When the Neos Team met in Munich it was obvious quite quickly that a Neos project on its own feet would also need independent funding. Although the team manages to contribute several hundred hours per month to the project, paying for all expenses – like travel costs or server fees – is not sustainable in the long run. Many web agencies and individuals offered financial help and today we launch a platform which enables everybody to do just that: help funding Neos.
The Neos Project is currently not backed by a legal body (the team is currently evaluating alternatives to running their own organisation in order to save the organisational and financial overhead), therefore we needed a trustee to handle the funding platform for the Neos Project. We are very happy that Sandstorm offered to sponsor the platform including the transaction execution, bookkeeping and the necessary legal work. Note that, because the Neos Project is not a legal entity, your invoices
will be sent from and paid to Sandstorm Media GmbH, the fiduciary for
the Neos Project.
Without further ado, we are proud to present the Neos funding platform: neosfunding.sandstorm.de
What do I get in return if I support Neos? What will the money be used for? Read on for more information about our funding process.
Neos Badges
Our first offering are Neos badges - small images which can be used by the buyer for promotional activities. They can be compared to a membership certificate in the club of Neos supporters for your company. Neos badges are only sold through the Neos funding platform.
Neos badges are available in Bronze, Silver and Gold as a subscription. This way, a company buying a Neos badge shows its continued support for Neos. Our goal is that every agency and supporting company of Neos will purchase a Neos badge to support the development of Neos.
If you are interested in purchasing a one-time badge for a specific occasion (e.g. a code sprint) or want to stand out from the crowd by purchasing a platinum badge, contact the Sandstorm team directly. Also, if you have any further ideas for sponsorship formats, the Neos Team would be happy to hear from you!
The Promise
If Sandstorm sells Neos badges, what guarantee is there that they will use the money for Neos? None in any legal way to be honest. But Sandstorm has promised to make all revenues from Neos badge sales and all expenses paid for the Neos project transparent on the Neos Funding website. This has worked out nicely during the pilot phase at the code sprint in Nuremberg.
Read more about Sandstorm's commitment.
Requests for funding
When we conceptualized the Neos badges we also thought about a small process to handle requests for the use of the funds.
You can read the details on discuss.neos.io, here is an overview:
- only existing money can be budgeted and spent
- a budget owner is designated who is responsible for the request and how the funds are spent
- accepted budget requests result in reserved funds
- the budget owner approves/declines costs to their budget and forwards them to Sandstorm for payment
- the whole process, incl. who spent which amount on what will be made transparent on discuss.neos.io
Why can't the Neos Project take donations directly?
While the Neos project does not have its own legal entity (e.g. an association) it cannot receive any donations.
Our main reason for not founding our own legal entity at the moment is that we don't want to spend so much time running our own full association / foundation but we rather look for an alternative solution with less bureaucratic overhead. It will take some time to evaluate different options and discuss matters with possible partner organisations.
Until then we can go without a legal body without any drawbacks: the Neos Team leads the Neos Project and all necessary supporting services – like handling the funding process – are provided by sponsors.
Thank you to all the volunteers involved in making this platform happen, and thank you already for helping the Neos Team to grow the community by your sponsorship.
