PHP-FIG is, as it often happens in Open Source communities, an organization composed by volunteers only; this doesn't exclude the fact that the organization itself may have some costs to sustain itself, for example maintaining tools such as a site and an email account. For such and similar reasons, we need a way to raise and govern money inside our organization. At the same time, we will avoid soliciting and collecting donations from private individuals, while instead trying to obtain funding from commercial companies and similar entities that, due to their profit which stems from the usage of Open Source Software, should contribute to the costs of the Open Source community at large.
This document defines the roles, rules and processes that must be followed inside the PHP-FIG in all matters regarding money, to guarantee fairness, transparency and impartiality. This document intentionally describes the only allowed processes and ways to raise, administer and spend money, so that any change to such processes requires a bylaw change vote.
The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
For handling money and fiscal matters, the PHP-FIG MUST use Open Collective as a platform and Open Source Collective as a fiscal host.
All three Secretaries, but only the Secretaries, MUST have full administrative access to PHP-FIG's OpenCollective account. They SHALL NOT use those permissions in a discretionary manner, except as stated explicitly in this bylaw.
All funds MUST be collected into the Open Collective PHP-FIG account, so that any tax considerations will be handled automatically by the fiscal host, and every financial decision MUST be published and publicly available at the bottom of this document in the appropriate table and through Open Collective's budgetary tools.
PHP-FIG SHALL NOT solicit donations from any party, especially from private individuals; all exceptions to this rule MUST be listed below.
Direct contributions MUST NOT be accepted through Open Collective, to avoid private/personal donations; the collective home page MUST be set up in a way that:
Contributions SHALL be accepted through TideLift. All three Secretaries, but only the Secretaries, MUST have full administrative access to PHP-FIG's TideLift account, which MUST be configured to pay out to the Open Collective account.
Funds donated to the PHP-FIG MUST be used solely for non-personnel, operating expenses. PHP-FIG SHALL NOT pay individual contributors to PHP-FIG standards or other personnel, like Core Committee members, Secretaries, Project Representatives or working groups. All expenses MUST be approved by an Approval Vote of the Core Committee. The expense MUST include whether it is one time or recurring and at which frequency. All expenses MUST be justified by their contribution to the mission of PHP-FIG. In response to supplier price changes for previously accepted recurring expenses, Secretaries MAY request Implicit Approval from the Core Committee to raise the approved amount, only if that does not exceed a 10% increase.
Expenses approved by the Core Committee MUST be listed below, and reported in the Open Collective budget.
PHP-FIG SHOULD maintain financial reserves to account for three years of the currently approved budget. At least once a year, any surplus funds MUST be forwarded to the PHP Foundation, as a way to further support the PHP ecosystem.
This section will contain a chronological list of approved budgeting decisions, either recurring or not.
As an exception to Votes Bylaw, changes to this section only SHOULD NOT trigger a Bylaw Change Vote, but only an Approval Vote by the Core Committee, as explained in the "Spending Money" section.
| Approved since | Expense | Provider | Approved amount and frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-09-14 | Two Domains (php-fig.com and php-fig.org) |
Namecheap | Up to 15 USD / year per domain |
| 2023-09-14 | Email account (info@php-fig.org) |
Namecheap | Up to 15 USD / year |