
Ask HN: How to get money for running a non-profit project? - apexkid
I have created a non profit project for ease of governance. There is no business model. I do i scale it and keep it running? Any other options than donations?
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sathishvj
I can mention my own:
[http://www.littlecaution.org](http://www.littlecaution.org) I'm in the
process of teaching the general public, including schools, colleges, the aged,
etc. about remaining safe and secure on the internet. One of the engagements
was when somebody I knew heard about it at a corporate and called me in to
educate a large batch of new joinees from colleges. Next up: administrative
staff in the office buildings and also employees. Though I'm funding it
entirely from my own pocket now, based on the conversations I've had, I think
companies will be willing to support it in the future - not to a level of
profit, but to keep it running and so that I can pay experts for more their
time and more content. I hope that will also cover the expenses when we do
workshops at poorer schools and apartments and for senior citizens, where it
is going to be entirely free for the attendees.

I also added a bitcoin and ethereum donation address recently. I've got
nothing from it yet, but maybe you can try that also.

~~~
hluska
That's an excellent project - thanks for all your hard work!

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TamDenholm
One option is to create a business model, run it like a business, a way of
running a non-profit is to just spend all the revenue on the business' goal,
rather than to pay the shareholders of the business.

I think thats the most robust way to insure longevity of the enterprise.
Relying on donations to keep the lights on is difficult.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _Relying on donations to keep the lights on is difficult._

Can confirm - the Hackerspace I help run is in big part funded by company
donations. Every now and then comes the day when I have to convince someone to
keep donating, and since result depends mostly on the goodwill of the other
party, we have to play safe with finances - which slows the growth and
acquisition of new useful workshop tools.

We're trying to move to self-sustainable model, but with almost everyone
having a day job and/or a significant other, it's damn difficult.

~~~
arkitaip
What does growth mean in the context of a non-profit? Is it really a
meaningful metric?

~~~
TallGuyShort
Everyone needs to measure success somehow, and increasing your performance
against that metric (which is often linked with growth) is good. I worked with
a non-profit for a while where each member was asked to track performance
against goals. It was often repeated, "it's not about the numbers." No, it's
about the people you're serving, but the numbers represent people and serving
more people is better. What's wrong with trying to do that? It doesn't _have_
to come at the expense of forgetting the people behind the numbers.

------
lathiat
Would probably need more information about what your project is exactly and
what your actual non profit status is, as it will change how easy it is to get
various sources of income and your eligibility.

Widely speaking, the three likely sources of income I can think of are

(1) People - either donations / patronage, or in return for something - you'll
likely have more success with this if you provide regular benefits or at least
token value in return for them.

(2) Grants from some community grant organisation, for example in Western
Australia the Lotterywest lotto company gives out a large sum of grants as
part of their license - but there may be other grant sources including private
or government - eligibility will likely depend on your mission and actual
status as a non profit and/or charity (these two things differ in Australia,
no idea about other countries.. I think the US has some weird 3rd "public
benefit" category)

(3) Find a home under the umbrella of some other already funded organisation
that takes additional projects under it's wing, things like the Apache
Software Foundation, GNU, etc. (no guarantee you'll actually get funding, but
it may be possible in some cases.. some foundations may help you out legally
but not with funding).

Grants are often hard work and come with various requirements, and are often
even best case some chance of winning if you compete against others. And hard
to maintain long term, so is more suited to short term. In most cases it is
unlikely you'd get regular grants over time and there's definitely a time burn
even if you can.

Some kind of patronage or regular output getting donations from people
generally is easier to have recurring but actually getting a notable number of
patrons/donations on a regular basis is difficult. Often not too bad once
established.

Lastly a home under a foundation is likely difficult for a new project.. so in
that case likely you'd need to self-fund until the point that may be possible.

Hope that helps.

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secfirstmd
We run Security First as a non-
profit.([https://www.secfirst.org](https://www.secfirst.org)). I also helped
setup an UK charity called Videre
([https://www.videreonline.org](https://www.videreonline.org)). It really
depends on what you are doing. We build technology and training to help
activists, journalists and people in high risk areas manage their security -
through our free, open source mobile app, Umbrella. So we found and apply to
funders who provide grants to help us build this. Public donations are
actually quite a hard business model for non-profits as it really requires a
huge amount of public visibility and work to keep them coming in. I recommend
looking for grants first of all. I know the space pretty well so feel free to
drop me a mail to the email in my profile and I'm happy to share some
thoughts!

~~~
apexkid
Will like to talk more about it. Can you please share your email.

~~~
secfirstmd
Cool, click on my username in HN and it's in there.

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BillyParadise
I'm in the process of doing this right now (we're in the 'fake news' space).
Google is your friend, there are a multitude of resources out there for
nonprofits.

In terms of how to get going, here are a few useful links:

First, a feasibility study:
[http://help4nonprofits.com/NP_START_IsItFeasible_Art.htm](http://help4nonprofits.com/NP_START_IsItFeasible_Art.htm)

Next, a board: [https://www.thebalance.com/importance-of-nonprofit-first-
boa...](https://www.thebalance.com/importance-of-nonprofit-first-board-of-
directors-2501804)

~~~
ykler
I'm working on a project that is related to fake news too. I'd be curious to
learn a little more about what you are doing.

~~~
rwhitman
Ditto. I think there are a lot of people interested in the online
disinformation problem at the moment.

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StreakyCobra
This repository gives a nice overview of existing financing solutions with
some pros/cons. It's oriented towards open source projects, but this doesn't
mean it can't apply for other kind of projects.

[https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade-
stand](https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade-stand)

------
smagch
You could apply for Shuttleworth Foundation fellowship program that open the
fellowship application twice a year.

[https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/](https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/)

~~~
Vinnl
SF projects should be about promoting openness though, so if "ease of
governments" also means "making the government more transparent", that might
be an option.

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hluska
Honestly, treat a non-profit just like a for profit. Way too many non-profits
rely on a hodge podge mix of grants and donations. These non-profits have
incredible trouble scaling because they can never rely upon any sort of cash
flow. If you treat a non-profit like a business and figure out a recurring
revenue stream, you will be way ahead of the game.

And, as an added bonus, much like in the for profit world, once your non-
profit shows that it can sustain itself indefinitely, you'll have
people/foundations/other organizations coming out of the woodwork to fund
you!!

------
golfer
The Foundation Center is a fantastic organization dedicated to the education
of non profit orgs and fundraising. They have a really nice library in NYC
too. Lots of resources on these topics:

[http://foundationcenter.org/find-funding](http://foundationcenter.org/find-
funding)

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cperciva
_There is no business model._

Is there no business model, or is there no business model _yet_?

As Google demonstrated, there are plenty of investors ready to invest in
companies which have no clear business model providing that they're doing
something which could theoretically be turned into a business eventually.

~~~
apexkid
There is no business model as far i can see. The project is a catalog of
government data aggregated together.

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bruth
Not a direct answer, but Max Ogden talked about that a bit on Changelog's RFC:
[https://changelog.com/rfc/6](https://changelog.com/rfc/6)

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zer00eyz
In the USA just because your a non profit doesn't mean you cannot charge money
for your product.

As an example, there are lots of non profit hospitals that charge for a
product but don't seek to make a profit.

Would people pay for your product?

~~~
whitten
To my knowledge, the number of non-profit hospitals is definitely getting
smaller. This can affect the amount of indigent care significantly. I've heard
of for-profit hospitals that cut maternity/OB-GYN services because the number
of non-paying patients giving birth cut into their bottom line significantly.

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wastedhours
Why not monetise in a traditional way? Non-profit doesn't mean non-revenue -
just reinvest the profits a la Ghost for example.

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anc84
It _totally_ depends on the topic of your project and the finances needed. And
what do you want to _scale_?

------
ComodoHacker
Earn the money needed from other, for-profit project.

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myf01d
make some important project that other companies depend on in their projects
and they will pay you to continue developing and maintaining it.

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milesrout
Just make the project. This modern obsession that free software has to be
'funded' and 'governed' is absurd. Free software works far better when money
is not a factor.

~~~
arekkas
Sorry, but that sounds like you have never actually 'governed' an OSS.

~~~
milesrout
I assume you mean 'a free software project' rather than 'an OSS'.

Well no, that's my point. Free software projects don't have governors, they
have maintainers. They don't have non-profits and boards and diversity quotas
and codes of conducts, they have mailing lists and BDFLs and coding standards
and banhammers.

This politicisation and corporatisation of free software is not good for free
software.

~~~
lclarkmichalek
Free software has been a political statement from day zero.

~~~
milesrout
Only if you have an absurdly broad definition of politics.

~~~
grzm
Stallman has been pretty clear on the political nature from early on. What
gives you the impression that free software hasn't been political? Perhaps
there's a difference in definition of free software.

With GNU, and the Free Software Movement, the Free is definitely free as in
freedom, which is a political concept.

From the Free Software Movement:

[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-
sw.html](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)

 _The four essential freedoms

A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential
freedoms:

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your
computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition
for this.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom
3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from
your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A program is free software if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms.
Otherwise, it is nonfree. While we can distinguish various nonfree
distribution schemes in terms of how far they fall short of being free, we
consider them all equally unethical._

From the GNU Wikipedia page:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU)

 _Richard Stallman, the founder of the project, views GNU as a "technical
means to a social end". Relatedly Lawrence Lessig states in his introduction
to the 2nd edition of Stallman's book Free Software, Free Society that in it
Stallman has written about "the social aspects of software and how Free
Software can create community and social justice."_

That sounds pretty political to me.

