doc/en/donations/index.sgml
2002-07-09 00:04:23 +00:00

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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/donations/index.sgml,v 1.1 2002/05/09 12:50:53 mwlucas Exp $">
<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD Donations Liason">
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<h2>Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#goal">Donations Liason Goals</a></li>
<li><a href="#charter">Donations Liason Charter</a></li>
<li><a href="#donating">Donating to the FreeBSD Project</a></li>
</ul>
<a name="goal"></a>
<h2>Project Goal</h2>
<p>As FreeBSD's userbase has grown, the number of people who want
to donate materials or funds to the Project has grown. The
Donations Liason is intended to streamline the handling of these
donations, and to ensure that they are handled in a timely and
reasonable manner.</p>
<p>More information will be available as soon as the fledgling
Donations Team works out a process. While the Donations Liason
Officer has some definite ideas on how things should be done,
these ideas should be sanity-checked by a slightly larger group
before being given to the world.</p>
<a name="charter"></a>
<h2>Donations Liason Charter</h2>
<p>The purpose of the Donations Liason Officer is to encourage and
guide donations according to a set of community-accepted rules.
The DLO has the following responsibilities.</p>
<ul>
<li>to establish and maintain a clear set of procedures for
handling donations.</li>
<li>to respond to donation offers in a timely manner.</li>
<li>to maintain a list of equipment and resources desired by the
FreeBSD community.</li>
<li>to coordinate donation offers with the FreeBSD developer
community.</li>
<li>to shepherd donations through the entire donation
process.</li>
<li>to coordinate a 3-4 person team to ensure that timely,
informed, and correct response is available at all times.</li>
<li>to publicly acknowledge donors and donations when the
donation is complete.</li>
<li>record the status of all loans to the Project.</li>
<li>provide open records of all donations to the FreeBSD
developer community.</li>
</ul>
<a name="donating"></a>
<h2>Donating to the FreeBSD Project</h2>
<p>So, you want to donate something to the FreeBSD Project?
Great! We strongly rely upon user donations to accomplish our
goals.</p>
<p>Part of the goal of the Donations Liason Office is to match
donations with developers who can use them. This means that we
don't accept just any donation; we only handle those that have
an interested recipient. This saves time all around, and also
helps assure donors that what their contributions are actually
supporting the FreeBSD Project. The down side of this process
is that we need some information about your donation before
accepting it.</p>
<p>Donations generally fall into three categories:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#money">Financial</a></li>
<li><a href="#systems">Complete Computers</a></li>
<li><a href="#hardware">Hardware Components</a></li>
</ul>
<p>If you have something to offer that doesn't fall into one of
these categories, don't fret! Just contact us at
donations@FreeBSD.org with your offer. Just because it's not
the run-of-the-mill offer doesn't mean that we're not
interested.</p>
<h3><a name="money">Financial Contributions</a></h3>
<p>The FreeBSD Project does not directly accept financial
contributions. A sponsor organization, the <a
href="http://www.freebsdfoundation.org">FreeBSD Foundation</a>,
accepts financial contributions for us. Please see their Web
site for details on financial contributions.</p>
<h3><a name="systems">Complete Computer Systems</a></h3>
<p>The FreeBSD Project is always in need of computers. We are
happy to accept donations that can be used by a developer. If
you have a computer that you would like to donate to the
Project, please contact us with the following information:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hardware specifications: motherboard, CPU, disk space,
memory. (If the computer is an Alpha, please also include the
output of the commands SHOW CONFIG, SHOW MEM, and SHOW
DEV.)</li>
<li>Does this system currently run FreeBSD, or is it
unsupported? If possible, please attach a dmesg from a
FreeBSD install on this system.</li>
<li>Are you willing to ship this system?</li>
<li>Your physical location. We try to make shipping as easy and
inexpensive as possible.</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="components">Computer Components</a></h3>
<p>If we're going to support a type of hardware, we need that
hardware. If you have a piece of hardware that you would like
to donate to the Project, please contact us with the following
information:</p>
<ul>
<li>The hardware description: model, part number, manufacturer,
etc. If you have an exact link to the manufacturer's Web page
for this component, that would be helpful.</li>
<li>Is this hardware currently supported in FreeBSD?</li>
<li>What documentation do you have? A piece of hardware is not
sufficient to write a driver; driver authors need detailed
chipset data from the manufacturer. (Don't worry too much if
you don't have this documentation, as it may be available
elsewhere.)</li>
</ul>
<h3>What we Do with this Information</h3>
<p>Once we have a description of the donation, the Donations
Liason Office will contact the developer community and offer the
resource to them. If we have a developer who would like the
item, we put the donor and the recipient in contact and let them
work out shipping information. If there are multilpe developers
interested in a resource, we try to learn what each developer
would use the resource for and allocate it most effectively for
the Project. If no developer is interested, we turn down the
offer.</p>
<p>Our goal is to place (or decline) all donations within 7 days
of receipt of complete information.</p>
<h3>Tax Donations</h3>
<p>The FreeBSD Foundation can act as a charitable organization for
tax purposes. If you live in the United States, your donation
can be deducted from your taxes. If you want a deduction for
your contribution, please let us know when you send information
on your donation.</p>
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