Open Collective
transparent fiscal hosting for unincorporated groups
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Company | Open Collective |
| URL | opencollective.com |
| Pricing | varies— Fee is set by whichever Fiscal Host a collective joins (commonly cited range
roughly 4-10%, some hosts free); Open Collective's own platform software is open source and does not charge separately from the host's fee |
| License | open |
| Hosting | cloud |
Transparent money-management platform built specifically for unincorporated groups: a "Fiscal Host" (typically an existing nonprofit) legally holds funds and handles compliance and tax filings on the group's behalf, so the group itself never needs to incorporate or open its own bank account. Every transaction is publicly visible on the collective's page by default.
Usage Notes
What it does for us: no incorporation needed -- a Fiscal Host (a separate org that already has legal/tax-exempt status) holds the money and handles compliance on our behalf, so we can raise, publicly track, and spend funds now, pre-501(c)(3). A host still has to agree to take us on; each sets its own fee and eligibility policy.
Caveat: as of 2026 there's no easy general-cause US host left on the Open Collective platform itself -- Open Collective Foundation, formerly the obvious pick, dissolved its fiscal-sponsor program in 2024. The only host still on-platform, Open Source Collective, is OSS-only (fits our tooling projects, not the broader mission) -- a general-cause host means looking outside the Open Collective platform.
If we later incorporate: funds can generally only transfer to another 501(c)(3), not to a for-profit or an individual. Whether a host will let us use raised funds toward our own incorporation costs (e.g. attorney fees) is untested -- ask directly, don't assume.
Scale: most-recent figures found in this research pass are from 2019 (platform funds raised grew from $1.6M to $4M+ that year alone, across thousands of collectives) -- stale by 2026 standards. Check Open Collective's own "Discover" page directly for current totals before relying on this for a decision.