Rules of Procedure

Donations Policy

Adopted by the Board on 22-Sept-2020

Overview

The OWASP Foundation is a U.S. 501(c)3 and accepts donations through its website and via postal mail. Online donations are processed from the OWASP website by clicking the DONATE button as supported by OWASP Foundation staff. Various business logic has been coded into this form including:

  • Referring page titles for Chapters and Projects are used for donation attribution
  • Currency support for US Dollar, British Sterling, and EU Euros
  • Restricting donations are only supported for amounts greater than or equal to $1,000
  • Confirmation is required to submit a Restricted Donation

The website DONATE form is the sole online option for the processing and collection of donations and support.

Unrestricted Donations

Generally, all charitable donations to the OWASP Foundation are unrestricted and will be used at the sole discretion of the organization to fulfill its mission and objectives. Donors have the option to be listed as a Supporter of a Project or Chapter; however, this option does not restrict the donation in any way whatsoever.

Restricted Donations

Donations greater than or equal to $1,000 can optionally be Restricted. This practice is discouraged because of the internal accounting responsibilities for a restricted donation. Donors can indicate their restriction at the time of their online donation provided they visited the donation form by clicking the DONATE button on the respective Project, Chapter, or group. Restricted gifts are net 10% administration and processing costs. Unspent restricted donation balances become unrestricted after twelve (12) months.

Recognizing Supporters

As noted above, the Donate Form will present donors with the option to be publicly listed as a supporter of the referring Project, Chapter, or group page. By checking this option on the Form, once a donation has been made, the donor’s NAME will be appended to an online donor page for that group’s respective website repository. The placement of the donor’s name into the online donor’s file is automatic, but the Leader will need to include code to render this information on the website. This feature does not however restrict other methods of recognition that the Leaders may decide to make available. Leaders can request from staff a listing of Supporters including email and amounts of supporters.

Projects and Chapters may recognize individuals and corporations by name that have provided substantive support, financial, in-kind, or charitable on the project or chapters’ respective web page provided this recognition is on an “Acknowledgements” or “Supporters” tab. These donations will be recognized as “supporting” or “donating” to a Project or Chapter and the Foundation reserves the term “Sponsors” solely for OWASP Foundation Events. These types of public recognition shall be online no less than one year, or in the case of Project no less than the next major release, whichever is greater. In addition to listing supporters, this tab must also include “The OWASP Foundation is very grateful for the support by the individuals and organizations listed. However please note, the OWASP Foundation is strictly vendor neutral and does not endorse any of its supporters.”

Grants

The OWASP Foundation welcomes major foundation and corporate grants. Special terms apply. Please Contact Us for more information.

Sole Donation Policy

Regardless of the information or offers presented throughout the OWASP website or conveyed by its Leaders, members, staff or Directors, this page is the sole and authoritative Donation and Giving policy of the OWASP Foundation, Inc. From time to time the terms “gifts” and “donations” have been interchangeable in policies and OWASP Foundation Board of Directors motions.