The developers of the Gentoo District have announced that the project will now be operating under the protection of the non-profit organization SPI (Software in the Public Interest). This move will delegate administrative tasks not related to technology to SPI, eliminating the need for maintaining a legal entity, streamlining administrative processes, and making it more attractive for commercial company donations which can now be tax-deductible in the United States.
Among its responsibilities, SPI will oversee donation reception, address legal issues, manage assets and trademarks, ensure proper storage of project funds, cover expenses, enter into contracts, conduct audits, and handle accounting. Currently, SPI oversees 44 open projects, including Debian, Arch Linux, LibreOffice, X.org, Systemd, 0.a.d, PostgreSQL, FFmpeg, freedesktop.org, OpenWrt, OpenZFS, Jenkins, and OpenEmbedded.
The Gentoo Foundation organization, which was previously only recognized as a non-profit in New Mexico but classified as a commercial organization at the federal level in the U.S., has been transformed into a federal-level non-profit organization (“501 (C) (3)”) with significant efforts and costs. It was determined that following the example of other open projects and entrusting non-technical matters to SPI would be more beneficial for Gentoo.
The old Gentoo Foundation organization will be dissolved, and its assets will be transferred to SPI. The European Gentoo E.V. organization will remain an independent legal entity, capable of representing the project’s interests within the European Union and allowing for tax deductions on donations from the EU.