The
threshold pledge system is actually fairly common in everyday life. How often does a group of friends pool together money to buy something, or commit to doing something if the other friends make the same commitment? Here are three applications with examples:
- Monetary goal
- Example: A group wants to make a purchase (parhaps to receive a group discount), and they all pitch in
- Example: A project can only get started with a certain amount of money, so interested people donate to meet the contribution goal
- Group action
- Example: An action like conserving energy or writing to the government only has a significant effect in numbers, so pledges are made as a group
- Monetary incentive
- Example: Incentive is created for a public good that can only be supplied by certain people like a copyleft work or a missing feature in a free software project by donors who pledge money for whoever completes the job for them.
In applying this system, the ultimate goal of a project cannot be reached until a certain amount of pledges are made. There is also usually an assurance contract which means that if the goal is not met by a specified deadline, then no pledges are collected, or all pledges are refunded.
Here are some websites which are really helpful in organizing fundraisers and group actions using the threshold pledge system:
- The Point - Good for for applications 1 & 2
- Fundable - Good for application 1
- microPledge - Good for application 1, but currently frozen in development
- PledgeBank - Good for application 2
- COfundOS - Good for application 3 applied specifically to open source software
I hope you find this solution and these websites useful for whatever projects you haven't yet been able to take on without this!
The
threshold pledge system is actually fairly common in everyday life. How often does a group of friends pool together money to buy something, or commit to doing something if the other friends make the same commitment? Here are three applications with examples:
- Monetary goal
- Example: A group wants to make a purchase (parhaps to receive a group discount), and they all pitch in
- Example: A project can only get started with a certain amount of money, so interested people donate to meet the contribution goal
- Group action
- Example: An action like conserving energy or writing to the government only has a significant effect in numbers, so pledges are made as a group
- Monetary incentive
- Example: Incentive is created for a public good that can only be supplied by certain people like a copyleft work or a missing feature in a free software project by donors who pledge money for whoever completes the job for them.
In applying this system, the ultimate goal of a project cannot be reached until a certain amount of pledges are made. There is also usually an assurance contract which means that if the goal is not met by a specified deadline, then no pledges are collected, or all pledges are refunded.
Here are some websites which are really helpful in organizing fundraisers and group actions using the threshold pledge system:
- The Point - Good for for applications 1 & 2
- Fundable - Good for application 1
- microPledge - Good for application 1, but currently frozen in development
- PledgeBank - Good for application 2
- COfundOS - Good for application 3 applied specifically to open source software
I hope you find this solution and these websites useful for whatever projects you haven't yet been able to take on without this!
Fund Your Project With The Threshold Pledge System
4 comments:
Is the numbering off, or is the referencing the numbering below in the itemisation correct? Very confused ...
COfundOS sounds interesting, but I don't like the lack of community engagement, and general opacity of the operators. Trust and policing is paramount, or else you wind up with offers to perform work substantially above what the site can collect.
There's also a matter of taxation. Even if you use words like donation and group benefit, it's a contract and qualifies as income. I'm not certain a market making function of individuals looking to spend and earn money qualifies as non-profit either.
Donations also often have a profoundly negative effect on communities that work around social norms, where everyone does things for free and in return you do something and so on. The introduction of money in a community project more often then not rips it apart and encourages negative aspects such as elitism and such, combined with the age old "I did more work/Have been here longer I should get a bigger share of the pie"
Bounties themselves often fail as humans don't see them as additions to the satisfaction they get from doing the work, but as a replacement.
If you really want to support your open source project as a corporation or such then fund a conference and help subsidise lodging, flights etc. Or purchase devices that developers need to test. Or hire a developer as an intern. Personally I would be very careful donating small sums of money to projects without strict policies regarding donations and how the pie will be split or where the money will go to.
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