news

What a year

Open Collective

Dec 17, 2020 • 4 min read

What do we even say about 2020? It's been... intense. But alongside all the many challenges, we've seen incredible action and resilience.

Amidst the pandemic, hundreds of mutual aid groups activated around the world. Amidst uncertainty, funders created major coalitions to support open source software and public digital infrastructure. Admidst political and environmental crisis, Collectives worked for climate justice and social and economic justice. We've been privileged to support thousands of amazing communities.

New Collectives → up 3x to 4,000+
Total disbursements → up 3x to $8m+
New financial contributors → up 2x to 27,000+
Total $ held → up 2x to $14m+

Plus, as a company we are now past breaking even, while also lowering fees, enabling us to improve the platform while achieving the real purpose of why we exist: amplifying your impact.

Zero platform fees!

When the pandemic hit, we waived our 5% platform fee in support of COVID19 community response groups, instead accepting 'platform tips' (optional donations). People were so generous that we've decided to roll this out for all charitable collectives! Plus, we've dropped paid plans for fiscal hosts (no more limitations or features behind a paywall!) in favor of a revenue sharing model, meaning free for those with no host fee (host fees still apply if your host charges them).

New pricing details →

New features

Guest contributions
It's no longer required to create an account or log in to contribute to a Collective, lowering barriers and making the process even easier.

Invite expense

Assist your contributors and vendors to get paid. Fill out some details and select their existing profile or invite them as a new user. They'll get a notification, and all they have to do is confirm.

Search filters

Narrow down results to find exactly what you're looking for.

New for Fiscal Hosts

2FA: use two-factor authentication to enhance security.
Financial contributions tab on the dashboard: match incoming bank transfers or search for a particular transaction.

Mutual Aid Magic

We've been blown away by recent updates from mutual aid Collectives across the US, from providing gloves and socks to unhoused people in Austin, to caffeinating 20,000 frontline workers in Seattle, to distributing 60 Thanksgiving turkeys in Chicago, to delivering over 22,000 meals in the Bay Area, to installing a community fridge in the Bronx.

See the highlights →

"We want to be a steady support for our neighbors during this time. With no clear pandemic support on the horizon, our work is more important now than ever." —West Brooklyn Waterfront Mutual Aid

GitHub Sponsors news

GitHub recently announced Sponsors for Companies, a new way to help corporate dollars reach open source projects. Wondering how it can work with your Collective? We've got you covered!

We've also activated the Sponsors integration for Open Collective Foundation alongside Open Source Collective. To sign up, follow these steps for OSC and these steps for OCF.

Trademark registration

Open Source Collective is offering a trademark registration service in partnership with an open source IP legal specialist.

Learn more →

News & Inspiration

Open Collective Foundation has revamped its mission and values.
The Open Prioritization Collective is pooling resources to fund projects on web standards and implementations.
Open Collective New Zealand is launching a charity fundholding service for philanthropic grants and donations.
The New Public Festival is an online conference envisioning the future of digital public space (Jan 12-14).