The PHP-FIG is an organization composed entirely of unpaid volunteers and community members focused on improving the PHP ecosystem. As part of realizing its goals, the PHP-FIG has limited operating expenses like domain names, email accounts, and similar that require ongoing funding.
This document defines the roles, rules and processes that must be followed inside the PHP-FIG in all matters regarding money, to guarantee fairness, transparency and impartiality. This document intentionally describes the only allowed processes and ways to raise, administer and spend money, so that any change to such processes requires a bylaw change vote.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC 2119] [RFC 8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
For handling money and fiscal matters, the PHP-FIG MUST use Open Collective as a platform and Open Source Collective as a fiscal host.
All three Secretaries, but only the Secretaries, MUST have full administrative access to PHP-FIG's OpenCollective account. They SHALL NOT use those permissions in a discretionary manner, except as stated explicitly in this bylaw.
All funds MUST be collected into the Open Collective PHP-FIG account, so that any tax considerations will be handled automatically by the fiscal host, and every financial decision MUST be published and publicly available at the bottom of this document in the appropriate table and through Open Collective's budgetary tools.
PHP-FIG SHALL NOT solicit donations from any party, especially from private individuals; all exceptions to this rule MUST be listed below.
Contributions SHALL be accepted via Open Collective with the following requirements:
Funds donated to the PHP-FIG MUST be used solely for non-personnel operating expenses. The PHP-FIG MUST NOT pay individual contributors or other personnel, like Core Committee members, Secretaries, Project Representatives or working groups unless the payment is associated with an approved expense, such as reimbursing a Secretary that has paid for an approved expense out of pocket. All expenses MUST be approved by an Approval Vote of the Core Committee. The expense MUST include whether it is one time or recurring and the frequency at which the expense is incurred. All expenses MUST be justified by their contribution to the mission of PHP-FIG. In response to supplier price changes for previously accepted recurring expenses, Secretaries MAY request Implicit Approval from the Core Committee to raise the approved amount, only if that does not exceed a 10% increase.
Expenses approved by the Core Committee MUST be listed below, and reported in the Open Collective budget.
Overfunding SHALL be defined as any amount raised that exceeds the amount needed to cover the existing PHP-FIG's yearly expenses, as defined in the "Approved expenses" section below, for a period of three years with a 10% cost increase year over year. For example, if the approved budget is $10, the maximum amount before funds are considered overfunding would be $10 + $11 + $12.1 = $33.10. The amount of funding to keep can be easily calculated by multiplying the total yearly expenses by 3.31 and rounding up.
Every year in January, the Secretaries SHALL review the Open Collective account and disburse any overfunding to the list of recipients defined in the Approved disbursement recipients section below, in the amounts defined in aforementioned section. Disbursements MUST be made in such a way to prevent any additional tax or fees from being incurred by the PHP-FIG or the recipient, such as via Collective to Collective Donations.
If for any reason disbursement to a recipient is not possible, the recipient MUST be skipped and the Core Committee MUST be notified so this bylaw can be updated accordingly.
This section contains a list of recipients that are eligible to receive disbursements from the PHP-FIG.
As an exception to Votes Bylaw, changes to this section only SHOULD NOT trigger a Bylaw Change Vote, but only an Approval Vote by the Core Committee.
| Recipient name | Disbursement Method | Disbursement percentage |
|---|---|---|
| PHP Foundation | PHP Foundation Open Collective | 100% |
This section contains a chronological list of approved budgeting decisions, either recurring or not.
As an exception to Votes Bylaw, changes to this section only SHOULD NOT trigger a Bylaw Change Vote, but only an Approval Vote by the Core Committee.
| Approved since | Expense | Provider | Approved amount and frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-09-14 | Two Domains (php-fig.com and php-fig.org) |
Namecheap | $33 USD / year |
| 2023-09-14 | Email account (info@php-fig.org) |
Namecheap | $15 USD / year |