To ensure that the organization is not being unduly influenced by external parties, to avoid conflicts of interest, and to maintain integrity and support for industries that align with the company’s ideal, this donation policy shows what types of donations we accept and from what sources.
Generally, as a nonprofit open to community building and injection of new ideas, most gifts are accepted, so this document primarily outlines conditions where a gift or donation would not be accepted.
The organization accepts three types of donations: monetary, in-kind services or items, and volunteer work. The acceptance criteria around each of these types is discussed in the relevant section below.
Money can be given in several different formats and in several different methods. The following types of donations are accepted:
- Stock
- Cryptocurrency
- Cash/Money
- Foreign Currency
- US Currency
These donations can be accepted in the following formats:
- Checks
- Wire Transfers
- Automated Clearing House (ACH) Transfers
- Bitpay (for Cryptocurrency)
- Donor Advised Funds (Fidelity Charitable)
- Donations through direct donor services, such as Stripe pay and others
Donations of services can range from discounts on software, contracting, and consulting services to performance of specific projects (such as completion of a website). Donations of products may be physical products such as servers, computers, marketing materials, desks and equipment, or other items that the company would use in its day to day operations. Donations may also take the form of donations of intellectual property, such as code bases, patents, operations guidelines, etc.
These services will be valued on appropriate donation and tax documentation according to their current market value as assessed by the company.
Founded by volunteers, the organization recognizes the contributions and critical nature of volunteering to help deliver on its mission. To encourage an environment that is supportive to volunteers, the organization will only accept certain amounts and types of volunteer work.
Specifically, volunteers generally will be of one of two categories:
- Consistent workers that donate small amounts of their time on an ongoing basis
- Highly temporary workers that put in a substantial amount of time over a short period for a fixed event
The organization will not accept volunteers providing more than 10 hours per week of work for more than four weeks at a time.
The organization will not accept volunteers providing more than 160 hours of work in a given four week period.
Donations are not accepted from certain types of groups of organizations. Generally, gifts and donations (including donations of time via volunteering) will not be accepted from partners associated with services that are completely unassociated with or run contrary to our mission. This is described in more detail below.
Gifts will not be accepted from:
- Organizations or Governments that are strongly associated with restricting freedom of scientific information. This would include organizations such as Elsevier and governments such as The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- Organizations with highly nationalistic agendas such as the American Freedom Party or the British National Party. A list of these organizations can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nationalist_organizations
- Any organizations that speak out against education, higher education, or similar developments. Examples include No Left Turn and Parents Defending Educators.
- Organizations promoting or known for highly discriminatory or non-inclusive policies. This includes hate-organizations such as National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and far-right Christian Groups.
- Organizations or groups that generate their money illegally or through nefarious means such as slave labor. This would include crime rings such as Yakuza and companies that work through significant human rights exploitation, such as most clothing brand companies.
- Organizations or groups that directly facilitate climate change or promote anti-scientific rhetoric surrounding climate change or environmental impact. Examples include BP, Kentucky and Illinois Coal Association, and the CO2 Coalition (and other Koch-funded organizations). This would also include lobbying groups such as Dairy Farmers of America.
- Individuals that have managing, founder, or donor roles in the organizations listed above.
Because donations can be made to us anonymously via some methods, we cannot audit these gifts. Anonymous donations are not assumed to be linked with anything against our policies since no association can be made and these donors would have no influence over how we operate.
Non-Anonymous donations in amounts greater than $10,000 will be looked at by the Chief Executive Officer or a person appointed by them to check for compliance to this policy before they are accepted.
Non-Anonymous donations in amounts greater than $100,000 will be evaluated by the CEO and at least one other board member for compliance before they are accepted.
Non-Anonymous donations in excess of $500,000 will be evaluated by the board or directors before acceptance.