From 208d622286215d440e65cd2a22453d9e6a310ec4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Vlad-Stefan Harbuz Date: Tue, 19 May 2026 13:37:31 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] clarify Foundation legal status requirements --- _pages/entities.md | 2 +- _pages/fdnmodel.md | 11 +++++++++++ 2 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_pages/entities.md b/_pages/entities.md index 2194141..7f26485 100644 --- a/_pages/entities.md +++ b/_pages/entities.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Many important and self-organized FOSS projects are not legal entities; however ## Entity Modeling -"Foundations" here are defined as legal non-profit entities: either a 501C3/C6 in the US, or a registered charity in various other countries. That enables tracking and comparisons of governance, finances, and other organizational factors that are legally required. Non-foundation entities may also have governance and a budget, but have different kinds of constraints than legal entities. *Work in progress.* +Unlike foundations, which we define as [legal non-profit entities](/fdnmodel#inclusion-criteria), non-foundation entities are not incorporated, so cannot be compared on the basis of legally required characteristics, such as articles of incorporation, financial reports and so on. Non-foundation entities may also have governance and a budget, but have different kinds of constraints than legal entities. Here's a work-in-progress set of attributes for non-foundation entities. - identifier: similar to foundations, name of the file, for easy lookups to sponsorship models - commonName, description, and other common metadata about a project diff --git a/_pages/fdnmodel.md b/_pages/fdnmodel.md index 08443f5..d87c43d 100644 --- a/_pages/fdnmodel.md +++ b/_pages/fdnmodel.md @@ -28,6 +28,17 @@ Our focus is on legal organizations that host, organize, and help sustain major Things that may be listed informally, but not as vetted data sets, include: [commercial companies](commercial) (of any kind), and the many non-incorporated open source projects without legal organizations. Limited listings of [individual open source projects](projects) hosted at Foundations are included to help provide context. +Note that Foundations are incorporated under many different forms around the world: + +* In the US, Foundations take the form of a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(6). +* In the UK, non-profit status and charity status are distinct: a UK Foundation might be registered as a [company limited by guarantee][clg] that does not allow profit distribution; and this organisation may or may not have [charity status][charitable-purposes]. +* …and other jurisdictions operate differently. + +For this reason, when deciding whether an organisation should be classified as a Foundation, it's important to understand the requirements for non-profit status in that organisation's specific jurisdiction. + +[clg]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_limited_by_guarantee +[charitable-purposes]: https://www.gov.uk/setting-up-charity/charitable-purposes + ## Model Structure The core model starts with [Schema.org's Organization type](https://schema.org/Organization), since Foundations are always legal entities. We include a subset of Organization fields that cover common attributes that would be useful for selection or discovery. We then add a number of new fields around governance (both board and technical), IP policies, sponsorships/funding, brand, as well as a selection of common policy URLs for FOSS Foundations (when they exist).