How we're different
OCF vs. Other Fiscal Sponsors
One thing that makes Open Collective Foundation different from other fiscal sponsors is the Open Collective platform, a powerful, open-source tool for managing your activities and funds transparently providing you with 24/7 access to collect, spend, and manage funds. You can quickly and easily:
Begin charitable/community work without setting up a legal entity or bank account
Create a public profile with your own URL
Receive tax-deductible financial contributions, with tax receipts generated automatically
Share financial activity and goals transparently with your team, supporters, and wider community
Pay expenses, reimbursements, and compensate team members for their work, with invoices generated automatically
Update and communicate with your financial contributors & admins
Set up events and sell tickets that go straight into your Collective's budget
Join the growing Open Collective network - Read our Community Guidelines
Traditional fiscal sponsors’ processes are often slow, manual, and opaque, whereas Open Collective is efficient, automatic, and transparent.
Open Collective vs. Accounting Software
Our platform has great features that you won’t find in most accounting software, like integrated payments for expenses via PayPal or bank transfer. Your hosted Collective will be able to process large numbers of transactions, big or small, without the accounting headaches. You’ll no longer have to step into the complexity of a full fledged accounting tool in order to do basic budget tracking and good money management.
Open Collective vs. Crowdfunding Campaigns
It also differs from crowdfunding platforms, particularly in how it is designed to be a home for ongoing collaborative communities, not individual creators or one-off campaigns. Unlike crowdfunding platforms, our service allows you to:
Access funds as they arrive, rather than in a lump sum at the end of the campaign
Spend funds for your Collective directly from the platform, rather than having the funds go through your personal bank account
Receive recurring monthly contributions
Accept tax-deductible contributions (this is a big incentive for donors)
View your Collective’s budget in full transparency
Export complete contribution and expense data in CSV documents
Receive donations, post Updates, and gain momentum—as you would while crowdfunding—without limiting your long-term reach
Unlike campaign-based crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe or Patreon, Open Collective can be a long-term home for your operations. We’re always working on new features to help you build community and accomplish your mission.
Our technology is completely open source, meaning that our source code, and every little detail about how our platform works, is freely available for modification and redistribution by the public, in this case via the MIT License.
Last updated