Convert to a non-profit

[chadwhitacre]

Remake of gratipay/gratipay.com#101.

@timothyfcook Can you help me with this? 🐭

[JessaWitzel]

Is this instead of #196 ?

[chadwhitacre]

@JessaWitzel Yeah, more or less. Which should we do, #196 or this?

[JessaWitzel]

What are the pros and cons? Non profit = board, yes? That seems very open-source.

[nobodxbodon]

Some quotes from other threads. I must have missed a lot:

#836 (comment)

It's weird to apply in the non-profit track and say "We are going to make something people want."

We can make something people want/need and don't charge them for it. Isn't that what we are trying to make? And isn't that what open source and non-profit organizations kind-of are?

Rather than "We are going to cure disease" or whatever.

Not all non-profits cure disease. e.g. non profit programs that try to promote the arts and music. These organizations are not curing diseases but I think that most people would agree that it is necessary to make well rounded individuals

#844 (comment)

I asked whether he had an opinion on whether Gratipay should be non-profit or for-profit, and he offered that companies are looking for vendors who are stable and long-lived. Insofar as "non-profit" means "fly-by-night," then for-profit is better.

#836 (comment)

if Gratipay can find a successful business model, it will be more influential, especially if it's potentially reproducible by other for-profit businesses.

👍 I think we want to be influential and show that this stuff can work (along with letting people run experiments*, of course).

I'd argue additionally that, unless there is a pressing reason, there is no need to move toward nonprofit right now.

*I don't know who brought this up (maybe @rohitpaulk? My search-fu is weak this morning see ETA at bottom), but one potential use for allowing multiple split-up-the-money methods (beside take-what-you-want) and multiple ways of giving (bundles, corporate, others we've brainstormed) is to see what works financially and what doesn't. With enough entities using Gratipay, it could be a good resource for some economic papers.

ETA: It was this issue and also this comment within this very issue!