How Open Collective Works

Open Collective offers a solution for communities and an open way for them to thrive. Find out how we work.

Open Collective makes it easier for people to collaborate on initiatives that make the world better - with fewer set-up and admin tasks.

But how do we do this?

The strength of every great movement is the way it brings everyone together. So we’ve built a platform that brings together all the people who want to help.

• People who want to raise awareness and make change

• People who want to help with finances and admin, and offer groups a safe place to grow

• People and businesses who want to give to great causes, and encourage others to do the same

• …and people who want to help in other ways, offering their time, skills and feedback

Open Collective gives these amazing people a place to find each other, and work together.

How It Works

People start a Collective. It could be any type of group, from a community meetup to an open source project or even a non-profit.

They want to get set up and raise money, and make decisions about spending together. But they find out it involves a lot of work. They need to obtain the right legal status, open a bank account, and keep on top of important administrative work.

So they sign up with Open Collective to ease the process.

Open Collective helps Collectives by connecting them with entities who want to support initiatives doing good work. These entities “host” the Collectives, lending them their legal status and holding their money safely in their bank account.

They also handle essential admin such as taxes, accounting and compliance.

We call these groups Fiscal Hosts.

All the Collective needs to do is sign up for the platform, and find and apply to the Fiscal Host that suits them best. If they’re accepted, they can then continue with making an impact in the world. Open Collective can help with that too. We give you the tools you need to grow your Collective - from raising awareness to setting up events and bringing in money.

And because we believe in openness, we also offer a way to share your budgets transparently. That means everyone in your Collective and your wider community can see where money is coming from - and how it’s being spent. This is particularly helpful for Collectives who are working with a Fiscal Host. Our transparent budgeting tools make it so that everyone involved in your organizing can see the status of your finances, even while your funds are being held in another entity's bank account.

We also make it easier for people to support these Collectives. You can discover Collectives, Fiscal Hosts, Project, Events and Funds using our Explore tool. Open Collective is bursting with Collectives spearheading initiatives that are doing things that matter to you, nearby or worldwide. You can then give money directly through the platform, either as a one-off or a recurring contribution.

If you’re a company looking to give to good causes, you can donate directly to one Collective, or split your donation between many. We’ll even prepare a tax-friendly summary of all your donations for the year.

Open Collective is an open source platform, which means people can help in other ways. We invite people to suggest changes to our designs, documentation and our code that can make it more user-friendly and efficient.