Inkscape Announcements
January 2016
inkscape-announce@lists.inkscape.org
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[Inkscape] Seeking help re:Conservancy Supporter fundraiser
by Bryce Harrington
We apologize that we're interrupting the usual content on this mailing
list with a fundraising message, but the non-profit home of Inkscape,
Software Freedom Conservancy, is in urgent need of your
immediate support:
https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/
Inkscape receives a variety of important services (see
https://sfconservancy.org/members/services/ ) from Conservancy.
Inkscape has relied on Conservancy since 2006, and we hope you can help
them out. They also support an array of other important Open Source
projects, including Git, Samba, Wine, and dozens of others - see
http://sfconservancy.org/members/current/ for the entire list.
While Inkscape and these other projects each contribute 10% of their
gross revenue to Conservancy's general fund, this doesn't add up to
enough to even employee one full time person, let alone the already
overworked staff of three that Conservancy has.
Conservancy's fundraiser is asking people who support our principles to
donate donate $120/year ($10/month), to support the organization.
Conservancy seeks about 2,500 Supporters to continue its current work,
and 750 Supporters to continue a "bare minimum" of services to its
projects. Already as of the time I write this, 721 people have signed
up, so your donation might be the one that ensures the basic community
services continue forward or it could start paving the way towards
establishing a solid commons for protecting our license freedoms.
Whenever I make donations, I like to know how it is tangibly helping
achieve progress on things that I care about. Here are some specific
things that Conservancy has done for Inkscape over the past few years:
* Handling all of our Google Summer of Code payments and travel,
tending to the financial transactions with Google to receive and
then disperse the money.
We're planning on GSoC involvement again this year, and will be
depending on Conservancy to handle all the financial bits in order
to help make it all proceed smoothly.
* Coordinating travel reimbursements for Inkscape contributors to
attend conferences.
They were instrumental in directly helping us plan, organize, and
arrange the 2015 Inkscape Hackfest, and will be helping us organize
another hackfest in 2016.
* Receiving and tracking all donations.
We've received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from you
(thank you!) and without Conservancy, our attentions would be
consumed by financials instead of remaining focused on the software
development.
The Conservancy provides access to their ledger system, giving
Inkscape great transparency over our finances, while unburdening us
from the responsibilities of handling all the individual donations
and transactions.
* Collaborate with us in crafting the legal policies to establish a
Funded Project system for Inkscape.
This new system will enable donors to choose specific development
tasks to pursue with their money, giving the Inkscape community a
powerful way to directly influence the future of the project.
* Recovering lost money in Inkscape's paypal account.
* Handling book royalties from publishers of Inkscape manuals.
* Handling thank-you gifts to developers.
In 2015 we distributed programming manuals to Inkscape's top
contributors, which proved to be a very cost effective educational
effort!
* Keeping the non-profit status for us so that Inkscape doesn't have
to form its own org and file its own paperwork.
In 2015 Conservancy helped us revise our legal charter, the Fiscal
Sponsor Agreement (FSA), that defines how Inkscape operates under
non-profit rules, board elections, and so forth.
Beyond these basic services, Inkscape also benefitted from Conservancy's
wider category of license protection services. These services are
currently at risk and will only continue if the 2500 membership mark is
attained by the community.
* Protecting the Inkscape trademark and logo.
They helped us finally get the Inkscape name and logo officially
trademarked in the U.S. This benefits users by preventing various
knock-off scams that purport to sell Inkscape or market scammy
services or products using our name.
* Enforcing the GPL for Inkscape.
Unfortunately we've had a few instances of companies attempting to
rebrand Inkscape and sell it as their own proprietary product. We
don't have a problem with companies re-distributing Inkscape, so
long as it is done according to the GPL license. When nefarious
entities seek to subvert that, Conservancy provides the legal muscle
necessary to stop it.
As you can see, Inkscape relies on the important work of Conservancy.
Please donate to Conservancy - if you do so before January 31, the
donation will be counted double thanks to a generous matching donation
provided by Private Internet Access. (Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) charity
incorporated in New York, and donations are typically deductible on
U.S. taxes.)
Please visit:
https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/
And please also support Inkscape's SVG Standards work here:
https://inkscape.org/en/support-us/svg_working_group/
Bryce
7 years, 8 months
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