Setting up your Account

Setting up an Open Collective account enables you to keep a record of all your activity, and build your community

Creating an Open Collective account enables you to:

• Track your activity as an individual, and across any Collectives or organizations you’re involved with

• Support other Collectives and causes on the platform

• Connect with other groups

You can customize your account by adding a profile image, filling in your role, and social media accounts.

Creating your account

When you’re ready to create your account, navigate to the Open Collective Website, click on the “sign in” button, and select “create an account”. You can then fill in your name and email address.

Filling in your account information

Once you have an account, the next step is to add more information about yourself. Navigate to your Dashboard > Settings > Info. This will bring up a form where you can add details such as:

• Display name: This is the name that will appear whenever this profile is visible to the public, such as in comments, updates, and on public contributions and expenses.

• Legal name (optional): Fill this in if your legal name is different from your display name. This will only be shared with admins and included on documents such as tax forms and receipts.

• Company name: Use this field to display your affiliations publicly. Start with @ to mention an organization registered on Open Collective, e.g., @airbnb.

• Short description: Include a summary of what you do and what you’re trying to achieve. Make it as straightforward and enjoyable as possible.

• Handle: A handle is the URL of your webpage on Open Collective. Choose one that is easy for your community to remember.

• Currency: Your preferred currency.

• Tags: Select keywords, themes, and areas that apply to you, so that people who share your mission can find you.

• Website/Social Links: Link to your Website, GitHub repository, or other social media accounts (e.g., Discord, Discourse, Facebook, Ghost, Git Repository, GitHub, GitLab, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Mattermost, Meetup, Peertube, Pixelfed, Slack, TikTok, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube).

• Location: Your Location can be where you are providing support. For example, your legal address might be in Los Angeles, but you primarily offer support to groups in Ukraine. Therefore, we advise you to say 'Ukraine' here.

• Address: Your Address should be your registered address. For example, if you are a Los Angeles-based collective providing support to Ukraine, your location should be your legal street address, Los Angeles, California. (This will appear on your receipts.)

You also have a range of advanced options, such as changing your email, improving account security, adding payment methods, viewing payment receipts, customizing the order of your profile page, enabling two-factor authentication, and setting up gift cards, authorized apps, and developer extras.

Don’t forget to save your changes, and take care before editing or deleting any essential sections.

Your Display and Legal Names

Since budgets on the Open Collective platform are public, your name will appear if you make a contribution or are paid through the platform. If you do not wish to use your name, you can set your Display Name to a pseudonym of your choice.

This pseudonym must not contain any inappropriate language that breaks our community standards.

However, we still require you to provide your Legal Name for use in receipts, tax forms, payment details, and other non-public admin documents. This name will not be displayed publicly on the platform. Your legal name identifies you to the admins of the Collectives and Fiscal Hosts you interact with, as well as the necessary staff at Open Collective.

You can edit this information by navigating to your Dashboard > Settings > Info.

Payment Methods

You can choose a payment method while completing a transaction (such as giving to a collective), or you can save a payment method to your account from your settings page to save time.

We use global payment provider Stripe to process your transactions, and do not store any credit card numbers ourselves. This is to ensure your details are as secure as possible.

To learn more about setting up payment methods on the platform, visit our Payment Methods page.

Changing your email address

To change your email address, navigate to your Dashboard > Profile > Settings > Advanced and enter your preferred new email address. We will send a confirmation email to that address for verification.