That's why the typical pattern is for 501(c)(6) member companies to employ contributors and for the org itself to mostly do marketing and other supportive type work.
Another thing to consider about Linux Foundation and funding of contributors: 501(c)(6) orgs are prohibited by statute from directly conducting the business area they support. They are only supposed to improve conditions and promote common interests.
-
-
Show this thread
-
501(c)(3) orgs, like Apache Foundation, also have statutory restrictions on what activities they can undertake. Directly paying contributors for work on software that has significant commercial value can be problematic for maintaining tax-exempt status.
Show this thread -
-
The way to connect money to contributors without all these statutory requirements is to have a for-profit entity: sole proprietorship, LLC, s-, c-, or b-corp.
Show this thread -
Maintaining a business is a lot of work. Even a sole-propietorship or a single-member LLC takes work and depending where you're physically located, a not insignificant amount of fees and taxes.
Show this thread -
So there's a reason we get these umbrella orgs. It's actually a smart way to distribute the overhead.
Show this thread -
What I would really like to see are more worker-owned co-ops.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.