Partnering with NGOs

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    Reason: FroDev is defunct. Dennis Roczek (talk) 2014-10-13T10:49:31 (UTC)

    At this page we want to collect idease how to establish partnership with NGOs (or associations in general).

    We are going to focus on four topics:

    1. General types of NGOs / associations to partner with
    2. needs of the different types of NGos / associations
    3. basic rules / framework at TDF including criteria for partnership
    4. list of interested NGOs / associations

    Discussion was initiated by Sophie at discuss@documentfoundation.org.

    Types of existing associations

    (quoting Sophie's initial mail)

    We have determined three types of association currently existing :

    1) Rare and particular case dedicated to a development or a one-time activity, it has no representation role before TDF or LibreOffice but interacts and serves the Foundation purpose. Example: The Document Machinery which is a NGO under the French law 1901 dedicated to a particular development.

    2) Enterprise or business association (and we are clearly speaking of associations) which is a more common type than the 1st one. On a case by case meaning, specific representation could be granted concerning TDF. In the same way, particular relationship could be defined with The Document Foundation. There is so many types and so many different laws that can be taken into account here that it would be very difficult imho to draw a common set of rules for this type of relationship, we could however define a checklist or a template that would help to write the rules. But clearly, the background laying idea is if the TDF name is involved for raising money, there should be some fair way for the Foundation to benefit from it.

    3) The classical NGOs supporting local communities and activities. They have no direct representation of TDF. Most of the time they need an official recognition or an endorsement of their activities by TDF. They need also clear guidelines of what they are able to do and how they interact with the Foundation or another particular case like 1 or 2 above, or also a particular product (LibreOffice for the moment, but that can be LOOL, etc.).


    needs of the different types of associations

    • representing TDF
    • a specific "partner" logo
    • selling TDF /LibreOffice related merchandise

    basic rules for partnering

    • you should be a Not for profit NGO, that is, not a private or public company. We stress on the difference between a NGO and an entity whose aim is to generate profit for its owners through trade and commercial services. If you are a company or feel you might not be eligible to qualify as a potential partner NGO we suggest you consider joining our Advisory Board. On the other hand if you are as a person a member of the Document Foundation or you have employees who are members of the Document Foundation your entity might get sufficient visibility.
    • your purpose should be to serve the goals of the Document Foundation and the interest of the LibreOffice project.
    • you should acknowledge and accept the rules outline in our community bylaws
    • you may claim that you are representing the Document Foundation in your specific area of expertise although the Document Foundation reserves the right to overrule this representation if it feels actions based on this representativity were not serving the interests and the goals of the Document Foundation.
    • the "area of expertise" is defined either as the geographical area the NGO is covering or the specific focus (professionals representativity) of expertise the NGO is covering.
    • the NGO cannot substitute itself to TDF on the LibreOffice project itself.
    • there is no exclusivity in the representativity granted by TDF to the NGO. The authorization might be withdrawn by TDF at any time
    • "Representativity" or "Representation" is defined as the ability for the NGO to use the full TDF and LibreOffice logos and call itself an "official TDF Partner".
    • In the case the NGO would like to sell TDF branded merchandise through its own store it is possible to do so however a revenue sharing model should be devised between TDF and the NGO beforehand.
    • The NGO might collect donations on behalf of TDF as well; in this case a specific donation sharing model should be defined between TDF and the NGO.

    list of interested associations

    name / website legal form focus general description relation to TDF
    La Mouette Non-for-profit French association France La Mouette supports Open Productivity Suites implementing OpenDocument Format and specially LibreOffice and The Document Foundation. La Mouette provides means and legal frame to French speaking Community to participate to or organize events. 5 members of La Mouette (4 founding members) are TDF members. La Mouette as acted as local intermediary for the organization of LibreOffice conference in Paris. La Mouette promotes LibreOffice in several Frenchs annual events : RMLL (Strasbourg in 2011), Solutions Linux (Paris), JDLL (Lyon).
    ALTA - Associação Libre de Tecnologias Abertas Non-for-profit Brazilian civil association Brazil ALTA objective is to be an excellency center to support and develop initiatives for the Brazilian open source communities and open standards for document interchange, through activities in research and development, professional education, and to enable technological development and knowledge transmission.

    ALTA also have social objectives to incentive, sponsor, execute and support innovation, scientific and technological development, management, services, technology transfer, by executing studies, research and development of alternate technologies in open source, that contributes for the governance of information technologies of organizations, for the digital inclusion and the people's integration.

    • 2 founding members of ALTA are also TDF founding members. ALTA also has 3 more TDF members (2011).
    • ALTA will shelter the FOSS Development Center of Itaipu Binacional, inside Parque Tecnológico Itaipu, which will develop FOSS projects and LibreOffice in particular.
    • ALTA members have promoted LibreOffice and TDF all over Brazil in 2011 as indicated by the South America Events wiki page
    TLM - The Learning Machine Ltd Private limited company User skills certification and associated supporting technologies Awarding Organisation Accredited by the UK Government and endorsed by the UK Sector Skills Council for Business and ICT. Leader in three EU transfer of innovation projects related to the European Qualifications Framework and Lifelong Learning. Long standing supporters of the OOo code base and many friends in the wider community. Interested in official membership of the LibO community either as individuals or corporately but not sure whether we would qualify as at present we are very busy getting our open source certification programme established and it is taking all resources to do it.
    The Document Machinery Association Loi 1901 fund raising and management of specific projects for the Document Foundation the association "Document Machinery" is a french NGO aiming at collecting funds to allow the development of specific projects on behalf of the Document Foundation, such as LibreOffice OnLine the name and the logo have been designed specifically to convey the notion that the NGO is very close to the Document Foundation. Charles-H.Schulz is among his founders. The NGO was set up to organize fund raising on projects such as LibreOffice OnLine and LibreOffice on tablets