See our dedicated Gift Cards page for an introduction to gift cards.

FAQ

How do I use the gift cards?

To use a gift card, you first have to activate it on your account from Redeem Gift Card. Then go to make a contribution, and select your gift card when asked for payment. Note: Some gift cards might be limited to specific fiscal hosts or project types (e.g., open source).

What happens if the gift cards are not used?

You are only charged when the gift cards are used. If you give away a $50 gift card to 10 of your employees and only 8 used it, you will only be charged $400.

Do I get an invoice?

Yes, you will receive a proper consolidated monthly invoice from the Fiscal Host.

Is there an expiry date?

By default gift cards expire after one year, but you can define your own expiry date. If they are not used by the expiry date, they become inactive and you will not be charged.

I received a gift card—do I need to spend it all in one go?

No. You can use your gift card to give any amount to one or multiple collectives, as long as you have enough balance on the card.

Who will show up as a contributor? My company or my employee?

Both! The person to whom you gave the gift card is the one picking the collectives they want to support. But their donation will show that they used a gift card from your company, and your company will show up as a sponsor of the collective. See for example Triplebyte showing up as a sponsor of Electron.

What kind of payment methods can I use?

The simplest option is to use a credit card, as you can set it up by yourself in a few minutes. This works great for small companies and limited usage (2-10 gift cards) but if you're willing to process a large number of transactions we strongly recommend using a prepaid budget instead to avoid credit card processor fees and to limit the number of transactions that will appear on your bank account.

Note: Each gift card charge will create a credit card transaction and currently we don't charge the full amount up-front.

Create gift cards

To create Gift Cards for your Organization, go to Edit Organization and then Gift Cards. From there you'll also be able to see your pending and redeemed gift cards.

We currently offer three options for gift cards distribution.

1. By email - Fast & Easy, but no customization possible

You can give us a list of emails and we'll send the gift cards out, or you can generate gift card codes and send them out yourself.

2. Download the list of redeem codes/links - Perfect for custom materials

This section has not been written yet. Help us by sharing your knowledge!

3. Download a PDF with printable gift cards - To distribute at events

This section has not been written yet. Help us by sharing your knowledge!

Funds are similar to an organization in that both will let you donate to a collective but funds are designed to hold and display a balance, show transaction history and distribute money through grants and expenses.

If you are more focused on disbursing funds than receiving them, a Fund may be a good fit for you.

Funds provide:

• Transparent financial management on the Open Collective platform

• A streamlined, single-payer process for supporters

• Support for communities operating on Open Collective or elsewhere

• A lightweight 'Request a Grant' process for projects issue money to grant recipients

• More flexibility with what you choose to publicly show (in terms of expense management)

  • Protect identities of those receiving grants

    • e.g. emergency relief aid may not want to be as public

      • Will still be reported and available to fiscal host

What is a Fund?

A Fund is a profile designed for one or a few large sponsor companies to move chunks of money under our umbrella and frictionlessly distribute it to as many collectives as they want. Some Funds are in the name of a particular company, while others are focused on a topic.

Why do we need Funds?

Big companies call the process of paying for stuff “procurement”. It’s often pretty involved, with contracts, invoices, purchasing order numbers, and bureaucracy—a painful thing to go through repeatedly for small amounts.

It is easier for corporations to make one large payment to one vendor. As an umbrella non-profit, we are set up for exactly this. Funds are a feature on the platform to make the experience even better, and more scalable.

Who can create a Fund?

Funds can be created by an organization.

Funds allow for more customization in the transparency of an initiative. This is a great way to issue grants to recipients of emergency aid, human rights activists, and censorship targets, for example, for whom more privacy is essential.

It's also perfect for initiatives that want it to be easier to distribute money outside of Open Source Collective. Funds are the best way to manage your FOSS support fund for projects in or out of your OSC fund since you'll only need to deal with one vendor (us!).

With Funds, we can now offer more flexibility for managing finances and expenses.

Who can Funds pay?

Lots of projects sign up with us because they don’t have their own company or foundation to work through. But you don’t have to be on Open Collective. Any collective—whether they are part of a company, has its own foundation, works with another fiscal host, or is unincorporated—can get contributions from a Fund.

The Funds admins approve what money gets spent on, but when it comes to invoices, purchase orders, payment processing, tax forms, etc, they don't need to worry about it. We take care of all that and interface with the payees. This makes it a lot easier for both of them.

The key to creating scalable, resilient projects is to support the community as a whole in ways that serve the full range of projects and creators. Open Collective liberates corporate support, getting it directly to projects at scale, across languages and ecosystems.

How is funding decided?

It's up to the creators of the Fund what the process is. Open Collective has a 'request a grant' function that some use to receive proposals from projects. Others use their Fund to process payments for an external program with its own process. Others have an internal team who decides where the money goes and they don't take requests. We carry out their decisions about what the money is spent on and handle the logistics, but the Fund administrators are in the driver's seat.

How do you create a fund?

Convincing 'the powers that be' in companies to sustainably support open source is not easy. We acknowledge that there are many heroes inside companies who are fighting that, and we want to support them. This is an open toolkit for sustainers making the case for their companies to support their open source stack.

Templates

Email Template

Explain the benefits of financial contribution

This is an email that Vincent Voyer and Josh Dzielak from Algolia used to start a conversation internally about supporting Open Source. They kindly agreed to share it. <3

Google Form Template

Testimonials

From Maintainers

Please keep adding them <3

The tooling for open source projects is so good these days!

From Organizations

The case for 'Good for hiring'

Collective blog posts

Tools

BackYourStack

An easy way to surface your organization's dependencies and detect which ones are seeking funding.

Bulk transfer means sending funds via one financial transfer, which you can then give to one or multiple Collectives.

Once the confirms the funds have been received, they allocate that amount to your Organization, which you (and your team) can then distribute to Collectives as you wish.

Different fiscal hosts may have different processes for bulk transfers. Before sending, please confirm their policies and payment details, and let the fiscal host know to expect the funds.

Bulk transfer process

1. Set up an

2. Request an invoice from the Fiscal Host if needed

3. Confirm the Fiscal Host's payment details

4. Send the funds via bank transfer or other agreed method

5. Fiscal Host confirms receipt

6. Fiscal Host allocates the funds to your Organization's balance

7. Go to the Collective you want to support

8. Select the contribution amount you want to give

9. Select your Organization as the source of funds

10. Done!

Why should we become an Organization?

• Legally support communities that don't have a legal entity

• Transparency: you’ll always know what your contributions are being used for, in real time

• Get an invoice/receipt for your donations, for easy accounting

• One purchasing order or vendor management process for all your donations

• Reporting: receive a monthly report that aggregates all your donations

More details

How do I Sponsor a Collective?

Before setting up a Sponsorship, we recommend you create an Organization, so you can contribute under your company's name instead of your own.

Go to the Collective's page and review their Sponsorship tiers. Choose one that suits the level of support you want to give or the reciprocal benefits you care about. Go through the contribution flow and pay using a credit card.

You can also give a flexible contribution by editing the options on the contribution screen, adjusting the amount and frequency.

How will my logo show up?

Sponsor logos show up on the Collective's page, and are automatically pulled through our Widgets into many projects' READMEs and websites.

Sponsors are organized in order of the amount of contribution, with the highest at the top. If your one-time contribution is larger than a recurring sponsor's monthly amount, your logo will show at the top, but only for that month.

Can I cancel or change my contribution?

Yes, you can cancel a recurring contribution at any time. To do so, go to 'subscriptions' under your user menu, select the subscription, and, using the three dot menu in the corner, select 'change amount' or 'cancel'.

How do I reach a Collective?

If you want to set up a sponsorship arrangement different to the pre-configured options, or have any other questions for the admins of a Collective, you can usually contact them using the Contact button on the Collective page.

Most Collectives are happy to discus alternative arrangements and hear sponsor feedback and requests. We encourage sponsors to start conversations.

Which Collectives should we Sponsor?

We offer tools to help you find Collectives that are providing value for your company.

• BackYourStack: discover your open source dependencies

• Gift Cards: let your developers, ambassadors, employees, or recruits determine which Collective to support

• Discover: search for Collectives on the platform

Can we pay via bank transfer or other means?

Yes. If paying via credit card through our automated system doesn't work for your process, please contact us and we can arrange to accept payment.

Can we make a bulk payment?

Yes. You can send us funds with a single transaction, and we'll allocate it to your Organization in the system. Then you can distribute it to the Collectives of your choice.

Can we get an invoice in advance?

Yes. Contributions through our platform will automatically generate receipts after payment, but Fiscal hosts (like the Open Source Collective) can function like any vendor or supplier and provide the documentation you require. If you need an invoice in advance, or for us to register in your vendor system, please contact us.

Who are we transacting with legally?

Open Collectives are under the legal umbrella of their Fiscal Host. For most open-source software projects, that's the Open Source Collective.

Most sponsorships arrangements don't require a separate contract to the standard terms, but we offer a sponsorship agreement template if needed. Sponsorship agreements are set in discussion with the sponsor, the fiscal host, and the Collective together.

Help me convince my company to become an organization on Open Collective?

You bet! See Sustainer Resources.

What is an Organization?

An Organization is a profile that represents a company or entity instead of an individual. Companies that become Financial Contributors, as well as legal entities that are Fiscal Hosts, are Organizations on Open Collective.

Why Create an Organization?

• Have your company show up as a Financial Contributor to Collectives

• Enable your employees to support Collectives on behalf of your company

• Make bulk transfers so you can send money once and distribute it to Collectives as you wish

• Become a Fiscal Host (read more)

How to Create an Organization

If you already have an individual profile

Go to your profile menu (top right) and look for the My Organizations section. Click "+".

Once set up, you will be able to select your individual or organization profile when making a contribution.

If you don't have an individual profile yet

Go through the process of contributing to a Collective, and you'll be able to create both the individual and organization profile during checkout.

How to Edit an Organization

From your user menu

Use the cog icon next to the organization that you want to edit.

From there you can change your Info, add or remove Team members, create or edit your Expenses Policy, manage your Payment Methods, Gift Cards, Connected Accounts, Webhooks and to access Advanced settings.

Don't forget to save your changes!

How to access an Organization's contributions

To access your Organization's contributions, go to the Organization's page and click on Manage Contributions in the navigation bar menu. From there you can access the action options to update amount or payment method, or cancel the contribution.