LinuxFund

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The LinuxFund is an organization that raises money and makes donations to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects.

To date the principal funding source has been affinity credit cards bearing a graphic of Tux, the Linux Penguin. The IRS granted them 501(c)(3) status in August 2007.

Visa cards are currently offered in the USA by US Bank, a Master Cardis offered in Candada by Bank of America.

Founding

The Linux Fund was founded at the peak of the 1999 high-tech boom with an affinity credit card from MBNA.[1] They gave away their first t-shirt in the summer of 1999 at the LinuxWorld Expo. By the summer of 2000, the Developer Grant Program had begun.

Confusion and stagnation

In 2003 the organization fell into stagnation. After some investigation by NewsForge's Jay Lyman after the LinuxFund website went down, it was revealed that the organization was not actively distributing funds to FOSS projects and that the company had $126,155.29 (and growing) in the bank.[2] Then-executive-director, Jerritt Collord, told Lyman that he had gotten "burned out" and that the "largely one-man organization" was sitting idle after his lackluster success with the Open Oregon Technology Center.

Rebuilding

In 2005 and 2006 the founding directors reorganized and began actively funding FOSS projects again.

In 2005, Bank of America bought MBNA and in April 2007, Bank of America gave The Linux Fund notice that the affinity credit card program would be discontinued effective June 30 2007. [3]

On July 1, 2007 US Bank released a LinuxFund Visa card. [4]

In August 2007 the IRS granted them 501(c)(3) status.

Current projects

The Linuxfund currently supports over 10 different projects including Debian, the Wikimedia Foundation, Blender (software), Free Geek, Freenode, and OpenSSH. Most of the currently-funded projects receive $500/month in support, but in the past the Linuxfund has given lump-sum donations on the order of $1000–$5000.[5]

Funding model

In 2005 Debian Project Leader Branden Robinson thanked the LinuxFund for their continued support of the Debian Project and noted the benefit of long-term grants to FOSS projects:

"This funding will...enable us to do a bit more forward planning. Debian runs entirely on donations...and a steady, predictable flow of revenue should help us feel comfortable with some more long-range resource planning. LinuxFund deserves not just our thanks, but credit for pioneering new funding models for the Free Software community."[6]

Cards

  • The original USA LinuxFund card was a MasterCard issued by MBNA.
  • The current USA LinuxFund card is a Visa issued by US Bank.
  • The original and current Canadian LinuxFund card is a MasterCard issued by MBNA.

Board members

Current officers

References

  1. ^ http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/08/27/1258222
  2. ^ "LinuxFund account grows but developers get no funds". NewsForge. 2005-07-03.
  3. ^ "ChangeLog: Linux Fund loses its funding source". Linux.com. 2007-04-05.
  4. ^ "Linux Credit Card Re-Launches". Slashdot. 2007-08-21.
  5. ^ http://www.linuxfund.org/1/projects.php
  6. ^ http://www.debian.org/News/2005/20050813

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/21/0320208

Sources


External links

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