Episode MMXXI - A New Hope

In 2020, Open Collective Foundation grew 20x in money raised for initiatives ($4.5m), 4x in initiatives served (nearly 200), and 10x in financial disbursements.

On one level, this shows the extent of critical community needs not being met by traditional structures. On another level, it shows the power of alternative funding, and the incredible capacity of people to make a difference together.

Every initiative we host represents passionate humans working on their piece of the big puzzle of survival, justice, and building a thriving future. Our team has been inspired and humbled by all of them, every day.

In the coming year, we hope for a reprieve in intensity of the intersecting crises that defined 2020—but regardless of what comes, we believe in the power of people facing it collectively.

Our Mission and Values

We've refreshed and clarified our core purpose and principles, to guide us as the Foundation continues to grow.

A simple, open, lightweight path for charitable initiatives to operate through a 501(c)(3) entity, we provide fiscal sponsorship as a service. Through a tech-enabled open finance infrastructure, ideas and communities come to life. By bridging the gap between donors and initiatives, we unlock their potential, enable focus on the missions, and accelerate their impact.

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Collective Impact Stories

We've interviewed just a fraction if our amazing initiatives for the blog. If you'd like to share your story too, let us know!

• Justice Reskill: Creative solutions to tackle mass incarceration and justice reform.
• West Brooklyn Waterfront Mutual Aid: Delivering 200 pounds of free produce a week to seniors, and supporting hundreds of neighbors.
• Juneteenth Conference: Showcasing Black voices in tech—peak attendance over 18,000 at once!
• Walk The Vote: Parade to the polls, in celebration.
• Parentpreneur: Grants for up-and-coming black entrepreneurs who are parents.
• Community Rule: Open-source governance and rules to operate by.
• Bushwick Ayuda Mutua: Has raised over $500,000 to help neighbors through the pandemic.
• Plus even more stories of solidarity.

Improvements

We're always looking for new ways to power up our community!

Features:

• Funds: a new profile type designed for funders distributing money (alongside Collectives, which are designed for raising money).
• Projects: A way to manage contributions and expenses for a specific purpose within a Collective.
• Invite expense: Fill out the info and invite your vendor or contributor to confirm, instead of making them submit an expense from scratch.
• Guest contributions: Now people can donate without needing to create an account.

Services:

• Zero platform fees—Thanks to Open Collective waiving fees for charity Collectives, using the platform became cheaper, dropping from 10% to 4-8%. Now only OCF's host fee applies.
• We relaunched both our website and our documentation, to better communicate the info you need.
• Integrations with third-party fundraising tools, like Benevity and ActBlue, with more on the way.
• Open source projects can now connect GitHub Sponsors, to fundraise for their Collective right from their repo.
• In-kind donations: we now have a better system for tracking valuations and providing acknowledgement letters.

In the works:

• Grants: a different type of expense (alongside invoices and reimbursements) for creating impact through direct financial assistance. Currently in beta testing.
• Registration of trademarks for hosted initiatives—we're looking into this so let us know if you're interested.

2020 Leaderboard

Top Funded

1. OpenMined $705,159
2. Internet Freedom $550,000
3. Digital Infrastructure $477,500
4. Meals of Gratitude $424,142
5. Climate Crisis $302,244
6. CVKey Project $296,150
7. OpenCovidScreen $260,971
8. Bushwick Ayuda Mutua $203,061
9. Internet Freedom Tech $175,000
10. Justice Reskill $114,664

Most Contributors

1. Bushwick Ayuda Mutua 1,439
2. Meals of Gratitude 893
3. West Brooklyn Waterfront 463
4. Club A Kitchen 388
5. North Brooklyn Mutual Aid 342
6. East Bronx Dems 194
7. Ward 5 Mutual Aid 191
8. DC Ward 3 Mutual Aid 175
9. We Got This Seattle 169
10. Athens Mutual Aid 161

Top Funders

1. Ford Foundation $627,500
2. Schwab Charitable $385,084
3. BitMEX $300,000
4. Luminate Group $275,000
5. FB Open Source $268,000
6. Facebook Inc $175,000
7. Eutopia Foundation $125,000
8. Vanguard Charitable $105,500
9. Open Society $100,000
10. Morgan Stanley Gift $100,000

Here's to hope in the new year. Let's do this, together.