# Contributing Money If you want to contribute money to the network, there are two places you can donate: 1. You can send Euros to [our Open Collective account](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity), fiscally hosted by [Open Collective Europe Foundation](https://opencollective.com/oce-foundation-eur) (a non-profit organization based in Belgium). 2. You can send US Dollars or Crypto [to our Every.org account](https://www.every.org/oceurope/f/microsolidarity) (hosted by a non-profit organization based in the US). Donations here are tax-deductible under the US IRS 501(c)3 tax code. Supporting us on Open Collective with at least €3 per month will give you access to the monthly members-only calls where you can meet other practitioners. ## Fundraising Goals Our intention to grow a common fund that can be used for anything that supports the network. Here's some of our fundraising goals: * to pay the facilitators for organising & hosting our monthly calls * to provide scholarships to make paid events more accessible * to produce media that supports the network & educates the wider public (e.g. editing the podcast, writing a book, making a Netflix series...) * to pay for a "community coach" who can support a cohort of many microsolidarity community hosts * to buy a retreat centre where communities can go for trainings & retreats. ## Financial Transparency (updated Dec 17 2024) Since October 2022, the network has been fiscally hosted by Open Collective. Since that time, all paid Microsolidarity events have contributed at least 10% of profit back to the commons. You can see all transactions on [our public page](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity). The data are summarised here for ease of reading: ### Balance The current balance is €7,174.89. After we pay the staff for the two online courses in 2024-Q4 the balance will be €4,947.98. ### Events Here’s the financial performance of all events to date:
### Donations Members Contributions to our Open Collective EU account total €5,174.02 to date. We receive about €215/month in recurring donations from 56 paying members. We received $5000 to make the Denver 2022 retreat more accessible. We received another $5000 at the end of 2023, which we used to offset the costs to make the Network Retreat 2024 and US Summer Camp 2024. ### Monthly Expenses We pay €100/month to Jocelyn Ames to facilitate the Monthly Member Calls (since July 2022). We pay about €180/year for Zoom. ### Historical Data Prior to October 2022, Richard Bartlett & Nati Lombardo used their company [The Hum](http://thehum.org) as the legal & financial vehicle for running Microsolidarity events. For full transparency, the financial performance of the 6 paid events that we ran through [The Hum](http://thehum.org) between May 2020 and Oct 2022 is included in the data on this page. From Oct 2022 to Sep 2024 we had [another Open Collective account](https://opencollective.com/microsolidarity-turtle-island), hosted in the US. This is now shut down. Here’s the summary of transactions: * Regular contributions: $378.88 * Lump-sum donation: $5000 * Fees: $439.57 * Expenses: $4807.47 * $2,500.00 for scholarships for the US Summer Camp 2024 * $1,363.79 for food for Network Retreat Spain 2024 * $943.68 for flights to Network Retreat Spain 2024 ## Decision-Making The network is currently governed informally, with Richard Bartlett playing the role of "[benevolent dictator](https://communityrule.info/create/?r=1619810752488)". As we start to collect common resources, it seems natural that decision-making power should be shared with more people. Here's a proposed approach to get us started in that direction: * all paid events that generate a surplus should contribute at least 10% to the common fund * anyone who has contributed money to the network is entitled to have a say about how the common fund is governed * "having a say" means you can make proposals for how we spend the collective money, and share your advice on other people's proposals * final decisions are made by the administrators of the two Open Collective pages (Jonas Gröner, Jocelyn Ames, Sara Bajor, Michal Korzonek, Richard Bartlett) * anyone can become an OC admin, by the approval of the existing admins * for the time being, Richard Bartlett holds veto power, as a backstop in case of emergencies (e.g. irreconcilable conflict)