In both the nonprofit and opensource world, there is the notion of a "commons" in which each community benefits. The idea of nonprofit or not-for-profit as a name confuses people. Indeed, a nonproft can and should make a profit. At very least it should cover its yearly costs.

A nonprofit, in the United States, is prohibited from taking revenues and distributing those revenues amongst share holders. Indeed, a nonprofit has no share holders. The reason for a nonprofit to exist is to benefit its community and, but extension, the general public. The opensource community is in parallel with the nonprofit community. Opensource has been developed with the idea that the intellectual property should be shared openly allowing for anybody who wishes to contribute to give back freely. Those who have made the opensource community their bread and butter understand that, even though, the software that comes from this community can be freely downloaded and utilised, there is profit to be made from making use of these tools. Those who are active in such a community often make the choice to give back to the community by way of donating time, money, and code. As the community grows and the commons becomes richer, everybody benefits.

When a nonprofit gives a grant to an individual or and organization, there is the anticipation that those funds benefit:

1. The recipient
2. The community the recipient serves
3. The general public

For those not familiar with either the nonprofit world or the opensource world, the idea of freely giving to a community simply to benefit the community without necessarily expecting a direct benefit can seem foreign. Why on earth would you build something only to give it away for others to benefit from? It certainly doesn't jibe with the notion of copyright and that the creator of a work has the right to financially benefit from his or her creation.

The answer is simple--the more you give the more you get back. When you participate in a nonprofit community--giving your time, money, talents, or energy you reap rewards that are gleaned from increasing your social network. If you work in the arts, you meet additional artists, arts administrators, and arts patrons. These people will tend to help you if and when you ask for it because you have demonstrated a willingness to do the same. You may end up applying for funding that will help you reach a goal.

The opensource community is quite similar. Using Drupal as an example, if you donate code, time, or money to the community, it becomes much easier to draw on that community. In the case of Drupal, this manifests itself in a seven year old project with a rich, deep, and wide code base with over 2500 donated modules to extend its functionality. All given freely. When a developer donates code or some one writes about how to use the software, or money is given to support a conference there is the anticipation that this action benefits:

1. The general public
2. The community that the downloader, reader, or conference go-er engages
3. The downloader him or herself

How do you make money? By providing services related to the software. RedHat is an extraordinary example of how profitable free can actually be. Development using Drupal, Joomla!, and SugarCRM (just to mention a few) is becoming more of the norm than the anomaly. Providing professional services around these kinds of software is valued.

Be passionate--help a nonprofit or opensource project by donating some time. Most importantly, participate and and your investment will be well worth the effort.