General FAQs

✅ What can I do with an Open Collective Europe account?

By joining Open Collective Europe, your initiative can:

• Collect financial contributions (donations, memberships, sponsorships)

• Apply for subsidies or grants

• Pay invoices and reimburse expenses

• Offer full budget transparency to your community

• Operate without creating your own legal entity

• Engage collaborators: freelancers (via Smart), volunteers, or employees

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🚫 What am I not allowed to do?

To stay compliant with our legal and charitable framework, you may not:

• Use funds to influence legislation or politics (lobbying)

• Support or engage in illegal activity

• Use funds for personal profit

• Hold project funds in another account or have another fiscal sponsor at the same time (if incorporated)

• Spend funds on purposes outside your initiative’s mission — if you do, they must be reimbursed

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💡 Why should I use Open Collective?

Open Collective Europe uses the Open Collective platform to simplify and bring transparency to financial management.

Benefits include:

• Easy collection of recurring or one-off contributions

• Simple spending: submit a receipt/invoice → approve → paid

• Automatic and public budget tracking

• Shared financial visibility = stronger collaboration and trust

🌍 We believe transparency makes communities more resilient and democratic.

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🆚 How is Open Collective Europe different?

Here’s what makes us special:

• Designed for collaborative communities — not just for campaigns or individuals

• Open source + built-in transparency (no hidden ledgers)

• We provide fiscal hosting as a service using a nonprofit legal framework

• Based in Europe, but globally connected

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💸 How much does it cost?

Open Collective Europe charges a standard administrative fee:

• 8% for most contributions (plus card processing fees)

  • 1.5% + €0.25 for European cards

  • 2.5% + €0.25 for non-European cards

• 10% if your Collective:

  • Receives a grant or sponsorship

  • Receives a tax-deductible donation

  • Receives a public subsidy

  • Receives a manual bank transfer

Part of this fee goes to support the Open Collective platform (which we use to operate our fiscal hosting).

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❓ Can we get a discount?

We’re often asked for fee reductions — and we truly understand why. Many initiatives bring in funds already raised, and we know how tight nonprofit budgets can be.

However, our standard fees are already kept as low as possible to cover the real costs of:

• Legal & administrative management

• Risk and compliance

• Payments, reports, and support over time

Outside of specific exceptional cases (like COVID-19 or Ukrainian relief), we cannot offer fee waivers or discounts.

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Fee Comparison Chart:

Fiscal Host	Hosted Collectives	Fee
Open Source Collective	Open source projects	10%
Open Collective Europe	EU-based Collectives	8-10%
Women Who Code	Local chapters	10%
Community Partners	US-based projects	9-12% + minimum balance/annual fee
Charitable Allies		1-25%

🔄 What if I want to become my own fiscal host someday?

No problem! You're welcome to use Open Collective Europe as your fiscal host for as long as you need and remain eligible.

• You can cancel fiscal hosting at any time.

• If you plan to transition into managing your own structure, we can help you prepare.

• The Open Collective platform also supports organizations that wish to become fiscal hosts themselves.

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🕓 How long does it take to get started?

• The application process only takes a few minutes.

• We might reach out with a few follow-up questions.

• Once your application is accepted, you can start receiving donations right away.

✅ The entire setup — from applying to receiving your first contribution — can take as little as 30 minutes, and up to 2 business days.

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💶 Is there a minimum required budget?

Nope! There is no minimum balance required to be hosted by OCE.

Since our fees are taken as a percentage of incoming contributions, you can start small and grow as your initiative develops.