Hey all. As requested of me at the board meeting, I've typed up a "common sense" draft of what I think is in-line with the project's purpose and goals.
I thought about all the ways I could think of that a sponsor could make the project look bad with their actions, so here's the result:
Sponsorship Requirements:
The Inkscape project was founded to serve a world-wide community of artists, hobbyists, designers, scientists, engineers, and people everywhere by providing free and open source software (FLOSS) tools for vector graphics production. Since our sponsorship offerings include the service of exposure on our website, we require that all sponsors meet the following criteria to ensure a mutual compatibility with the spirit of the Inkscape Project. Thus to qualify for sponsorship, a sponsor must be:
1. A Legal, Law-Abiding Business - Must be registered as a business, pay taxes, and maintain a good standing with their customer base, and the country(s) in which they do business.
2. Politically Neutral - Our community is vast, and serves users from all walks of life and political views. The Inkscape Project does not, and therefore must not be seen to support one any particular ideology (beyond that of our belief in the essential software freedoms), and thus can not accept support from organisations of a political or religious nature.
3. Supportive of User Freedoms - A sponsor must not have a history of abusing user freedoms. This includes the sale of and promotion of proprietary software as part of the sponsor's core business, which we consider incompatible with the project's goals of user freedom.
4. Supportive of the Environment and the Future - The Inkscape Project can not accept donations from companies which promote the destruction of the environment. This includes companies which fund climate change denialism, anti-science groups, and members of the tobacco and fossil fuel industries.
5. Supportive of Equal Rights, Free Speech and Gender Equality - A sponsor must not fund groups which seek to deny the rights and freedoms of others based on gender, race, creed, religion (or lack thereof), or sexual preference.
If a sponsor is found at odds with any of these essential compatibility points, the Inkscape Project reserves the right to pull the sponsor from our website, at which point a prorated refund of the donation amount will be returned to the sponsor.