Sponsors and institutional partners#

The Random Variables Council are the primary leadership for the project. No outside institution, individual or legal entity has the ability to own, control, usurp or influence the project other than by participating in the Project as Contributors and Council Members. However, because financial and institutional support is an important funding mechanism for the project, it is important to formally acknowledge it.

ArviZ uses two figures to acknowledge financial and institutional support: sponsors and institutional partners. Both can have “active” and “inactive” status.

We use the sponsor figure for entities who provide direct financial support, institutional partners for entities who employ an ArviZ contributor and let them work on the project as part of their official duties.

Sponsors#

Sponsors are entities that provide direct financial support. The minimum level of support given to ArviZ to be considered a Sponsor are:

$10,000/yr for unrestricted financial contributions (e.g., donations)
$20,000/yr for financial contributions for a particular purpose (e.g., grants)

We define support being “active” as:

for a one-off donation: it was received within the previous 12 months,
for recurring contributions: they should be ongoing.

After support moves from “active” to “inactive” status, the acknowledgement will be left in its place for at least another 6 months. If appropriate, the funding team can discuss opportunities for renewal with the sponsor. After those 6 months, acknowledgement may be moved to the historical overview. The exact timing of this move is at the discretion of the funding team, because there may be reasons to keep it in the more prominent place for longer.

The rationale for the above funding levels is that unrestricted financial contributions are typically the most valuable for the project, and the hardest to obtain. Financial support at or above these levels is needed to be able to make a significant difference.

Sponsors will get acknowledged through:

Institutional Partners#

Institutional Partners are entities that employ a Project Contributor and let them work on the project as part of their official duties.

An Institutional Contributor is any individual Project Contributor who contributes to the project as part of their official duties at an Institutional Partner. Likewise, an Institutional Council Member is any Random Variables Council Member who contributes to the project as part of their official duties at an Institutional Partner.

With these definitions, an Institutional Partner is any recognized legal entity that employs at least 1 Institutional Contributor of Institutional Council Member. Institutional Partners can be for-profit or non-profit entities.

Institutions become eligible to become an Institutional Partner by employing individuals who actively contribute to The Project as part of their official duties. To state this another way, the only way for a Partner to influence the project is by actively contributing to the open development of the project, in equal terms to any other member of the community of Contributors and Council Members. Merely using Project Software in institutional context does not allow an entity to become an Institutional Partner. Financial gifts do not enable an entity to become an Institutional Partner, to be recognized for financial gifts see Sponsors. Once an institution becomes eligible for Institutional Partnership, the RV Council must nominate and approve the Partnership.

If at some point an existing Institutional Partner stops having any contributing employees, then a one year grace period commences. If at the end of this one year period they continue not to have any contributing employees, then their Institutional Partnership will lapse, and resuming it will require going through the normal process for new Partnerships.

An Institutional Partner is free to pursue funding for their work on The Project through any legal means. This could involve a non-profit organization raising money from private foundations and donors or a for-profit company building proprietary products and services that leverage Project Software and Services. Funding acquired by Institutional Partners to work on The Project is called Institutional Funding. However, no funding obtained by an Institutional Partner can override the RV Council. If a Partner has funding to do ArviZ work and the Council decides to not pursue that work as a project, the Partner is free to pursue it on their own. However in this situation, that part of the Partner’s work will not be under the ArviZ umbrella and cannot use the Project trademarks in a way that suggests a formal relationship.

Institutional Partner benefits are:

All sponsor benefits
Ability to acknowledge their own funding sources on the ArviZ websites
Ability to influence the project through the participation of their Institutional Contributors or Council Members.

The minimum amount of paid maintainer time needed to be considered for partnership is roughly in line with the sponsorship levels:

2 person-months/yr of paid work time for one or more ArviZ contributors to any ArviZ activity

Historical funding acknowledgement#

All current and previous sponsors, partners, and any other entities and individuals who provided $3,000 or more of financial or in-kind support will be acknowledged in the Historical funding page. This page will include relevant details of support (dates, amounts, names, and purpose); no logos will be used on this page. The rationale for the $3,000 minimum level is to keep the amount of work maintaining the page reasonable.