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← SOFTWARE FREEDOM CONSERVANCY INC

Form 990 for tax year 2023

Filed by SOFTWARE FREEDOM CONSERVANCY INC.

Totals

Total revenue
$2,487,144
Total expenses
$4,478,454
Contributions and grants received
$1,964,878
Grants paid
$114,905
Program service revenue
$339,990
Investment income
$180,052
Other revenue
$2,224
Total assets, end of year
$5,314,976
Total liabilities, end of year
$480,907
Net assets or fund balances, end of year
$4,834,069
Program services expenses (Part IX)
$3,691,806
Management and general expenses
$678,343
Fundraising expenses
$108,305
Program service expenses (Part III)
$3,691,806

Program services were 82.4% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Revenue

Part VIII, the statement of revenue.

  • 1a · Federated campaigns

    $0

  • 1b · Membership dues

    $0

  • 1c · Fundraising events

    $0

  • 1d · Related organizations

    $0

  • 1e · Government grants (contributions)

    $0

  • 1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants

    $1,964,878

  • 1g · Noncash contributions included above

    $8,670

  • 2a · Program service revenue: Software Development Services

    total $171,025 · related or exempt $171,025 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 2b · Program service revenue: Conference Registration Fees

    total $157,143 · related or exempt $157,143 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 2c · Program service revenue: Conference Sponsorship Income

    total $11,822 · related or exempt $11,822 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 2f · All other program service revenue

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 3 · Investment income

    total $184,906 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $184,906

  • 4 · Income from investment of tax-exempt bond proceeds

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 5 · Royalties

    total $330 · related or exempt $330 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 6a · Gross rents

    real property $0 · personal property $0

  • 6b · Less rental expenses

    real property $0 · personal property $0

  • 6c · Rental income or loss

    real property $0 · personal property $0

  • 6d · Net rental income or loss

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 7a · Gross sales of assets other than inventory

    securities $4 · other assets -$4,858

  • 7b · Less cost or other basis and sales expenses

    securities $0 · other assets $0

  • 7c · Gain or loss

    securities $4 · other assets -$4,858

  • 7d · Net gain or loss

    total -$4,854 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded -$4,854

  • 8a · Fundraising events: gross income

    $0

  • 8a · Fundraising events: contributions included on line 1c

    $0

  • 8b · Fundraising events: direct expenses

    $0

  • 8c · Net income from fundraising events

    total $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 9a · Gaming: gross income

    $0

  • 9b · Gaming: direct expenses

    $0

  • 9c · Net income from gaming

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 10a · Gross sales of inventory

    $0

  • 10b · Cost of goods sold

    $0

  • 10c · Net income from sales of inventory

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 11a · Other revenue: Discounts from Vendors

    total $1,884 · related or exempt $1,884 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 11b · Other revenue: Other Miscellaneous

    total $10 · related or exempt $10 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 11d · All other revenue

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 11e · Other revenue, total

    $1,894

Functional expenses

Part IX, the statement of functional expenses.

  • 1 · Grants to domestic organizations and governments

    total $16,963 · program services $16,963

  • 2 · Grants to domestic individuals

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 3 · Grants to foreign organizations and individuals

    total $97,942 · program services $97,942

  • 4 · Benefits paid to or for members

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees

    total $386,885 · program services $181,587 · management and general $170,685 · fundraising $34,613

  • 7 · Other salaries and wages

    total $610,450 · program services $296,696 · management and general $289,854 · fundraising $23,900

  • 8 · Pension plan contributions

    total $27,800 · program services $12,435 · management and general $13,991 · fundraising $1,374

  • 9 · Other employee benefits

    total $176,487 · program services $95,811 · management and general $74,083 · fundraising $6,593

  • 10 · Payroll taxes

    total $66,088 · program services $33,243 · management and general $29,024 · fundraising $3,821

  • 11a · Fees: management

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 11b · Fees: legal

    total $606,846 · program services $602,871 · management and general $3,975 · fundraising $0

  • 11c · Fees: accounting

    total $18,401 · management and general $18,401

  • 11d · Fees: lobbying

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 11e · Fees: professional fundraising services

    total $29,915 · fundraising $29,915

  • 11f · Fees: investment management

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 11g · Fees: other

    total $9,340 · program services $9,340

  • 12 · Advertising and promotion

    total $25,869 · program services $21,647 · management and general $0 · fundraising $4,222

  • 13 · Office expenses

    total $6,695 · program services $2,365 · management and general $1,649 · fundraising $2,681

  • 14 · Information technology

    total $94,893 · program services $80,001 · management and general $13,963 · fundraising $929

  • 15 · Royalties

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 16 · Occupancy

    total $1,572 · program services $0 · management and general $1,572 · fundraising $0

  • 17 · Travel

    total $316,005 · program services $298,797 · management and general $17,208

  • 18 · Travel or entertainment for public officials

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings

    total $211,135 · program services $211,135 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 20 · Interest

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 21 · Payments to affiliates

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 22 · Depreciation, depletion and amortization

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 23 · Insurance

    total $8,305 · program services $0 · management and general $8,305 · fundraising $0

  • 24a · Other expenses: Internships in FOSS

    total $907,642 · program services $907,642 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 24b · Other expenses: Software (FOSS) Development and Design

    total $563,743 · program services $563,743 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 24c · Other expenses: Project & Program Coordination Services

    total $238,201 · program services $228,651 · management and general $9,550 · fundraising $0

  • 24d · Other expenses: BankCharges,PayrollService,Taxes&Fines,BadDebt

    total $51,755 · program services $27,354 · management and general $24,144 · fundraising $257

  • 24e · All other expenses

    total $5,522 · program services $3,583 · management and general $1,939 · fundraising $0

Balance sheet

Part X, book values.

  • 1 · Cash, non-interest-bearing

    beginning of year $503,477 · end of year $506,325

  • 2 · Savings and temporary cash investments

    beginning of year $2,882,927 · end of year $1,146,603

  • 3 · Pledges and grants receivable

    beginning of year $964,000 · end of year $236,352

  • 4 · Accounts receivable

    beginning of year $439,187 · end of year $99,040

  • 9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges

    beginning of year $63,548 · end of year $25,224

  • 11 · Investments: publicly traded securities

    beginning of year $2,389,347 · end of year $3,301,432

  • 17 · Accounts payable and accrued expenses

    beginning of year $374,378 · end of year $480,907

  • 19 · Deferred revenue

    beginning of year $94,002

  • 27 · Net assets without donor restrictions

    beginning of year $2,298,111 · end of year $1,394,890

  • 28 · Net assets with donor restrictions

    beginning of year $4,475,995 · end of year $3,439,179

Mission and programs · 2023

Mission

Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) promotes, improves, develops, facilitates & defends Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) & the right to software repair. SFC advocates for the public's software rights & freedoms. SFC provides a home & infrastructure to FOSS initiatives. SFC helps volunteers focus on improving FOSS for the public. Projects include: creation of FOSS for general public, copyleft licensing advocacy, & internships for contributors subject to systemic bias who are underrepresented in FOSS.

Activities or mission (Part I)

SFC promotes,improves,develops,facilitates, and defends Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). SFC advocates for the software rights and freedom of the public. SFC provides a home & infrastructure to FOSS projects & initiatives, & increases diversity, equity and inclusion in FOSS.

  • FOSS development, documentation, infrastructure, sustainability, & project support: During the tax year, SFC engaged 23 different software developers as independent contractors to improve the software in its FreeDV, Godot, Inkscape, Microblocks, phpMyAdmin, Reproducible Builds, and Selenium projects, as well as improving FOSS for SFC's own accounting infrastructure. All software source code was released freely to the public under licenses that encourage the public to use, share, modify, and reinstall it. These contractors also coordinated volunteer software developers to contribute further to the software projects. SFC staff also assisted volunteers in our projects on a daily basis with administration, coordination, legal and infrastructural tasks and costs (as listed at https://sfconservancy.org/members/services/ ). SFC made a grant to a Dutch non-profit organization, Stichting Godot, that supports the Godot Project, a FOSS game engine as well as a grant to the Python Software Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that promotes FOSS Python infrastructure. Finally, SFC regularly mentors leadership of projects both inside and outside our organization to improve their non-profit management skills.

    Expenses $905,378 · Grants $106,963 · Revenue $173,249

  • Outreachy and The Institute For Computing Research (ICR): In the tax year, we funded 123 interns via Outreachy - an initiative that encourages participation in FOSS for those who are subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they live. Outreachy interns improve FOSS and its documentation, and increase the diversity of the FOSS community while also learning valuable skills. ICR mentors and trains students in high school to do rigorous scientific research using FOSS. During this tax year, ICR had 29 internships. Both internship programs are paid programs which enable those from less privileged backgrounds to participate.

    Expenses $1,345,649

  • License Compliance & Enforcement: Some FOSS is available under "copyleft" licenses, such as the General Public License (GPL). These licenses allow everyone to freely share, copy, modify, and (re)install modified versions of software. SFC identifies situations where distributors fail to meet the copyleft requirements & requires them to provide the same rights to all those who receive the software distribution. Through this process, SFC ensures that the public has equal rights to use, improve, and study the software & to experiment with their own modifications so that the rights of consumers to repair the software on their devices is restored. When absolutely necessary, SFC seeks remedy in the courts. During the tax year, SFC continued ongoing litigation against a maker of Linux-based televisions in California state court in which SFC seeks the complete, corresponding source for the copylefted components in the televisions to engage in SFC's right to software repair. During the tax year, SFC also provided a grant to an individual to undertake a legal action in Germany where he successfully sought the complete, corresponding source for the LGPL'd components on the router he purchased.

    Expenses $842,570 · Grants $7,942

  • Facilitating and Participating in FOSS conferences: During the tax year, SFC planned, organized and/or ran three conferences, and prepared for one other to take place in the following year. Additionally, SFC coordinated and funded many other smaller "hackfest" events for its projects. Furthermore, SFC funded travel expenses for staff's and volunteers' attendance at more than 14 different third-party software conferences. These events allow volunteer FOSS contributors and SFC staff to (a) speak about their work to the public, (b) teach the public how to use and improve their software, (c) generally promote the use, adoption and improvement of FOSS, and (d) explain and explore the policy issues surrounding software freedom and software rights. Most FOSS conferences include opportunities for software developers to meet and rapidly work closely together to make improvements to the software and release those improvements immediately to the public. Finally, SFC staff also assisted in organizing the Legal & Policy DevRoom at FOSDEM, the largest annual FOSS conference in Europe.

    Expenses $598,209 · Revenue $168,965

As filed on the 2023 return.

Listed in Part VII

  • Karen M Sandler

    President and Executive Director

    Total calculated
    $233,418
    From this org
    $170,823
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $62,595
    Hours/week
    45

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $170,823
    Bonus
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Deferred
    $5,596
    Nontaxable benefits
    $53,822
    Filer's total
    $230,241

  • Bradley M Kuhn

    Treasurer, Director, and Policy Fellow

    Total calculated
    $169,930
    From this org
    $110,512
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $59,418
    Hours/week
    41

  • Rick Sanders

    General Counsel

    Total calculated
    $154,633
    From this org
    $102,857
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $51,776
    Hours/week
    40

  • Sage Sharp

    Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion

    Total calculated
    $143,676
    From this org
    $102,553
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $41,123
    Hours/week
    40

  • Bdale Garbee

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Jeremy Allison

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Laura Fortunato

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Mark Galassi

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Anthony K Sebro Jr

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Allison Randal

    Board Chairperson, Vice President, and Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    4.25

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Answered yes

  • 1a · Payments for business use of a personal residence
  • 1b · Written policy on the line-1a expenses
  • 2 · Substantiation required before reimbursing expenses
  • 3 · Form 990 of other organizations
  • 3 · Approval by the board or compensation committee

Answered no

  • 4a · Severance or change-of-control payment
  • 4b · Supplemental nonqualified retirement plan
  • 4c · Equity-based compensation arrangement
  • 5a · Pay contingent on this organization's revenues
  • 5b · Pay contingent on a related organization's revenues
  • 6a · Pay contingent on this organization's net earnings
  • 6b · Pay contingent on a related organization's net earnings
  • 7 · Other non-fixed payments
  • 8 · Paid under the initial-contract exception

The filer's explanations (Part III)

Schedule J, Part I, Line 1a
Since all Organization's employees work from their home offices, each employee receives a $50/month automatic reimbursement for home Internet services. Each employee must submit documentation that their home Internet service costs at least $50/month.

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

  • Python Software Foundation

    $16,963

    Grants supported the use, development and improvement of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and education about the use and improvement of FOSS projects. Specifically, $8,963 to support the North Bay Python conference where developers can meet in person and learn more about FOSS, and $8,000 to specifically support the improvement of the Twisted software library in Python.

Provenance

Return type
form_990
Tax year
2023
Filed
15 January 2025
IRS schema version
2023v6.0
Source object
202500169349300205

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