LibreOffice Raises 10000 Euros for Foundation in One Day

The Document Foundation announced their intention of becoming a legal non-profit foundation to allow it to accept donations and financial assistance as well as pay employees and rent without having to suffer the tax liabilities levied upon businesses. Since startup capital is required, they began asking for donations to reach their goal. And so far, so good.

The plan to form a legal foundation was mentioned a while back but not widely announced until February 16. By that time a donation mechanism was instituted and outlined on The Document Foundation Blog. Florian Effenberger, founding member of The Document Foundation, said they've decide to apply in Germany where €50,000 in startup funds are considered necessary. That's where the community comes in. They need help raising that sum.

Florian Effenberger explains, "We have seen wide support from many organizations, and the amount of volunteer work that has been put into The Document Foundation is just amazing. Without people donating their free time, knowledge and creativity to what will be the future home of LibreOffice, we wouldn’t be where we are today. However, volunteer work alone can’t fund the necessary capital stock, which is why we have started a public race for donations, especially targeting contributions from enterprises and public administrations adopting LibreOffice, and those interested in an independent, vital and growing ecosystem around free office productivity software."

The fund raiser, which appears to have begun yesterday, is set to run through March 31. If the fund raiser did actually begin yesterday then the raising of €10,000 as of today is amazing. If community support for LibreOffice was ever in doubt, this should surely dispel them.

If you'd like to contribute funds to the foundation formation see http://challenge.documentfoundation.org. For those in the US, 1.00 EUR equals 1.35959 USD (or 1 USD equals 0.735517 EUR) today.