Introduction

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 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, neighborhood 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 which 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!

Contact us: [e-mail]

Support: [e-mail]

Essays

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• A New Form of Association For the Internet Generation, Xavier Damman

• If you can’t beat them, abstract them., Pia Mancini

• A New Way to Fund Open Source Projects, Xavier Damman

• Money and Open Source Communities, Xavier Damman

• Let's Talk About Money, Aseem Sood

• Moving beyond the charity framework, Pia Mancini

• From Firms to Collectives, Xavier Damman

• Being a Circle in a World Made for Triangles, Alanna Irving

• Ten Steps to Successful Open Source Crowdfunding, Alanna Irving

• Turning our City into an Open Collective, Xavier Damman

• Cities Are Open Collectives, Pia Mancini

• From the Internet of Information to the Internet of Actions, Xavier Damman

• The New Citizen, Xavier Damman

Talks

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• Collaborating with Money, Alanna Irving, New Frontiers, New Zealand November 2018
• Transparent by Design, Pia Mancini, Monki Gras, London 2018
• From the democracy of our voices, to the democracy of our actions - Xavier Damman, Crowdsourcing Week, Luleå (Sweden) March 2018
• Cities as Open Collectives - Pia Mancini, OuiShare Fest, Paris 2017
• Reducing the Friction for Citizens to Create Associations and Sustain Them - Xavier Damman, iMAL, Brussels November 2017
• A new Way of Sustaining Open Source - Pia Mancini, Zeit, Berlin September 2017
• How to Fund Communities and Movements Transparently - Xavier Damman, OuiShare Fest, Paris, 2016
• A New Form of Association to Build a New World, Together - Xavier Damman, OSFEST, Barcelona 2016

Media / Logo

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Follow us

• Twitter: @opencollect
• Blog: https://blog.opencollective.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/opencollectives
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/BeOpenCollective

FAQ

What is Open Collective?

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

Why Open Collective?

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 backers and sponsors to achieve their mission.

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

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.

The goal of OpenCollective is to create a New Form of Association for the Internet Generation.

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.

Why not use the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency?

We're excited about about the new possibilities these technologies are creating, and we'd love to explore how they could help us achieve our goals. But just like we won't wait for self-driving cars to become ubiquitous before calling a Lyft, we're very practical about using existing services to solve problems right now. We can already get pretty far using well-established technologies already integrated with global systems. That said, we are actively exploring how to support cryptocurrency on the platform, so if you're interested in that, get in in touch.