How to Donate - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

How to Donate to the FSF

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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, like the Red Cross. Like the Red Cross, we ask for donations of money, which we use to pay programmers to write GNU Software. (Buying manuals, CD-ROMs and t-shirts from the FSF also contributes to producing more free software.)

How Individuals Can Donate

Programmers and technical writers can contribute in another way--by writing software and documentation for GNU. That is the most direct way to contribute to the GNU Project. But if you can't or don't contribute in that way, we hope you'll donate money to the FSF instead.

To donate to the FSF, simply mail a check to:

Free Software Foundation
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111
USA

If a check is not convenient, please contact the FSF to talk about other methods.

We will send you back a receipt which you can use to show that you are entitled to a tax deduction on United States income taxes.

Give to GNU the United Way

As a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, the FSF is eligible to receive United Way funds. When donating to United Way, you can specify that all or part of the donation be directed to the FSF.

On the donor form, check the ``Specific Requests'' box and include the sentence, ``Send my gift to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111.''

If your employer has a policy of matching United Way donations, you can take advantage of that. We especially appreciate the donations from Microsoft matching the United Way donations of their employees.

Become a Patron of the FSF

The Free Software Foundation wants to acknowledge its supporters and contributors in a more visible fashion. You can now become an ``official'' supporter of the FSF.

If you donate in a year:

$100, you'll become a Supporter of the FSF and get your name listed in the GNU's Bulletin for a year.
$500, you'll become a Contributor, get listed in the GNU's Bulletin for a year, get a Certificate and a "Thank GNUs."
$1000, you'll become a Sustaining Contributor, get listed in the GNU's Bulletin for a year, get a Certificate and a gift.
$5000, you'll become a Patron, get all the "benefits" of a Sustaining Contributor plus a special gift.

How Companies Can Donate

Many companies use GNU software for their work. If your office uses GNU software substantially, you might feel that the company ought to donate to the FSF. If you think so, we suggest you first talk about the idea with the other people in your company who use GNU software, and together decide the best way to ask your management to contribute.

There are a number of ways a company can support the FSF. It can give money with an outright donation of funds, or through purchases--especially CD-ROM subscriptions or a Deluxe Distribution.

Donation of office equipment and supplies can also be useful, if that is convenient for you. Ask <gnu@gnu.org> to find out whether what you have is useful for us.

Donating computer hardware is also sometimes useful--especially certain equipment that we specially need, or a new fast machine that can run a GNU system. Ask <gnu@gnu.org> to find out whether certain hardware is useful.

But more computers are not our primary need today. Ten years ago, when computers were very expensive, it was hard to find enough machines for our staff to use. Nowadays even a fast PC with a very nice monitor costs less than paying a programmer for one month. Therefore, our main need today is for funds to pay more programmers.

The best way for a company to donate is whichever way management will agree to. Supporting the FSF through purchases does not have to be done by the top management; many managers have purchasing authority. So please consider various ways and see which ways can work in your company.

There are free software support companies in the US which work on developing certain GNU software packages. Doing business with them does support a part of the GNU project. However, most of these companies do not donate funds to the Free Software Foundation. So we hope that you will consider supporting the FSF directly, as well, even if you are a customer of these companies.

Display Ghostscript Project

The Free Software Foundation and Net Community started a fund drive to raise $14,175 to fund the completion of Display Ghostscript--that is, extending Ghostscript to support the Display Postscript features. We have succeeded in raising the full amount, and the work is being done.

Return to GNU's home page.

Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu@gnu.org. There are also other ways to contact the FSF.

Please send comments on these web pages to webmasters@www.gnu.org, send other questions to gnu@gnu.org.

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