Foundation/AGM2023/Election to Board/Answers and manifestos/Q04 On Fundraising
On Fundraising
What is your position on transparency both with respect to the identity of donors and to disclosing any terms attached to fundings to OSMF?
Roland Olbricht - Q04 On Fundraising
The OSMF today already makes public the sources of its income as far as it is known to it. We even charge for corporate members to have their logo on the About page. In theory, people could launder money by giving through an intermediary, but we have not seen that phenomenon to any significant extent.
We simply will not accept any intricate terms for donations. The ringfenced donations of 2021 and earlier have in the meanwhile been used for what they have been attached to. If there are similar donations in the future, and the conditions are trivial to fulfill (e.g. spend money for hardware only/staff only/datacenter cost only), we probably would accept that, but no things that would impact in any way the course of the OSMF.
Guillaume Rischard - Q04 On Fundraising
If you donate to OpenStreetMap you can choose to make your donation public or anonymous. While I prefer for donations to be public, I understand the desire for privacy of some. Corporate memberships are public, because these companies usually want the visibility that comes with it. The board should consult the community on what to do for large anonymous donations if we have that luxury problem in the future.
I am strongly against strings attached to any donations. The only ones we have ever accepted was the promise that we would earmark the donated funds for the fundraised purpose, for example on the hiring of Grant, the Senior Site Reliability Engineer.
Daniela (Dani) Waltersdorfer Jimenez - Q04 On Fundraising
I'm a big advocate for transparency, however I can understand if individuals want to maintain their privacy when making donations. For donations from private and/or public entities and organizations I believe it is crucial to disclose the information of these so as to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
Włodzimierz Bartczak - Q04 On Fundraising
In the case of an organization like ours, transparency of any activities should always be a priority. Any support received from legal entities should be open and transparent. At the same time, we cannot violate the privacy rights of individual donors who have already supported us. However, with the community's consent, a standard can be introduced in which each person supporting OSM above a certain amount cannot be anonymous.
Ivo Reano - Q04 On Fundraising
Transparency of funding sources is a necessity if we want to keep the project truly free and open.
OSM Foundation's board election 2023: official questions
Q01 Strategic Plan
| Q02 On imagery sources
| Q03 On Diversity and Inclusion
| Q04 On Fundraising
| Q05 On appointive board-adjacent positions
| Q06 OSMF and Overture Maps Foundation
| Q07 OSM Data: Protection
| Q08 OSM Data: Legal Threats
| Q09 OSM Data: Vandalism
All board candidates' manifestos
2023 OpenStreetMap Foundation's: Board election - Voting information and instructions - Annual General Meeting
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