Loomio

Donations page

JR Jason Robinson Public Seen by 29

Maxwell posted details of the PayPal donations account that has been set up by the FSSN for receiving funds for the Diaspora project. I'm sure he will update here too soon - if not the email and the PayPal button code is on the press@ box.

PayPal shouldn't be the only option - but it looks like we will have to start with that and work with the FSSN in the future to provide more options.

Any ideas what kind of page we should have for donations? Anyone want to take a stab at prototyping one?

IMHO we could add a donations page without too much fuss or promotion, then slowly start saying we accept donations. No point in shouting for money as we didn't want a crowdfunding either.

DS

Dennis Schubert Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:17PM

I'm still unsure if I know who would receive the donations. I think Maxwell should post some comments here...

DS

Dennis Schubert Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:18PM

@maxwellsalzberg piiiiing! :)

JH

Jonne Haß Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:18PM

Don't you think it's also time to get direct statements here from somebody from the FSSN? :)

JR

Jason Robinson Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:26PM

@jonnehass yeah absolutely ;) But the fact that they will host Diaspora legally doesn't mean they want to have anything to do with us :P

But we need more transparency here. OK we're 0 days in so maybe we can wait a few.. ;)

MS

maxwell salzberg Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:54PM

I have an email thread telling me this is the donation button from someone from the SFLC, and an address to mail the check to for the other paypal assets. Happy to forward it to whoever wants it as proof (seems weird to paste it here but I can?)

MS

maxwell salzberg Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:56PM

Also, by no means do I like PayPal at all... in fact, I hate them. But the FSSN gave us two options. "Mail us a check, or use this Paypal button"

MS

maxwell salzberg Tue 27 Aug 2013 8:57PM

Worth noting, as much as I hate saying this, donors like paypal way more than other options, from the paypal widget that existed previously.

G

goob Wed 28 Aug 2013 9:36AM

The Paypal donation form linked from the jd.com home page doesn't mention Diaspora at all - just says that you are giving money to the FSSN. We need some clarity that this is indeed making a donation to Diaspora, care of the FSSN, and not to the FSSN for whatever other work they do. I think it should be so stated on the Paypal donation page, so that anyone who uses it can be absolutely clear that this is what is happening, and that their money is not going to be lost in the coffers of the FSSN.

I've no problem with Paypal being used as a method of donation, if that's the most popular method. It would be good to add other methods later if FSSN will accept them.

DS

Dennis Schubert Wed 28 Aug 2013 9:57AM

Please hold on, @goob. We're working out a nice way to clarify this... :)

DS

Dennis Schubert Tue 10 Sep 2013 10:02PM

Hi folks,

thanks for your patience. @jonnehass and me had the chance to get direct feedback from one of the representatives of the FSSN to clarify this story.

The PayPal account backing the donation button is not owned by "The diaspora* Foundation" which is caused by the fact there is no "diaspora* Foundation". Diaspora is now a project which gets managed by the Free Software Support Network, which is basically the Software Freedom Law Center. The SFLC is a very nice free software-supporting organization founded by Eben Moglen. The FSSN is managing the funds for Diaspora as they are already a non-profit organization, and becoming one is hard time-consuming. Getting managed by the FSSN enables us to work on the project instead of working on becoming a non-profit. As the FSSN is managing the donations, the PayPal account is owned and managed by the FSSN. As they assured, all the PayPal money will be available to us.

We're currently working on getting some FSSN people involved in our Loomio discussions. Until we worked that out, you "have" to trust us - @jonnehass, @seantilleycommunit, @maxwellsalzberg and me.

"I hereby declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, embedding the PayPal button is fine."

Note: We should write some sentences about this FSSN story below the PayPal button on the projects website.

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