believe that "$10 buys and delivers an anti-malaria net" makes more than "$10 supports our work in various ways" Whether OpenBSD believe transparency would increase donations enough to be worth the bother is of course another matter. And if they to and forego some donations that's up to them.

"$50 buys and delivers a CD set and some stickers"

Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

#35

Post by swalsh »

cheez wrote: post #31
swalsh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a legitimate request" I don't think it is personally. Their transparency is in the updates to their software. If you think the updates don't correlate well with the level of contributions, than don't contribute. Having to justify every expense would be extremely burdensome, and would only detract from running a productive foundation in my opinion. Would we ask Microsoft how it spends all the money we give it in…

I think the analogy to MSFT shareholder is more apt and if the OpenBSD foundation is a foundation that has to report to some government bureau somewhere, there will be a report of some kind that the donors can use.

Even with shareholders. In the end, what they truely care about is that the bottom line keeps going higher. It's only when it's not that people start to care. But its really easy to look at expenses, and wonder how they are relevant.. then inadvertently make harmful decisions. Maybe the best programmer is most productive when surrounded by hookers and blow. If that showed up, people would instantly bulk, and it would be gone. But now the programmer is at a disadvantage.

Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations

#36

Post by reddit_clone »

ams6110 wrote: post #28
mrweasel wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you do with the information? I think the OpenBSD foundation is transparent enough with their "Activities" page ( http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html ). What level of details would you like in a finacial statement from the OpenBSD project? Keeping it pretty broad seems like the right solution. Given all the unsolicited "advice" they got just regarding their power bill, posting every expenditure wou…

A standard "Statement of Activities" and "Financial Position" (the nonprofit equivalents of a Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet) would be nice. These don't include every expenditure in detail, just the totals in broad categories. Yes, even that might generate some debate but when you're asking for donations you should not be offended if your benefactors would like at least some high-level insight into how t…

> benefactors

This is not really a charity. The BSD team is providing great value by keeping the project alive to 'benefactors' and non-benefactors alike.

As long as they keep the promise of delivering the software with high quality, I don't think people should bother them with minutiae. Their time is better spent on working on the software. My two cents.

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