-Please help all non-profit organizations (NPOs) by donating to Conservancy -to begin creating an Open Source and Free Software accounting system usable by non-technical bookkeepers, -accountants, and non-profit managers.
+Conservancy has a plan to help all non-profit organizations (NPOs) by +creating an Open Source and Free Software accounting system usable by +non-technical bookkeepers, accountants, and non-profit managers. You can +help us do it by donating now. +
-To keep books and produce annual government filings, NPOs must -maintain complicated home grown systems. Most use proprietary -software, paying exorbitant licensing fees — fundamentally at cross purposes with their underlying missions of -charity, equality, democracy, and sharing.
+To keep their books and produce annual government filings, most NPOs rely +on proprietary software, paying exorbitant licensing fees. This is +fundamentally at cross purposes with their underlying missions of charity, +equality, democracy, and sharing.
You can help Conservancy fix this problem by donating now. We seek to raise $75,000 to employ a -developer one year to make substantial progress on this project.
+developer for one year to make substantial progress on this project. -If successful, this project will save the non-profit sector many -millions every year in licensing fees. Even non-profits that continue to use proprietary accounting +
This project has the potential to save the non-profit sector +millions in licensing fees every year. Even non-profits that continue to use proprietary accounting software will benefit, since the existence of quality Open Source and Free Software for a particular task curtails predatory behavior by proprietary software companies, and creates a new standard of comparison.
But, more powerfully, this project's realization will increase the agility and collaborative potential -for the non-profit sector — a boon to funders, boards, employees, and the -populations they serve — bringing the Free Software and general NPO communities +for the non-profit sector — a boon to funders, boards, and employees — bringing the Free Software and general NPO communities into closer collaboration and understanding.
Thanks in advance for helping us develop Free Software to benefit all -non-profit organizations, and thus all of society.
+non-profit organizations, and the +populations they serve.Donors of $500 or more will be acknowledged in the THANKS file and other appropriate places in the codebase itself.
@@ -345,20 +347,20 @@ Interest; all encourage you to donat financial accounts are audited annually by an independent accounting firm; we recently completed our fiscal year 2011 audit. As usual, our auditors asked plenty of questions about our accounting software. Conservancy uses - only Free Software, of course, using a series of straightforward reporting + only Free Software, of course, centered around a set of straightforward reporting scripts that we created to run on top of Ledger CLI. (Conservancy's current configuration using Ledger CLI is publicly - documented and explained). + documented and explained.) -Our auditors were only familiar with proprietary accounting systems, and - our system seemed foreign to them (since it relies on Ledger CLI's text files, Emacs and - version control). During their questions +
Our auditors were only familiar with proprietary accounting software, and
+ so our system seemed foreign to them, as it relies on Ledger CLI's text files, Emacs and
+ version control. During their questions
about our setup, we asked them to hypothetically prescribe a specific
- proprietary software setup as a model for how to manage Conservancy's
+ proprietary software setup as a model for managing Conservancy's
accounts. Our chief auditor started by mentioning a few well-known
- proprietary solutions — but, then he paused and continued — Given
+ proprietary solutions. But then he paused and continued:
Given
that Conservancy's a fiscal sponsor with so many temporarily restricted
accounts, existing systems really wouldn't do that good of a job for
you
.
The project that Conservancy proposes to undertake below is a modest step - forward to begin creating a better solution for everyone, and - many NPO leaders and academics agree with Conservancy about the +
The project that Conservancy proposes will take a modest step + forward in creating a better solution for everyone. + Many NPO leaders and academics agree with Conservancy about the immediate need for work to begin on this effort. Fractured Atlas, Free Software Foundation, The Mozilla Foundation, The GNOME Foundation, OpenHatch, Open Source Initiative, QuestionCopyright.org, and Software in the Public Interest have - all endorsed Conservancy's plan herein, and they encourage you to donate and + all endorsed Conservancy's plan, and they encourage you to donate and support it.
Conservancy is uniquely qualified to undertake this task. Using only Free @@ -411,7 +413,7 @@ Foundation
, The GNOME Foundation<Some Free Software accounting systems do exist. A previous informal survey of these systems that Conservancy conducted in 2007 led us to the conclusion that, in general, these systems were heavily geared toward - for-profit endeavors, and ignored the unique needs of NPOs generally, and + for-profit endeavors, ignored the unique needs of NPOs generally, and were completely hopeless for the specific needs of a fiscal sponsoring organization. Conservancy's assessment at the time was that these challenges could be addressed only with a large rewrite of one of these @@ -445,10 +447,10 @@ Foundation
, The GNOME Foundation<Conservancy's existing system is working adequately, but requires daily the relatively more expensive time of a highly technical person to do the job of bookkeeping. Also, the system cannot easily be adapted in its - current form for another NPO, unless they also have the staff time of a - skilled technical person to act as bookkeeper. This project aims to build + current form for another NPO, unless they also have a + skilled technical employee to act as bookkeeper. This project aims to build on what Conservancy has learned and produce a non-profit accounting system that corrects these flaws.
Finally, Conservancy's mission (as stated on our Form 1023 with the USA IRS) includes producing Open Source and Free Software. -Thus, this project is a great way to meet Conservancy's mission and address a +Thus, this project is a great way to pursue Conservancy's mission and address a specific need that so many NPOs (including us) have. If no one steps up to create Free Software to replace the widely used proprietary software, NPOs in aggregate will pay much more money for proprietary licensing than Conservancy will ever spend in developing a replacement. Please donate generously to help us do it!
- -As a national fiscal sponsor with over 3,000 arts and cultural projects
under our umbrella, Fractured Atlas is ecstatic about this effort's
@@ -536,7 +538,7 @@ work on this front and look forward to seeing where it leads.
—
QuestionCopyright.org is
just one of many organizations that would benefit from a Free Software
-accounting system that is useable by non-technical people. We
+accounting system that is usable by non-technical people. We
enthusiastically support the Conservancy's campaign to create one, and look
forward to using the result.
— Karl
@@ -568,7 +570,7 @@ Director, The GNOME Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is committed to doing all of its work,