🚨 This documentation is out of date.
View our New Documentation!
Open Collective Docs
Go back to Open Collective
  • Welcome
  • About
    • Introduction
    • Documentation
    • Terminology
    • Company
    • Pricing
    • Team
    • The Open Collective Way
      • Mission and Values
      • Community Guidelines
    • Hiring
    • Investors
    • Contributing
    • Refund Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Product
    • Features
    • Roadmap
    • Comparison
    • User Profile
    • Dashboard
      • Preview Features
    • Currencies
    • Log-in System
    • Privacy Policy
    • Moderation
    • Security
    • Ledger
      • Individual Transactions
      • Transaction Pairs, Groups & Perspectives
      • Viewing Transactions
      • Exporting Transactions
      • Fiscal Host Ledger Perspective
      • Contributions in the Ledger
      • Added Funds in the Ledger
      • Expenses in the Ledger
      • Ledger Changelog
    • Notifications
    • Two-factor Authentication
    • Activity Log
  • Collectives
    • Collectives FAQ
    • Creating a Collective
    • Quick Start Guide
    • Collective Settings
      • Customize Collective
      • Team
      • Collective Goals & Tiers
      • Expense Policy
      • Data Export
      • Security
      • Integrations
      • Zero Collective Balance
      • Closing a Collective
    • Add Fiscal Host
    • Change Fiscal Host
    • Open Source Collectives
      • Setting up GitHub Sponsors
    • Transparent Budget
    • Expenses
    • Updates & Comms
    • Custom Email
    • Moderation
    • Conversations
    • Events
    • Projects
    • Funding Options
    • Buttons & Banners
    • Connected Collectives
    • Contribution flow
  • Financial Contributors
    • Financial Contributors FAQ
    • Guest contributions
    • Payments
    • Platform Tips
    • Website Badge
    • Receipts
    • Collective to Collective
    • Organizations
      • Organization FAQ
      • Funds
      • Bulk Transfers
      • Gift Cards
      • Sustainer Resources
  • Expenses & Getting Paid
    • Expenses FAQ
    • Submitting Expenses
      • Inviting a third-party to submit an Expense
    • Expense Comments
    • Edit or Download an Expense
    • Receiving payment through Payoneer or Wise
    • Tax Information
  • Fiscal Hosts
    • Fiscal Hosts FAQ
    • Becoming a Fiscal Host
    • Creating a Fiscal Host
    • Organisation Settings
      • Info
      • Customize Profile Page
      • Connect external accounts
      • Accounting Categories
      • Security
      • Manage updates
      • Policies
    • Fiscal Host Dashboard
      • Expenses
      • Financial contributions
      • Pending applications
      • Hosted Collectives
      • Vendors
      • Transaction Report
        • Reports
    • Receiving Money
      • Bank Transfers
      • Credit Card
      • Add Funds Manually
      • Expected Funds
    • Payouts
      • Virtual Card Settings
      • Payouts with PayPal
      • Payouts with Wise
      • Two-factor authentication for payouts
      • Refunds
    • Host Fees
    • Local Tax Support
    • Agreement Templates
  • Independent Collectives
    • About Independent Collectives
    • Create an Independent Collective
      • Migrate from Self-Hosted to Independent Collective
      • Migrate from a Fiscal Host to Independent Collective
    • Independent Collective Setup
    • Independent Collective Management
      • Money coming in: Contributions
      • Money going out: Expenses
    • Close an Independent Collective
  • Contributing
    • Design
      • Design Workflow
      • Design Contribution Guidelines
    • Development
      • Contribution Guide
      • Best Practice Guidelines
      • Bounties
      • Architecture
      • API
        • Members
        • Collectives
        • Events
      • README Integration
      • PayPal
      • TransferWise
      • Post-Donation Redirect
      • Manual Reporting
      • GitHub Permissions
      • Internationalization (i18n) system
      • Testing with Cypress
      • Testing features
        • Conversations
      • Collective's locations
      • Virtual Cards
    • Documentation
      • Resources for documentarians
      • Style guide
      • Suggesting changes
    • Translation
  • Developers
    • OAuth
    • Personal Tokens
Powered by GitBook

Helpful Links

  • Website
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Slack

â’¸ Open Collective 2024

On this page
  • Essays
  • Talks
  • Media / Logo
  • Follow us
  • FAQ
  • What is Open Collective?
  • Who is Open Collective for?
  • Why Open Collective?
  • How is Open Collective different from other platforms?
  • How does it work?
  • Does it work in my country?
  • Can I get a receipt for my donations?
  • Why Open Source?
  • How can I contribute?
  • How can I contact you?

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
Export as PDF
  1. About

Introduction

PreviousWelcomeNextDocumentation

Last updated 11 months ago

Was this helpful?

While the Internet is a great tool for helping people collaborate, it is still extremely difficult for groups to collect funds and use them transparently. As a result, we see initiatives, projects, and movements popping up here and there only to disappear quickly due to a lack of funds. Imagine how many wonderful things didn't happen because funding (which is arguably the oxygen for most organizations) is difficult to sustain. Without an easy way to raise and manage finances, most of the ideas that can change the world are rarely able to break open from seed, let alone grow into a full-fledged tree.

To be able to operate, meetups, open-source projects, parent associations, neighbourhood associations, pet projects, clubs, unions, movements, non-profits, business incubators - all are either forced to use a physical glass jar, asking a sponsor to directly pay for their expenses or front the huge overhead of setting up and managing a corporation or a non-profit. Even if they manage to achieve it in a way that is neither inefficient nor opaque, it is overkill.

This is the problem that Open Collective solves. We enable groups to quickly set up a collective, raise funds and manage them transparently.

We want all those seeds to have a chance to grow and give the ideas a fighting chance to reach their true potential. We believe everyone should have the tools to create the organizations of tomorrow. And we are dedicating ourselves to make that happen!

Essays

Talks

Media / Logo

Follow us

FAQ

What is Open Collective?

Open Collective is a platform where communities can collect and disburse money transparently, to sustain and grow their projects.

Who is Open Collective for?

Why Open Collective?

The Internet has been really good at helping people do great things together. But things still get complicated once money is involved. These challenges hold communities back from getting all the support they need from supporters and sponsors to achieve their mission.

We enable communities to have economic power, so they can sustain themselves and have a larger impact on the world.

How is Open Collective different from other platforms?

  • It's fully transparent (you can see where money comes from and where it goes).

  • Designed for ongoing collaborative communities, not one-off campaigns or individual creators.

  • Open source and designed for financial and technical transparency.

How does it work?

Our platform provides tools for legal entities to fiscally sponsor Collectives under their umbrella, empowering people to create associations without friction. It's like an API between the legacy world of banks and taxes and the emerging future of digitally powered distributed collaborations.

Does it work in my country?

Can I get a receipt for my donations?

Why Open Source?

For starters, we are believers in the open-source philosophy. Our code is open source, and so are the Collectives we host. We think transparency in technology and finances is important.

Additionally, regulations are different all over the world. Our platform is the API between Collectives and things like governments, banks, payment processors, and taxes, which vary a lot by country, so it has to be adaptable to different requirements.

How can I contribute?

How can I contact you?

, Xavier Damman

, Pia Mancini

, Xavier Damman

, Xavier Damman

, Aseem Sood

, Pia Mancini

, Xavier Damman

, Alanna Irving

, Alanna Irving

, Xavier Damman

, Pia Mancini

, Xavier Damman

, Xavier Damman

Subscribe to our

, Alanna Irving, New Frontiers, New Zealand November 2018

, Pia Mancini, Monki Gras, London 2018

- Xavier Damman, Crowdsourcing Week, Luleå (Sweden) March 2018

- Pia Mancini, OuiShare Fest, Paris 2017

- Xavier Damman, iMAL, Brussels November 2017

- Pia Mancini, Zeit, Berlin September 2017

- Xavier Damman, OuiShare Fest, Paris, 2016

- Xavier Damman, OSFEST, Barcelona 2016

Download the in high resolution: -

Open Collective is great for collaborative groups, like meetups, open-source projects, —and for who want to support them.

Offers fiscal sponsorship as a service, using .

For more information including a full comparison of tech offerings please see our .

The goal of Open Collective is to create a .

People can contribute from anywhere by credit card, with donations denominated in the of the Fiscal Host. Payouts work everywhere our payment providers, Stripe and PayPal, serve.

Yes! One main purpose of Open Collective is to provide unincorporated projects with the legal and financial structures to provide receipts and invoices.

We are an open-source project and run as an Open Collective ourselves. You can contribute , or . And we'd really love it if you and contributed by growing the community!

For more info about how you can contribute to Open Collective, check the .

or join our !

Contact us
Subscribe to our blog
A New Form of Association For the Internet Generation
If you can’t beat them, abstract them.
A New Way to Fund Open Source Projects
Money and Open Source Communities
Let's Talk About Money
Moving beyond the charity framework
From Firms to Collectives
Being a Circle in a World Made for Triangles
Ten Steps to Successful Open Source Crowdfunding
Turning our City into an Open Collective
Cities Are Open Collectives
From the Internet of Information to the Internet of Actions
The New Citizen
Talks Playlist on YouTube
Collaborating with Money
Transparent by Design
From the democracy of our voices, to the democracy of our actions
Cities as Open Collectives
Reducing the Friction for Citizens to Create Associations and Sustain Them
A new Way of Sustaining Open Source
How to Fund Communities and Movements Transparently
A New Form of Association to Build a New World, Together
Open Collective Logo
svg
png
Twitter
Blog
Instagram
Facebook
Linkedin
TikTok
Youtube
Fiscal Hosts
comparison page
New Form of Association for the Internet Generation
currency
people
money
code
translations
started your own Collective
contributing page
Contact us
Discord
those
and more