Solus unaffected by Open Collective Foundation dissolution

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As you may have heard, the Open Collective Foundation (OCF) fiscal host has announced that they are dissolving their organization.

What does this mean for Solus?

First off, Solus is using the Open Source Collective (OSC) fiscal host.

This means that Solus is not affected by the dissolution of the similarly named, but entirely different Open Collective Foundation (OCF) fiscal host.

In other words: Business continues as usual for Solus.

This post constitutes a shared effort by the Solus Boring Admin team. Updates to this post will be made as new information becomes available in the section Further Reading at the bottom of this post. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we attempt to ensure you have the most accurate information possible.

The longer explanation

Here is the relevant excerpt of the post made by our host, Open Source Collective

Subject: Regarding the announcement to dissolve Open Collective Foundation

Dear OSC community,

You may be aware of recent developments regarding the dissolution of Open Collective Foundation (OCF) by the end of the year 2024. We are extremely sad to hear the news and are still processing it, but we wanted to send a quick note to our collectives. Please be assured Open Source Collective is not affected and will continue to operate as usual. Our organizations are distinct entities, each with its own budget, accounts, staff, board of directors, and mission.

The similarity in our names stems from a common origin, as the founders of Open Source Collective were also involved in creating the fiscal hosts Open Collective Foundation and Open Collective Europe. Additionally, we all utilize the Open Collective platform, a detail we recognize may contribute to confusion. Although the naming of these entities is similar, we are all separate business entities.
(...)

This seems confusing?

We agree. These similarly named organizations are inter-related. To clarify, David sketched up an organizational chart.

Org chart

Remind me why Solus uses Open Collective

Solus wants to organize itself as a sustainable volunteer-led group. We also value openess, which is why we need a way to receive donations from users and spend that money transparently.

If we took donations in a simpler way, like PayPal donations, or GitHub Sponsors, we would need to create a legal identity for Solus to accept funds into a Solus bank account. This is difficult for an international volunteer-based organization with members who never meet face-to-face. Similarly, we could designate a single individual to receive and disperse funds, but that approach places a heavy burden on one person.

Open Collective, through our fiscal host Open Source Collective, solves these issues by processing payments from donors, holding our balance, and dispersing funds when the Solus Boring Admin team approves an expense. Our finances are disclosed to everyone on the Open Collective site. In exchange for this. Open Source Collective takes 10% of donations as a "host fee". We (the Solus team) feel this is a fair trade.