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Forming a Tech Nonprofit
For some time, a group of us in Metro Denver have been working on putting together a nonprofit with a mission to:
- To provide educational opportunities related to the use of the Drupal Content Management System such as managing and supporting meetings, camps, and conventions
- To promote and advocate use of the Drupal Content Management System
This may change a bit by the time we start filing paperwork, but it does convey what we want to do pretty well.
The first step was putting together a formation board. At this point we have just shy of a dozen members of the Drupal community helping plan and eight are part of the formation board. The group gelled during and after a Birds of Feather at this summer's Colorado Drupal Camp. It was an organic and natural process.
After several meetings, the group identified a mission and have largely drafted Bylaws. After the Bylaws are finalised, we'll move onto drafting Articles of Incorporation.
This project is near and dear to my heart. My background is in nonprofit management with certification in Arts Administration from the University of Ottawa and an MFA focusing on Internet technologies from Virginia Tech. Before working for pingVision, I mostly worked within the non-profit community in marketing, grant making, technology planning, and online application development.
From time to time, I'll write about our progress.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Comments
Ran across a good article on starting a non-profit here: Not Doing It For Profit
Looking forward to updates to your progress, both in promoting (and helping people with) Drupal and in the behind-the-scenes work of launching and maintaining a non-profit.
I'll be trying to document what we're doing as it happens. Also, I'm hoping to host a BOF at Drupalcon DC.
benjamin, Agaric Design Collective
What a wonderful idea. I run a Canadian charity (www.MuslimServ.com). I am a 68 year old retired engineer. I laboriously learned enough Drupal to create and manage a web site. Not very pretty but sufficient for the job. But the toll of learning curve is great. I wish I could communicate with people in non profit sphere who face the same problems as me. I applaud your initiative. Please tell me how I can join.
Shah Nawaz Husain
Toronto, Canada
There will be updates on this site until (and perhaps even after) we've got a domain and a site set up for the nonprofit.
I'll ask the obvious question: How will this organization be different from Drupal Association?
This organization is originally and fundamentally meant to support DrupalCamp Colorado.
We may end up doing related things as time goes on, but that's our current primary focus.
The Drupal Association is a Belgian based non-profit which limits its reach in the U.S. by way of soliciting tax deductable donations and requesting grant monies. This organization will focus purely on educational opportunities (mostly in the Rocky Mountain Region to begin with) and, within that context, advocate for the use of the Drupal CMS.
In the last DrupalCamp Colorado, there were over 100 registrants which led to a feeling that it would be beneficial for a regionally focused organization to help in the developing educational opportunities on a more grassroots/local basis. The Association tends to have a more global focus.