Software Freedom Conservancy

The Conservancy is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization under the laws of the United States of America, which is closely linked with the Software Freedom Law Center. It was founded to protect the legal interests of FOSS projects - which are known as "member" projects.

The Software Freedom Conservancy is not involved in the technical aspects of the member projects, but instead provides free legal and administrative services. The benefits of membership include:

• personal liability protection
• ability to collect tax-deductible donations
• the Conservancy can hold assets on behalf of the member project
• the member projects don't have the administrative or financial overheads of forming a legal corporation

These membership benefits are provided for free, but - naturally enough - the Conservancy does welcome donations.

In order for a FLOSS project to become a member project it must meet the Conservancy's and the USA's IRS criteria. Most FLOSS projects will match these criteria. The Conservancy does, however, express a preference for established projects with a substantial userbase. Smaller startup projects may be accepted if they can demonstrate strong potential for growth.