Introduction

Luanti has joined Open Collective Europe (OCE), a non-profit based in Belgium that provides fiscal hosting to open source projects. OCE hosts many notable projects, including EndeavourOS, F-Droid, and postmarketOS. Joining OCE allows Luanti to operate like a non-profit and unlocks many new opportunities.

You can donate to Luanti’s non-profit collective at https://opencollective.com/luanti.

Why Open Collective Europe?

It has long been a goal to set Luanti up as a non-profit organization. However, creating and managing a non-profit entity is both time-consuming and expensive. Non-profit fiscal hosts allow projects to raise money like a non-profit, but without the overhead of managing a full non-profit organization themselves.

We chose Open Collective Europe because it is well-respected and is based in Europe (like much of the Luanti organization). Open Collective Europe also uses the Open Collective platform for fundraising and expenses, which provides a high level of transparency. If we decide to set up a full non-profit organization in the future, we will still be able to transfer any balance from Open Collective Europe to the new organization.

Open Collective Europe is equivalent to a US 501(c)3 non-profit. This means it is a charity for public benefit and can receive grants from US foundations. Donations to Luanti from US-based individuals and foundations may be tax-deductible.

How has Luanti been funded in the past?

There are many hidden expenses behind Luanti, such as servers for hosting essential services like the server list, ContentDB, and the forums. So far, these expenses have been paid by the responsible staff members, some of whom accept donations to cover their costs.

Luanti has also had a stand at FOSDEM 2024 and 2025. Attending FOSDEM costs us roughly €3000 each year in merchandise, promotional materials, travel, and accommodations. Some of this money was raised by rubenwardy via private support, while the rest was from other non-profit organizations (Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation, Italian Linux Society, and Wikimedia Italy) agreeing to pay expenses.

Joining OCE relieves the individual burden of fundraising and covering costs.

What are our plans for the future?

Promoting Luanti and bringing the community together

We are hoping to return to FOSDEM with a stand in 2026, and would also like to arrange a small Luanti meetup that Saturday. We may also use donations to fund local meetups, hackathons, and other conferences.

Supporting development

Open Collective Europe allows us to pay people as freelancers. One day, we would love to have a full-time developer working on Luanti. In the short-term, we may pay specialists such as a UI/UX designer or a user researcher to work on the main menu.

Being part of a non-profit also allows us to apply for certain grants available for open source software, which could be used to fund feature development.

Transparency and community involvement

We welcome community involvement with the new collective. If you have any thoughts or ideas, feel free to share them.

The Open Collective platform makes all contributions and expenses public. We’ll also post a yearly update summarizing our finances.

We are currently in the process of creating governance and expenditure polices. If you have experience with this or know of people or projects that do, we welcome your input.

How much of my donation goes to Luanti?

From the Open Collective Europe docs:

Open Collective Europe charges a standard administrative fee:

• 8% for most contributions (plus card processing fees)

  • 1.5% + €0.25 for European cards
  • 2.5% + €0.25 for non-European cards

• 10% if your Collective:

  • Receives a grant or sponsorship
  • Receives a tax-deductible donation
  • Receives a public subsidy
  • Receives a manual bank transfer

The administration fees go to the Open Collective Europe foundation to cover their overheads. Part of the fees go to the Open Collective platform.

We would likely lose more than 10% if we were to manage our own non-profit organization, so we believe this is fair.

How can I support Luanti?

You can donate to Luanti’s non-profit collective at https://opencollective.com/luanti.