... Which makes me wonder why the OpenBSD hasn't filed for 501(c)(3). I'm sure it comes with strings, but given the donation revenue they've generated, tax-deductible status could be a big lever in pure dollar terms...
They say on the foundation website that, in Canada, the overhead of doing that is too high to justify it. They're hardly getting in donations so any amount of overhead can detract significantly to the project. If it's serious overhead, that's a serious loss. So, they're just not doing it until they get enough donations to justify it.
This is unfortunately backwards. Many large corporations will only donate and provide matching donations to registered non-profits. Applying for 501(c)(3), and whatever the Canadian equivalent is, would be the gateway to much larger donations. Yes, there's overhead and headache, but the benefit is that being a registered non-profit is one of the requirements for corporate donations.
The reason the project gets so few donations may well be that many businesses and individuals have to weigh donating to OpenBSD (not tax deductible, not registered as a non-profit) versus literally any other cause that is tax deductible. Simply put, a dollar to OpenBSD doesn't go as far as a dollar to say, the Linux Foundation (a 501(c)(6)).
The counter I expected and I totally agree with that. They might be shooting themselves in the wallet with this choice. Although, Theo and others have repeatedly said how little companies even try to donate to them. They might have wasted significant amounts of their funds complying with Canadian requirements for little to no gain.
So, I'm not sure which is the best route given the two facts: plenty of opportunity for gain and loss on each end. I'd like to see them at least attempt to get the status then tell a bunch of potential donors it's tax exempt. If money doesn't roll in, drop the status. If it does, keep it. Seems like a worthwhile risk to take.
Absolutely worth it. It isn't terribly costly to get registered as a non-profit, especially for low revenue organizations. I run a student organization at a mid-size university, and it's only just barely cost prohibitive for us, given that we don't stand to gain much from our current status as a de facto non-profit.
From what I understand, the cost amounts to a few hundred dollars in legal fees for paperwork, less if you're willing to use some hip website to do it, and some annual compliance costs (keeping receipts, filing tax returns).
I have no idea why they wouldn't pursue that. Maybe it's much harder in Canada?
Once upon a time I would have understood that, but even given only what we know of their "gold" and "silver" contributors, they have received $50-100k recently. How much overhead can obtaining charity status be?
Depends on how you look at it. Remember they claimed to need $250,000 (right?) at one point to keep everyone max happy and productive. I doubt they need that much each year. Yet, giving away a significant chunk of $50-100k might be too much of an opportunity cost to them.
Like I said elsewhere, I think they should take the risk and see what happens. They choose against it for now.
