[OH-Publicity] A blog post about the OSI+OpenHatch fiscal sponsorship

[Karl Fogel]

Patrick Masson <masson at opensource.org> writes:
>Thanks Karl, Hi Asheesh...
>
>I think it would be best if someone with a bit more
>history/understanding of the partnership wrote the piece. I would be
>happy to point to it in the newsletter, but coming in new to the OSI
>and late to the OpenHatch partnership, I'm afraid I couldn't provide
>too much for a blog post.

Oh, it doesn't actually predate you by much -- this collaboration
started around the time when you came on board at OSI.  It's very
simple:

OpenHatch does not have 501(c)(3) status yet (they've applied, I
believe, but the IRS takes a long time on these things).  So OH asked
OSI if we would act as their fiscal sponsor, in the sense of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_sponsorship, receiving donations on
OH's behalf so that those donations would be tax-deductible for the
donors, and then disbursing the money to OH for use in its Open Source
Comes to Campus Program:

  http://openhatch.org/blog/2013/open-source-comes-to-campus/

(This is a pretty common arrangement between non-profits, and you may
have encountered it before or even run one?)

Because the OSCtC Program lies fully within OSI's own mission, it is,
from the IRS's point of view, like OH is running a program of the OSI,
and this is what makes fiscal sponsorship possible (of course, we all
know it's OH's baby!).  We signed a formal agreement with OH, and Jane
and I handle the tasks of reporting to OH how much they've received in
donations and of sending the money on a regular basis.

>I think a post from Asheesh and Karl would be nice to highlight the
>work they and our two organizations did together to get things going.
>
>Will that work?

Sure, though I think we'd like your help (partly because a quote from
you would be appropriate).

I'm thinking a pretty short news-y post that directs the reader's
attention to Open Hatch's Open Source Comes to Campus page for more
details would be about right.  I'll put a draft below; we can move it to
a wiki for easier co-editing if you want.

Asheesh, I've created an account "asheesh" with password "changeme" at
https://wiki.opensource.org/.  If you want to work there, go ahead and
change the password (and I can change thed username if you want).  Or if
you want to create accounts for Patrick and me at the OH wiki, go
ahead -- "kfogel" is fine for me, I assume "masson" for Patrick but
check with him -- and we can work there.

First draft below, in Markdown format.  Edit it to pieces; it's really
just a draft.

-----

[OpenHatch]http://openhatch.org/ and the [Open Source
Initiative](http://opensource.org) (OSI) are delighted to announce a
fiscal sponsorship arrangement to enable OpenHatch to receive
U.S. tax-deductible donations to its [Open Source Comes to
Campus](http://campus.openhatch.org/) program, which organizes workshops
at colleges to teach students how to get involved in open source
software.  OpenHatch is all about bringing open source to new people,
and there has been so much interest in Open Source Comes to Campus that
OpenHatch is now working to scale it up through their Open Source Comes
to Campus [In a
Box](https://openhatch.org/wiki/Open_Source_Comes_to_Campus/In_a_Box)
kits that enable anyone to run their own campus event.

For the OSI, this was a great opportunity to help a project that is
entirely aligned with our own mission to support and promote the open
source movement&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;and to ramp up our fiscal sponsorship
program, which we hope to be able to offer to other organizations who
are doing great work in open source and just need some logistical
support in handling donations.  <<<insert quote from Patrick or Simon
here>>>

For more information -- to bring OpenHatch to your campus, or to
volunteer, or to donate -- see:

* [campus.openhatch.org](http://campus.openhatch.org/)
* [openhatch.org/wiki/Open_Source_Comes_to_Campus](https://openhatch.org/wiki/Open_Source_Comes_to_Campus)
* [openhatch.org/donate](http://openhatch.org/donate/)