

LLVM Foundation Granted 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Status - ingve
http://blog.llvm.org/2015/08/llvm-foundation-granted-501c3-nonprofit.html

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_delirium
Would be interesting to read some more details about how this got through, and
what the pitfalls were, along with solutions to them. As I understand it, the
main tension is that things that look more like industrial consortia,
developing common technology primarily for the benefit of an industry, don't
qualify as charities, though they may qualify as other kinds of nonprofits.
For example, the Khronos Group, steward of OpenGL, is an industry consortium
and not a charity. While organizations primarily aiming to educate and serve
the general public, rather than primarily to improve the technology or
standards in an industry, can be charities. LLVM as a project seems—to a non-
lawyer—like it could go either way, since it has elements of both types of
goals.

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japhyr
I have an open source project that's in an early stage, and I'm trying to
figure out whether structuring it as a nonprofit is a good idea. I'm quite
curious to hear more about the reasoning behind this decision as well.

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rectang
Creating your own foundation is a huge amount of work. I think you would
benefit from doing this research, and I'm not going to tell you "don't do it"
because it won't be convincing, but I predict that in the end you will not
choose to start a foundation.

There's a chapter in Van Lindberg's _Intellectual Property and Open Source_ on
this topic. (It ends with a discussion of umbrella foundations like Apache,
Eclipse, Software Freedom Conservancy.) Check it out:
[http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-
Prot...](http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-
Protecting/dp/0596517963)

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japhyr
I've never thought of a nonprofit as a foundation. Are they equivalent?

The primary appeal for me as a nonprofit is declaring unequivocally that
profit is not the goal of the project, and to facilitate donations to support
ongoing development. I am aware of the need to establish a board; I've been a
board member on a nonprofit, and I've been involved with nonprofits in a
number of other roles as well.

I think of a foundation as an umbrella organization, much different than a
small nonprofit. Is there anything fundamentally off about my understanding?

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Sanddancer
"Foundation" is just a part of a name, in the US at least. There are definite
connotations to using Foundation in your name, like those you described, but
anyone can use it. Conversely, nonprofits can be of near any side, from a
local community entity doing volunteer work, all the way up to big entities
like planned parenthood. So, they're not equivalent, and do in fact have
tendencies for a large amount of overlap.

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webaholic
This foundation is the best thing to have come out of GPLv3. Cos of it Apple
had to support LLVM which has made compiler research and quality increase by
leaps and bounds. Thanks to the authors of GPLv3!

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trengrj
What is the use of better compiler technology if you are prevented from
modifying your devices and limited to running "approved" applications?

I would rather have freedom over speed, especially when the standard phone
today is far more powerful than the computers onboard the Apollo 11.

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webaholic
No license is going to fix your issue if the device vendor is unwilling. Look
at the current state of Android devices. It is using gcc as the default
compiler. Even if Apple used gcc they would lock their devices the same way.
Compiler is not the reason for this.

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trengrj
Agreed but you implied the GPLv3 was useless and I felt compelled to defend
it. GPLv3 does help with tivoisation. That is why corporations dislike it.

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zkhalique
What does it take to get 501(c)(3) nonprofit status?

Do you think we can do it if we want to make the Qbix Foundation around our
open-source platform?

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camz
It requires you fit into one of their accepted categories and about 8-10
months normally. If you expedite it, it may take as little as 2-4 months.

I was able to get mine done in about 3ish months.

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zkhalique
Can you apply with a NEWLY formed organization?

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aidenn0
So apple can now count money they pay to work on their compiler as a tax
deduction?

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Sanddancer
As can Google, Intel, the mesa project, and a lot of other donors and
contributors. As much as certain people would like for you to believe
otherwise, llvm is far, far bigger than any one company.

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DannyBee
What he said. LLVM these days is huge.

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Someone
It hasn't been an all Apple show for quite a while. If you look at the past
meetings on [http://llvm.org](http://llvm.org), the first few mostly had
speakers from Apple and academia, but for instance
[http://llvm.org/devmtg/2010-11/](http://llvm.org/devmtg/2010-11/) (November
2011) already has speakers from Google, AMD, ARM, Sony Pictures and Ericsson
Research.

