Evan ProdromouJul 17, 2023

FUND FOR THE BLACK-RUN FEDIVERSE

UPDATE: GoFundMe shut this down. It's a long story.

Please instead donate directly to these great fediverse projects led by and for Black people.

https://www.patreon.com/Wibblur/ is Social Media by the people, for the people

https://www.patreon.com/andcomputers is making blacktwitter.io

https://blackqueer.life/ is a welcoming community for all Black queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media Ro is making a new way to social media

Patreon

Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!

Patreon
Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 17, 2023

GoFundMe shut down this fundraising campaign for violating their terms, in particular "Prohibited conduct".

https://www.gofundme.com/c/terms

I don't have any more details from GFM, but my guess is that the description wasn't clear enough, or just didn't vibe with their work.

In the setup for a campaign they say you can raise funds to distribute to others, but I guess this particular case rings alarm bells.

Anyway, please check below for ways to help out!

UPDATE: they don't allow giving grants.

GoFundMe Terms of Service

Read GoFundMe's Terms of Service

GoFundMe
Show threadEvan Prodromou

Here's what I sent to GFM:

So, can I talk to someone about what happened here?

I’m an Open Source software developer and community leader. I was trying to raise funds to support some of the great Black-led projects in my area of software development (federated social networking).

At sign-up, it said I could find people to give funds to; it didn’t have to be defined at the beginning.

I was surprised to see the fund shut down.

[cont'd...]

Jul 17, 2023 at 8:33pmWeb
Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 17, 2023

[...]

Is there something I could change to make this campaign suitable for GoFundMe? Or am I banned from the platform now?

Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 17, 2023

Here's what they sent back!

'GoFundMe cannot process payments for "annuities, investments, equity or lottery contracts, lay-away systems, off-shore banking or similar transactions, money transfer services (including currency exchanges, check cashing or the like), debt collection or crypto-currencies."'

[cont'd]

Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 17, 2023

This includes using GoFundMe for investors to contribute to a business or for any venture that offers a return on investment.

Additionally, GoFundMe donations cannot be treated as loans and organizers cannot offer to pay back their donors.

Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 17, 2023

The only thing I can think of is that the last two paragraphs of the description (same as the start of this thread) are like: give some money if you have it, ask for money if you need it.

That might have triggered their idea that this was some kind of sneaky financial scam.

Show threadHippy SteveJul 17, 2023
@evan I suspect they think its to fund a for-profit business venture due to a lack of understanding regarding federated social media. perhaps it would have been less suspect if couched in terms more similar to say a public radio station for an underserved community.
Show threadEmelia 👸🏻Jul 17, 2023

@evan yeah, funding sites are particularly difficult to deal with in this way, for a variety of reasons.

You're probably better off finding existing funds (e.g., @Are0h's campaign) and amplifying those, rather than to act as a middle-person between funders and fund recipients.

Show threadKevin Teljeur ❄️Jul 18, 2023
@evan That’s very unfortunate. This is a wonderful hoisting/rebalancing initiative to help people who are finding it hard to get a foothold in this space.
Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 18, 2023
@kevinteljeur thanks. We'll figure it out!
Show threadKevin Teljeur ❄️Jul 18, 2023
@evan 👊
Show threadRob BosJul 18, 2023

@evan That sounds like a plausible interpretation. To them it might have read like "we're trying to fund our social media business". I don't doubt they have to deal with a lot of scams.

This is a very copypaste answer, I doubt any thought went into it.

Show threadOpenDNA⚙️Jul 19, 2023

@evan Frame your GFM as raising donations for a grant-making fund dedicated to increasing racial diversity in the fediverse. Then you can list "projects we support". Even better if you can find a sympathetic non-profit to hold the bank account.

I expect you'll need to get the text tight because it's 100% going to get reported by some bullet-head.

Show threadyour auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦Jul 17, 2023
@evan maybe this is an opportunity to ask around about open collective and see how they fit as service or even a partner?
Show threadBoris MannJul 17, 2023

@blogdiva @evan yep, Open Collective is good for this, including being able to directly have sub-projects, if so desired.

It's mostly about finding a fiscal host to accept you.

Show threadyour auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦Jul 17, 2023
@boris @evan interesting, thanks. so they don't do the fiduciary thing? they're just a middle people? or like a bank?
Show threadBoris MannJul 17, 2023

@blogdiva @evan or depends ;)

They are a full stack software platform. They have several fiscal hosts of their own in different countries, focused on open source.

Fiscal hosts can sign up use the platform and serve groups of people who don’t even need an org or bank account, or, if you’re an active organization with a bank account, you can just use the tools directly.

Show threadO! ver Jul 17, 2023
@evan Do you mention that the money is dedicated mostly to host free services on a web server?
Show threadEvan ProdromouJul 17, 2023
@olireiv you saw the previous post that had the content of my email right?
Show threadO! ver Jul 17, 2023
@evan Yes, but GoFundMe (or the poorly paid Global South moderator) doesn't necessarily know what Mastodon is.