<p>
SPI (Software in the Public Interest) is a non-profit corporation
registered in the state of New York founded to act as a fiscal sponsor
for organizations that develop open source software and hardware. For
details check here:
<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/">www.spi-inc.org</a>
</p>

<p>
FFmpeg is an SPI associated project and donations can be collected and
handled by SPI on behalf of FFmpeg. For details about the association
check here:
<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/ffmpeg/">www.spi-inc.org/projects/ffmpeg/</a>
</p>

<br>

<h4>How to request refunds from SPI:</h4>
<p>
Send a mail to the ffmpeg-devel mailing-list with the [REFUND-REQUEST] tag and a short
description of the refund topic in the subject.
</p>

<p>
In the mail, you also need to provide the amount to be refunded, with
a short description of how the money was spent.
</p>

<p>
There is no need and is not recommeded to send receipts when sending
the refund request on the ffmpeg-devel mailing-list, but they are
usually needed later when the request is approved and the refund
request is sent to SPI:
<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/reimbursement-form/">www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/reimbursement-form</a>
</p>

<br>
<h4>What can be payed by SPI:</h4>
<p>
FFmpeg money collected at SPI can be used for any purpose which is in line with
501(c)3 nonprofit rules, and within our mission (Free & Open Source software).
</p>

<p>
In practice we frequently payed for travel and hardware.
For other refund expenses or sponsorships, it is recommended to
discuss them beforehand on ffmpeg-devel. If there is a community
agreement on their approval, the current FFmpeg liaison will followup
to get an approval on the SPI side.
</p>


<br>
<h4>Funding active development by SPI:</h4>
<p>
The texts below have been taken from multiple replies FFmpeg has
received from SPI, they have been edited
so that "I" was replaced by "SPI" in some cases.)
</p>
<p>
Paying for development *does* require substantial
additional paperwork, but it is not prohibited.
</p>
<p>
Several SPI projects pay contractors for development
efforts.  SPI needs a contract in place which describes the work to be
done.  There are also various things SPI needs to check about the potential
contractors (e.g. are they a US person or not, as with GSoC mentor payments;
are they really a contractor and not a employee).
</p>
<p>
SPI can't deal with employment at the moment because that involves a
lot of work, like health insurance, tax withholding, etc.  Contractors
are easier because they have to take care of that themselves; Whether
someone is a contractor vs employee depends on various factors (that
of course are different in every country) and can be disputed (see
e.g. the debate about whether Uber drivers are employees); SPI has a
questionnaire about their circumstances.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all when dealing with
contractors, especially without knowing the contributor's country.
</p>
<p>
SPI does have some contract templates which depends on the contractors
country. In case of US, Australia, France and a couple others
countries, SPI can easily provide them, otherwise SPI would need to
ask their attorney to draft one, which would take some time.
</p>
<p>
Also, SPI has two models, Master Service Agreements (which transfers ownership)
and Continued Service Agreements (which grants a license instead). SPI usually
sends the MSA (it's better for most purposes), but for development purposes,
some projects prefer that the contractor retains ownership rights.
</p>

<br><br>

