We’re happy to announce the introduction of the mosparo Association. The mosparo Association is an association based on the Swiss Civil Code and is located in Mellingen, a small town in Switzerland. The mosparo Association is a non-profit organization with the aim to maintain, further develop, and provide general support for mosparo.
Why this step?
Starting a project like mosparo is very easy. You take your code editor and start developing. But at one point, you may have questions to answer, especially regarding organizing the project. The main questions are financial ones, but also legal stuff appears. For example, who owns the domains for the project? We were also asked if we would accept donations to support the development. We also got asked if we offer paid support with availability during working hours. While we could accept donations, there is always some legal stuff around it, like paying taxes. Regarding paid support, we cannot offer this kind of support during working hours since we’re working our day jobs.
One main other question is who owns the domains and servers. We started the project as a personal project, so both were owned by one person. However, since the project is more than just one person, it is essential to set the project on its own feet.
Why an association and not a company?
The mosparo Association is an association based on the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 60 et seq. This means that the association is not just a group of people but a legal entity in Switzerland, like a company.
However, compared to a company, nobody can own the mosparo Association since there are no association shares that someone can own. The association members pay a membership fee, bringing money into the association. But they do not own the association – nobody does. For us, this is exactly what should be used for an open-source project.
Being a legal entity in Switzerland has some positive aspects. For example, we can open bank accounts or register an official post address. Additionally, by Swiss law, such an association does not pay any taxes on membership fees and donations.
What will change regarding the software mosparo?
Nothing. mosparo is and will be a free-to-use and open-source software.
However, the association helps us finance the different aspects of the project, such as servers, domains, and other stuff like paid plugins to develop Integrations, hosting for testing, and more.
The project founders covered these costs in the last years. Now, the association will cover these costs. As long as the two project founders are the only members of the association, the same people will cover all the costs. But we now have the legal option to receive donations if someone wants to support the development and maintenance.
What are members?
Members are the foundation of the association because it can not exist without them. To become a member, a person or legal entity must apply. The executive board of the association will decide about every application and approve or decline it.
There are different types of membership. Active, honorary, and Service Provider members can vote at the association’s general meeting. The other member types (Passive and Patron) can not vote but can support the association with their membership fee.
Being a member does not provide you with any benefits for mosparo (the software). mosparo and all extensions we developed are free for everybody and fully usable for free.
While the membership fee varies between the membership types, every member has only one vote, which is independent of the fee amount.
What are service providers?
A service provider is a special type of member of the mosparo Association. Every service provider must apply to the mosparo Association and offer a service related to mosparo. With the higher membership fee, the Service Provider supports the development of mosparo more than a simple member. On the other hand, we’ll list the service providers on the website so the user can find these services.
Service providers are, for us, the solution to offer options for users who need extended help with different aspects of using and hosting mosparo. Since the mosparo Association has no financial interest in forcing users to use a paid service, we can ensure that mosparo is always visible as a free-to-use software. You will always see the download button as the first option.
What will happen with my donation?
To ensure that your donation is used for what you’ve donated, we’ve defined additional regulations to our statutes on how we handle the donations. In short, the donation is used for developing mosparo, hosting the servers, or anything else directly connected with mosparo, the software.
If you donate to a specific donation target, your donation will be used to run the mosparo Association. We make this explicit difference because the mosparo Association should be financed mainly through membership fees, not donations.
Do I have to donate or apply for membership?
No, absolutely not. You can enjoy mosparo as you did in the last days, months, and years.
We do not want to make any drama. We confirm that we have enough money to develop and maintain mosparo for the following years.
The association’s primary purpose is to put mosparo on its own feet regarding the ownership of domains and servers. That we’re able to receive donations legally is a nice side effect.
Want to know more?
You can find a lot of information on this website. If you have more questions or need more information, please email us at contact@mosparo-association.org.