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<!-- begin campaign text -->
<h2>Conservancy's Fundraising Campaign For Non-Profit Accounting Software</h2>
<h2>Fundraising Campaign: Non-Profit Accounting Software</h2>
<img src="/img/conservancy-accounting-campaign-logo.png" alt="Conservancy accounting campaign logo" style="float:left;" />
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>Please help all non-profit organizations (NPOs) by <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/campaign">donating</a> to Conservancy
to begin creating an Open Source and Free Software accounting system usable by non-technical bookkeepers,
accountants, and non-profit managers.</p>
<!-- begin campaign text -->
<p>To keep books and produce annual government filings, NPOs must
maintain complicated home grown systems. Most use proprietary
software, paying exorbitant licensing fees &mdash; fundamentally at cross purposes with their underlying missions of
charity, equality, democracy, and sharing.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>You can help Conservancy fix this problem by <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/campaign">donating now</a>. We seek to
raise $75,000 to employ a
developer one year to make substantial progress on this project.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>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
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.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>But, more powerfully, this project's realization
will increase the agility and collaborative potential
for the non-profit sector &mdash; a boon to funders, boards, employees, and the
populations they serve &mdash; bringing the Free Software and general NPO communities
into closer collaboration and understanding.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/campaign">helping us</a> develop Free Software to benefit all
non-profit organizations, and thus all of society.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Donors of $500 or more will be acknowledged in the THANKS file and other
appropriate places in the codebase itself.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p><a href="http://sfconservancy.org/campaign#endorsements">Endorsers of this effort</a> include Fractured Atlas, Free Software
Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, GNOME Foundation, OpenHatch, Open
Source Initiative, QuestionCopyright.org, and Software in the Public
Interest; all encourage you to <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/campaign">donate and support it</a>.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Like many non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the USA, Conservancy's
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
scripts that we created to run on top
of <a href="http://www.ledger-cli.org/">Ledger CLI</a>. (Conservancy's
current configuration using Ledger CLI
is <a href="https://gitorious.org/ledger/npo-ledger-cli">publicly
documented and explained</a>).</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>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
about our setup, we asked them to hypothetically prescribe a specific
proprietary software setup as a model for how to manage Conservancy's
accounts. Our chief auditor started by mentioning a few well-known
proprietary solutions &mdash; but, then he paused and continued &mdash; <q>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</q>.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Indeed, Conservancy reached out into the broader fiscal sponsorship
community beyond the <acronym title="Free, Libre and Open Source Software">FLOSS</acronym>
<acronym title="Non-profit Organization">NPO</acronym> community and discovered that many larger fiscal sponsors &mdash; even
those willing to use proprietary components &mdash; have cobbled together
their own unique systems, idiosyncratically tailored to their specific
environments. Thus, good, well-designed, and reusable accounting software
for non-profit fiscal sponsorship is not just missing in the software
freedom community; it's missing altogether.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>The project that Conservancy proposes to undertake below is a modest step
forward to begin creating a better solution for everyone, and
<a href="#quotes">many NPO leaders and academics agree</a> with Conservancy about the
immediate need for work to begin on this
effort. <a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org">Fractured Atlas</a>, <a href="http://fsf.org">Free Software
Foundation</a>, The <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/foundation/">Mozilla
Foundation</a>, The <a href="http://www.gnome.org/foundation/">GNOME Foundation</a>, <a
href="https://openhatch.org/">OpenHatch</a>, <a href="http://opensource.org">Open Source Initiative</a>,
<a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a>, and <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software in the Public Interest</a> have
<a id="endorsements" style="text-decoration:none">all endorsed</a> Conservancy's plan herein, and they encourage you to donate and
support it.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Conservancy is uniquely qualified to undertake this task. Using only Free
Software, Conservancy already meets the complex accounting challenges of
earmarked, directed donations for over thirty different projects. We've
learned much about this work in our first seven years of
operation, and we're prepared to apply what we've learned to solve
this problem not just for ourselves, but for anyone who seeks a
solution that both respects software freedom and handles non-profit
accounting for all sorts of NPOs, including fiscal sponsors. General NPO
accounting is just a &ldquo;base case&rdquo; of fiscal sponsorship (i.e.,
an NPO is just a fiscal sponsor for one and only one specific project),
and Conservancy therefore believes a solution that handles fiscal sponsors
will also handle the simpler case as well.</p>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<h3>The Plan</h3>
<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that
helps promote, improve, develop, and defend Free, Libre, and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) projects. Conservancy provides a non-profit home and
infrastructure for FLOSS projects. This allows FLOSS developers to
focus on what they do best &mdash; writing and improving FLOSS for the
general public &mdash; while Conservancy takes care of the projects' needs that
do not relate directly to software development and documentation.</p>
<p>Conservancy proposes to hire a software developer for one year to
accomplish the first two phases of this project. Conservancy seeks to
raise $75,000 toward this project to help cover salary and benefits for a
full-time staffer to work on this project. We ask that you give generously
via the donation buttons on this page to support our work.</p>
<h4>Phase 0</h4>
<p>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
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
systems. Conservancy chose
<a href="http://www.ledger-cli.org/">Ledger CLI</a> precisely because
it provided flexibility and configurability not present in any other Free Software
double-entry accounting system.</p>
<p>However, while that previous informal survey informs Conservancy's
existing hypothesis that Ledger CLI is the right base system here,
Conservancy will first test that hypothesis. The first phase of this
project (estimated to last approximately 6-8 full-time weeks) will produce
a written survey of all known Free Software accounting systems, and
indicate what challenges exist to adapt such systems for the needs of
NPOs. The <a href="https://fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a> has
pledged their help in the evaluation of SQL-Ledger,
and <a href="http://www.gnome.org/foundation/">the GNOME Foundation</a> has pledged their
help in the evaluation of <a href="http://www.gnucash.org/">GNUcash</a> (which they
currently use, respectively).</p>
<h4>Phase 1</h4>
<p>Phase 1 of the project will select the preferred codebase from Phase 0,
and improve that system to create a basic accounting system for
small-to-medium sized USA NPOs (i.e., Form 990-filers) &mdash; including fiscal
sponsors &mdash; with the following features:
<ul>
<li>Basic accounts payable/receivable (with invoicing)</li>
<li>Tracking and reporting of non-profit income types (related business
income, unrelated business taxable income, donations, etc.)</li>
<li>Basic backup documentation tracking for expenses and payments</li>
<li>Basic bank statement reconciliation reporting</li>
<li>Basic annual audit preparation reporting
(a <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/tree/next/contrib/non-profit-audit-reports">prototype
of this portion is already complete</a> and has been relied on for
real-life audits; but the prototype is just a hack and needs to be
rewritten)</li>
<li>Ability to easily handle all these features on a project-by-project
subset of the accounts, and to easily export and excise that subset from
the system. (i.e., support for temporarily restricted assets, earmarked for
fiscal-sponsored projects)</li>
<li>Multi-currency support and reporting</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>We will consider the first year of this project successful <em>only if all these
functions can be performed by a bookkeeper who is generally qualified as a
bookkeeper</em>, but not necessarily familiar with standard Free Software tools
such as GNU/Linux, Emacs, version control, and command line scripts. This
requirement is essential: Conservancy's existing system using Ledger CLI
already provides sufficient functionality to manage non-profit accounting,
but our system requires a bookkeeper who is also adept with the
aforementioned tools already.</p>
<p>Finally, while the first year of work focuses on USA NPO needs,
Conservancy seeks to lead an international effort, and welcomes
contributions and input from everyone in the non-profit community from
around the world. Conservancy has created
a <a href="http://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/npo-accounting">mailing
list for discussion of this project</a> and encourages interested parties
from around the world to join the mailing list and contribute to the
project!</p>
<h3>Why Conservancy Must Fund This Work</h3>
<p>As it stands, nearly all Open Source and Free Software NPOs either use
proprietary software, or fully outsource their bookkeeping and accounting
to third-parties. Those that don't do so (such as Conservancy and the Free
Software Foundation) have long complained that existing Free Software in
this area is inadequate, and have been forced to develop customized,
one-off solutions in-house to make the systems work.</p>
<p>It's highly unlikely that the for-profit sector will adapt existing Free
Software accounting systems to meet the differing needs of NPOs (let alone
the more complex needs of fiscal sponsors; based on
advice from our auditors and other fiscal sponsors, Conservancy understands that <em>no existing
solution &mdash; proprietary or Free &mdash; meets the requirements of fiscal sponsorship accounting</em>). Fiscal sponsors like
Conservancy must track a separate set of books for every project, keeping
in mind that a project may leave at any time to another NPO and need to take
their books with them. Yet, the books of the entire organization are the
aggregate of the books of all these projects, and internally, they need to
be presented as a single set of books for those purposes.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, even if an organization is not a fiscal sponsor, non-profit
accounting is <em>just different</em> than for-profit accounting, particularly in
the USA. For example, for-profit-oriented systems often make problematic
assumptions about the workflow of accounting tasks (often because NPOs
rely primarily on donations, rather than fee-for-service or widget-selling
income). Also, non-profit income is categorized differently than
for-profit income, and the reporting requirements vary wildly from their
for-profit equivalents.</p>
<p>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
on what Conservancy has learned and produce a non-profit accounting system
that corrects these flaws.</p>
<p>Finally, Conservancy's mission (as stated
on <a href="http://sfconservancy.org/docs/conservancy_Form-1023.pdf">our Form
1023 with the USA IRS</a>) includes producing Open Source and Free Software.
Thus, this project is a great way to meet 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 <em>much more</em> money for
proprietary licensing than Conservancy will ever spend in developing a
replacement. Please donate
generously to help us do it!</p>
<h3><a id="quotes" style="text-decoration:none">Statements of Support</a> For This Project from Others</h3>
<p><q>As a national fiscal sponsor with over 3,000 arts and cultural projects
under our umbrella, Fractured Atlas is ecstatic about this effort's
potential. After 15 years wrestling with Quickbooks and other inadequate
options, the idea of an open source tool designed specifically for this niche
of the field is beyond welcome. We wholeheartedly support the Conservancy's
work on this front and look forward to seeing where it leads.</q> &mdash;
<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/bios/staff/1/Adam%20Forest_Huttler">Adam
Huttler</a>, Executive Director, <a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org">Fractured Atlas</a></p>
<p><q><a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a> is
just one of many organizations that would benefit from a Free Software
accounting system that is useable by non-technical people. We
enthusiastically support the Conservancy's campaign to create one, and look
forward to using the result.</q>
&mdash; <a href="http://questioncopyright.org/speakers/karl_fogel">Karl
Fogel</a>, Executive Director,
<a href="http://QuestionCopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a></p>
<p><q>As a fiscal sponsor organization with over 30 currently-associated Free
Software projects, Software in the Public Interest shares the Conservancy's
needs and interests in this area, and welcome the opportunity to collaborate
on the development of a Free Software solution to our accounting needs.</q>
&mdash; Bdale Garbee, President, <a href="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software
in the Public Interest</a></p>
<p><q>Open Source accounting software specifically tailored for non-profits
will fill a pretty large need.</q>
&mdash; <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/calabrese">Thad Calabrese</a>,
Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Financial Management
at <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/">NYU Wagner</a>, and co-author
of <cite>Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit
Organizations, 4th Edition</cite>.</p>
<p><q>Creating free software specifically designed to address the needs of
nonprofits is a laudable goal and one that Conservancy is extremely well
positioned to achieve.</q> &mdash; <a href="http://gnomg.org">Karen
Sandler</a>, Executive
Director, The <a href="http://www.gnome.org/foundation/">GNOME Foundation</a></p>
<p><q>The Open Source Initiative has shared the experiences of Software
Freedom Conservancy in navigating the financial management needs of
non-profit organisations and shares their concern. We have many NPOs as
members and we welcome this useful initiative by Conservancy.</q>
&mdash; Simon Phipps, <a href="http://opensource.org">Open Source
Initiative</a></p>
<p><q>The <a href="https://fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a> is committed to doing all of its work,
both public-facing and internal, using only free software. We are thankful to
the developers of SQL Ledger for providing the accounting software that has
served us well for many years. As we have grown, so have the complexities of
our finances. Because of our own needs and our mission to help other
organizations &mdash; both inside and outside of the technology sphere
&mdash; run their operations on exclusively free software, we wholeheartedly
support this Conservancy initiative.</q> &mdash; <a href="view-source:http://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board#johns">John Sullivan</a>, Executive
Director, <a href="https://fsf.org">Free Software Foundation</a></p>
<p><q>Open source is a great way to solve new problems and make software that
is more flexible and responsive to the needs of the people who use it. That's
as true for the finance industry as it is on the web.</q>
&mdash; <a href="http://blog.mozilla.org/press/bios/mark-surman/">Mark
Surman</a>, Executive
Director, <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/foundation/">Mozilla
Foundation</a></p>
<p><q>As a young free software non-profit, OpenHatch is thrilled to see this
effort; it would let us spend more of our time on programs and less on
paperwork. I have already personally donated.</q> &mdash; Asheesh Laroia,
Executive Director, <a href="https://openhatch.org/">OpenHatch</a>.</p>
<h3>Some Important Details for this Fundraiser</h3>
<ul>
<li>Donations made are general donations to the Software Freedom
Conservancy, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charity incorporated in New York.
Conservancy is committed to doing this work described herein, but cannot
promise to complete the work if the fundraising goal is not reached. If
the fundraising goal is not reached, Conservancy will do its best to make
progress on the plan above with the resources available. It's expected
that work will simply proceed, but more slowly and take more time, if the
fundraising goal is not reached.</li>
<li>The license for the project is not yet chosen, since Phase 0 might
prescribe contribution to particular upstream projects, and Conservancy is
committed to contributing to upstream projects under their chosen license,
where possible. However, Conservancy promises that all software that is
written will be released under a license that is both approved by
the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses">FSF as a Free
Software license</a> <strong>and</strong> by the OSI as
an <a href="http://opensource.org/licenses">OSI-approved license</a>. New
documentation that is written will be released under some license
compatible with <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/">CC BY-SA 3.0 USA</a>.</li>
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