A new chapter for Open Collective
Published on October 29, 2024 by Xavier Damman
Hi everyone,
As you have seen in our latest announcement, The Open Collective Platform is Moving to a Community Governed Non-profit and I'm returning as the CEO of Open Collective Inc.
As you have seen in our latest announcement, The Open Collective Platform is Moving to a Community Governed Non-profit and I'm returning as the CEO of Open Collective Inc.
I started Open Collective back in 2015 (9 years ago already, time flies!) to solve a simple problem: how do we enable communities to receive and spend money transparently and effortlessly?
The Internet gave us the ability to collaborate (e.g. to build open source projects) and to come together in real life (by organizing local meetups). But we donāt have an Internet solution to receive money as a community.
Collectives as virtual entities
My first idea was to apply what we had learned with the development of the world wide web. In the early days, every website had to have their own web server. Then we realized that itās a bit of a waste of time to require everyone to learn about web hosting. So we started sharing. If I know how to host a website, I may as well host yours. This greatly reduced the friction to start websites and the web started growing exponentially šøļø
The first version of Open Collective was exactly that; a software platform to share existing non-profits so that you donāt have to create one for every single project / collective in your community.
We ended up creating 3 non-profits to showcase the platform: Open Source Collective 501c6 for open source communities around the world, Open Collective Foundation 501c3 for charitable projects in the US and Open Collective Europe ASBL.
Fast forward to 2024, more than 3,500 collectives are using the platform. Collectively, they have raised more than $100M (discover them).
The initial business model was to share the revenue with the non-profits that provide that service to collectives for a fee (we call them fiscal hosts). It was a great way to start as you align incentives, but as fiscal hosts started growing, it became unsustainable. It didnāt make sense for them to share 50/50 their income to a for-profit entity where they donāt have a seat.
So we decided to move the current version of Open Collective to a new non-profit, spearheaded by the team that lead Open Collective in the past few years (Pia Mancini, FranƧois Hodierne and Ben Nickolls). That way, fiscal hosts can collectively own the software that they depend on.
But the original mission of Open Collective is not over. We havenāt figured out yet how to create organizations for the Internet Age. There cannot just be 3,500 collectives. Organizing ourselves as LLCs, corporations or event non-profits doesnāt feel right. Those were the vehicles for the Industrial Age. They were meant for a different terrain. They are built around hierarchies and competition, in a world with infinite resources and unlimited growth. Their bookkeeping ātheir dashboardā only measures a single currency, their ābottom lineā. We need new vehicles. We say that āwe cannot discover a new world with an old mapā, Iād add: āwe cannot move to the new world with old vehiclesā ššØ.
Real life experiences
When Pia replaced me as CEO back in 2018, I ended up moving back to Brussels and getting myself quite involved with climate movements. With my partner Leen Schelfhout, we created a new fiscal host for climate projects: allforclimate.earth. We worked with Gitcoin to create a climate round and help many of those projects raise money with crypto. Today allforclimate is hosting more than 270+ projects around Europe.
We also created numerous collectives ourselves: the Citizen Garden (guerilla garden in front of our garage door), Citizen Corner (temporary occupation at the corner of our street), DAO.brussels (web3 community in Brussels), Regens Unite (bringing together climate activists, tech people, healers, working on regeneration) and more recently Citizen Wallet (open source wallet for community currencies) and the Commons Hub Brussels (a common for the commons).
š Read: When citizens spring
šŗ Watch: Greenpill podcast on Regens Unite
Through all of those projects (all on open collective), I experienced the limitation of human organizations that only accounts for a single scarce currency (euros or dollars).
Turns out enabling collectives to receive and spend money was only one part of the problem. The latest saga with Wordpress illustrates this perfectly. Communities need more than just money to sustain themselves. They also need contributors and a way to balance āMakers and Takersā (see this excellent blog post of Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal and one of our angel investors, on the topic: Solving the Maker-Taker problem).
Next iteration
So we need a new form of organization that will take into account more than one currency, more than one way to contribute. We already have some examples around us. Supermarket cooperatives such as Park Slope in Brooklyn or the Bees Coop in Brussels show us a future where you need more than dollars or euros to have access to what the community has to offer. Online, we see the emergence of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, I like to refer to them as digital cooperatives). As they say: āthe future is already present, itās just not evenly distributed yetā.
Iām excited to be back to explore how we can bring that future closer to the present. Thatās my role as an entrepreneur. Thatās my contribution to this global movement āthis murmurationā to find a new way to organize and coordinate human society in this Internet Age.
How can we enable collectives to embrace more than one currency? How can we enable collectives to take into account more than one way to contribute? How can we change the incentives to better balance āMakers and Takersā? How can we build organizations that regenerate our human & natural resources instead of depleting them? What are the tools that they need? Those are the main questions that we will be living with in this next chapter of Open Collective.
Those are also the questions that we are living with every day at the Commons Hub Brussels. It will be our testing ground to experiment and iterate quickly to build a great platform to support online and offline communities that manage common resources.
How could Open Collective be useful for your project and for your community? Iām interested to hear your story, your needs and your perspective on what Internet native organizations should look like. Share your thoughts in this form.
Competition was the game of the Industrial Age. Corporations were our vehicles. Cooperation is the game of the Internet Age. Cooperatives will be our vehicles.
But not the old dusty ones based on bureaucracy that are hard to set up and manage. We need a new generation of cooperatives, Internet native ones, as easy to create and manage than a blog, a GitHub repo, a Discord server or a WhatsApp group[1].
I'm looking forward to working together with the community to continue this journey.
I'm looking forward to working together with the community to continue this journey.
[1] Nathan Schneider and Trebor Scholz were onto something with their idea of āPlatform Cooperativismā (see my thread on their first conference in NYC in 2015). A great idea whose time has (finally) come, now that we have thanks to web3 a shared global infrastructure to share ownership.
Special thanks š
Thank you to Pia Mancini, FranƧois Hodierne, Ben Nickolls for stewarding the new non-profit and making sure that the current community of open collectives is well taken care of.
Thank you Babette De Fauw, Marco Gerletti for stewarding allforclimate.earth, canāt wait to work with you to support more regenerative collectives.
Thank you Albert Wenger and Susan Gigi Danziger for your support in the past few years to develop open source tools for climate projects and local communities š
Thank you Leen Schelfhout for completing me so well. You opened my world in the past 5 years to new dimensions š
Thank you Kevin Sundar Raj, Jonas Boury for your work on the Citizen Wallet. Itās another piece of the puzzle š§©
Thank you Aseem Sood for coming back to Open Collective as a board member. It fills me with joy to work again with you on what is a journey of a lifetime.
Thank you Charles Eisenstein, Bernard Lietaer, Elinor Ostrom, Kate Raworth, Margaret Wheatley for inspiring me through your books š
Thank you everyone who has been contributing to the various collectives we started over the years. Your contributions mattered in ways that you cannot imagine (our neighbors in Schaerbeek, DAO.Brussels, Regens Unite community). Community is immunity š
ā¤ļøĀ Ā 3šĀ Ā 2
Ā
"Great read! Certified Reference Materials are indeed essential for accurate lab results. By the way, has anyone tried the new chipotle menu with prices l? Itās my go-to lunch break meal!
Ā P.S. If anyoneās curious about budget-friendly meals, check out https://mcdsmenuprices.co.uk/ for some great options!"
Ā
Ā
The Open Collective Platform is moving to a community-governed non-profit, marking an exciting new chapter for the platform and its users. Alongside this important change, Iām returning as the CEO of Open Collective Inc., ready to lead the company with renewed focus and commitment. This transition reflects our shared vision to provide a community-owned home for the platform, its team, and the countless collectives it serves. While embracing this new direction, we remain dedicated to supporting our mission and innovation in open collaboration. Meanwhile, if you are also interested in powerful and trusted tools, be sure to check out options like Delta Executor for PC with easy access to the latest versions by following the download for pc link.Ā
This is great news! Moving Open Collective to a community-governed nonprofit feels like a strong step back to its original mission, and your return as CEO reinforces that vision. As someone who follows transparent, community-driven platforms like Jojoy Hub official, Iām excited to see how this next chapter strengthens openness and support for grassroots initiatives.Ā
Ā A new chapter for Open Collective feels both exciting and meaningful. When I started the platform back in 2015āhard to believe itās been nine years alreadyāthe mission was simple: make it easy for communities to receive and spend money transparently. The internet gave us the power to collaborate on open-source projects and gather through local meetups, yet there was still no clear, digital-first solution for managing shared community funds. This gap is exactly what Open Collective set out to solve. And just as the platform continues to evolve, Iāve seen similar progress in other digital tools that prioritize accessibility, like delta executor apk, which streamlines complex tasks into a smooth, user-friendly experience. Both represent how modern technology can simplify collective action and empower communities to operate with greater transparency.Ā
Ā This is an inspiring update! Itās amazing to see Open Collective move toward a community-governed model while staying true to its original mission. Your vision from 2015 still resonates today ā communities need transparent, modern ways to manage resources, especially as collaboration continues to evolve. It reminds me of how local service-based platforms likeĀ PestiXpert Pest Control in Ontario focus on building trust and transparency in their own industries as well. Excited to see how this transition empowers more open-source and community-driven groups. Congratulations on returning as CEO and guiding the platform into this new era!Ā
Ā What a powerful milestone for Open Collective! Seeing the platform shift toward a community-governed model while staying true to its original mission is truly inspiring. The vision you set back in 2015 still holds strong today ā communities genuinely need transparent, modern ways to manage shared resources as collaboration keeps evolving. It reminds me of how thoughtful, long-term care can impact the lifespan of horse ownership: trust, stewardship, and consistency always create lasting strength. Iām excited to watch this transition empower even more open-source and community-driven groups. Congratulations on returning as CEO and leading the platform into a bold new era!Ā
on
Ā