The Apache Software Foundation is the latest not-for-profit organization to accept bitcoin donations, as pointed out by a user on Reddit.com.
The organization is well known for their catalog of open-source software, of which includes the ubiquitous Apache web server and OpenOffice suite, and users in the community have been eager to support their efforts using digital currency for quite a while.
The Foundation accepts donations in many different forms: Amazon, PayPal, and they’ll even accept donated cars.
On their contribution page, the Apache Software Foundation has published a bitcoin address and QR code. As of this morning, the address has collected on the order of 3 BTC, though by the looks of it, that number is climbing somewhat rapidly (50 donations thus far).
And also of interest: the Foundation isn’t going through a bitcoin payment processor like BitPay or Coinbase. They’re simply collecting the donations the good old fashioned way.
Apache Software Foundation Executive VP Rich Bowen told NEWSBTC:
[blockquote style=”2″]We have some suppliers who accept BTC, and we are still exploring the accounting issues around paying directly with BTC for purchases with them. We want to make sure that as a charity we can deal with the issues around transparency and accounting in a sound manner. Obviously keeping money indefinitely in BitCoin (or fiat) and not using it doesn’t achieve any benefit, and isn’t the intention of the donor, so depending on what the levels of donation are, we will likely move some to fiat, if we don’t spend that all with vendors.[/blockquote]
He added:
[blockquote style=”2″]We were blown away, and very gratified, by the initial rush of donations, and we’re very grateful to our first 50 donors, especially to Brian Taylor (Reddit user steeldog803) who encouraged us to accept Bitcoin, and made the first donation.[/blockquote]
Non-profit organizations are finding that bitcoin donations are an easy way to collect revenue to support their projects. With no risk of charge backs and little to no fees, it’s an overall great solution.
And it’s catching on.