[TriLUG] TriLUG non-profit status?

Tue Oct 6 15:43:07 EDT 2026

I mean the LLC protection is likely not needed. I don't imagine there's
much interest in suing a student org.

The main thing that I could see is if there was any aspiration to get
organized and put together a larger event like ATO. Having a tax deduction
is nice.
An easy way to accept donations and separate that out from a personal
account is nice, but again you don't need a non profit you can get an EIN
and set up a bank account under a DBA. I don't think you really benefit
from a 501c.

So I guess the real breakdown for me is that there are 3 tiers you could
manage this.

1. You have a box full of cash under someone's bed and a ledger. -- Might
be how the lug started but I got the sense we moved past that.
2. Some entity registered. You have a bank account and multiple folk able
to access. So you skip the whole OMG we can't track down Bob and can't do a
release or get to the money.
3. 501C that requires more legan knowledge than I can speak of, but let's
assume we do a fiscally hosted entity that gives you the benefits.

For *One*: That's crap I hope everyone wants or is more organized than
that.

*Two*. Hopefully closer to what you all have. There's a "Donate with
square" link that goes somewhere (Not sure how that's structured). As long
as you have coverage with more than one person you likely don't need a
501C. You can publically share your financial activity to show that you're
a good FOSS citizen like Open Collective but you don't need OC for that.
(I'm lazy, OpenCollective = OC from now on).

*Three*. Usually you end up with OC taking a cut and the fiscal host taking
a cut. There's no cost to using the $$ that was donated so it's a one time
fee. Now, IF you do set up a 501C I would strongly advise finding someone
who knows what they're doing or using OC or such. If they're doing my taxes
and taking the burden of liability I'm happy to pay an extra 5% or whatever
it was.

It is neat to be able to see something like this:
https://opencollective.com/phpfoundation/transactions The transparency is
kind of cool when making a case to an external party for donation when you
show how you're spending the money is appealing. On the other hand there's
a cost involved. If you find a decent host, it might be worth it. The OSS
one is kind of pricey, They take a 10% cut on each transaction PLUS
processor fees but every host is different.  Here's the "search"
https://opencollective.com/search?q=&isHost=true you can apply to any of
them. Some take 0%, others are more pricey.

When I was running a lug 100 years ago, we ended up trying to put on conf
together so it would have been useful to have a status. We ended up using
the univ as a fiscal host that "held" the funds.

So, I'm not sure if this answered the question you did ask. This is more of
a Should we / should we not.

---
To address your:

"going with OpenCollective is less work than seeking non-profit status
directly, but it *is* more work or at least overhead than TriLUG"

I'm not sure it would be. You still need bookkeeping (Someone mentioned a
wiki page....I'm assuming we can do better?), tracking expenses, and budget
allocation. A lot of that comes free. You still need to manage your money
but you can see money in/out. I will say "depositing" cash donations is
awkward and they still take a cut. OC basically gives you some free tooling
/ transparency and a way to get money in. You get a free virtual CC you can
use to buy services and pay for things etc. In 2026 It might even be added
to your wallet.

It removes the burden of having a bank account you manage yourself, an
accounting ledger and lets you focus on event planning and how to spend the
budget you do have. It also allows you to get many services that are "Free"
to 501C. The OC host I was using that has since then shut down gave us a
google hosted entity where we got a good bit of space.

I did call these guys out as pricey but this list can be nice:
https://docs.oscollective.org/welcome-and-introduction-to-osc/our-services-and-benefits.
Each host is different and they may make life easier. SPI I think is used
by Debian IIRC, OLF (Ohio Linux Fest) I believed used them in the past. SPI
is a bit less transparent. They're a trusted entity but you should look
into them more if you consider them.

---

So to bring this back around, it really depends on what you want to be and
how organized you wish to be.

4 guys sitting around comparing beard length and talking about RMS doesn't
need much org. Getting speakers? Equipment, server costs etc tracked a bit
more cleanly might be good.

I'll stop here. I wrote a bit too much .... let me know if any of this
makes sense or feel free to data dump this into an AI to get you a more
concise version.  :)

On Sun, Oct 4, 2026 at 11:32 AM Will Richey <will.richey at afternoonmoon.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the info, Samir.
>
> One of the points made a few times in this thread is that TriLUG may not
> need any of the benefits of non-profit.  Do you have some thoughts about
> how going with something like OpenCollective would benefit TriLUG?
>
> I.e., going with OpenCollective is less work than seeking non-profit
> status directly, but it *is* more work or at least overhead than TriLUG
> does currently.
> On 10/4/26 11:48 AM, Samir Faci via TriLUG wrote:
>
> Also, these:
> https://www.spi-inc.org/ (I went through the process with them to get
> approved but ended up going with OpenCollective at the time)
> ---
> Unvetted
> https://sfconservancy.org/
>
> The main thing I loved about OpenCollective is that even the finances are
> open for everyone to see how the funds are being allocated. Who is
> contributing, and so on.
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 4, 2026 at 10:40 AM Samir Faci <csgeek3674 at gmail.com> <csgeek3674 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Have you considered looking at a fiscal host like an open collective? Some
> of them are nonprofit and can give you the benefits without all the
> headaches.
>
> They basically take a % cut of donations, have the 501C status, do all the
> taxes etc. You don't get all the benefits you would if you manage your own
> but you also don't need to deal with all the headaches. They take care of
> taxes, expense reimbursement, etc.
>
> There's a bunch of "collectives" you can browse and find the one that
> matches your interests/trust you have. For example:https://oficonsortium.org/
>
> --
> Samir Faci
>
> On Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 17:21 Maryam Abkar via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> <trilug at trilug.org>
> wrote:
>
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> once upon a time TriLUG was registered as a non-profit, if anyone knows
> the
> details of who registered us as such, whether that's still active/if we
> are
> able to cheaply reactivate it, please let us know!
>
> -Maryam A.
> --
> This message was sent to: Samir Faci <csgeek3674 at gmail.com> <csgeek3674 at gmail.com>
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